For two teams, the season started today. Los Angeles and Chicago—the relevant franchises from each market, the Dodgers and Cubs—play this morning and tomorrow morning in the Tokyo Series in Japan. Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki play for the Dodgers. The Cubs have Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga. […]
The long, sad saga of Joey Gallo reaches an interesting twist. Unable to catch on with the White Sox—the most miserable team in the history of Major League Baseball—Gallo has decided he is going to give it a shot as a pitcher. Makes sense. He hits like a pitcher. And […]
Just when it was looking a little bad, it got worse. Jon Gray is going to be out for a couple months with a broken wrist after taking a 108-mile-per-hour line drive off his hand. With Cody Bradford out for six weeks, and Tyler Mahle experiencing forearm stiffness, that’s three […]
With Tyler Mahle and Cody Bradford experiencing arm issues, the spotlight turns to Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. Trouble is, they are having issues of their own. With Mahle and Bradford it’s a forearm and an elbow. With Rocker and Leiter, it’s runs, runs, runs. Rocker has been about as […]
Spring training isn’t just a long, never-ending slog for players, it’s that for sportswriters, as well. There are only so many times they can talk about how a player is in the best shape of his life, or how hitting .150 at this point is not cause for concern because […]
You can never have enough pitching. Even when you have enough pitching. One day after Tyler Mahle was scratched from his scheduled spring start due to forearm stiffness, Cody Bradford was scratched with elbow soreness. Fortunately, his MRI came back clean. Maybe he will be lost for only one season. […]
The latest PECOTA rankings are out. After the Yankees lost their ace Gerrit Cole to season-ending surgery, the Rangers are now projected to win the most games in the American League at 90.5 victories. Yesterday’s announcement that Tyler Mahle was scratched from his Cactus League start isn’t expected to alter […]
Chris Young was talking about Kumar Rocker’s struggles in camp so far. Two innings pitched, eight earned runs. It led him to recall his first spring training with Bruce Bochy back in 2006, after Texas traded Young to San Diego. A young pitcher wanted to make an impression on his […]
Midway through spring training and your mind starts playing tricks. You just want it to be over and the season to start, so you start thinking about things. Things like, what if Evan Carter doesn’t make the opening day roster and Alejandro Osuna does? Yes, it’s said often and emphatically […]
Rain delayed the spring debut of Jacob deGrom and the return of Wyatt Langford. The Rangers announced Langford will play today but, strangely, they have not announced anything about deGrom. Today’s pitcher is listed as TBD. But, when you think about it, TBD is probably the best description of deGrom. […]
