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Today’s Headlines
200 for Waino
Adam Wainwright, having a rough go of it this year to the tune of a 7.95 ERA and 4-11 record entering Tuesday, decided to dominate the Brewers (probably) one last time (career 2.74 ERA against Milwaukee), and pitched seven innings of clean baseball for the 200th win of his career.
Nice moment for Waino and the Cards in an otherwise challenging season.
Welcome to the 200-win club, @UncleCharlie50! pic.twitter.com/b6IvgNN03h
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2023
Enough Ced
No postseason-berth hangover for the Orioles, who clinched a postseason spot on Sunday. Monday they were in Houston, and found themselves down two runs in the ninth against Astros closer Ryan Pressly. After two singles, Cedric Mullins was at the plate:
Holy smokes!
Cedric Mullins gives the @Orioles the lead in the 9th!! pic.twitter.com/eFUJA1Cfgg
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2023
After a defensive miscue and two outs, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde went to closer Yennier Cano to record the final out as the Astros saw a half game trimmed off their tight AL West Lead.
200/200
José Ramírez became one of just four active players to reach the 200 HR, 200 SB mark for his career on Monday, with his 26th swipe of the season.
Congratulations to José Ramírez on joining the 200/200 Club 🐐 #ForTheLand | @MrLapara pic.twitter.com/Y5M9ADR1O4
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) September 18, 2023
Rays Stay?
After several back and forth attempts, including a (hopefully) unserious threat to split a season between Montreal and Tampa, apparently the Rays are poised to announce a new stadium plan for St. Petersburg on Tuesday. Few details were available as of press time, but good news for the Rays and their fans, it seems.
BREAKING: #Rays set to announce deal for new stadium in St. Pete https://t.co/A23GDAhwVj
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) September 18, 2023
Best Moments From Yesterday
Baldelli Committed
Twins’ manager Rocco Baldelli welcomed twin boys into the family on Monday.
Talk about being committed to your job!
Congratulations to the Baldelli family on welcoming Twin boys to their family!!! 👶👶 pic.twitter.com/sxP63VVtJu
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 18, 2023
Congratulations to the Baldellis, etc., etc., but what other managers should consider committing to the gimmick?
- Craig Counsell should be a homebrewer
- Matt Quatraro needs to do some deep digging into his family tree and find a distant relative that was part of a monarchy, or marry the Duchess of Muckduck-upon-Newbury
- Bruce Bochy should patrol the West in the offseason
If Scott Servais doesn’t own a boat, I’m not even sure he’s trying.
A Brief Meditation on the Unpredictable
I’ve long thought one of the best parts about baseball is the unexpected; waiting for something to else to happen, interrupted. Imagine how many thousands (hundreds of thousands; millions?) of ground balls a big league infielder has taken in his life. Each one, relatively speaking, the same. The ball rolls in the dirt, and you put your glove down, rise up with the ball as your hand moves to your glove, and… and… the ball is stuck. Oh no. I haven’t practiced this! There’s thousands watching. It won’t come out!
It’s not an unprecedented play, but with that much repetition on non-ball-stuck-in-glove plays, what does your muscle memory do? The runner is in the top 1% of runners in the world, and they’re hustling down the line.
How do ballplayers have the time for the neurons to fire in a way that allows them to think “I’ll just take off my glove and throw the whole thing!” followed by actually doing that thing?
If it was me, I would completely freeze in the moment. It wouldn’t occur to me that I could just throw the whole glove. That, and that alone, is the difference between me and Carlos Santana:
So smooth. 😂
(MLB x @Woodbridge_Wine) pic.twitter.com/isin6cCsew
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2023
The Mashup We Didn’t Know We Needed
I haven’t seen the Barbie movie yet, but apparently the Giants have:
Not Giants players pulling up for their road trip as Ken from Barbie 😂👏 pic.twitter.com/vWQeh9mnMg
— MLB Life (@MLBLife) September 18, 2023
Injuries
Triston Casas was placed on the 10-day IL on Saturday, but he’s now been shut down from baseball activities, likely marking the end of the season for the Red Sox rookie slugger.
Manny Machado is likely to have surgery to repair his ailing elbow, but is expected to be ready for spring training in 2024.
Salvador Pérez left Saturday’s game after catching a foul ball to the mask. The Royals announced Monday he’s headed to the 7-day concussion IL.
Not a huge surprise, but the Mets officially announced Edwin Diaz will not return in 2023 with the Mets almost out of playoff contention. He is expected to be ready for spring training.
Articles You Should Read
Can Freddie Freeman Re-open the 3,000 Hit Club? – Dan Szymborski, FanGraphs
Top 10 Relievers of the 2023 MLB Season – Nate Kosher, Pitcher List
Carlos Rodón is Finally the Ace the Yankees Wanted – Nick Pollack, Pitcher List
Fantasy Baseball Coverage
The List 9/18 Ranking Every SP’s Daily Matchups
Fantasy Baseball Reliever Ranks
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)