Mack’s Apples - Nick Lodolo, Giving Up On Baseball, Jeurys Familia, Savannah Bananas, Worst Blown Call

MLB Draft 2019  -

         

   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.

Giving Up on Baseball -

      

     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).

Savannah Bananas  go bananas for … Kilts? –

        

   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.

This is the worst blown call  in the history of 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.