Things That Make You Go “Hmmmm…”
Players from the New York Yankees are threatening to boycott ESPN personnel due to a scheduling change. Due to recent postponements due to weather, the Yankees have a double header scheduled for July 9th and their game for the previous day had been moved from an afternoon game to the night game by ESPN. Yankees players are understandably upset with the fact that they could potentially be playing three games in a 24-hour period and are attempting to pressure the network into allowing the July 8th game to return to its previously scheduled time. More to come on this…
According to Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ronald Acuna has yet to resume baseball activities. Acuna is on the DL with a knee injury after a gruesome fall while running out a ground ball. There is no current timetable for his return.
There weren’t a ton of surprises in the MLB Draft yesterday. However, many people were shocked when the Oakland Athletics drafted a quarterback in the first round. The A’s selected Kyler Murray, who is the starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and is expected to play football fall. According to Susan Slusser, the A’s are ok with him returning to school for another season, stating that they do not believe that he will miss much by not attending summer and rookie leagues this year. It is an unbelievable risk that the A’s are taking, but this is an organization that has always been outside of the box.
Once again, Major League Baseball has extended the administrative leave for Roberto Osuna another week. The leave has been extended through June 11th, but with his first court date being on the 18th, it will likely be extended once again.
That Happened?!?
Andrew McCutchen hit his fifth home run of the season on Monday versus Zack Godley and the Diamondbacks. He went back-to-back with Brandon Crawford who has been extremely hot over the last month. In spite of mediocre numbers for McCutchen, his underlying numbers are about the same or better than last year, so it would not be unexpected for him to break out herre pretty quick.
Luis Severino was fantastic on Monday once again. He threw eight innings and struck out twelve while only allowing one earned run on four hits and zero walks. Severino continues to be a stud and is pushing his way towards being considered among the elite pitchers in the game.
Franmil Reyes hit his fifth home run of the year against the Braves. Franmil has a ton of power, but has hit for high averages in the minor in spite of a long swing and big body. Over the last two weeks, he is hitting .286/.342/.629 with four home runs, but a laughable five runs batted in.
What We’ll Be Watching Today
Ross Stripling versus Joe Musgrove . Musgrove has been great since returning from the DL, but Stripling has been out of this world. Stripling has given up the least amount of hard contact during the month of May, while still having the third highest strikeout percentage in baseball among qualified starters.
Eovaldi versus Scherzer. Eovaldi threw six no-hit innings in his season debut. Scherzer is Max Scherzer .
The Orioles versus a lefty. They get Jason Vargas and are a very right handed lineup. Good opportunity for a stack.
Madison Bumgarner vs Patrick Corbin . Bumgarner returns after recovering from finger surgery. Corbin will look to bounce back from his worst start of the year against a hot Giants team that has won five straight. I will also be at this game tonight, so it has that going for it.
Also returning from injuries are Carlos Martínez and Anthony DeSclafani .
Baseball. Lots of baseball.