— Blockbuster trade Sunday night; Red Sox unloaded DH Rafael Devers and the $270M or so he is still owed thru 2033, to San Francisco, in exchange for two pitchers, two other prospects.
Pitchers Boston got are Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks.
Minor league prospects are OF James Tibbs, P Jose Bello
Consensus from the people I listened to Sunday night said this is mostly a salary dump- the players the Red Sox got don’t match up to trading an elite hitter, even if he is only a DH.
— San Francisco is a way worse hitters’ ballpark than Fenway; Giants haven’t had a player hit 30+ home runs since 2004.
Where will Devers play in the field? 1B? 3B? Will he even play in the field?
Interesting questions to follow over the next week or so, especially when you realize that the Red Sox visit San Francisco this coming weekend.
Would make sense if the Red Sox use the $31.8M/year they just got out from under to add another potent bat, to hit between Jarren Duran, Alex Bregman, when Bregman gets healthy.
It also figures that Boston is way more likely to sign Bregman to a longer-term deal now that Devers is gone.
— Around 6:45 Sunday night, Kyle Harrison was headed to the dugout in Los Angeles, so he could stay warming up for the Giants-Dodgers game, when he was pulled back and told he was traded to Boston. Giants had a bullpen game in their 5-4 loss to the Dodgers Sunday night.
— Shohei Ohtani makes his return to the mound Monday night, when the Dodgers play San Diego, but apparently he’s just going to be an opener, throwing 1-2 innings, as he builds his workload up.
— Giants’ ace Logan Webb has had seven starts this season where he’s thrown 7+ innings; the entire Dodger pitching staff has had three games where their starter lasted 7+ innings.
— Major League Baseball has to be happy with the pitch clock/rule change.
%age of MLB games that have lasted 3+ hours:
2021- 67%
2022- 60%
2023- 17%
2024- 12%
2025- 15%
— Cubs beat Detroit 6-1 in a game last week, despite not having any at-bats with a runner in scoring position, the first team since the 2016 Twins to win a game by 5+ runs without having an at-bat with a runner at second or third base.
— Famous birthdays, June 16th:
Joan Van Ark, 82
Rick Adelman, 79
Al Cowlings, 78
Ron LeFlore, 77
Al Skinner, 73
Frank Corral, 70
Tree Rollins, 70
Laurie Metcalf, 70
Darrell Griffith, 67
Wally Joyner, 63
Calvin Schiraldi, 63
Kerry Wood, 48
Austin Blythe, 33
Will Benson, 27
Justin Jefferson, 26
— Obscure Stat of the Day, part 1:
Rangers’ SS Corey Seager has drawn a walk in 10 consecutive games; the all-time MLB record for most consecutive games drawing a walk is 22, set by Detroit’s Roy Cullenbine in 1947.
Cullenbine was a 1B/OF who played for six different teams in his 10-year career. 1947 was the last year he played; he had a career .408 on-base %age.
— Obscure Stat of the Day, part 2:
2020 San Diego Padres hold an odd record; they hit a grand slam in four consecutive games, which no one else has ever done. Would’ve thought someone had a longer streak, but no,
— Reds 8, Tigers 4
Elly De La Cruz scored 3 runs, homered and had 3 RBI.
De La Cruz has now homered in four consecutive games.
Three Detroit errors led to five unearned runs for the Reds.
— Marlins 3, Nationals 1
Eric Wagaman had two RBI as the Marlins swept this series.
Washington has lost eight games in a row; manager Dave Martinez called out his players over the weekend, rarely a good thing for the manager.
— Rangers 2, White Sox 1
Kumar Rocker threw five scoreless IP, while fighting cramps; he drank couple of small bottles of pickle juice on the mound— wasn’t sure that was legal.
Rangers have quietly won seven of their last eight games.
White Sox manager Will Venable got tossed in the bottom of the first inning, after his pitcher had thrown only 13 pitches. It turns out Venable was thrown out of games on both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year.
— A’s 3, Royals 2
A’s swept this 3-game series; before Friday, A’s had lost their last 14 road games.
Nick Kurtz hit the game-winning home run in the ninth inning.
Royals went 0-6 on their homestand, scoring total of 11 runs.
Kansas City has lost its last six home series.
— Rockies 10, Braves 1
This game was 1-1 after the sixth inning.
Braves P Grant Holmes struck out 15 guys in 6.1 IP, but took the loss.
Colorado improved to 7-30 on the road.
— If the baseball playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Mets, Cubs, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Phillies, Giants, Padres
AL: Bronx, Tigers, Astros. Wild Cards: Rays, Blue Jays, Mariners
