
Report: Red Sox to Start Smith in Series Opener
The Boston Red Sox have announced that 31-year-old right-hander Josh Smith will toe the slab at Camden Yards on Monday.
The Boston Red Sox have announced that 31-year-old right-hander Josh Smith will toe the slab at Camden Yards on Monday.
I’m going to lead off this whole article by saying that I’m a big Yasiel Puig guy. His combination of hitting, power, and speed was supposed to make him an early round talent year after year, only to see him struggle with injuries or playing time issues. Last year, when he played, he was fantastic, hitting .267/.327/.494 and accumulating 23 home runs and 15 stolen bases in just 444 plate appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then, in a weird salary dump type deal, Puig was sent in a trade to the Cincinnati Reds. As the offseason wore on, it looked more and more like there would be a full-time role for Puig in Cincy. Puig stans like me rejoiced. #PuigYourFriend indeed.
Every Major League Baseball club has that player that they just cannot thrive without. This series of articles will not always talk about the best player from each team, or even the player with the highest WAR from each team, but will discuss the one player who is a presence both on the field and in the clubhouse, and the player that the team can’t thrive without.
Technically, the MLB season started in March, but I thought it would be a good idea to do a review at the end of April. On March 28, the Chicago Cubs won their opening day game in Texas against the Rangers. Then proceeded to lose their next six games. During those six games, the pitching staff allowed 55 runs. That equals an opposing run per game average of over 9. Brutal. God awful. All hell was about to break loose in Chicago.
Every Thursday or Friday we will take a look back on the life and career of a player. You will get some background, an iconic moment, and plenty of stats. As voted on by the Twitter community, today we look back at Kenny Lofton.
Center fielder Nick Senzel, the Cincinnati Reds’ top prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 overall prospect, is getting the call to the show on Friday. The Reds are sitting in the cellar of the NL Central with a record of 13-18, as of May 2. Senzel will be a boost to the Reds offense and hopefully boost Cincinnati’s attendance at Great American Ballpark. Their average attendance per game so far this year is just over 15,000. The Reds offense right now is ranked 25th in the league overall, and last in batting average with .210. Their best hitters are Joey Votto and Jesse Winker, with batting averages of .232 and .224, respectively. Winker has 13 RBI and 8 home runs with a .805 OPS.
Unlike the beginning of the season, I’ve begun to keep a spreadsheet of my pitching matchup’s performances as of Monday. The previous three top options performed, shall we say, strangely at best, with Mike Soroka pitching masterfully and Sandy Alcantara and Felix Pena not so much, although Pena did sneak away with a win. To be honest, the entire pitching landscape has been strange so far this season, with rumors swirling of the ball being juiced again. It’s hard to say how we should take these findings, but hopefully, in the stretch of the full season, these starts will look better than they currently seem. Now, on to the weekend matchups!
Plenty of afternoon baseball today, in all there are eight games on the slate and we will pick and choose from both afternoon and evening. Let’s jump right into it and go Around the Horn!
After missing the playoffs last season and losing star players like Paul Goldschmidt ( via trade), A.J. Pollock ( via F.A.), and Patrick Corbin (via F.A.), expectations weren’t high for the Arizona Diamondbacks coming into the 2019 season. The Diamondbacks needed to come out strong in the opening month and they did just that.
On Tuesday night, CC Sabathia became just the 17th pitcher of all-time to reach the 3,000 career strikeout plateau. Striking out a former battery mate in Diamondbacks’ John Ryan Murphy, who was a backup catcher for the Yankees from 2013-15, for his 3,000th strikeout, Sabathia further made his case for the Hall of Fame. Sabathia is the first pitcher since John Smoltz in 2008 to reach the milestone.
Entering the first day of May, Cody Bellinger has set a few new records.
The baseball season is a grind. It’s every single day. We will approach DFS the same way and be winners at the end of the season even if we have our hot streaks and slumps. Every day there are safe bets that flop and values that hit big, but we need to stick with our strategy in evaluating and playing. Let’s take a look at what we have today.
The Boston Red Sox have announced that 31-year-old right-hander Josh Smith will toe the slab at Camden Yards on Monday. Smith has made one appearance
I’m going to lead off this whole article by saying that I’m a big Yasiel Puig guy. His combination of hitting, power, and speed was supposed to make him an early round talent year after year, only to see him struggle with injuries or playing time issues. Last year, when he played, he was fantastic, hitting .267/.327/.494 and accumulating 23 home runs and 15 stolen bases in just 444 plate appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then, in a weird salary dump type deal, Puig was sent in a trade to the Cincinnati Reds. As the offseason wore on, it looked more and more like there would be a full-time role for Puig in Cincy. Puig stans like me rejoiced. #PuigYourFriend indeed.
Every Major League Baseball club has that player that they just cannot thrive without. This series of articles will not always talk about the best player from each team, or even the player with the highest WAR from each team, but will discuss the one player who is a presence both on the field and in the clubhouse, and the player that the team can’t thrive without.
Technically, the MLB season started in March, but I thought it would be a good idea to do a review at the end of April. On March 28, the Chicago Cubs won their opening day game in Texas against the Rangers. Then proceeded to lose their next six games. During those six games, the pitching staff allowed 55 runs. That equals an opposing run per game average of over 9. Brutal. God awful. All hell was about to break loose in Chicago.
Every Thursday or Friday we will take a look back on the life and career of a player. You will get some background, an iconic moment, and plenty of stats. As voted on by the Twitter community, today we look back at Kenny Lofton.
Center fielder Nick Senzel, the Cincinnati Reds’ top prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 5 overall prospect, is getting the call to the show on Friday. The Reds are sitting in the cellar of the NL Central with a record of 13-18, as of May 2. Senzel will be a boost to the Reds offense and hopefully boost Cincinnati’s attendance at Great American Ballpark. Their average attendance per game so far this year is just over 15,000. The Reds offense right now is ranked 25th in the league overall, and last in batting average with .210. Their best hitters are Joey Votto and Jesse Winker, with batting averages of .232 and .224, respectively. Winker has 13 RBI and 8 home runs with a .805 OPS.
Unlike the beginning of the season, I’ve begun to keep a spreadsheet of my pitching matchup’s performances as of Monday. The previous three top options performed, shall we say, strangely at best, with Mike Soroka pitching masterfully and Sandy Alcantara and Felix Pena not so much, although Pena did sneak away with a win. To be honest, the entire pitching landscape has been strange so far this season, with rumors swirling of the ball being juiced again. It’s hard to say how we should take these findings, but hopefully, in the stretch of the full season, these starts will look better than they currently seem. Now, on to the weekend matchups!
Plenty of afternoon baseball today, in all there are eight games on the slate and we will pick and choose from both afternoon and evening. Let’s jump right into it and go Around the Horn!
After missing the playoffs last season and losing star players like Paul Goldschmidt ( via trade), A.J. Pollock ( via F.A.), and Patrick Corbin (via F.A.), expectations weren’t high for the Arizona Diamondbacks coming into the 2019 season. The Diamondbacks needed to come out strong in the opening month and they did just that.
On Tuesday night, CC Sabathia became just the 17th pitcher of all-time to reach the 3,000 career strikeout plateau. Striking out a former battery mate in Diamondbacks’ John Ryan Murphy, who was a backup catcher for the Yankees from 2013-15, for his 3,000th strikeout, Sabathia further made his case for the Hall of Fame. Sabathia is the first pitcher since John Smoltz in 2008 to reach the milestone.
Entering the first day of May, Cody Bellinger has set a few new records.
The baseball season is a grind. It’s every single day. We will approach DFS the same way and be winners at the end of the season even if we have our hot streaks and slumps. Every day there are safe bets that flop and values that hit big, but we need to stick with our strategy in evaluating and playing. Let’s take a look at what we have today.
Visit ChiefsBlitz.com for
hard-hitting KC Chiefs coverage.