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MLB News & Moments You Should Know – May 15

Two Career Milestones, a statistical anomaly & Shakira!

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

 

Today’s Headlines

 

Yadier Molina 6th All-Time in Catcher Hits

Take a minute to admire the career of Yadier Molina. In what is amounting to a farewell tour, it’s great to see the future Hall of Famer climb up the ranks of the all-time catching hit ledger. Keep them coming Yadier!

 

100 Career Homers for Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani has officially reached the 100 home run plateau in his career while becoming just the third Japanese player ever to accomplish this feat (Hideki Matsui & Ichiro). Ohtani meanwhile accomplished this the fastest in just 444 career games.

 

1st Career Home Run Walks It Off

Luis Barrera sure made his first career home run count this afternoon and he CRUSHED a slider off Raisel Iglesias in the 9th inning to give the Athletics a victory. After being DFA’d in April by Oakland and arriving back to the majors just five days ago, this is a feel-good moment in the Bay Area.

 

Twins Send Kirilloff to AAA

Alex Kiriloff has been sent down to the Twins’ AAA affiliate after struggling to find momentum at the plate coming off his wrist injury. He saw five games back in the big leagues before the Twins made the decision to send Kirilloff back down to St. Paul.

The rationale is to get regular at bats to continue to focus on timing and driving the ball consistently. While in the majors, Kiriloff struggled by hitting on .172 this season.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Everything’s the Same, Completely Different Results

Yup, you in fact read this correctly. The talk of the MLB Twitter verse for the afternoon was the science behind these two batted balls in Arizona, leading to some conspiracy theories on the differing balls/dead ball play.

Both balls had the same launch angle and exit velocity, only to have one be a no doubt home run and the other be a routine fall ball out. It’s bizzare to think that MLB has yet another season marred by altering the ball, but the dead balls of 2022 are something that will have a tremendous impact for the rest of the year.

 

No Sleep Till…Queens?!?  

Less is more when it comes to words. Met fans have been through enough in recent years, so maybe these two fans are just preparing to be let down when September rolls around.

 

Teach Em’ Young to Throw It Back

A toddler-aged fan got a Wander Franco foul ball souvenir during Saturday’s game and seemed quite excited! With the celebration and emotions riding sky-high – the young Ray’s right decided to work on fundamentals & threw the ball back towards the playing field. What a fun memory to have to look back upon in a few years…now all Tampa needs to work on that release angle and stash him in the minors.

 

Buck’s Hips Don’t Lie

It seems like we found the leader of Shakira’s fan club. Scheduled to throw out the first pitch at the Mets / Mariners game, Schowalter led his fandom shine through.

 

Injuries & Activations

 

Big news out of Atlanta – MRI results are back for Ronald Acuña Jr. and there is no sign of damage to his injured groin. Expect him back in lineups within a few days.

Michael Pineda left his start today with a fractured finger on his pitching hand.

The Boston Red Sox activated Rich Hill off the COVID list.

The Toronto Blue Jays activated Hyun Jin Ryu & Danny Jansen from the IL .

The St. Louis Cardinals plan to activate Adam Wainwright on Sunday 5/15.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Seven Starting Pitchers Boasting Intriguing Stuff in the Pacific Coast League: written by Eno Sarris at The Athletic

Understanding Hitter Development: written by Justin Dunbar at Pitcher List

Elevated Jazz: written by Ben Clemens at FanGraphs

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Reliever Ranks

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)

Collin Carlone

Collin is somehow a fan of the Phillies & Dodgers simultaneously; although Matt Stairs had some thoughts about that back in ‘08. In his spare time, he plays disc golf like a pitcher in hopes to defy physics enough to be featured by Pitching Ninja.

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