pitcher Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Why won’t anyone pitch to Yasmani Grandal?
In 2004, the most feared hitter in baseball was Barry Bonds. This mammoth at the plate hit .362 that season and reached base at an incredible .609 clip. That’s a difference of .247, one of the largest ever recorded. In 2021, Yasmani Grandal is hitting .121 with an on-base percentage of .372 — a .251...
Please, for the love of all that is good, don’t let this DFA be the end of the ageless Óliver Pérez’s career
People have said, “Wow, I can’t believe Óliver Pérez is still pitching,” for what has felt like every year for the past decade. ...
Ronald Acuña has transformed into Superman
The best player in baseball resides in Atlanta. This was always something of the forecast for Ronald Acuña Jr. when he came up through the Braves system. It just wasn’t believed his rise to the top would be quite so ruthlessly achieved. ...
Moving back the mound, and other rules changes we can get behind
With MLB taking over Minor League Baseball, and apparently hitting small towns worse than the death of American manufacturing, one small benefit is MLB’s newfound ability to experiment with new rules in the lower leagues it now controls. It gives the big leagues a lab, as it were, to test the effect...
Every scuff you take, every smudge you make, MLB will be watching you
It’s been the dirty little secret in baseball for years. Pitchers were doing something to baseballs to increase spin, which either helped with velocity or movement or both. This has been a factor in the far bigger problem than shifts for baseball, i.e. the inability for anyone to make regular contac...
Swing and a miss … and a welt … as Yanks’ Darren O’Day gets a K on a HBP
Darren O’Day has been in the major leagues since 2008, he was an All-Star in 2015, and he’s been to the postseason with Texas, Baltimore, and Atlanta. The well-traveled and well-decorated righty reliever signed with the Yankees this offseason, and his role in the New York bullpen is clear....
Well at least MLB and MLBPA can agree on something
Gonna be a bit of a smorgasbord today. That’s ok, not all of them are gross or a petri dish of foodborne illness. There’s a Polish buffet around here that would change your life. Anyway, to it…...
Patrick Corbin Was The Only Choice
Dave Martinez knew it. He knew it by the fourth, when the Astros worked Max Scherzer for 27 pitches, pushing his pitch count on the night to an unsustainable 96 through four, but also he knew it on Monday, when the Nationals manager declined to name a starting pitcher for Game 3 despite having a cle...
Clayton Kershaw Will Never Get Over It
Clayton Kershaw was on in the eighth for two batters, and two batters only, no matter how he looked, no matter the result. Kenta Maeda was warm and ready, and after Kershaw faced Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto, Maeda would come in for a string of righties. So, just two batters, with a two-run lead. Ke...
CC Sabathia Is Loved
It’s been a difficult season for CC Sabathia, which he announced last winter would be his final one. He’s gone to the IL three separate times for his knee—no specific injury per se, just swelling and pain that made it impossible to pitch and necessitated time off. The Yankees knew that coming into t...
Justin Verlander Once Again No-Hits Toronto For The Third No-Hitter Of His Career
For the second time in Toronto, and the third time in his career, Justin Verlander let out a victorious yell near the pitcher’s mound as his teammates mobbed him to celebrate him throwing a no-hitter. This latest one came in a 2-0 victory against the Blue Jays and was sealed when third baseman Abrah...
Phillies Pitcher Vince Velasquez Was The Best Left Fielder In Baseball For One Night
Baseball is always at its weirdest in deep extra innings, and thanks to Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Vince Velasquez, we have another point of evidence for that axiom. In the 14th inning of Friday’s game against the Chicago White Sox, Velasquez did something no pitcher had done in nearly 39 years: ...
Marcus Stroman Let The Blue Jays Know Exactly How He Felt About Being Traded To The Mets
Marcus Stroman seems cool with it now. The pitcher, acquired by the Mets on Sunday in a shock trade with Toronto, tweeted out an old photo of himself as a small child wearing a Mets jacket, saying “some things were meant to be.” He comes across as genuinely excited to be a Met, and—not for nothing—n...
Frustrated Trevor Bauer Chucks The Ball All The Way Over The Fence Before Being Taken Out
Today is Trevor Bauer’s last start before the trade deadline, and thus very possibly his last start as an Indian. So it’s potentially fraught, and the afternoon did not go well for Bauer, who lasted four and a third against the Royals, giving up seven earned runs on nine hits. And when Bauer spotted...
The Yankees' Rotation Has Been Putrid. What Can They Do About It?
I present to you the New York Yankees’ starting pitching performances of the last week:...
Nobody Tells Max Scherzer To Leave The Mound Except Max Scherzer
After throwing 117 pitches and striking out 14 batters, Max Scherzer did not feel like he was ready to leave Sunday’s game against the Reds. He made those feelings known to Nationals manager Dave Martinez, who tried to take out his streaking ace in the bottom of the eighth right as Joey Votto got to...
You Could Microwave A Hot Pocket In The Time It Took Zack Greinke To Throw This Damn Pitch
Zack Greinke was up against Ozzie Albies in the top of the second and had just thrown his second consecutive changeup outside of the strike zone to give the Braves batter a full count. With two men on base, Greinke didn’t want to be the one to break the 1-1 tie so he decided to be patient for his ne...
Edwin Dí<em></em>az Will Save Every Damn Game If He Has To
After closing three games in three days, Edwin Díaz was supposed to have Sunday off. It didn’t look like the Mariners would need him anyway, as they trailed the Astros heading to the ninth. But Ryon Healy homered to tie the game, and then Mitch Haniger doubled in the go-ahead run in the 10th, and Dí...
Max Scherzer, Still An Intense Weirdo
Lost in the thrill of rookie David Bote’s spectacular walk-off grand slam was the best pitching duel of perhaps the entire season. New Cubs acquisition Cole Hamels threw seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball, and Max Scherzer, favorite for a third straight Cy Young, did him one better with three h...
The End Of Felix Hernandez
Felix Hernandez, once and not too long ago among the AL’s most feared and fearsome fireballers, is near the end of the line. It’s been a steady decline too, not a cliff, which makes it feel less like an aberration and more the irreversible march of time. His injury-plagued 2017 was his worst statist...