I really don’t know what the Orioles just did.
Baltimore acquired right-handed pitcher Jeremy Hellickson and cash considerations from the Philadelphia Phillies late Friday night in a deal with multiple moving parts. In exchange for the veteran starter, the Phillies received outfielder Hyun Soo Kim, minor-league lefty Garrett Cleavinger, and international bonus money. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score.
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The Colorado Rockies are one of baseball’s biggest surprises this season. Their 58-44 record coming into play on Wednesday is the fourth-best in the National League and gives them a 4 1⁄2game cushion in the Wild Card standings. With every contender, however, comes certain weaknesses, and the trade deadline gives such teams an opportunity to fix those problems for the postseason run of August and September.
As the Rockies’ brass continued to watch their bullpen struggle, they knew a change had to be made — and quickly. The team has an important series with the Washington Nationals coming up this weekend, and Greg Holland will almost certainly be unavailable, as he was placed on paternity leave earlier today. Of course, that’s not the only hurdle that Rockies’ relief pitching has had to clear, but we’ll get more into that later on. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. If you had told me one year ago that Zach Britton could be a potential trade candidate this year, my jaw would have dropped straight to the ground.
I don’t think this would have happened necessarily because I thought the Orioles would be a contender in 2017; rather, I think I would have started drooling over Baltimore’s potential return. In today’s game, relief pitching is costly. Elite relief pitching can net $80 million deals in free agency like Aroldis Chapman did, and elite relief pitching can draw a four-prospect return (including Clint Frazier) in a trade like Andrew Miller did. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. The baseball world thought that the Twins were on the verge of upgrading their starting rotation just last week.
Minnesota was close to acquiring Jaime Garciafrom the Braves ahead of his Friday start against the Dodgers, but he ultimately pitched in Los Angeles due to the lack of a deal. And, for what its worth, Garcia pitched extremely well, throwing seven innings, allowing just three runs with four strikeouts and one walk. He also hit a grand slam. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend a Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park. Fenway is awesome, and I had a great time on Sunday. But, in a broader scope outside of my experience, the two teams were playing in a crazy four game set to open up the second half. After the Red Sox won on a walk-off-walk on Friday, the Yankees won a 16-inning thriller on Saturday. On top of all that, the two teams had a doubleheader on Sunday.
I went to Game 1 of the doubleheader, which the Yankees won, 3-0. CC Sabathia wasn’t phenomenal, but he was good enough, and that was all that mattered. Once the game ended, I told my friends that the Red Sox were definitely winning Game 2. I had seen enough doubleheaders in the league, and in my mind, it is hard to sweep. Click here to read more on Beyond The Box Score. |