Prof: It was quite a long weekend for your friendly neighborhood Prof. The next couple of weeks will be very busy for me as well. However, I am never too busy to do what’s probably my most favorite thing in the world – talk baseball with our little group. So let’s get started.
Astros 6, Athletics 4 F/12 – Scouts: For a good team to stay good, often help comes from all over. On Sunday, it was rookie outfilder Myles Straw, making just his second start since getting called up from Triple-A who made the difference in this one. Shaw used his speed to his advantage to help spark the Astro’s to an extra inning victory.
Angels 13, Mariners 3 – Prof: Big game for Albert Pujols, who hit his career 643rd homer in this game. The Machine also drove in five runs. Mike Trout went 3-4 with 2 RBI as well.
Marlins 9, Padres 3 – Scouts: Everytime I turn around, the Marlins are winning another ball game. I mean sure they are still 15 games back of .500, but they sure seem to be on a tear lately. Gator, what’s going on?
Red Sox 8, Yankees 5 – Scouts: It’s been a bit of a tough year for David Price and the Red Sox, not that anyone’s really complaining. Price finally got some revenge, coming up big in Yankee Stadium and getting the Sox back above .500.
Giants 8, Orioles 1 – Scouts: MLB is making a big deal that Bruce Bochy won his final game in Camden Yards, which is hilarious to me considering I can’t recall the last time the Giants even came to Baltimore. Anyways, the Orioles did what they do best and that’s give up homers at record setting levels. Evan Longoria went deep once, and Brandon Crawford got to trot around the bases twice. The Orioles didn’t feature a single pitcher with a ERA lower than 5.00 the entire day.
Twins 9, Rays 7 – Scouts: Jake Odorizzi finds himself 8-2 after striking out 9 and allowing just 3 hits over 6 dominant innings. Matt Magill came in and immediately gave up 5 runs on .2 outs to make things interesting, but the Twins were able to hold on after their 9 run lead and take the win.
Nationals 4, Reds 1 – Prof: Max Scherzer is a strikeout machine. A season high fifteen Ks, only allowing three hits over eight innings. Thankfully, the Nats’ bullpen didn’t get a chance to mess anything up, leaving it up to the capable Sean Doolittle for the save.
Tigers 4, Braves 7 – Prof: Been a while since I’ve been able to break down a Braves game. West coast games are a mess when I have to get up so early in the morning. The hero of the game was one Dansby Swanson, he of the Civil War General name and luxurious GQ mane. Dansby had a two run homer, an RBI double, and was driven in by Freddie Freeman for the tiebreak run in the eighth inning, where the dam broke and Atlanta scored an additional three more runs. For once, the Braves’ bullpen didn’t ruin a good thing, thanks to Touki Toussaint (who also got the win).
Brewers 4, Pirates 2 – Scouts: Zach Davies is now a healthy 6-0 after allowing just a pair of runs across 8 strong innings. The performance was crucial as the Brewers bullpen was taxed after a 13 inning win the previous night.
Spiders 0, White Sox 2 – Prof: Lucas Giolito is currently 8-1. He went seven and 1/3 innings, struck out nine, and really held it down for Chicago. Tim Anderson homered, and the White Sox and The Tragical Land of Cleve are now tied in the division 29-30. No one would have believed me if I said that in March.
Cubs 1, Cardinals 2 – Prof: One of the best and nastiest rivalries in all of sports, Chicago vs. St. Louis is always fun, and if you like one team and despise the other (like I do), it’s even more fun. This outcome wasn’t to my liking, but my favorite Cardinal killed it. Adam Wainwright (who else did you think I was talking about?) walked seven Cubs – a career high – but still pitched eight shutout innings.
Royals 1, Rangers 5 – Scouts: Adrian Sampson’s slider was in full effect, as Sampson racked up an impressive 11 strikeouts across 7 innings for the Rangers.
Blue Jays 1, Rockies 5 – Prof: Nolan Arenado and Chris Iannetta both hit homers in this win over Toronto. Colorado has now won eight straight.
Phillies 0, Dodgers 8 – Prof: Scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, then all hell broke loose. Rich Hill struck out nine Phillies and then David Freese got the party started with a solo homer, then an RBI single. Not to be outdone, Joc Pederson hit a two run homer in the eighth.
Mets 1, D’backs 7 – Prof: Ketel Marte had a moonshot dinger and three RBI, while Merrill Kelly struck out ten Mets as the Gritty Snakes reach .500. The one and only New York run was a solo homer from Wilson Ramos.
Fan Interference 
Nats’ twitter is, um, all atwitter this morning about a couple of things – The Scherzer/Martinez kerfuffle in the 8th inning, and the success former Nat Lucas Giolito has been enjoying this season.
Regarding the first, some are painting as a lack of respect for Davey and/or The Game, but it’s kinda what Max does; he’s a get off my fucking mound, carry me out on my shield type, and really, he backs it up with his performance, so I don’t have any problem with it.
Regarding Mr. Giolito, he was a prospect in the Nats’ system for a while, then was one of three guys sent to Chicago in exchange for Todd Frazier’s best friend, Adam Eaton. The Nats’ farm system is currently pretty bare, and it’s due in large part to trades such as the above that were made the last few years while the team was chasing pennants and general post-season success. As sometimes happens, once the veteran rentals received have moved on, there is a downturn in the fortune of the major league team, one that might’ve been offset had the kids that were traded away been kept instead. When, as in the Nats case, the chased-after pennants weren’t won, them some fans piss and moan that the trades weren’t worth it, and our front office sucks.
I can understand their point of view, although I think it’s wrong, and the truth is that Giolito was butt when he was here, and even through last year in Chicago. He transformed this season after spending some quality time this winter with a high school coach, and maybe he’d have done the same here, too, but you can’t win every trade, no matter how hard you try. So, we can think of what might’ve been had the Nats kept Giolito, and Jesus Lazardo, and Felipe Vazquez (nee Rivero), but I’m sure the same fans would’ve fussed about moves not made, so…
Nats have won seven of nine (insert picture of ST:TNG Jeri Ryan here) and sit seven back in the NL East, close enough to dream, still too far to really hope.
Who’s gonna sign Kimbrel and Keuchel?
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Not to pick nits, but Seven of Nine was ST: Voyager, not The Next Generation. ST:TNG was my hands-down favourite Star Trek series and how much better would it have been with Jeri Ryan? Alas….
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Clearly, I wasn’t an avid watcher of either; only passingly familiar with the fact that she was 7 of 9.
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The ever-interesting question: sacrifice the unknown future for the possibility of winning today? It’s not yes or no to me. Given the long time line for the average draftee to reach the majors, loss of draft picks do not impact as they do in the NBA, or NFL. Lots of kids live in the minors for years but never reach the 40 man roster. Some, but not all, lower picks exceed the performance of high picks.
The draft is a risk by nature. BUT: don’t spend them wastefully. Youve all seen it: an MLB player traded for a AA and a third round pick. Sometimes, the first trader also gets a 10th round pick, which can come in handy in many ways.
Oh, and look up HoF catcher Mike Piazza. Over a thousand players were drafted ahead of him. He may well have been a PED user, but if he was he got much more results for his PEDs than most anybody else. So take today over the future. The future is so uncertain it might be an episode of a futuristic science fiction series.
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That’s all true, but Monday was the date that Kimbrel and Keuchel became free of draft pick compensation requirements, because that was the day the draft started.
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The Twins are serving notice to MLB that they are not to be trifled with this year. Beat us one day? That’s ok, we’ll come back and take your head off the rest of the series.
I love everything about this team. I do think the relief corps; although they’ve been pretty darn good, could use a little shoring up. I like Taylor Rodgers as a late game shut down guy. He struck out the side yesterday only throwing 11 pitches.
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I’ve been wanting to ask you did you see this coming at the start of the year? I definitely didn’t. And can you believe that throw Buxton made from the center field wall to first base? 97 MPH fastball – steerike!
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Oh hell no I didn’t see this coming. I thought they’d finish with just over a .500 record. The coaches and of course the F.O. did a great job putting this team together and getting them ready to play.
I think Buxton will continue to amaze us for years. Very few CF can make that throw as accurately as he did. I just love watching him fly around the bases. It looks so effortless. If he keeps taking pitches the other way, he’s going to start seeing a lot more that he can pull. I’m liking the evolution and maturation.
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For those of us following crap teams, Happy Draft Day Y’all!
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Sparty we feel your pain as Twins fans. We’ve been dealing with that for a number of years. We have scored a few decent players in the draft as a result though.
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Hopefully he’ll have a whole lot of pain for us to feel after the Twins and Tigers get done playing each other this coming weekend.
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That’s kind of sadistic, Happy.
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For one, Birdland has something to be excited about
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Your Birdland, Scouts… not mine. Although we did pick up a pair of big 6′ 6″ pitchers in the first two rounds.
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