minorleaguebaseball Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Tommy Pham got rightfully suspended for slapping Joc Pederson, but whoever gave him that news probably did it out of arm’s reach
The Tommy Pham-Joc Pederson story did not end the Friday before Memorial Day. For those who still need to scrape the barbecue, or whatever else, from their brains to think back that far, Pham slapped Pederson in broad daylight on a baseball field, before the game even started. Pham raged on Pederson...

Don’t support Gabe Kapler’s protest during the national anthem if you took issue with Colin Kaepernick’s
Six years ago, a Black football player decided he wasn’t going to stand during the national anthem because America wasn’t holding up its end of the bargain when it came to protecting the people he cared about. The country lost it, and he lost his job. Six years later, a white baseball manager has de...

What are the unwritten rules for slapping another man over a fantasy football feud?
Athletes: they’re just like us! They play fantasy football, they get pissed over fantasy football, they physically assault each other over fantasy football — you know, just guys being dudes!...

No one was as alone as Nathan Eovaldi was last night
It’s often stated that pitchers are weird, which helps explain why they tend to wet themselves every time it’s even suggested they need to change their routine. Just watch what happens when MLB tries to put in a pitch clock next season. The streets will run yellow with hurler urine!...

If the Leafs fall in overtime, do their fans make a sound?
I’m usually a sucker for reaction shots of big public viewings of playoff or World Cup games. Seeing that much unbridled joy amongst a group of strangers makes me believe in a better world or that there is a purpose to this silliness....

Gabe Kapler, your mustache/beard take is all wrong
For once, I get to speak with the exact same authority on a subject as a professional athlete. Gabe Kapler played professional baseball for 12 seasons and has been a manager for the last four. While I can’t speak with anywhere near the same authority on what it takes to hit a curveball or when to pu...

Josh VanMeter was forced to catch for the first time in 12 years. It didn’t go well
Ask any Pirates fan and they’ll tell you how bad a second baseman Josh VanMeter is. The 27-year-old is hitting .171 with a .496 OPS in 15 games this season. Well, after today, he’s not only the worst second baseman some Pirates fans have ever seen, but the worst catcher as well. ...

Hats off to Mike Clevinger
588 days. That’s how long it had been since Mike Clevinger pitched in a regular season MLB game. That’s not what the Padres were hoping for when they traded six players to Cleveland for him, but through injuries to his biceps, elbow, knee, another undisclosed setback, and a brief appearance in the 2...

Chris Bassitt has already had enough of these new baseballs
The New York Mets have been hit by a lot of pitches this season. Currently, Mets are being hit by pitches about 0.95 times per game. They’ve been hit 19 times in 20 games. That’s six more hit batsmen than the next closest team, Baltimore, and 30 points higher than the most plunked team of 2021, Cinc...

How much thin air is in the 10-5 Rockies?
See? It’s an altitude joke! Because they play in Denver, see? Pretty genius, huh? I know, I’m great. Yes, it is a burden, but one I carry for you. Because you deserve it....

Please stay healthy, Byron Buxton
It’s become part of the rhythm of a baseball season. Mike Trout will tweak something, or leave a game early, and every baseball fan will sigh, and wonder why they can’t have nice things. We all feel deprived of something when Trout misses a large chunk of time. This will also happen whenever Shohei ...

Gabe Kapler backing over the unwritten rules all the way to the bank
The buddy cops driving the MLB’s unwritten rules squad car last night were Bob Melvin and Eric Hosmer of the SDPD. The Padres’ manager and first baseman respectively took issue with a bunt single by Giants’ utility man Mauricio Dubón in the sixth inning with San Francisco up nine runs....

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made every baseball sorry it was ever born
We’re going to be hearing from Blue Jays fans all season, and it’ll be kicked into overdrive here in the next month after the Leafs barf all over themselves in the first round again. All of that energy will definitely be channeled into the Rogers Centre immediately. You won’t be able to duck it....

Did you notice these cool details from MLB Opening Day?
After an offseason filled with turmoil and uncertainty, Major League Baseball kicked off the 2022 season yesterday...with two postponements, one of them Red Sox at Yankees. Yeah, that wasn’t a great way to kick things off. Pushing back the start of your marquee series is never a good thing,especiall...

The Rays are at it again
The Tampa Bay Rays once again ducked having to pay a player some serious money when they shipped Austin Meadows off to Detroit for Isaac Peredes. Meadows is still some three years from free agency, but the Rays are probably fearing that second arbitration year like Baba Yaga. I mean, Meadows might m...

No, Toronto isn’t getting a ‘competitive advantage’ due to Canada’s vaccine mandate
Brandon Nimmo wants everyone to know that he’s “thankful” for New York mayor Eric Adams’ decision to cave in to Kyrie Irving and other giant babies who don’t care if you live or die, so long as they don’t have to get a shot, and lift the city’s vaccine mandate for athletes and performers....

Now that’s a win for players
While MLB players were doing their best to put a shiny face on the new CBA as progress, before watching baseball act like baseball again unless you play for the Mets, their minor league counterparts did actually change the landscape a bit last night....

Familia latest Phillies’ free agent folly
The Phillies had a 4.60 bullpen ERA last season, sixth-worst in the major leagues. Philadelphia relievers’ 2.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranked 19th in the majors in 2021. And the Phillies’ bullpen corps served up 89 homers last year, tied for seventh-most in baseball....

It’s happening to the Maple Leafs again
Even though we Chicagoans don’t get a spring — it’s winter until one day somewhere in May when it’s just suddenly summer and we’re all instantly drunk outside — that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the signs of spring approaching elsewhere. Sure, we’ve been robbed of one of them in spring training. ...