He’s back! Photo courtesy of Kelly O’Connor.
- Jose Fernandez is currently obliterating the Rockies, with eight strikeouts in five innings as of this writing. He just looks untouchable, and the Rockies look foolish at the plate. Before the season, Fernandez said he wanted to post an ERA below 2.00 this year, and… well, I’m not gonna be the one to say he can’t do it.
- There’s already been a whole lot written about this, but the Miguel Cabrera contract is a rough one. After trading Prince Fielder to relieve their financial situation, I’m not sure I see the value in spending that money and then some on a guy two years before an extension would be necessary. Cabrera’s the best pure hitter in baseball right now, no doubt about that, but he’s also a 31-year-old corner infielder who is now signed through age 41. It’s not impossible for him to make good on that money, but it sure will be difficult.
- The Nationals are already suffering from some terrible luck with injuries, as Wilson Ramos went down with a hand injury and Bryce Harper took a hit to the head. X-Rays on Ramos’s hand came back negative, however, and Harper returned to the game and passed two concussion tests, so perhaps the Nats avoided the worst of this one. Perhaps.
- Steal Gawd Billy Hamilton went 0-for-4 today with four strikeouts. WELP.
- To contrast Cabrera’s mammoth deal with Detroit, the Angels locked up Mike Trout to an eminently reasonable 6-year, $144.5 million extension. Obviously, this figure is lowered significantly due to arbitration years, but the Angels are still going to get a huge monetary bargain from locking up the best player in baseball to a contract only marginally bigger than Shin-Soo Choo’s.
- Nelson Cruz sank the Red Sox today with his solo homer in the 7th inning of a game that ended 2-1. The Red Sox finished 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position; obviously not ideal, but the offense did create plenty of chances, which we can safely expect them to begin converting sooner rather than later. No cause for alarm here.
- What on Earth happened in Texas today? The Rangers and Phillies combined for 24 runs, while every other game played to this point today (with Miami up 2-0 right now) totaled 51. Cliff Lee found himself uncharacteristically rocked for eight runs in five innings (and got the win) while the Tanner Scheppers experiment went horribly wrong to the tune of seven runs in four.
- Your current Major League home run leader? Alejandro De Aza.
- Emilio Bonifacio went 4-for-5 for Chicago today, stole a base, got picked off, recorded his only out with a runner in scoring position, picked up an outfield assist to first base, and somehow failed to score a run as the rest of the Cubs’ lineup with 2-for-27. You tell me what to make of that, because I don’t actually know.
- Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Jose Reyes is hurt. He went down with “left hamstring tightness” in the first inning today.
- Speaking of injury-prone players, you know who did NOT get hurt? Grady Sizemore! Grady went 2-for-4 today while scoring the Red Sox’ only run on a solo home run to right. He’s back!
- Adam Wainwright is really good at baseball.
That’s all I’ve got for the time being. As one last note, however…
The TrollBag is coming next week! It’ll be running on the first Monday of every month this season, so that means it’s time to start sending me your questions. As always, you can find me on Twitter at @PoarchDaniel and you can find the TrollBag Questions page at @TrollBagQs. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have for me this month!