Category: Sports News

Prior to their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, the Tampa Bay Rays are calling up right-handed pitcher Trevor Martin from Triple-A Durham.

Martin, 25, was the Rays 3rd round selection in the 2022 draft. During his collegiate days, Martin was a closer for Oklahoma State but the Rays tried him as a starting pitcher for the first few years of his development. Martin easily dismantled hitters in the lower levels but Double-A was too much of a challenge and he was converted back into a reliever last season. This year, Martin has made seven appearances for Triple-A Durham and has yet to allow an earned run over 9.1 IP, registering a 26.8 K% and 14.6 BB% against 41 hitters faced.

FanGraphs ranked Martin as the Rays 42nd best prospect entering the 2025 season and they had this to say regarding the young hurler,

Martin hasn’t sustained his peak 2022 velo and was more 90-94 with his fastball in 2024, but plus vertical break and above-average extension help enable a fastball-heavy approach despite that middling velo. Aside from his curveball, which has movement that pairs with his heater, Martin doesn’t have a secondary pitch that’s performing at an average or better level.

Mason Englert heads to the Injured List with right forearm tightness. The 26-year old has thrown in 9 games for the Rays already this season, registering a 7.11 ERA | 4.77 FIP with a 16.7 K% & 6.7 BB% over 12.2 IP.

In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Rays transferred recent free agent signing Michael Grove, to the 60-day Injured List.

The A’s announced a small roster move on Monday morning hours before their series with Seattle kicks off. The team is bringing up left-hander Brady Basso to the big league squad for the first time this season, while optioning out right-hander Mason Barnett back to Triple-A:

Basso provides manager Mark Kotsay with another left-handed option out of the bullpen. The 29-year-old began the season in Triple-A with the Aviators in the ‘pen but has gotten hit hard in six appearances. He’s sporting an ugly 9.45 ERA but has had some success in the past before. Let’s hope he can figure it out at the big league level or if his struggles will continue.

Barnett meanwhile returns to Vegas after spending just a couple days with the big league team. The right-handed starter made just one relief appearance for the A’s this weekend, pitching two innings without allowing a run. He’ll now return to Vegas and likely resume his starting responsibilities until the A’s need another arm again. Maybe next time he gets brought back up he’ll actually get a starting assignment or two.

The Houston Astros come to town tonight, looking to get back on track, while the Guardians look to continue their strong start with another series win.

The Astros are 8-15 and third in wRC+ at 122, ninth in Baserunning Runs Above Average at 1.2, 21st in Defense at -5.4, last in starting pitcher ERA at 6.34 (4.59 FIP), and 24th in bullpen ERA at 5.21 ((4.26 FIP).

The Guardians are 13-10 and 17th in wRC+ at 100, 25th in Baserunning Runs Above Average at -1.5, ninth in Defense at -0.2, fourth in starting pitcher ERA at 3.10 (3.93 FIP), and 29th in bullpen ERA at 6.18 ERA (5.39 FIP).

On paper, looks like the Guardians need to hope the past couple games of bullpen improvement can hang around, then they will have a good chance of keeping that Astros’ offense in check. Putting the ball in play a good bit should help as the Houston defense looks bad, so far. It’s tough to read TOO much into trends for another couple weeks, at least, but surface level, the Guardians have a clear path to take this series.

MATCHUPS:
Game One, Monday, 6:10PM ET: Slade Cecconi, RHP 5.03 ERA (4.50 SIERA) vs. Spencer Arrighetti, RHP 1.50 ERA (3.28 SIERA).
Game Two, Tuesday, 6:10PM ET: Parker Messick, LHP 1.05 ERA (3.23 SIERA) vs. Ryan Weiss, RHP 4.91 ERA (7.18 SIERA).
Game Three, Wednesday, 1:10PM ET: Tanner Bibee, RHP 4.81 ERA (3.96 SIERA) vs. Peter Lambert, RHP 7.20 ERA (2.15 SIERA).

This will be a big series for the Guardians to show that they are more of an alpha team in the AL than the Astros. The Astros are reeling… (Mortal Kombat voice) FINISH THEM.

Also, Jose Ramirez’s official countdown to 300 homers/300 steals: 9 homers left, 3 steals left.

Glossary:

wRC+ – Weighted Runs Created Plus – A measure of determining a player’s run production value while controlling for park effects. 100 is league average.

Baserunning Runs Above Average – A metric including stolen base value, double-play avoidance, and taking extra bases to determine how many runs above average a team is on the basepaths

Defense – This stat gives you how many runs above average a team’s defenders save their team, adjusted for positional value (i.e. a catcher has far more defensive value for a team than a first baseman).

FIP – Fielding Independent Pitching. Essentially, ERA weighted by factors a pitcher can control (strikeouts, walks and homers) while eliminating as much as possible the effects of a good or bad defense.

SIERA – A metric to determine a pitcher’s true ERA based on strikeout rate, walk rate, and quality of batted-balls given up. This number is similar to ERA (3 and under is excellent) in determining player performance.

This past week looked like it was going to continue to frustrate the Yankees, as they opened up with a series where they pulled a split from the jaws of a sweep. The Angels outclassed them on the field, dominated the two wins that they took in the Bronx, and only thanks to the full might of the offense and Jordan Romano completely melting down in the ninth twice did they pull out a pair of walk-off wins. However, the Royals were a needed medicine and the team recovered fast, sweeping Kansas City out of town with a pair of weekend blowouts to boot.

The playing field has leveled out with the Yankees taking a brief dip into their first losing streak of the year, but they’ve clawed back a narrow half-game lead atop the division. The Rays are surprisingly the team they’re fending off after getting swept by them, as the rest of the East is still under .500, and the AL in general lacks standouts in the Central and West. Will the Rays remain a thorn in their side and stick around to challenge them for first, or are the standings so crazy right now that anything goes? Is Ben Rice breaking out into a superstar bat, or do we need to pump the breaks before leading co-MVP chants at the Stadium? Have the worries with Trent Grisham’s bat dissipated after finding the power stroke recently? If you have questions like these, or anything else on your mind, send ‘em in for a chance to be featured in our Yankees mailbag.

Answers will run on Friday afternoon. All questions received by the night of April 23rd will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thomas Nestico of TJStats broke down the top WAR player currently on each team by position and by division.

Today, we are going to look at the catcher position:

Yainer Diaz hasn’t just been the worst catcher on his team. He isn’t just the worst catcher in the AL West. He’s tied as the worst catcher in MLB. That’s a statement.

When Yainer first came up to Houston, his defense would be a work in progress but he showed strong pop times and a powerful arm. At the plate, he had power, hit for a high average, and made strong contact despite a tendency to be a free swinger.

It was expected that as he got older, he would learn better plate discipline and get himself better pitches to hit as a result. Instead, the opposite has happened and Yainer has regressed at the plate badly as a result.

Yainer still swings at nearly everything, often leading to ground ball outs when reaching for pitches he should be taking. He sees less good pitches to hit because the league knows he will swing at anything.

The differences between Yainer’s rookie season of 2023 when he burst on the scene looking like a real catcher of the future to today are startling:

That is an awful lot of red that has turned to blue. The top 7 categories have gone from red to blue.

He still chases at near the same rate, and while his walk rate has improved ever so slightly, it’s still way down the bottom of the league.

It may be something that would be perhaps more tolerable if his defense had continued to improve. Alas, that has regressed also:

These stats are confounding because Diaz is not old enough to have age-related regression in physical ability, and we are not aware publicly of any kind of injury that is causing Diaz to regress. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, and the room it does leave isn’t positive.

Meanwhile, Christian Vazquez is hitting .375 (12×32) with a .444 OBP and a 1.132 OPS, with 10 RBI in just 10 games (8 starts) and has four catcher caught stealings on the season.

While it’s unlikely Vazquez continues at this torrid a pace, he should be getting more playing time while he is hot, especially since his defense is such a vast improvement from Diaz’.

To be clear, we are not seeing some dip into the fountain of youth on Vazquez, this is a hot streak.

If we compare Vazquez’ 2025 (.189/.271/.274) to his current 2026 (.375/.444/.688) via the metrics, here is what we get:

As you can see, Vazquez’ offensive metrics really aren’t much different from last year.

His x SLG is nearly identical, as are his exit velocities and barrel rate.

Vazquez’ Hard Hit % is actually lower, as his is Square Up % and his overall bat speed.

His Chase Rate, Whiff Rate and K rate are all up, though his BB Rate is also up.

These numbers tell us that there has been some luck involved in his performance, but also that his willingness to draw walks (8.4% to 10.8%) has helped him get better pitches to hit, and he’s hit them in places that have resulted in base hits (xBA improvement from .210 to .251)

Now for the defense:

While it is likely the Blocks number for 2026 is negatively impacted by limited playing time, the Caught Stealing is something that Vazquez continues to do well in.

Framing could also be a factor of limited opportunity. Sprint speed is down, and that is to be expected in an aging catcher.

Overall, Vazquez doesn’t project as a starting-caliber catcher, but Diaz has been so bad this season, that the Astros really have no choice but to play Vazquez more (especially while he’s hot) if they intend on winning baseball games.

Maybe a short term hit to playing time lights a fire under Diaz, but we will learn a little something about his makeup if it does or it doesn’t.

The numbers match the eye test right now, and neither one lies. It has been a brutal start to the season for Yainer Diaz.

The question is at what point is there accountability.

The Cincinnati Reds have scored just 78 runs through their 22 games played this year, yet they’ve managed to win 14 of those and sit in 1st place in their division after their weekend sweep of the Minnesota Twins.

The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, have seen their runners score 103 times through just 21 games, yet they sit in 2nd place in their own division with 12 wins after dropping two of three over the weekend against Pittsburgh.

Not all baseball is played alike, of course. Tampa’s offense has come out of the gate in impressive fashion, their team wOBA ranking 11th overall, their team wRC+ 10th, and their 18.6% K-rate at the plate the second lowest of any team in baseball. The flip side to that, though, is that their 4.90 expected ERA through those 21 games is 5th worst as they’ve yielded 1.28 homers per game (5th highest) – and the collective 5.81 xERA from their relievers is the single worst of any bullpen unit to date.

In many ways, the 12-9 Rays are the inverse of the 14-8 Reds, who have gotten where they are thanks to elite bullpen work and improved defense (Cincinnati ranks 13th in DEF at FanGraphs while Tampa ranks 2nd worst) despite bottom of the barrel offense. Both clubs, though, have managed to win a lot more than they’ve lost despite both still boasting negative run differentials for the season, with Tampa mimicking the Reds with a 4-1 record in one-run games of their own.

Something will likely have to give in this series, though that’s not a given. We could get a 9-6 win from Tampa followed by a pair of pair of 2-1 Reds victories, and that would just about sum up where both clubs are on the baseball result spectrum at this point in the galaxy’s history.

Rhett Lowder will toe the rubber in Monday’s series opener, with Chase Burns (Tuesday) and Brandon Williamson (Wednesday) slated to follow. First pitch Monday at the renovated Trop is set for 6:40 PM ET, and the Reds will line up like so:

So we can only have so many nice things with the 2026 Red Sox, eh?

Good news! The offense can actually produce runs!

Bad news! Sonny Gray left the game in the third with right hamstring tightness and we had to almost empty out the pen before the series against the Yankees!

Fun times.

Can I also just say the jersey matchup today was phenomenal? I wouldn’t be opposed to the Tigers bringing these navy getups back in much more permanent fashion.

Studs

Roman Anthony (1-for-2, 3 BB, 1 RBI)

Things might be starting to click for Roman, and it’s really because of the walks. Being able to have a good eye means you’re not swinging at bull. When he can put the second half of it together and make good contact on his pitches, watch out.

Masataka Yoshida (2-for-4, 2 runs scored, 1 BB)

Where has he come from? His exit velo is at a career high, his clutch meter is through the roof, his decision making…well he at least got back to third and didn’t get caught blowing by a stop sign in this one, but I’m seeing a good ballplayer!

Middle Bullpen (Weissert, Whitlock)

The Italian Stallion and Mr. Whit cleaned up a big mess inherited from the below. It let the Sox score a few more runs and breath a little.

Duds

Middle Bullpen (Morán, Watson, Kelly)

These guys are lucky that the Sox don’t have so many function arms because BOY do they get used a lot and boy is it an adventure every single time. Ryan Watson, WHAT are you doing?

Jarren Duran (0-for-3, 1 K)

Almost put Abreu on here but he walked and brought in a run, Duran just didn’t have an affect on this one.

Play of the Game

I was going to go for Rafaela’s RBI single in the 7th, but this actually ended up being the game-winning hit after all was said and done. I can’t believe after getting inches from being beaned on a bunt, he slapped that single.

The Atlanta Braves will be facing off against the Washington Nationals tonight in a battle of two of top three offenses in MLB right now in terms of runs scored per game. The Braves are scoring 5.55 runs per game and the Nats are scoring 5.50.

This matchup will feature five hitters in the top thirty in the NL in wRC+. CJ Abrams in currently number two in the NL with Michael Harris rounding out the top thirty.

With the Nats’ starter Jake Irvin being a RHP, it could be assumed that we will see a lineup that features the red hot Dom Smith, but what we did not know for certain is if Walt Weiss will be resting any of the starters. He has been doing that this season seemingly more than Brian Snitker did.

We knew Matt Olson would not be sitting, but he has struggled against Irvin in his sixteen at-bats with a .188 average and .610 OPS. Dominic Smith has a .333 average against Irvin in his six at-bats, but only a .666 OPS. The player to keep an eye on is Michael Harris who leads the team with eighteen at-bats against Irvin and has been successful. He has a .389 average and .950 OPS against him.

It turns out that Mauricio Dubón will be getting the night off as Jorge Mateo will be getting the nod at SS. We also have some other movements of note. Mike Yastrzemski has been moved down to ninth while he is waiting to get into a groove, and red hot Michael Harris has been moved up to sixth in the lineup. It is nice to see that Walt Weiss is not stuck on a certain lineup and will play the hot hand and move certain players around.

For the Nationals, CJ Abrams has had no trouble against Bryce Elder in his career. In his fifteen at-bats against him, he has a .400 average and .905 OPS. In fact, five of the seven players to have faced Elder before have an OPS of .800 or better. The difference is this is arguably the best version of Bryce Elder we have ever seen.

The Nationals red hot offense will be a real test to see if Elder is for real. Every pitcher has an off night every once in awhile. We saw it with Chris Sale recently. But, Elder could also prove tonight that he can slow down a potent lineup. The key will be slowing down Abrams and James Wood, who has hit a HR off of Elder already in his young career.

First pitch is at 6:45 EDT.

In an unusual road game on Monday that wraps up a four-game series, the Dodgers try to avoid a third straight defeat at the hands of the Colorado Rockies, twice done in by the bullpen late in games. They’ll do so against a familiar face in José Quintana, a starter they’ve bullied in the NLCS in each of the past two seasons on their way to World Series titles. Now, this lefty-mashing offense will get the opportunity to hit against Quintana in Coors Field.

As a team, the Dodgers have an .851 OPS against southpaws, while 28 of the other 30 clubs are below .800. And sure, scoring 16 runs in three games isn’t bad by any means, but there was probably a little part in all of us that wanted to see them crack double digits at least once while playing in Colorado. This is as good an opportunity as any.

For the second week in a row, Justin Wrobleski will square off against a lefty, now looking to replicate—at least partially—the success he had against the Mets, pitching the game of his life with eight scoreless innings of two-hit ball.

A reliever who provided length for the majority of his early career in the majors, Wrobleski fulfilled that role three times in previous appearances at Coors Field. This will be his first start at Colorado, following what seemed to be a trend in this series—Roki Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow had also never started a game in Coors before.

Monday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Rockies
• Ballpark: Coors Field, Denver
• Start time: 5:40 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Since the Cubs took two of three from the Phillies last week in Philadelphia, the Cubs swept the Mets and outscored them 18-7, and the Phillies got swept at home by the Braves, outscored 16-3. The Phillies’ flight to Chicago got in after 1 a.m. today after their loss to the Braves Sunday night. So you can imagine the mood the Phillies will be in starting tonight for this four-game series at Wrigley Field.

You can read more about the Phillies in last week’s series preview, and also please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight.

Fun facts

The four games this week vs. the Phillies will wrap up the seven-game season series between the teams. April  22 will be the second-earliest date on which they have finished playing each other. In 2001, they met at Philadelphia for three games on Apr 6-8, then played three at Wrigley Field on April 17-18, with a doubleheader the second day.
…
This is the Cubs’ first four-game series against the Phillies since 2021, when they lost three of four at home. It is the first of four six-game series that the Cubs will play this season. Only one other will be against a team not in the Central Division, at New York vs. the Mets on June 22-25.

The Cubs will host the Reds for four games on May 4-7 and the Brewers on Aug. 31-Sept. 3. They will play four at Pittsburgh on May 25-28 and at St. Louis on July 27-30.

The Cubs will play 52 three-game series. Last year, they played four series of four games, of which they won one series. lost one and split two. They won a five-game series required due to a rainout.

(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

Probable pitching matchups

Monday: Colin Rea, RHP (2-0, 3.63 ERA, 0.981 WHIP, 3.59 FIP) vs. Aaron Nola, RHP (1-1, 4.03 ERA, 1.299 WHIP, 3.53 FIP)

Tuesday: Shōta Imanaga, LHP (1-1, 2.45 ERA, 0.773 WHIP, 2.17 FIP) vs. Jesús Luzardo, LHP (1-3, 7.94 ERA, 1.456 WHIP, 2.86 FIP)

Wednesday: Matthew Boyd, LHP (1-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.179 WHIP, 1.84 FIP) vs. TBD

Thursday: Edward Cabrera, RHP (2-0, 2.38 ERA, 1.279 WHIP, 3.08 FIP) vs. Cristopher Sánchez, LHP (2-2, 1.59 ERA, 1.412 WHIP, 1.68 FIP)

NOTE: If the Phillies stay on rotation, it’s Taijuan Walker’s turn on Wednesday, but he’s been hit really hard (9.16 ERA, six HR in 18.2 innings) so they might choose to go with someone else.

Times & TV channels

Monday: 6:40 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Tuesday: 6:40 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Wednesday: 6:40 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network

Thursday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Phillies market territories)

Prediction

The Cubs are hot and the Phillies… are definitely not. Not only have the Phillies lost five in a row, they have dropped 10 of their last 13. The Cubs took two of three in Philly last week and so I’m going to call for them to stay hot and take three of four here.

Up next

The Cubs begin their first West Coast trip of 2026 in Los Angeles. They’ll play a three-game series against the Dodgers there beginning Friday evening.

The Diamondbacks continued to impress on a 6-3 roadtrip. What’s the key for this success to continue?

James: Get healthy. Stay healthy. That’s a solid first step. Arizona’s biggest opponent over the last year has been the IL. Also, Michael Soroka has to continue to be the Michael Soroka that he has been, resembling when he first debuted many years ago.

Wesley: James is absolutely right on all counts, especially that last point. Michael Soroka really needs to continue pitching well and stay healthy, not for the team or anything, but so that we as a fanbase can come together and publicly shame James for being so completely wrong about Soroka.

In all seriousness, aside from the team needing to stay healthy and continue playing well, the biggest thing I think is picking the right time to call up a Ryan Waldschmidt or LuJames Groover, or one of the many RHPs that Hazen signed over the offseason. At this point it is unrealistic to expect perfect health from this roster, so knowing the optimal time to call up our prospects is going to be important down the stretch 

Ben: I think the easiest answer certainly is health, but the team has played really solid, well-rounded baseball. The pitching – both in the rotation and from the bullpen – has been somewhere between good and very good, there are offensive sparks up and down the lineup, and the defense has been excellent with the team pacing the majors in defensive runs saved. I think how the pitching holds up will be the key to maintaining this success. There’s probably some negative regression in store for several important contributors – particularly Eduardo Rodriguez whose FIP and expected ERA (4.24 and 4.15) are so far beyond his actual ERA of 1.96 that he almost certainly can’t continue it at that level. 

Makakilo:  Two observations about the Diamondbacks (7-15 April games):

• 5.3 runs scored per game.  
• 15 shutdown performances by relief pitchers.  Their shutdowns were second most in the Majors during their road trip.

Preston: This success will not continue in the same ways. We’ve almost certainly seen the best of both the starting rotation and the bullpen. The offense needs to step up and be the offense that we’ve seen the last couple of years. Perdomo needs to start finding more open spaces. Ildemaro Vargas is not going to continue to post a wRC+ in the 180s; his career wRC+ is 80, and his BABIP is .415. The third and fourth most valuable Diamondbacks on the offensive side (by fWAR) this season are both on the IL. 

There’s been both good luck and bad luck, though. The second best xFIP on the team belongs to…Taylor Rashi? Paul Sewald has either been lucky (if you look at BABIP and contact) or relatively in line with expectations (if you look at xERA and xFIP).

Dare I say that we are seeing what a good team does? This team isn’t winning one way. The rotation, the bullpen, the offense, the defense…none of them are elite, but all of them have contributed. This is close to the “anybody, anytime” days of the recently disgraced Tony Clark, with the significant difference that this team is not a mirage. They are legitimately good, and can win in multiple ways.

Spencer: Play solid baseball. And trust pure talent and motivation over experience and “readiness” (Fernandez and Vargas vs Smith/Sanatana).

ISH95: They have to be able to weather whatever comes next. It’s a long season, with 140 some odd games, give or take, left to go. The answer to what makes for winning baseball the past two weeks will not be the answer for the next two. Adapt to the next challenge. It’s something the team has struggled with in the past. 

Merrill Kelly looked alright in his return. Any flash opinions?

James: I was pleased to see him gut out 5+ innings. I think he still looks rusty though. The ball to strike ratio would suggest the same (for Kelly). He’s going to need a bit more time to knock the rust off, which is fine and to be expected

Wesley: He did seem a bit rusty, but overall he looked really good, all things considered.

Ben: He looked all right. There wasn’t any noticeable drop in velocity or movement on his pitches and he looked relatively comfortable. I have faith he’ll continue to get more comfortable and more confident as the season progresses. 

Makakilo:  This season, his first game was comparable to his first game last season.  He pitched 5.1 innings in each, facing 24 batters (86 pitches) this season and 23 batters (85 pitches) last season.  My flash opinion is he is on track to pitch like he did last season.

Preston: He had a really bad inning that could have (and, for many D-backs’ pitchers, would have) snowballed into a 17-2 loss. He toughed through it and the Diamondbacks won. That’s the kind of veteran leadership the team needs.

Spencer: I’ve stopped discounting Kelly. He’s gonna be solid to great for years. Very impressive man. 

ISH95: It’s nice to have the best pitcher on the team back, even if he didn’t pitch to his normal standards. Rust is to be expected, especially since if my memory serves he only got one true rehab game, with the others being a sim game at Extended Spring Training and a long bullpen. 

Nolan Arenado has shown flashes of contribution recently. Mirage or might he be turning the corner toward Longoria type presence?

James: I never understood all the Arenado hate. Even the best players in the league go through spells like he did, especially as they get older. As long as he continues to be steady, I am not worried. The one thing I like about Arenado is that he tends not to get nervous and doesn’t try to be something he isn’t at the plate. He puts in the work and trusts the results will follow. It seems that now they are.

Wesley: I still stand by my prediction that he will bounce back offensively. I don’t think he’ll ever be the guy he was in his peak, but I think he has enough gas left in the tank to provide some positive WAR on both sides of the diamond. If he doesn’t bounce back, then you call up LuJames Groover, Tommy Troy, or one of the many good hitting middle infielders.

Makakilo:  During the road trip, his 8 RBIs led the team.  And his .208 BABIP shows he was relatively unlucky, so his performance could be higher.

On the other hand, on the road trip, his 15.4% hard hits was lower than his season average, suggesting it was a mirage.  

Overall, I’m optimistic that he will continue to make significant positive contributions.  

Preston: For what we are paying him, we’re getting value. He’s not the player he once was. He also has turned on some fastballs recently and hit them a long way. His bat speed isn’t bad. But I’d really like to see him draw some walks and stop chasing pitches a mile out of the zone. That’s not an age-related decline; that’s more of a pressing too hard decline.

Spencer: He old, man. But even old dogs still have tricks. He’s almost always defied some metrics, so I trust he can be productive. Something close to the middle ground of the polar sides we saw from Suarez. 

Ben: If our expectations for Arenado are 2023 Longoria, then I think those expectations will be met. In the first few weeks, Arenado has shown he can still be a very positive contributor in the field while having some contributions with the bat. Putting the two head-to-head emphasizes that as Arenado still finds his footing with a new team. The biggest red flag so far? His chase rate, strikeout rate, and walk rate are all sitting at career worst, but that might be a function of trying to force something rather than allowing the game to come to him more naturally.  

ISH95: Spencer’s right, the man is old and it shows. His defense, while still good, has clearly lost a step, and the bat hasn’t been there for a while. Can he maintain a decent balance of the two and be Longoria 2.0, yeah, probably. 

What’s your favorite TV show?

James: That’s a tough call for me as I have seen a ridiculous amount of television in my time as I review many shows/episodes. On the short list though would be such titles as:
Murdoch Mysteries
Death in Paradise

The West Wing (followed quite closely by another Aaron Sorkin gem, The Newsroom)

Lucifer
Babyloinfielder.

Wesley: I can’t answer a question as broad as that. Even if we narrow it down to a favorite in specific genres, I’d still have a hard time picking just one favorite. Favorite scripted live-action comedy? Hard to choose between ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’, ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’ ‘Wilfred’ ‘Brockmire’ along with another five or six shows I’m forgetting. Favorite sketch comedy show? Once again, it’s very hard to choose between ‘The Whitest Kids U Know’ ‘Key & Peele’ ‘Upright Citizens Brigade’ ‘Kids in the Hall’ ‘Chappelle’s Show’ ‘Mr. Show w/ Bob and David’ and that doesn’t even get it things like ‘The Muppet Show’ 

Although I didn’t exactly answer the question, I think you get my point. Comparing a comedy like ‘It’s Always Sunny’ to a dramatic thriller ‘Mr. Robot’ doesn’t do either show any favors.

Makakilo:  Death in Paradise.

Preston: I’ve recently enjoyed sharing The Good Place with my oldest; there’s something about sharing shows with people that mean a lot to you that makes them better. I personally love Bojack Horseman, but I also haven’t seen it since my life was in a place where I needed to see it, so I don’t know if holds up.

Spencer: Person of Interest has long been the answer here. It’s just excellent in every aspect (with one weird episode ending music choice). But currently on air? The Pitt, Ted Lasso, Shrinking and maybe Your Friends & Neighbors. 

Ben: I’m with everyone else – trying to choose just one TV show would be extremely difficult. The West Wing is regularly quoted in our household, The Office was long a comfort show for me, but there are so many shows that I’ve loved. 
ISH95: My colleagues are not wrong that this is nearly an impossible question to answer. However, nothing is actually impossible if you actually set your mind to it, so I will say Doctor Who, even though sometimes it seems as though the show and those behind it do in fact hate its viewers.

The Astros have placed IF Nick Allen on the 10-day IL (retro 4/19) due to mid-back spasms.

To take his place on the active roster, the Astros selected IF Braden Shewmake (#28)to the Major League roster.

To make room for Shewmake on 40-man roster, the Astros transferred RHP Cristian Javier to the 60-day IL.

RHP J.P. France has been outrighted to Triple A Sugar Land.