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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 7/4/2024

We got unlikely duos, and also likely duos today.

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 7/4/2024

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

Hey, have a good 4th of July everybody, don’t play with fireworks, ok?

 

Today’s Headlines

 

All Starters

The All-Star team starters were announced yesterday, which is how I found out about some of the interesting team alliances we got this year for voting. Like MilwuaCLE?

Sure, I guess? I mean, I certainly can’t argue against the All-Star creds of Christian Yelich, William Contreras, José Ramírez, and Steven Kwan.

Then you have the uh….PadJays?

I gotta say, I don’t really get the wordplay behind this one at all, but again, I can’t be too mad about Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., and Jurickson Profar getting the nod. Speaking of Profar, here’s a nice photo of him finding out he was named a starter:

We also got our first look at the unis for the game:

I’m…not particularly impressed, but then again I’ve never been much for the ASG uniforms aside from maybe the Miami ones.

Either way, here are the full squads:

 

You can get the full list of All-Star starters right here, with some added commentary by David Adler.

Civale-ry Isn’t Dead!

I feel like we’re getting a lot more trade proposal talk and rumor heat this year heading into deadline season than usual, and leave it up to the Rays and Brewers to kick things off in earnest:

Aaron Civale has a 5.07 ERA in 87 IP this year, and some would say that if the Rays can’t coax good performance out of an arm, maybe nobody can…but the Brewers are in some ways the Rays of the NL (for better or worse) so, I get it. Meanwhile, the Rays get a High-A bat in Gregory Barrios, who was ranked as the Brewers’ #12 prospect according to MLB Pipeline.

Estes Blasts Off

Did I already make that model rocket reference? I feel like I did sometime earlier this year. Well, you’re getting it again, just like a reusable backyard rocket ship, because last night Joey Estes threw his first complete game shutout against the Angels.

Sure, Blame it on the Angels, and, five hits, only one walk, and four strikeouts isn’t the most dominant line (props for the one walk, though), but it’s still tough to toss a Maddux in any circumstances.

Wednesday Firsts

We got to see a pair of rookie firsts on Wednesday. Minnesota called up Brooks Lee, who was absolutely tearing up Triple-A to the tune of a .329/.394/.635 line, and it didn’t take him long to pick up his first MLB hit:

It didn’t take him much longer after that for his first RBI:

Lee ended the day 2-for-4, and his RBI accounted for a full 50% of the Twins runs scored for the day. Not a bad debut, all told, I would think.

Meanwhile, Washington’s James Wood was called up over the weekend and made his debut Monday, but it was Wednesday when he collected his first MLB RBI, and this one got a multi-cam treatment with his family, which I always love to see:

The Nats came back from a 5-0 deficit to win it 7-5, with Wood’s RBI breaking a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning. Not a bad way to put that first mark on the stat sheet at all.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

The Bad Kind Of History

The Blue Jays claimed José Cuas off of waivers from the Cubs in late June, and he did something unprecedented on the mound yesterday. Just not in the way he would have liked:

But it’s actually even more of a one-off weirdness than that:

More batters faced than pitches thrown, truly we are in a bold new era of baseball.

Boop

The Royals took down the Rays 4-2 last night, a score that held up partially thanks to this incredible catch by Kyle Isbel out in deepest CF:

Being able to hold onto the ball with it that high up in the mitt and hitting the wall that hard is some impressive grip strength from Isbel, and even though Ben Rortvedt was able to advance to third, he wouldn’t come around to score.

Net Loss

There’s a lot to process in this clip:

He loses the ball, he catapults his beer into the guy at the end of the row, the netting absolutely launches him back onto the dugout, but the most important thing to me? When he thinks security is there to shake his hand. I would love to know the thought process behind that one.

Aw, Snit

Time for a classic of the genre:

You see a fair share of Man Getting Hit By Baseball watching this sport, but I don’t think I’ve seen such misfortune as to take a foul ball directly to the junk while you’re doing the “hey, good hack!” clap for said foul ball.

iykyk

If you don’t know, you can find out here. But also maybe don’t? It’s kinda weird.

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ The Twins will be without Royce Lewis at least through the All-Star Break due to a grade 2 right adductor strain.

⚾ Cole Irvin is moving into the Baltimore bullpen for the time being, although manager Brandon Hyde said it isn’t necessarily a permanent role change.

⚾ Detroit has placed Casey Mize on the IL backdated to July 2nd with a left hamstring strain.

⚾ Joey Ortiz has been placed on the IL due to neck inflammation, also backdated to July 2nd.

⚾ Blue Jay’s erstwhile closer Jordan Romano underwent successful surgery to help with a right elbow impingement. He’ll be shut down for at least six weeks and it seems like his season is still up in the air at this point.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

The Marlins Are Chasing (History) – Davy Andrews, FanGraphs

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Is It Legit?

Closing Time

Starting Pitcher Streamers

Asher Dratel

Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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