Baseball

What's the Storyline, Kenneth? Latos says that he was sick before the game and it took him a bit to settle down. Apparently he was fined under-the-table by Selig for hitting Neil Walker, so he's not happy about the beaning of Choo (who prefers to go by Choo)."I think it's time that somebody steps up and starts disciplining the team that's drilled the most guys in the league," Latos said. He's obviously a bit frustrated, but now that this clickbait is out of the way, let's move on. Latos also *gets* the silliness of the win stat: "I don't care whether I get the 'W' or if Chapman gets it. I don't care if they bring [catcher] Corky Miller up from Triple-A to pitch the 10th inning if he gets a 'W.' I care about team wins." Votto for Prime Minister. He was asked about giving Pete Rose a thumbs up after his Monday home run. Fay caught up with the hit king and reports that Rose didn't ask for a dinger for his birthday. Votto, on his part, has the most senatorial quote I've ever seen from a 29-year-old baseball player: "I wouldn't be the player I am today without the examples set by the generations before me and the generations before them. I'm grateful for the Pirates, because they make us better and the same thing goes for the generations before. We are where we are because of the people surrounding us and the people that preceded us." This guy, you guys. This guy. I sure hope Lutz isn't gonna be a PHer for the next beautiful forever. I'm glad to see he's enjoying the challenge or whatever, but he needs to start playing every day again. Heisey's coming back soon, so hopefully that's that by July until September. Dr. Baker on the Reds offense: "You can get home-itis," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "It's not deadly. But it will sure make your life miserable if you get it." Dusty was an Old West doctor in a previous life and he just proscribed everybody whiskey and meanwhile Sherrif LaRussa is in the cattleman's pocket after investing in barbed wire. Clint Hurdle isn't in this story because the United States still discriminated against Purple-Americans back in the 19th century. Joey Votto made out of Legos, now in Louisville. So go check that out when you can. Jesse Winker dominates the Midwest League Home Run Derby. The 19-year-old Uncle is hitting .291/.395/.493 in a league where the average age is 21. Cool, huh? You wanna know what's cooler? A photograph of him with George Foster. via www.milb.com; courtesy Dayton Dragons. Also in picture are Brandon Drury in the Diamondbacks system and Little League Home Run Derby winner Ethan Tedder, also from Dayton. I mentioned this yesterday, but since 1998, the Reds lead the league in walk-off home runs, walk-offs when trailing, and walk-offs when trailing by two or more. It hasn't always been good baseball, but it's always been fun baseball. The_Vole got me into Field Notes a while ago, and I'm just starting their Spring 2012 Collection's Drive Into the Gap, a short story about fathers and sons when the father worked for the Baseball Hall of Fame. So far so good...just wanted to let you all know. Saive Mariemount. It was put onto the National Historic Register's list of endangered places. Remind me to get paid to write about places like this, because I'd love to be this generation's William Least Heat Moon but mostly just the Ohio River Valley. Tonight at 7PM, Arroyo faces Jeff Locke, he of the .233 BABIP and 84.4% strand rate. This game could be great fun or very frustrating. Let's hope for the former.

Quotes of the Day "I just said to Penny (infielder Cliff Pennington ), `Let's have another Goldy party,' and then he hit it. You always think that way." - Kirk Gibson on Paul Goldschmidt's game-winner "When he came up and threw last time he wasn't as aggressive as he could be. But you could see he shortened his motion and focused on locating the ball more. I think in spring training we were looking at a guy who was more of a thrower." - Kirk Gibson on Randall Delgado There are no more adjectives. Goldy's late-inning heroics are far beyond anything I've ever witnessed before. #AmericasFirstbaseman @Dbacks— Brad Ziegler (@BradZiegler) June 19, 2013 Diamondbacks News Paul Goldschmidt homers in 9th to lift Arizona Diamondbacks over Miami Marlins You could certainly forgive the Diamondbacks for not being too optimistic entering the bottom of the 9th tied at two - late and close games haven't been kind to them lately. Fortunately, America's First Baseman doesn't concern himself with trivial things like the recent past, clubbing a walk-off homer off former-Diamondback Chad Qualls. Goldschmidt's late-game heroics, as welcomed as they were, overshadowed an excellent starting pitching performance from the recently recalled Randall Delgado. Delgado needed only 91 pitches over seven innings, allowing two runs and striking out six. Diamondbacks’ Martin Prado tries to avoid thinking about stats Martin Prado, whose two-run homer tied the game in the 4th inning, seems to be coming out of his season-long slump. Prado admits to getting a bit too far into his head and pushing a bit. “When things are going right, I don’t think you think too much,” Prado explained. “When you struggle and you’re going the wrong way, you start asking yourself a lot of questions that you shouldn’t be asking." Arizona Diamondbacks agree to terms with first-round draft pick Braden Shipley ICYMI: the D-Backs came to terms with Braden Shipley. He'll be assigned to short-season A ball. In injury news: Daniel Hudson underwent Tommy John for a second time yesterday, J.J Putz will begin a rehab assignment in Reno on Thursday, and Aaron Hill went 2 - 5 in his third rehab start with Reno. Baseball Prospectus | The Lineup Card: 8 Potential Buyers at the Trade Deadline The Diamondbacks are pegged as a potential buyer in the market for "a star." "What I ultimately realized is that the Diamondbacks have most of the pieces they need to win their division. What they lack is presence, and what they need is a star. They just don’t have that A-list celebrity who can sell a picture. Yet, as I write this, Goldschmidt, who was recently signed to a lavish extension, hits a walk-off homer to beat the Marlins in the ninth inning." Around the League Debut Tuesday: Two Heralded Prospects Get the Call - The Triangle Blog - Grantland Jonah Keri reviews the two major prospect debuts yesterday, Zack Wheeler and Wil Myers. Marginalia Cubs Fan Creates Amazingly Detailed Model of Wrigley Field Using Lego I can't stop staring at this model of Wrigley.

Welcome to a long day/night of baseball. Hiroki Kuroda will start for the Yankees in the opener of the doubleheader against the Dodgers and Phil Hughes will take the night shift. Kuroda is 7-2 with a 2.18 ERA in his 12 day starts with the Yankees these two seasons, tied for the top winning percentage in the AL (.778). “A lot of times when you have a little age on you, you prefer the first game instead of waiting around all day,” Joe Girardi said. “Hughesie seems to like to pitch a little better at night. So it actually works out pretty well.” Kuroda went 7-12 with a 3.79 ERA in 26 games, including 25 starts, working on the day side for the Dodgers. And now he gets to go against his old team. “What might help is this situation is a lot of the guys that are playing today weren’t teammates of his,” Girardi said. “They have a lot of new faces there.” Girardi said he hadn’t spoken to Brian Cashman as yet about the Yankees’ plan for the outfielder they reportedly have acquired from the Astros, Fernando Martinez, the former Mets prospect who got hurt often and didn’t pan out. The Yankees do need outfield depth at Triple-A. The tentative plan for new call-up Zoilo Almonte is to give the 24-year-old switch-hitting outfielder a start in the second game and probably one against a righty in the coming Tampa Bay series. He was batting .297 with 12 doubles, six homers and 36 RBI with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He was batting .354 in 16 games this month, including 10 for 17 in his last four games. Almonte played all three outfield positions for the RailRiders. “We really believe this kid is going to hit,” Girardi said. “At times, we really saw it in spring training. He struggled a little bit in spring training. Maybe it was the excitement of trying to make a team. But he has seemed to swing the bat pretty well down there, especially left-handed. He’s a guy that can play either left or right, which is helpful in this situation.” Photo by The Associated Press. The post Yankees pregame: Kuroda takes the day shift appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

Chris Tillman is about 10 points tougher against left-handed hitters than right-handed ones, so Jim Leyland took today as a spot to start Bryan Holaday behind the plate. The expectation was that Leyland would do it Thursday with Jose Alvarez pitching or Friday with Jon Lester starting for Boston, but thought the day game after a night game was a better opportunity. He also gave Torii Hunter a day off, inserting Don Kelly in right field. Kelly is 1-for-7 against Tillman, though the hit was a home run. Cabrera’s history off Tillman, and the fact that no one else on this team has hit this guy, made it an easy pick for Beat the Streak. It actually had been a few days since a Cabrera pick. A hit from him today would get my streak to a season high of … well, five. So it goes. Other picks can be found here. Gameday | TV: FS Detroit, MLB.TV | Radio: 97.1 FM, AM 1270, Gameday Audio TIGERS (career numbers off Tillman) Austin Jackson, CF (1-for-6, 2 K’s) Andy Dirks, LF Miguel Cabrera, 3B (3-for-7, HR, walk, 2 K’s) Prince Fielder, 1B Victor Martinez, DH (1-for-3) Jhonny Peralta, SS (1-for-10, HR, 2 K’s) Don Kelly, RF (1-for-7, HR, walk) Omar Infante, 2B Bryan Holaday, C P: Rick Porcello ORIOLES (career numbers off Porcello) Nate McLouth, LF (0-for-6, K) Manny Machado, 3B (1-for-4, walk) Nick Markakis, RF (7-for-16, HR, 2 walks, K) Adam Jones, CF (3-for-15, 6 K’s) Chris Davis, DH (3-for-9, 2 HR, 3 K’s) J.J. Hardy, SS (5-for-12, 3 K’s) Travis Ishikawa, 1B John Ryan Flaherty, 2B (1-for-2) Taylor Teagarden, C P: Chris Tillman

Even before the 2012 changes to the MLB Draft, teams occasionally found useful players who went undrafted. Although rare, you don’t have to look too far for a notable example – the Braves landed Brandon Beachy as an undrafted free agent in 2008, and he was already pitching with the big team in 2010. And after those 2012 changes, which limited the Draft to 40 rounds, there are about 300 more players in the “undrafted” pool than there were in the past. The odds of finding MLB-caliber talent among the undrafted is still a tall task, but it’s likely to happen with increasing frequency over the next decade. Against that backdrop, as they did last year, the Cubs have started the process of snatching up some interesting undrafted free agents. Today’s signee: Josh Davis, a two-way player from Belmont University. Davis, a senior reliever and infielder, was a good plate discipline guy without a ton of pop, and a dominant closer. His various awards and recognitions appear to have come on the pitching side, and his numbers were excellent: 2.22 ERA over 44.2 innings with 39 strikeouts and just 12 walks. I’d say it’s a fair bet that Davis was signed as a pitcher. The Belmont article announcing the signing says that Davis will head to Mesa before ultimately heading up to Boise, so it sounds like the Cubs have already told Davis where he’ll begin his professional career. Can’t hurt to have too many arms. Give guys like Davis a shot, and see what happens. Related posts: Chicago Cubs Sign Canadian Undrafted Free Agent Jesse Hodges The Cubs continue to mine the undrafted depths for diamonds,... The Cubs Have Signed Another Interesting Undrafted Free Agent – Lefty Kyle Shepard He had decent numbers this past year, but I find... Cubs Sign Undrafted Free Agent Derek Helenihi The Cubs made a move! Details? Bah. Don’t worry about...

I think it was dumb that the Astros put an actual hill in center field when they built their ballpark. But if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t get to see Carlos Gomez climb it and make a great catch. And that’s worth the inevitable broken ankle someone suffers on it someday, yes? Read more Carlos Gomez news

Fernando Martinez was once an elite prospect in the Mets’ farm system, but they let him go for nothing last year and now the Astros have soured on him as well, trading the 24-year-old outfielder to the Yankees for rookie-ball pitcher Charles Basford. I’m sure Mets fans are dreading the possibility of Martinez suddenly figuring… Read more Fernando Martinez news

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Tuiasosopo hit a solo home run in Tuesday's loss to Baltimore. [...] Read more Matt Tuiasosopo news

Playing in his first MLB game since May 29, Mariners first baseman Justin Smoak homered in his return to the lineup Tuesday against the Angels. Smoak, who was activated off the 15-day disabled list prior to Tuesday's game, was part of a back-to-back home-run tandem with Raul Ibanez leading off the second inning [...] Read more Justin Smoak news