Nick Lodolo, LHP, TCU
The 41st overall selection in the 2016 MLB Draft, Lodolo
turned down nearly $2 million from the Pittsburgh Pirates to attend TCU. Though
the decision was criticized at the time, it may turn out to be the correct one,
as the 6-6 lefty has pitched his way into consideration for the top overall
pick next June. As a freshman in 2017,
Lodolo started 15 games on the mound and compiled a 4.35 ERA in 78.2 innings,
striking out 72. He was named to the Big 12 All-Freshman Team, Second Team
All-Big 12, a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American, and a Baseball America
Second Team Freshman All-American. He put up similar numbers this spring by
going 7-4 with a 4.32 ERA in 77 innings, but upped his punchouts to 93, against
only 28 walks, earning him Second Team All-Big 12 recognition. His fastball
sits in the low-90s, but he can reach back and get it into the mid-90s when he
needs to, and he features a hard curveball that at times is unhittable for
left-handed batters. Scouts love his mechanics and arm slot, and think that his
stuff could jump up a notch as his thin frame fills out.
I
(Jim Palmer) think I’m just going to have to
accept the fact that I am no longer a baseball fan. This is a difficult
admission for me to make, because baseball was extremely important to me for
many, many years. As a child I was an Atlanta Braves fan, because they were the
team nearest my home in Alabama, and one of my most treasured rituals involved
drifting off to sleep while listening to the Braves’ West Coast road trips. Milo Hamilton was the Braves’ lead announcer in those
days, but the announcer I loved the most was Ernie
Harwell for the Detroit Tigers, whom I was able to hear because WJR
radio in Detroit had an incredibly powerful signal that I could pick up with
perfect clarity at night. (Ernie remains for me the ideal baseball announcer; I
have always felt that much of the adulation that Vin
Scully receives would have been better directed at Ernie.)
MLBtr.com’s top list of trade
candidates at the All-Star break –
2.
Jeurys Familia, https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/
RP, Mets (LR: NR): At the time of the first iteration of this list, the Mets
were still hanging around in the NL East. Not so much anymore. Familia is the
best rental reliever available at this point. Though he may not quite be
operating at peak capacity — his 12.0% swinging-strike and 50.5% groundball
rates are down from his peak levels, though he’s throwing about as hard as
usual — Familia carries a 2.88 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 and has shown he’s
healthy after an injury-and-suspension-marred 2017 season. He’s earning $7.9MM
this year, a manageable enough sum for an established late-inning reliever, and
was excellent during the Mets’ 2015 postseason run (though things didn’t go
quite as well in the ensuing season’s Wild Card game).
While
the entire Major League Baseball fan base was focused on the All-Star Game and
the Manny Machado watch Tuesday evening, the
Savannah Bananas of the Coastal Plain League gave the Seattle Mariners’ “Turn Ahead The Clock” night jerseys a run
for their money for most creative uniforms in baseball.
Go
ahead and watch that again. It takes a few viewings for your brain to process
what it just saw. In the first inning of a Mexican League Baseball game between
México and Laguna on July 17, the umpires ruled a check swing on … well … a
pretty obvious swing.
There are a number of puzzling things that take place during
that video. After the batter clearly swings, you can see the ump fail to react
at first. As the catcher is getting ready to throw the ball back to the
pitcher, he stops dead in his tracks. We assume this is when the umpire
signaled “ball.”
The catcher then says something to the umpire, who
inexplicably decides to appeal the call to first base. Somehow, the first base
umpire agrees. He claims there was no swing on the play as well.
5 comments:
Keith Law apparently nuked the Wilpons after this trade. Remember, when the Bronx team traded Chapman, Torres was the return.
It’s a head scratcher
Just look at the Padres trade of Hand a couple days before.
However you may value Hand compared to Familia.... They should be much closer than what the returns are comparably
I’m not scratching my head, it’s our poisonous owners. These are the same crooks who turned down a Benitez/Adrian Gonzalez trade in 2003 and sent him to the Bronx for trash because the Yanks would pay his salary. They’ll never change.
Giving up on baseball is the perfect note after this trade...
The only way this team is to have a gm who is perfect on everyt move... he has to hit every Time in the draft get every international signing. Correct and if we ever get a free agent he must be the right guy... the gm will never receive financial support from this owner ship
It is better to be a Tampa bay fan even a marlins fan when they were owned by the lgroup prior to the jeter group would be better than the Wilson’s
It a complete embarrassment to have this ownership in NY.
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