Trevor May is a Miguel Cabrera fan. Moreover, he has some favourite Miggy moments. I realized as a lot once I caught as much as the always-engaging 33-year-old right-hander on the Sunday main into the All-Star break.
“I got my first jersey from another player in our last series,” stated May, who broke into the large leagues with the Minnesota Twins in 2014 and now performs for the Oakland Athletics. “We were in Detroit and I got a Miggy Cabrera jersey signed. I’m not a huge memorabilia guy, but he was my first, ‘Oh wow, I’m in The Show.’ It was like, ‘That’s Miguel Cabrera in the box!’ He’s one of the greatest of this generation.”
Nine years later, each gamers are nearing the top of the road. Cabrera, whose profession has him Cooperstown-bound, is ready to retire after this season. May, whose accomplishments have been much more humble, faces an unsure near-term future. He has a 5.32 ERA within the present marketing campaign, in addition to a career-low 17.0% Okay price.
May’s post-playing-days future is media-focused, and he’s already begun establishing himself in that realm. The Longview, Washington native has been an energetic podcaster and streamer — gaming is a noteworthy curiosity, Pat McAfee a notable affect — and simply this previous week he was a part of MLBNetwork Radio’s All-Star Game protection. His newly-signed jersey is ticketed for his dwelling studio. As May defined, “the background has been kind of sparse, and I wanted to make sure that baseball has a spot there, along with all the nerdy stuff I’m into, whenever I’m in front of the camera.”
May has pitched in entrance of ballpark cameras many occasions, and whereas that features greater than two dozen appearances in opposition to the Detroit Tigers, a couple of of his Miggy moments possible weren’t captured. Even in the event that they had been, they went unnoticed by the overwhelming majority of viewers.
“I’ve gotten a thumbs up from Miggy after a good slider for a strikeout,” stated May. “That was in 2019, in a save situation — I remember being really dialed in — and that’s like the Holy Grail for a pitcher. To get a nod… Austin Pruitt actually got one from him the other day. He threw a good sinker that Miggy fouled off, and got a nod. He’s never going to forget that. That’s one my favorite thing about Miggy; he gives guys credit, which a lot of hitters don’t do. It’s awesome.”
Another of May’s Miggy moments happened 5 years earlier, throughout his 2014 rookie season. He’d given up a house run to the longer term Hall of Famer the day past, and through a lull within the motion — the Twins had been making a pitching change — he heard his title known as whereas sitting within the dugout.
“Anthony Swarzak had started for us,” recalled May. “Torii Hunter was on second and Miggy was on first. Torii came over — they were talking to the first base coach — and Miggy said, ‘Hey, May!’ I said, ‘Me? Are you talking to me?’ He said, ‘Changeup. Nasty. I couldn’t see it yesterday.’ He’d taken me deep the day before on a slider, so then he goes, ‘The slider. No.’ That was a Miggy moment for me. Miggy is great. He’s definitely a favorite.”
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Bill Buckner went 9 for 12 in opposition to Doug Rau.
Mickey Owen went 9 for 14 in opposition to Clyde Shoun.
Fred Snodgrass went 9 for 14 in opposition to Earl Yingling.
Gregg Jefferies went 9 for 16 in opposition to Jose Mesa.
Johnny Pesky went 9 for 21 in opposition to Al Widmar.
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Andrew Nardi is quietly having a very good first full season out of the Miami Marlins bullpen. A 24-year-old southpaw who debuted final summer time, he’s 6-2 with a pair of saves and a 3.19 ERA over 41 appearances. I lately requested him what he considers his signature big-league second to this point.
“I think it would be my first day at Wrigley Field,” stated Nardi, whom the Marlins took in sixteenth spherical of the 2019 draft out of the University of Arizona. “We were in the 14th inning, there was obviously the runner on second base, and I got out of it. I struck out [Tucker] Barnhart for the last out of the game for my first-ever save. That was so surreal for me.”
Miami gained the May 7 contest 5-4, with the successful run scoring on an Adbert Alzolay balk within the high of the 14th. Nardi retired all three batters he confronted within the backside half.
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Back in April, I led a Sunday Notes column by speculating on the Hall of Fame probabilities of closers Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel. Each has added to his bona fides since that point. Jansen is now as much as 20 saves on the season and has 411 for his profession. Kimbrel has racked up 14 saves this season and has 408 for his profession. Both took the mound in Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
Kimbrel’s continued climb towards Cooperstown-worthiness is particularly notable, because the righty had proven indicators of decline in current seasons. He’s turned that round. On the 12 months, Kimbrel has 57 strikeouts in 37 innings, whereas surrendering14 walks and 22 hits. Moreover, he’s been on a roll because the calendar flipped to June. Over 18 appearances (together with the All-Star Game), he’s allowed only one run in 18 innings.
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Should MLB gamers put on National League and American League particular uniforms for the All-Star Game, or put on their very own group dwelling and highway uniforms? That query was requested by @MLB Cathedrals in a Twitter ballot earlier this week, and of the greater than 13,000 votes forged, 87.9% went to “own team.” Only 12.1% went to the generic N.L. and A.L. uniforms.
Based on quite a few different social media postings I’ve seen, in addition to outside-of-that-realm commentary, the ballot outcomes weren’t an anomaly. A transparent majority of baseball followers need to see their favourite gamers sporting their groups’ jerseys. Do MLB’s powers-that-be care about historical past, custom, and the preferences of followers, or is the advertising and marketing alternative — individuals will clearly purchase replicas of the generics on-line and in group shops — extra essential to them?
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A quiz:
Ernie Banks had 4,706 complete bases with the Chicago Cubs, probably the most in franchise historical past. Which modern-era Cub ranks second in that class?
The reply will be discovered beneath.
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NEWS NOTES
The SABR Defensive Index rankings had been launched this week, with information via video games of July 9. The high 25 gamers in every league are listed.
Claire Smith obtained the Red Smith Award — the Associated Press Sports Editors’ highest honor — this previous Tuesday. Currently a professor at Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, Smith was awarded the BBWAA’s Career Excellence Award in 2017.
A reminder that SABR’s annual Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference shall be held in Detroit on July 20-23. The full schedule will be discovered right here.
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The reply to the quiz is Billy Williams, with 4,261 complete bases. Sammy Sosa has the third-highest complete amongst modern-era Cubs, with 3,980.
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Three weeks in the past, this column included the truth that Bruce Bochy went 3-for-6 with a double and a house run in opposition to Nolan Ryan. What I didn’t know on the time had been the circumstances of the dinger. On July 1, 1985 in his solely at-bat of recreation, Bochy hit a Tenth-inning walk-off to provide the San Diego Padres a 6-5 win in opposition to the Houston Astros. It was the one walk-off dwelling run Ryan allowed in his 27-year profession.
”I bear in mind it effectively,” the now Texas Rangers supervisor stated once I requested him in regards to the blast. “I think any time somebody hits a walk-off home run, they’re going to remember it. So, yeah, it was obviously pretty cool for me. Nolan and I were teammates earlier, so I had some knowledge of him. I kid about how he was probably at 150 pitches, so he had slowed down to probably around 95 [mph].”
The pitch he hit?
“It was a fastball down and in,” recalled Bochy, who went deep 26 occasions over components of 9 big-league seasons. “That one little sweet area I had.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Niko Goodrum signed with the KBO’s Lotte Giants earlier this week after opting out of his contract with the Boston Red Sox. The 31-year-old veteran of six MLB seasons had been taking part in with Triple-A Worcester.
Jae-gyun Hwang is slashing .299/.369/.401 with the KT Wiz. A veteran of 16 KBO seasons, the 35-year-old infielder briefly performed with the San Francisco Giants in 2017. His lone dwelling run got here at Coors Field within the first of his 18 MLB video games.
Roki Sasaki had 14 strikeouts and allowed one run over seven innings because the Chiba Lotte Marines beat the Orix Buffaloes 5-2 on Wednesday. The 21-year-old right-hander has a 1.48 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 79 innings on the season.
Jharel Cotton was tagged with the loss in Orix’s aforementioned defeat. The 31-year-old erstwhile big-leaguer has a 5.89 ERA over 18-and-a-third innings in his first NPB season.
Trevor Bauer was named NPB’s participant of the month for June after going 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA for the Yokohama BayStars. The disgraced erstwhile MLB ace is 6-2 with a 3.67 ERA on the season.
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Teams don’t get all of their targets within the draft, and most frequently it’s as a result of they by no means get a chance to name a participant’s title. Another motive is their unwillingness to accede to calls for. After the completion of this 12 months’s 20 rounds, I requested Red Sox beginner scouting director Devin Pearson if any pre-pick calls resulted in the necessity to go in one other path.
“We had that happen quite a bit,” admitted Pearson. “Starting yesterday [on day two], and then today, we made phone calls and the number was higher than we would have wanted. The good thing about how we got things stacked up is that we knew exactly who the next player was on our board. We got a lot of guys that we’re really, really happy with.”
As for not getting an opportunity to take gamers they coveted, that occurred too.
“That’s typically how it goes,” Pearson stated. “We like to think we’re the smartest in the room, but there are 29 other clubs with the same player pool and we expect to get sniped every year.”
Which gamers the Red Sox — ditto the 29 different groups — misplaced out on is one thing we might by no means know. Scouting administrators are uniformly reluctant to expose such data. If solely to be a fly on the wall in a draft room.
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On a associated be aware, I lately requested Red Sox catcher Connor Wong about his draft expertise. Selected a hundredth general in 2017 by the Dodgers out of the University of Houston, would possibly he have gone to Boston with the following choose had Los Angeles not taken him? It is not at all unusual for a group to deal for a participant they as soon as missed out on draft day.
Asked about that chance, Wong — acquired by Boston from L.A. in February 2020 as a part of the Mookie Betts commerce — stated that he doesn’t recall speaking to a Red Sox crosschecker. Then once more, he wasn’t anticipating to go to the Dodgers when he did. The 27-year-old backstop discovered he’d been drafted on Twitter, moments earlier than he received a name from his agent/advisor.
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FARM NOTES
Heston Kjerstad is slashing .316/.398/.579 with 16 dwelling runs in 329 plate appearances between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. The 24-year-old outfielder was drafted second-overall in 2020 by the Baltimore Orioles out of the University of Arkansas.
Tyler Black is slashing .273/.422/.513 with 12 dwelling runs in 304 plate appearances with Double-A Biloxi. The 22-year-old Toronto-born third baseman was drafted Thirty third-overall in 2021 by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Wright State University.
Jordan Beck slashed .292..378/.566 with 20 dwelling runs in 341 plate appearances for High-A Spokane earlier than being promoted to Double-A Hartford on Friday. The 22-year-old outfielder was drafted Thirty eighth-overall in 2022 by the Colorado Rockies out of the University of Tennessee.
Robby Snelling is 6-1 with a 1.73 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 62-and-a-third innings between Low-A Lake Elsinore and High-A Fort Wayne. The 19-year-old left-hander was drafted Thirty ninth-overall in 2022 by the San Diego Padres out of Reno, Nevada’s Robert McQueen High School.
Dalton Rushing is slashing .254/.419/.472 with eight dwelling runs in 253 plate appearances with the High-A Great Lakes Loons. The 22-year-old catcher was drafted Fortieth-overall in 2022 by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of the University of Louisville.
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Ryan Noda was coming off a powerful first full skilled season when he led Sunday Notes on December 15, 2018. Drafted by Toronto out of the University of Cincinnati the earlier 12 months, the Fifteenth-rounder had logged a .421 on-base proportion whereas slugging 20 dwelling runs with the Midwest League’s Lansing Lugnuts. Given the excessive OBP and their mutual Bearcat backgrounds, I comped Noda to Kevin Youkilis.
The 27-year-old first baseman isn’t to that degree simply but — Youkilis had a 140 wRC+ in a five-year prime starting at age 28 — however he’s having fun with a promising rookie season. Acquired by the Oakland A’s in final winter’s Rule 5 draft, he’s slashing .225/.375/.404 with 10 dwelling runs and a 129 wRC+.
They’ve recognized one another since Noda’s UC days — Youkilis would sometimes go to campus — and extra lately they’ve had conversations about baseball, and life, at homecoming occasions. What they haven’t finished collectively is quaff drinks produced in Los Gatos, California by the Youkilis-owned Loma Brewing Company.
“I haven’t,” Nola admitted once I requested if he’s loved any Loma merchandise. “He hasn’t brought any to Cinci yet, but hopefully he will if he can make it to homecoming this year. I’ve heard it’s pretty good.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At The New York Times Magazine, Will Harrison checked out Pedro Martinez — “a maestro on the mound” — as an inspiration to enhance his writing recreation.
At The Los Angeles Times, Bill Shaikin wrote about how the Athletics’ impending departure from Oakland — the one West Coast major-league metropolis with a major Black neighborhood — leaves a deep gap in East Bay,
Writing for Dallas’s D Magazine, Jamey Newberg defined how Wyatt Langford’s affect will start lengthy earlier than the Rangers’ first-round draft choose arrives in Arlington.
MLB.com’s David Adler wrote about submariner Tyler Rogers and his UFO slider.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
San Francisco’s Blake Sabol went into the All-Star break with 10 dwelling runs. The final Giants rookie with greater than 10 homers on the break was Dave Kingman, with 21 in 1972.
Blake Snell has 85 strikeouts in 53 innings over his final 9 begins. The Padres left-hander has allowed simply three runs in that stretch.
Andrew McCutchen has 2,018 hits and 1,156 runs scored.
Freddie Freeman has 2,018 hits and 1,158 runs scored.
Minnie Minoso led American League hitters in HBP ten occasions from 1951-1961. He reached base by way of that route 178 occasions over the 11-season stretch.
Mickey Mantle reached base by way of HBP solely 13 occasions in 9,910 profession plate appearances.
On at the moment’s date in 1999, the Chicago Cubs scored three runs within the backside of the ninth inning to beat the Minnesota Twins, who had scored three runs of their very own within the high half, by a rating of 11-10. Henry Rodriguez plated Mark Grace with a walk-off single.
On at the moment’s date in 1920, the New York Giants broke a scoreless tie with seven runs within the high of the seventeenth inning in a 7-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Rube Benton went the space for the shutout.
Players born on at the moment’s date embrace Doc Prothro, who batted .313 with the Boston Red Sox in 1925 whereas taking part in in 119 of his 180 big-league video games. His son, Tommy Prothro, coached the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers within the Seventies.
Also born on at the moment’s date was Eddie Fisher, a workhorse reliever and knuckleball pitcher who appeared in 690 video games whereas taking part in for six groups from 1959-1973. Fisher’s greatest season got here with the Chicago White Sox in 1965 when he went 15-7 with 24 saves and a 2.40 ERA over a league-high 82 outing. Fisher gained a World Series ring with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.
Jim Cockman batted .413 for the Canadian League’s London Cockneys in 1897. He went on to bat .105 for the American League’s New York Highlanders in 1905.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com