Category: Baseball

Oh, how fast a week changes things. Seven days ago I led the mailbag opening with the belief that the Yankees were close to full-strength sans the return date of Max Fried being unclear. Then, we learned that Aaron Judge would be going on the IL for a fractured rib that he’s been playing through since the end of April, and likely will cost him significant time this year. The three-time AL MVP will not be able to defend his crown this year after winning the last two times, but more importantly the Yankees now have to navigate the summer without their captain setting the tone atop the lineup.

That was not the only concern coming out of the team in that span, though thankfully it was the only major one. Cam Schlittler looked a bit out of sorts in a start against Cleveland, losing a few ticks on his fastball velocity, but he rebounded well in his latest outing Sunday against Boston. Despite these worries, they’ve managed to go up in the standings and tie the Rays for first place in the division thanks to Tampa scuffling over this week. Can the team maintain a hold on first for the foreseeable future, or will they fall back into the Wild Card without Judge? Should Spencer Jones get a full-on tryout for the starting spot, or will Jasson Domínguez leap back above the depth chart once he returns? Can Schlittler keep his Cy Young candidacy going, or will he start to face more adversity? 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 June 11th will be considered. You can leave your submissions in the comment section below or by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

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A pair of struggling offenses hit Petco Park on Monday, June 8, with the San Diego Padres hosting the Cincinnati Reds in their series opener.

My top Reds vs. Padres predictions and MLB picks are calling for Cincy to eke out a low-scoring win tonight. 

Who will win Reds vs Padres today: Reds moneyline (+118)

It hasn’t always been pretty, but Cincinnati Reds starter Andrew Abbott has allowed three runs of fewer in each of his past seven starts for a surface 2.25 ERA that hides a 5.07 xFIP. 

I’m confident Abbott can continue his strong stretch despite the poor underlying metrics because the San Diego Padres rank last in baseball in wOBA against lefties, and they also rank last in the overall metric during their active 4-13 skid while averaging just 2.6 runs per game.

Plus, there’s nothing intimidating about Friars righty Walker Buehler’s well-above average 4.63 xERA.

I’d play the Reds moneyline to +100.

COVERS INTEL: The San Diego Padres have the lowest squared up contract rate and runs above average based on wOBA in the majors, which positions the Cincinnati Reds to win and for this total to come in Under the number.

Reds vs Padres Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (+100)

In addition to the poor offense from the Padres, the Reds are without star Elly De La Cruz (hamstring) and have only scored 3.2 runs per game while ranking fifth-last in xwOBA during the six-game stretch.

Both teams have also trended toward their team totals Unders, with Cincy hitting in eight of the past 10 (+5.85 Units / 48% ROI) and San Diego in 31 of the past 45 (+15.20 Units / 29% ROI).

I’d obviously also play the Under 8.5, and the Under 7.5 to -105.

Reds vs Padres odds

• Moneyline: Reds +115 | Padres -135
• Run line: Reds +1.5 (-185) | Padres -1.5 (+155)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-125) | Under 7.5 (+100)

Reds vs Padres trend

The San Diego Padres have hit the Under in 17 of their last 25 games at home (+8.35 Units / 31% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Reds vs. Padres.

How to watch Reds vs Padres and game info

Reds vs Padres latest injuries

Reds vs Padres weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Sitting in the hot seats at the Rockies game on Sunday, I glanced around and was surprised at two things: more Brewers fans and more empty seats than I expected. 

A summertime Sunday at Coors Field usually means jam-packed concourses and concession lines, but the crowd of 32,270 was pretty manageable. We had empty seats all around us on the third level above third base. With the temperature at 91 degrees at first pitch, the weather went from sunny to cloudy, and there were periods of a whipping wind and stagnant heat, but, overall, the weather wouldn’t be a reason not to go on Sunday.

A Dinger bobblehead giveaway to the first 15,000 fans was a big draw, and the theme package honored Denver’s new women’s soccer team — the Denver Summit FC — which is why I went. Both likely provided a bump to the total crowd number. Surrendering seven runs in the sixth inning and another four in the ninth probably emptied out the stands earlier than normal in the 12-4 loss.

While it’s still very early in the season, it seemed like a good time to check on the Rockies attendance numbers. Entering 2026, I was really interested to see whether a new front office would give fans enough hope to buy more tickets, or whether six straight losing seasons — including a historic 119-loss season last year — would continue to keep some fans away. 

With 31 home games in the books, the Rockies finished the weekend ranked No. 18 in average attendance at 27,016 and season total of 837,514. With colder temperatures in April and May, the Rockies usually see bigger crowds as the summer rolls on, but that’s the case for a lot of teams. Right now, the Rockies are three spots below where they finished last year when they finished at No. 15 with 30,057 fans per game. 

This season, the biggest turnout, of course, came at the home opener when 48,366 turned out to see the Rockies lose 10-1 to the Phillies. Coors Field has surpassed 40,000 two other times vs. the Dodgers this season. With the Cubs coming to town tomorrow and home games against the Dodgers, Red Sox and Cardinals still on the schedule, along with fireworks games on July 3 and 4 against the Giants, there are still some big draws on tap.

The lowest attendance of the season came on May 6 when a spring snowstorm hit Denver. Even though the snow stopped and the sun returned for a 41-degree first pitch temperature, only 11,155 came out to see the Rockies host the Mets.

Most recently, the June 5-7 weekend crowd hit at least 30,000 for each of the three games against the Brewers for a total of 93,939. It’s a number that many teams would be happy with, but one that is lower than average for the Colorado Rockies. 

The first weekend series in June in 2025 saw 113,717 fans show up to see Colorado host the Mets. After 31 games in 2025, Coors Field had hosted 811,108 fans, lower than this season, but 2026 is also lower in the MLB rankings. The Rockies were 12-53 overall in 2025 and 6-25 at home.

There are countless factors, that impact attendance, including giveaways, weather, opponent and more. The question for the Rockies is how much the quality of the play and the chances for a victory weigh in.

This season, the Rockies are 24-42 and 12-19 at home. So, the team is better this year and attendance is slightly up in terms of total through 31 home games, but still lower in terms of average turnout per game. 

As expected, the numbers are still nowhere near their highs when the Rockies made back-to-back playoff appearances in 2017-2018.

As summer heats up and high-interest teams come to Denver, it will be interesting to see what happens to the game average and MLB ranking this season, especially as connected to the Rockies perfomance.

Have you been to a game this year? Do you plan on going to more? How much do the record and the new front office influence your decisions on buying tickets?

Let us know in the comments!

Personally, I have been to three games so far. The first was great as the Rockies beat Houston 9-1. However, the last two have been blowout losses — 9-1 and 12-4. I think I’ll wait a bit before going back again. I need to see some offense.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Yes, I know, it was supposed to be a “reader mailbag” episode. Yes, I know, it’s my own fault for surveying the same post as the mailbag episode, but I think I received a much more valuable return from you guys on what you want or are hoping for from the podcast moving forward. Therefore, I’m claiming this as a success anyway!

This week, we discussed the Cardinals’ 6-3 homestand, the return of NOOOOOOOOOT, Nolan Gorman’s continued struggles and what the future of the 3B spot might look like, Jordan Walker is continuing to prove this isn’t a fluke, and we finish with a discussion centered around USA Today’s Bob Nightengale’s report about JoJo Romero and Dustin May potentially being on the trade block later this season.

Sorry, Doublehotdog, I tried to talk less this week, but it didn’t work. I’ll keep trying going forward, but that thing about old dogs and new tricks. It’s going to take me a while to pare it down. Enjoy!

Next week, we will be joined by Memphis Redbirds PxP man Alex Coil, and Scoops with Danny Mac, Springfield contributor, Andy Carroll, to talk upper minors!

Below the videos, we are trying something new. Show transcripts will now be available upon release for those who would prefer to read the dialogue, rather than listen, and follow along in their own way!

Spotify:

YouTube:

-Thanks for watching/listening

Show Transcript –

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (00:34)
Welcome to the Viva El Birdos Podcast. As always, I am your host, Jake Wood, and I am joined this week by fellow writers Gabe Simonds and Scott Plaza. ⁓ This week we were supposed to do a reader mailbag, but because I am ADHD in a roundabout way, I ⁓ also included a ⁓ what’s the word I’m looking for? I asked your

opinion on what you thought of the podcast, and so you gave a lot more great candid responses to what you thought of the podcast rather than giving us questions and content to talk about, so that responsibility fell unto me, Scott, and Gabe to kind of determine what we were going to talk about tonight. And we’ll get into that in just a moment. But before we do, I do want to say a quick thank you to everybody who responded to ⁓ that little survey that I had put out. Thank you so much for your feedback. ⁓ as always, it’s very much appreciated and

Obviously, if you enjoy this show and enjoy what we do, please be sure to like and subscribe to this. Share it wherever possible. Like we really appreciate. Leave a comment. If you have any comments, thoughts, or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comments. We really appreciate it. We really want to hear from you. You know, you guys ultimately drive the content and what we do here, so please reach out, let us know what you think. It’s always appreciated. Now that that bit of housekeeping is taken care of, ⁓ Gabe, Scott, how are you guys doing tonight?

Welcome back. It’s felt like a while since we’ve done this. You know, how how are how are you feeling? Let’s start with this real quick, just a quick, succinct thought on Blogger Day, what your thoughts were from Chaim Bloom, your overall interpretations of your first kind of face-to-face experience with him. Scott, I’ll let you lead us off.

Scott Plaza (02:18)
⁓ I’ll just say he’s a phenomenal speaker. ⁓ he took the time, rather, he appreciated, like you couldn’t tell whether he was annoyed by a question or not, because of the amount of effort and how much he explained what he was doing with his answers. So I just thought that was awesome. He was very very receptive to what we had to bring, and he stuck around for what, twenty minutes? It was while the game started, he was still, you know, kissing babies and shaking hands and stuff. So, it was very, very cool to do that. And unfortunately, that was the PCA game. But the Chaim Bloom experience is great.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (02:55)
Yeah, you don’t get the title of president without kissing babies and shaking hands. Gabe, your thoughts from Chaim Bloom on on your experience with him?

Gabe (03:05)
⁓ it was definitely an interesting experience, and I was sort of impressed by how long some of his answers were. He’s very good at giving you an answer without necessarily telling you anything new. ⁓ and that was interestingly a criticism of Mozeliak back in the day. Whereas with Mo when he was at Blogger Day, I felt like he was a lot more straightforward. I don’t know, it was weird for me because I felt like Mo was the opposite of his persona, whereas Bloom was ⁓ just that he took so long on his answers. And this has been influenced ’cause I had to go to the bathroom for like twenty minutes of that. Honestly, God, I was like, I have to pee so bad, but he’s still talking ⁓ but you know. It was a Yeah, no, I wasn’t gonna go to the bathroom while everybody else was standing still, that’s for sure.

Scott Plaza (03:41)
Ha ha.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (03:41)
Ha.

Scott Plaza (03:48)
Sacrifices.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (03:54)
I felt the same way, but I was also kind of working through like a sinus infection, so I was trying so hard not to cough and like distort everyone’s audio at the same time. So I was sitting there, like trying to work, you know, like coughing without coughing, that kind of thing.

Gabe (04:04)
Yeah.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (04:09)
⁓ I I I felt similarly. I was really ⁓ appreciative of the thoughtfulness and the ⁓ like extended thoughts he gave on any topic, and you know whether it be ranging from AI to whether or not barbecue sauce goes on a hot dog. He gave thoughtful, interesting responses to every topic that was given to him. Of course, we also gave some, you know, baseball-related questions to him, and he answered those as well as he possibly could. Obviously, whenever trades and when ⁓ extension talks came up, he gave the the quote unquote non-answer to those things because he really can’t answer them in those settings, and we understand that, of course.

Scott Plaza (04:50)
Can we all promise not to waste time on those questions in the future, knowing that the response is gonna always be we can’t get into that?

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (04:57)
Yeah, I think we can ask that, but I don’t know that anyone will ever follow through with that. There’s always gonna be the new upstart that, like me, was just too eager to ask the question. ⁓ but much like he talked about the team, let’s jump into it and talk about the team. The Cardinals finished off a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds today and went six and three overall on the homestand. ⁓ I just wanted to get your guys’ thoughts overall on the performance and maybe a little bit about how the roster is starting to take shape.

Scott Plaza (05:01)
Yeah.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (05:27)
We’re starting to see the Cardinals, you know, move pieces up and down and in and out and however you know, to make the puzzle come together. Gabe, I’ll start with you. Kind of your thoughts on the homestand overall between ⁓ Cincinnati, Texas, and the sweep of the Reds, and then kind of how the roster’s starting to come together for everything.

Gabe (05:46)
Yeah, I mean it was obviously a very good homestand. I thought, you know, the Cubs series just had one bad game, and then the other two games were very promising. And the Rangers were all more or less fifty-fifty games, and two of them happened to go against the Cardinals. They felt like the Cardinals could’ve won any of ⁓ and you know, baseball just sometimes throws you like, you’re gonna lose this one. ⁓ and then the Reds series, ⁓ honestly, I was more like, Wow, the Reds are bad, more than wow, the Cards are good, because they kept giving us leads. ⁓ for free, which I appreciate so much, and if every team wants to do that, I’ll be happy to take it. But yeah, no, I was very happy that we spotted the Reds ’cause they’ve looked like a fraud team for a while and I’m I’m I’m I’m so happy that we beat them. So yeah, very good homestand, I’m happy.

Scott Plaza (06:36)
Yeah, as as I’m as I’m looking into my fantasy baseball pickups, I’m like, who’s playing the Reds next? And it’s Walker Bueller tomorrow, so I’m trying to like, ⁓ but it’s Walker Bueller, like but the Reds are so bad right now, so I’m trying to figure that one out. But yeah, that’s that it’s interesting that they felt like they had to sweep to go seven and seven over this stretch. It felt better than that. ⁓ but Jake and I were talking about getting like the

brewer’s sweep, I guess, kind of gets outdone by what happened in the Cincinnati series. But how the roster’s coming together, ⁓ we haven’t. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but we haven’t really noticed a difference behind the plate, whether it’s been Crooks, Pages, or Herrera behind the plate. So I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I mean, we probably hoped for a little bit more out of Jimmy Crooks, but this gives a little bit more credence to look at what he was doing in the minor leagues. He’s not ready. It’s like okay, like we everybody was wanted something different to happen. Something different is happening and we haven’t seen anything different from that position just yet. ⁓ Velasquez doing his thing is super cool. And then ⁓ of course, with Noot coming up, we’ll talk about that here in a little bit, but

The roster’s coming together, and it’s gonna create some fun conversations through the rest of the summer for sure.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (07:45)
Yeah, I’m glad you touched on the Jimmy Crooks part, and I’m I like not here to like, you know, toot my own horn or you know, but it’s still early. It’s still a very small sample. There’s still a relative opportunity for him to take off, but as you said, I do agree. It has not been a tangible difference that I think a lot of Cardinals fans were hoping for, like an immediate impact. ⁓ one player who did provide some immediate impact, you know, Lars Nootbar made his return Friday night, which I was there and a part of. And for lack of a better term, ⁓ he appeared not to have missed a step in doing so, Scott, your little hat tip, foot, not miss a step. Haha. Anyway, ⁓ what do you guys thought thoughts on Lars Newtbar’s return and the kind of the like added energy that he’s kind of brought back to the t not that the Cardinals necessarily were lacking in energy, but it seems like he just genuinely brings that next level of energy to ⁓ th this Cardinals team, this offense. So ⁓ Scott, I’ll start with you on this one first. Just, you know, how refreshing it is to have Nootbaar back and, you know, how much do you think this changes the dynamic of the offense? Obviously, we haven’t seen the full lineup together all at once yet, but ⁓ just your overall thoughts.

Scott Plaza (08:59)
He’s back at just such an interesting time, just overall. ⁓ I I was talking with Jandy over on the Cardinals on My Time podcast, and we’re just like, how much Noot just like we were going back and forth of like I going into this season, I was like, let’s get him traded as quickly as possible, let’s get him healthy and then traded as quickly as possible. But then, my article today I was done with at noon yesterday, and then Noot came off the bench and hit a homer, so then I had to do a quick little spin for it for this morning. But the title was What Do the Cardinals Want from Lars Nootbaar? And I was like, well, it was originally like what do they want for Lars Nootbaar? But now it’s from. Like, do they want him to? Obviously, he’s at a 300 WRC plus. ⁓ he’s not gonna keep that up. ⁓

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (09:38)
Is that good? (sarcasm)

Scott Plaza (09:40)
Yeah, so apparently he’s better than Aaron Judge. So ⁓ keep him around forever. But no, it it’s it’s an interesting conversation of do they want him to be a run producer and keep this postseason dream alive as long as possible? Do they want him to keep up this stretch so they can trade him as long as possible? Do they want him to struggle so that they can keep the cycling going through the outfield and get bias up sooner? It is he’s just coming at a very interesting spot, but while he’s here every game I want them to win, so keep doing your thing, Noot.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (10:07)
Absolutely. I mean, it’s been really fun. I mean, there’s no other way to really say it. It’s been fun, it’s been exciting, it’s been ⁓ everything you could have hoped for from a healthy Lars Nootbaar in return. ⁓ and it helped lessen, I think, the impact of ⁓ JJ Weatherholt taking those couple of days off because you had Noot to slide right back into the top of the lineup there. And I think that ⁓ you know, obviously having Weatherholt back in this last game today and then going forward, it’s just that added element that Cardinals can hopefully to get back to that identity that they had early in the season with ⁓ you know being able to grind out at bats, grind pitchers down, get them out early, get into what most teams like underbelly is of their of their bullpen between like the fifth to seventh inning. That’s usually ⁓ your best chance to get to a team nowadays. ⁓ hopefully, the Cardinals and kind of identity and how they want to work counts and and grind guys out.

That lends to more winning in the near future. One guy who has been struggling with doing that is Nolan Gorman. He has been absolutely going through it. ⁓ You know, one name that gets brought up consistently is Blaze Jordan, and he was not really thought to be a real option at third base, at least until Ramon Urias developed tennis elbow and his other elbow. That’s right. He has Giancarlo Stanton syndrome, where he has tennis elbow in both of his elbows. ⁓ and now the Cardinals appear to be more seriously considering Blaze at third base, at least in the immediate future. That’s from that, at least speculation coming from our friend Jeff Jones over at the Belleville News Democrat. Because after that diagnosis to Ramon Urias that Blaze Jordan was back at third base again, and now it seems as though Blaze is at least gonna get a longer look at third base, at least at AAA. I don’t know whether or not he will get run in the big leagues for that, but how much of a longer a leash do you think Gorman gets, and how long until a potential blaze promotion might occur? Gabe, I’m gonna ask you this. I’m gonna throw this one over to you.

Gabe (12:14)
Okay. I would say the rest of the year, honestly, because I don’t think they really believe Blaze Jordan can play third base. We’re gonna give him more of a at least a try, but like the fact that when ⁓ Crooks got promoted, he didn’t play third base at all in the gap because they no longer ⁓ needed that DH spot to be used regularly. And I just think they can see the Cardinals clearly are trying for him not to be the third baseman, I think, and I know they’re starting to play him at third base because Urias is now hurt again. But I don’t know. I feel like they’re in a situation where they think Gorman is the best chance. He’s a very streaky hitter. I think they’re gonna hope that he hits one of his hot streaks, and you know, he can go on like, you know, four home runs in a couple weeks or something, which is certainly still possible, even though ’cause he struck out like six times in a row or something, and then he had a home run on a pitch that he didn’t even seem to get a good swing on, honestly. That’s just kind of a hitter he is. It’s weird. I I’m I I’m very skeptical about Blaze Jordan at third base. And I don’t see anybody else knocking on the door anytime soon, until you get to maybe Jesus Baez. But he’s kind of far away. So I think they’re gonna stick with Gorman unless they make a move at the deadline, for just like a you know, a soft like let’s just get this placeholder third baseman.

‘Cause we might make the playoffs, even though, and not give up like a big prospect.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (13:43)
Scott, you’ve been kind of the resident Blaze Jordan honk. Like, how serious would you be about the idea of getting Blaze Jordan in here and at least giving him ⁓ some sort of opportunity while also acknowledging that, like, the chase rates are concerning what he’s doing at Triple A, but the overall profile, like he’s still hitting, he’s still making an impact. What what what w what would you do in this situation if you were Chaim Bloom or slash Oli Marmol?

Scott Plaza (14:09)
My first take on minor league chase rates is, who cares? I’d rather those guys swing as much as possible. ⁓ I don’t want them down there walking. ⁓ they’re gonna hit. So go ahead and be aggressive with it. So if they swing out a pitch and it’s a good swing, I mean, we don’t see ⁓ all those swings off it, but if they make a good swing out of a pitch and they theoretically chased it, fine. Rather than taking those borderline pitches, I’m okay with that. ⁓ I love loved notice I said past tense, Nolan Gorman. ⁓ if he can’t get it done in the eighth spot, which was my tweet today, if he can’t get it done in the eighth spot, then it’s gotta be time to go. Which, whenever, does not go. ⁓ I’m with Gabe. I think it’s gonna be a year-long thing. But it’ll be interesting to see how the lineup works with Winn, Weatherholt, and Noot all together in the same lineup, which we haven’t seen yet. ⁓ but that does fit Gorman in the eighth spot, which, on paper, my gosh, look at our eight-hitter with thirty home run power. ⁓ Again, theoretically, he is currently hitting .199 after today’s game. But ⁓ Urias was here because the third base defense was supposed to be better. If Jordan could play somewhere similar to that, he would be up. I I I love him. ⁓ I I think he’s a professional hitter. ⁓ Right now, Ivan Herrera is the professional hitter taking the professional hitter spot. ⁓ so I think, unfortunately, I don’t want to say it, but Blaze Jordan has been my comparison to Luken Baker lately.

Gabe (15:33)
Do you think they should go to ⁓ I just thought about Fermin or ⁓ Bryan Torres playing third base, but neither of them has the arm, but like in the near term, do you think that would be a smarter play?

Scott Plaza (15:44)
Torres Arm I was kind of disgusted by watching him throw from left or from second base. I mean, left field, you’re just kinda like two hopping it to the cutoff man, which is fine, it got to the cutoff man, but for mean he’s deserved the playing time, so go for it, I think, right now.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (15:58)
I think I would be fine with Fermin, at least in the like a temporary while Gorman is working through his extremes, ⁓ and he kinda seems like he’s caught in between a lot with between the fastball and the changeup, ⁓ I think that like Fermin at least would make a a small amount of sense to at least get a little bit of run there, ⁓ just because of his versatility and his ability to kind of I think his right handed bat would also help with kind of offsetting the platoon lefty righty at the back end of the lineup as well. Not that he’s necessarily like a roadblock in the ilk of Ivan Herrera is to left-handed pitching, but just a little bit obviously better than what Gorman has given you. ⁓ and again, while he’s working through that slump. ⁓ But speaking of slumps, a player who has managed to maneuver his way through two mini slumps this season is Jordan Walker, and I think it’s fairly safe to say at this point that Jordan Walker is becoming who we all thought that he was supposed to be initially, and we are all exasperatingly relieved by that outcome which you know I kind of also think has driven a lot of this like better than expected ⁓ team performance. Like, we didn’t see this coming into the season, we didn’t expect Jordan Walker to be on pace for like seven wins and potential MVP votes, but you know, we all had kind of like hoped and crossed our fingers and like you know were hoping that that was in there, but we didn’t necessarily expect it to happen this season. ⁓ Scott, I want to ask you, like, how much has Jordan Walker’s breakout changed the trajectory of kind of how you see this team ⁓ and how maybe more in the near immediate future they can be better than expected?

Scott Plaza (17:46)
I think Chaim was kind of asked that question, like how does Jordan Walker performing well, like change your outlook on things? And he’s like, that’s just one less position to have to worry about, which lets you put time and resources either in development or in the trade or whether it’s free agency, to fill those other positions, be it left field, be it center, be it third ⁓ there’s potential to be creative when you have one less spot to worry about. or starting pitching, I guess I can’t forget about that. ⁓ but Jordan Walker changes a ton, and I think it’s we’ve always been like, Well, we gotta wait, we gotta wait, we gotta wait to see if it’s real. There’s ninety nine games to go. I think the three-hundred average might not be for real, but everything else, I think we can even buy into. He missed the low and away slider today, and then still had good at-bats before and after that.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (18:36)
I think the low and away slider thing is just gonna be occasionally a part of his game. It just is. But you know, is he able to find a way to get impact ⁓ in other places throughout the game whenever that inevitable low and away slider chase comes? And it’s just like one of those things where it’s gonna be a part of it. ⁓ Gabe, what about you? Like, how does Jordan Walker breaking out change kind of how you project this team for the rest of the season?

Gabe (19:05)
I mean, well, for one thing, it makes it sort of believable that the Cardinals could sneak into the playoffs, which I don’t think would have been believable without Jordan Walker doing what he’s doing. And I wonder if we would even notice the low and away slider chase if it wasn’t for the fact that we had like three years of seeing it be really bad. And it’s like it’s not like players don’t chase pitches all the time, and we just don’t think about it if they’re doing well normally. And ⁓ yeah, I mean

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (19:22)
That’s true.

Gabe (19:31)
Every time he’s slumped a couple of times, and every time it seems like people online are like, Well, it was nice for a month. That was nice for two months. It’s like, Okay, well, now he got back. He’s ending those slumps early. That’s the whole key to things. That’s to bring it back to Gorman, the reason why he is not a good hitter anymore is that his slumps just last forever, and right now, at least, he’s not making up for hot streaks. But yeah, but Jordan Walker, I just think ⁓ I don’t know that he’s like this good

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (19:38)
Mm-hmm.

Scott Plaza (19:38)
Yeah, exactly.

Gabe (20:01)
That might I might need a year or two for that, but he’s certainly a great hitter, I think. I think I can buy into that pretty easily. ⁓ and I’m I’m on board the train for sure.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (20:11)
Well, the reason Gabe why I asked you about this season is because Bob Nightingale over at USA Today wrote in his Sunday article column that if the Cardinals were to fall out of the wild card race, that ⁓ lefty reliever Jojo Romero and right-handed pitcher Dustin May are expected to be dealt at the deadline. ⁓ You know, you had kind of an obvious response to that whenever I first told you about that, Gabe. Yeah, like, well, I guess, should I ask, does this surprise you guys, or do you find it to be more of what you expected coming?

Scott Plaza (20:34)
Make bleep up!

Gabe (20:36)
Yeah, I think this would be news if he made the the made the report the Cardinals are planning to trade them even if they were in first place. That would be news. If they fall off the wild card race, they’re trading two guys who have expiring contracts. Yeah. Come on. That doesn’t mean, no mm, I’m trying not to say the word. But yeah. Yeah. ⁓ You guys should probably fill in the blanks on that one. ⁓ of of course they’re trading them if they’re out of the wildcard race. Come on.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (21:01)
I’m not trying to get you in trouble, Gabe. ⁓

Gabe (21:13)
Bob, why did you even report this news? We know this.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (21:17)
Scott, your thoughts on the report.

Scott Plaza (21:19)
Yeah, if there was first-place news. I think it’s notable ’cause I think it’s they’ll do it in the wild card race if they’re, you know, where they’re at or hovering as the third wild card spot. I think JoJo Romero for sure I think could be going regardless. Dustin May, I’ve hoped he’d been around for a two-year contract. I’ll keep beating that drum when they signed him. ⁓ Mutual options are not two-year contracts. We know that. So I think he’s gonna unfortunately ⁓ I’d I don’t know. I think he’s gonna go, but I’d like to see him around ⁓ if they could hammer out either an extension or, you know, offer him something around the qualifying offer, whatever that’s going to be for an extension at this point. But I think Jojo Romero is gonna be for sure, regardless of where they are in the wildcard race.

Gabe (22:07)
I think he’s eligible. Give him a qualified offer.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (22:08)
Yeah, he is.

Scott Plaza (22:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (22:11)
⁓ obviously, he has the what is it a mutual option for twenty million dollars withstanding at this point, which is never picked up by both sides. I think it’s like twenty fourteen was the last time there was a mutual option that was picked up, if I remember correctly. And so it’s like it’s not something to really think about, I guess, unless he got hurt. which, you know, knock on wood, still is not occurring. The Cardinals are now ⁓ like, nine straight months without a starting pitcher injury at the Major League level, so take that for what it’s worth. ⁓ been incredible whatever Karl Kochan and the performance staff have done to get these guys ready and and ⁓ to for the rigors of a full season along with Oli Marmol and his staff and how they’re kind of ⁓ you know maneuvering this and and kind of planning it out has been very successful and and we’re seeing the healthy fruits of that labor. ⁓ I think that you guys summed it really well. I think that obviously if the Cardinals fall out of it, duh. Like they’re gonna trade those guys. But I also kind of am. I’m fifty-fifty on the Jojo Romero thing, and I’ll explain why. ⁓ It’s because of his extreme ground ball profile, like in his ground balls in his profile. I think he might wind up being more important to the Cardinals than he would be to another contending team, and I think that he might be one of those guys that’s just more valuable to you than he would be to another team, and what you might be able to acquire for him. So you might just continue with him in that role because he doesn’t necessarily elicit the swing and miss, the chase that you would think of when you think of a high-leverage arm. And so I’m kind of in the camp that I think that you keep JoJo and just ride it out with him this year, and if the Cardinals even wanted to extend him for another season, like that, I would be fine with that. ⁓ I don’t know that you’re gonna get some gigantic return for him. The underlying stats

Scott Plaza (24:12)
I don’t think they I’ll I’ll jump in. I don’t think they’ve

been treating him like a closer and I don’t think anybody’s gonna expect t him to jump into that role, so

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (24:17)
I’m not

No, no, I didn’t say closer, I said high-leverage reliever. I don’t think that anyone would, but because I think that there are a lot of contenders who don’t have nearly as good a defense behind them ⁓ that would cause them to be like, we gotta get Jojo for this spot. I think that he may be more like on a contending team profiles more as that’s quote unquote second lefty out of their pen, somebody who comes in in the fifth or sixth inning, and I don’t think that teams are gonna be like throwing you like a top ten prospect in return for that kind of a guy, and so I just I wonder what if the Cardinals would value trying to push for that wild card spot rather than the fifteen to twenty-ish prospect you might get out of a system that may not end up becoming anything for the Cardinals anyway.

Gabe (25:02)
I think they however though they are perfectly capable of getting like a Mason Molina type prospect who suddenly looks like he might be somebody worth paying attention somebody worth paying attention to. And he was added with two other prospects for Phil Maton, who I don’t necessarily think will have a ton more value than JoJo would have. I mean, maybe I’m crazy, ’cause ⁓ Maton was just a guy we signed for two million and then he had a really good four months. And I would be surprised if he has significantly more value than Jojo will have, personally. So I think you can find some hidden gems in the ten to twenty to thirty range that can outperform whatever the normal production would be.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (25:45)
The other element I’m like considering here is like, look at the left-handed relief options you have in-house if you trade away Jojo Romero, if the Cardinals are still in it, right? So like if that’s my whole thing. If they fall out of it, move Jojo. Like, get what you can for him. That makes a ton of sense. If you still think that you have an inkling of a chance to contend and you that’s the direction you want to go in that direction this season without giving up your farm to do so, I’m fine with that. I think that, you know, whatever type of experience you can get for your young players down the stretch and in a contention window is great. But I also think that, like the Cardinals being able to, if you move out JoJo Romero, Justin Bruihl slides into where JoJo Romero is. And I know that you guys are not entirely confident in that being in your primary left-handed relief lanes rather than being that quote-unquote second lefty.

Scott Plaza (26:30)
Well, my argument is honest for that, though it was ⁓ Brycen Mautz instead. ⁓ if if there’s not gonna be a path to the rotation this year, ⁓ I know they want him to stay as a starter, but if they’re not going to win it all this year, ’cause a ⁓ yes, just get in. But this team is I I think, Gabe said it a couple weeks ago, like this is not a World Series winning team. And we all know, like, yes, anything can happen. But I would rather have Brycen Mautz get that major league experience, get something for Jojo that could be useful next year, because he won’t be useful to the Cardinals next year, whether they keep him or if they trade him. So trade him, get something like Mason Molina or whatever, and allow Brycen Mautz to step into that spot. And if it doesn’t work out, then I guess it didn’t work out. But ⁓ the if we’re playing for the wild card, I know the goal is always to win the World Series, but I don’t want to just play for the wild card. You know. Yeah.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (27:29)

To be fair, I’m right there with you, Scott. Like, you make a ton of sense. Gabe, I’ll let ya I’ll let you jump in here in just a second. Like, I’m with you. Like, if they decided to still go down that route, okay. But then you’re also telling me that, like you’re not genuinely pushing for the or at least you don’t genuinely believe that you are capable of even making it to the wild card round if you’re moving on from Jojo Romero. Like if that’s what you’re telling me, okay, like okay, I’m down with that. Like, if the idea is we’re still completely invested in twenty twenty eight, we’re not moving off of that, regardless of where we are right now, okay, I’m with you. But I think you could make the argument or the case that if the Cardinals wanted to continue to ⁓ push this season for something and

Scott Plaza (27:45)
Mm-hmm. Right. It’s a balance.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:12)
And kind of kick the can on Jojo down the road for another year, even. Like I would also find that to be an acceptable response. Gabe, go ahead with your thoughts.

Gabe (28:22)
I think there’s somebody, multiple people listening, who are screaming out a name in addition to Mautz. Cooper Hjerpe. He’s probably not going back to start. I don’t think he has enough time to get enough innings to start. And I think he’s just playing his first ⁓ rehab game, right? Or is he about to? Something like that. And yeah, and I don’t think he has enough time to really like not enough time. He hasn’t built up enough innings to where he could realistically start the whole year.

Scott Plaza (28:28)
Yeah, that’s what I said today, too.

He’s on the forty-man.

Mm-hmm. Hey, hey, pitching it,

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (28:40)
Something

like that.

Gabe (28:50)
And you wanna get a major league time at this point, he’s already twenty-five. He might be headed to the bullpen anyway. I think post-deadline certainly, he might be one of our lefties, maybe even before then, but probably not. Yeah.

Scott Plaza (29:00)
I like it.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (29:01)
Hey, I hear what you’re saying, but he also still hasn’t even pitched an inning in Triple A yet. ⁓ and so we know that pitchers who move up that level to Triple-A have an adjustment to the big league ball, and like if the Cardinals say they want to continue to contend and you want to move Jojo out for Hjerpe in, I just maybe think that’s maybe putting a little bit too much stress on his arm right away as he’s recovering from Tommy John. ⁓ I I like the thought, but I think that maybe that might be pushing him just a little bit too quickly for their liking. ⁓ The other name that I might bring up, just because of his command issues, but also has extreme swing and miss, and might play up in the bullpen, at least for the last two months, would be exactly

Quinn Matthews would be the name that I would maybe bring up in that situation because if you move Jojo, then you have an open 40-man spot. You put Quinn on who has to be put on this offseason, regardless. Maybe that’s a way that you do it a little bit early and give Quinn some big league exposure in a more controlled ⁓ environment, bringing him into the bullpen out of the bullpen where he could, you know, theoretically have more success and shorter spurts. I don’t know. It’s an open discussion, and I think it’s really gonna be a genuinely interesting discussion to have over the course of the next six to eight weeks. ⁓ I’m gonna try to not only have it be trade-related, but obviously, that’s I think what a lot of people like to lean into those types of conversation. ⁓ Let’s finish this off with this. The Cardinals are heading to the dumpster fire Mets and the Twins, who are surprisingly kind of .500, not really sure what they are at this point. You know, Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton are great, but outside of that, what the hell else do they really have going for them? Scott, what are your kind of thoughts as you look forward to this for this week?

Scott Plaza (30:53)
My thoughts are towards the six-man rotation and who’s gonna get moved where to fit whose schedule. ⁓ I think Jeff Jones has said Hunter Dobbins has been staying on some sort of a schedule. So I think that’s gonna be the thought. Not then the Nightingale no crap piece. ⁓ My thought was then, well, that brings to Kyle Leahy and Andre Pallante being kind of locks for the year-long rotation kind of idea. ⁓ So then with Hunter Dobbins just kinda sitting in for May. So I wanna see the six-man rotation fill out. ⁓ and I don’t want to get too excited about Dobbins, but again, it’s just something different that we haven’t seen all year. ⁓ so it’s always fun to check in on that.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (31:36)
I believe that Jeff also reported that Dobbins is slated to start on Thursday, game three of that series against the Mets, and so he is effectively pushing Kyle Leahy either back or eventually out, I think, is kind of where it’s looking. I know that Oli has been staunch in his belief that Kyle Leahy can do this and fill this role, but we’re starting to see that experience leak a little oil. You know, Gabe, what are your thoughts on the week ahead and what you’re hoping to see from the Cardinals?

Scott Plaza (31:42)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (32:06)
Thank you.

Gabe (32:07)
⁓

Well, I think the Mets might be a bit harder than it sounds on paper because they got they gotta face Freddie Peralta, Christian Scott, and Nolan McLean, and they’re just probably their three best starters ⁓ right now. I mean, they only got four people on roster resource, but I think the pitching, like whenever they have a tough lineup of pitchers, I’m always like a little scared, no matter how good the team is, because it’s all you, the offense doesn’t need to do much for the other team to possibly win. ⁓

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (32:36)
And their offense has been bad.

Gabe (32:39)
Yeah, I know, but I mean, that’s a tough line. I mean, I’m never gonna put like, we’re gonna dominate this series just because ⁓ they’re not a good team, because I always like to look at the pitching matchups and they might have the better pitcher in each game, which is ⁓ always a struggle. And I know we’re facing Joe Ryan against the Twins in the first game of that series. So I don’t know. We’ll see. Anything could happen. It’s baseball. ⁓ I’d I vastly preferred the pitching matchups in the Red Series. So we’ll see how this goes out.

Jake Wood (@woodbat28) (33:14)
Well, yeah. Speaking of the Reds, I think that’s kind of the approach that the Cardinals should take over the next two series, which is to get the starter out quickly. Obviously, the Mets’ bullpen has not been all that great this year. The twins have relatively nobody in their bullpen either, so get those good starters out early and then just kind of get to where they are weakest at, which is in the bullpen. ⁓ we’re we’re kinda running up against it here on time. Thank you guys, Gabe Scott, for being here. ⁓ we’ll talk to you guys next week. ⁓ obviously, thank you so much for all of you for joining us for this episode of the Viva El Birdos podcast. Don’t forget to rate and review, and hit that subscribe button so you can be notified every Monday morning when a new episode is released. We will talk to you all next week when we are joined by Play by Play man for the Memphis Redbirds, Alex Coil, and Scoops with Danny Mac, writer for the Springfield Cardinals, Andy Carroll, when they join the show. Have a great weekend, and let’s go, Cards.

-Thanks for reading

The summer is here, and that means trade season will soon be upon us. The Royals are still deciding whether or not they will be buyers or sellers, but like most years, they will likely be sellers.

Sometimes the team makes a good trade that sets the team up for the future. It hurt to lose Zack Greinke, but getting back Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jake Odorizzi, and Jeremy Jeffress set the Royals up for their World Series runs in 2014-15.

In those years, the Royals made a push to win-now, acquiring Johnny Cueto for three players (John Lamb, Brandon Finnegan, and Cody Reed), and Ben Zobrist for pitchers Sean Manaea and Aaron Brooks.

And sometimes the team makes very under-the-radar moves that end up being huge. Acquiring Jeff Montgomery for Van Snider. Getting John Mayberry for Lance Clemons and Jim York. Amos Otis for Joe Foy. Jermaine Dye and Jaime Walker for Michael Tucker and Keith Lockhart.

What was your favorite trade in Royals history?

The NCAA Transfer Portal opened on June 1 for college baseball and will close on June 30. Through the first week or so of the portal, there’s already plenty of talent. Below you’ll find the top 25 overall players who have entered their names so far, as of June 8.

While the portal is open, the season is still ongoing. The College World Series will get underway in Omaha on Friday, June 12.

For a full rundown of college baseball’s transfer portal, bookmark On3’s tracker with the latest entries and commitments. On3 also has the latest intel on players in the portal.

1. Notre Dame OF Bino Watters

Bino Watters has been one of the ACC’s most productive hitters in his two seasons at Notre Dame. As a freshman in 2025, he hit .317 with nine home runs and a .984 OPS, driving in 39 runs with 26 strikeouts to 32 walks.

This season, Watters broke out even more. In 2026, he hit .362 with 10 homers and 51 RBI. He finished with a 1.057 OPS. He’s our top-ranked transfer at this point.

2. Clemson C Nate Savoie

2026 was Nate Savoie’s first at Clemson, and he had quite the season. He hit .329 in 57 games with the Tigers, belting 16 home runs with 52 RBI in addition to a 1.009 OPS.

Savoie was also a star in 2025 at Loyola Marymount. In his two-year career, he’s hitting .316 with 36 home runs.

3. Gonzaga RHP Landon Hood (committed to LSU)

Landon Hood was one of the best pitchers in the country this season at Gonzaga. While he only made four starts, he tossed 54.1 innings as a key piece of the Gonzaga bullpen.

In 16 appearances, Hood posted a 2.48 ERA with 78 strikeouts to just 21 walks. He finished the season with five saves. He’s already committed to LSU.

4. Washington OF Jackson Hotchkiss

Jackson Hotchkiss is one of the best power bats available in the college baseball transfer portal right now. He took an enormous step forward in 2026 after hitting .241 with six homers as a freshman in 2025.

This season, Hotchkiss hit .339 with 20 home runs and 47 RBI. He’s also stolen 16 bases through his two seasons.

5. Northwestern State LHP Brody Trosclair

Brody Trosclair is one of the most intriguing players available to this point. The lefthander just wrapped up his freshman season at Northwestern State, posting a 1.89 ERA in 10 appearances (four starts).

Trosclair tossed 38 innings in 2026, striking out 55 batters with just 11 walks. He earned First Team All-Southland Conference and Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year honors as a freshman.

6. UConn LHP Cayden Suchy

Another intriguing left-hander, Cayden Suchy was the Big East Pitcher of the Year in 2026 at UConn. He made 14 starts and threw 82.1 innings, with one complete game.

Suchy posted a 2.84 ERA in 2026. He struck out 94 batters with just 23 walks on the season.

7. Fairleigh Dickinson OF Hunter Ray

Hunter Ray made some real noise in 2026. The FDU outfielder was the NEC Player of the Year after finishing second in the country with 32 home runs.

Ray didn’t just hit for power, as he finished with a .345 average this season. He drove in 81 runs and also stole 24 bases, making him a well-rounded and coveted bat in college baseball’s portal.

8. Mercer C Eli Stephens (committed to Georgia Tech)

Eli Stephens hit .267 in limited action as a freshman in 2025 at Mercer, but he broke out in 2026. The sophomore catcher hit .374 this season, belting 20 home runs with 64 RBI.

Stephens was a big part of Mercer’s success in 2026. He finished with an OPS of 1.224. He’s committed to Georgia Tech.

9. Florida Gulf Coast C Jon Embury (Florida commit)

Jon Embury was one of the nation’s top catchers in 2026, finishing as a semifinalist for the Buster Posey Award. He hit .364 this season with 17 home runs and 60 RBI.

Embury finished the season with a 1.084 OPS. He also hit 13 doubles. And Embury has already committed to Florida for 2027.

10. Kansas State OF AJ Evasco

AJ Evasco has had two productive seasons at Kansas State. As a freshman in 2025, he hit .311 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI.

Evasco improved his average to .348 in 2026, while he hit eight homers and 51 RBI. So far across his two seasons, he’s a career .330 hitter with 19 homers, 103 RBI and a .949 OPS.

College Baseball Transfer Portal Rankings: 11-25

11. Baylor IF Travis Sanders
12. Wake Forest RHP Blake Morningstar (Miami commit)
13. Texas State SS Dawson Park (LSU commit)
14. Texas Tech SS Linkin Garcia (Texas commit)
15. Mercer 1B/RHP Braydon Kersey (Tennessee commit)
16. South Carolina LHP Alex Valentin
17. Pittsburgh C Sebastian Pisacreta
18. Cal Baptist SS Chris Ramirez
19. Florida State C Hunter Carns
20. UCF SS Jordan Lodise (Georgia Tech commit)
21. Georgia State C/OF Brady Christman (Mississippi State commit)
22. Georgia State IF Wills Maginnis
23. Jacksonville State RHP Maddox McDougall
24. William & Mary SS Jamie Laskofski (North Carolina commit)
25. Samford OF Jake Souders

Many a Cincinnati Reds season has seen the club hold its own, keep its head above water, and even position itself to be one of the premier clubs in the National League Central…only for the team to head west to face their old National League West rivals and see their season implode in short order. For the first time in 2026, that’s what’s on the plate for the Reds to start this week as the club is in San Diego to face the Padres in Petco.

You can make a pretty compelling argument that this Reds season is already imploding, or even has already imploded. The Reds are just 2-8 over their most recent 10 game stretch, just got swept by a St. Louis Cardinals club that’s a) supposed to be ‘rebuilding’ and b) is now 5 games ahead of them in the standings, and Elly De La Cruz is on the shelf with a hamstring injury for the foreseeable future. The team’s starting pitching outside of Chase Burns is a mess, their bullpen is a ragtag bunch of ball-throwers, and the swag and confidence this team displayed in April hasn’t shown through in the dugout in ages.

I’m not even sure the last time I saw Geno Suarez smile. That’s alarming!

The one thing Cincinnati might have going for it is that the Padres might be the one team in a bigger funk than them at the moment. The Friars are just 4-13 over their last 17 games, the offensive woes that have plagued them all season finally catching up to them after their brilliant 31-20 start to the season. In many ways, they’re going through a very similar season to the Reds in that they roared out of the gate with wins in unsustainable ways and the flaws that were papered-over during that span have begun to bite them more often than not.

I doubt there’s a player in their locker room right now that views this upcoming series against Cincinnati as anything other than a get-right series, though.

Monday’s series opener will feature Andrew Abbott on the mound for the Reds, who’ll hope he can continue to round back into good form and provide their bullpen with some relief with an outing deep into the night. Walker Buehler, meanwhile, will start for San Diego, and he’ll throw the game’s first pitch at 9:40 PM ET.

Put on a pot of coffee and stay up for some Late Night Reds the next three days!

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Toronto Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement profiles well against Philadelphia Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez, making his Over 1.5 total bases market at +120 an attractive price. 

Read on for my Phillies vs. Blue Jays predictions and MLB picks for Monday, June 8. 

Phillies vs Blue Jays predictions

Phillies vs Blue Jays best bet: Ernie Clement Over 1.5 total bases (+120)

Cristopher Sanchez has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, sporting a 1.92 ERA with 103 strikeouts. 

His stuff relies primarily on swing and miss, ranking in the 97th percentile in chase rate and 93rd percentile in whiff rate. 

That profile plays directly into Ernie Clement's strengths as one of baseball's premier contact hitters. 

The Toronto Blue Jays infielder swings a ton, but has a knack for squaring up the baseball with a 91.2% contact rate in the zone, and an impressive 74% contact rate out of the zone.

Over his last 20 outings, Clement owns a .380 average with a 1.003 OPS, averaging 2.4 bases per game. 

I’d play Clement Over 1.5 bases down to +105, even against a pitcher of Sanchez's caliber.

COVERS INTEL: Sanchez relies on a lot of chase and swing and miss, which matches up well to Clement, who ranks in the 97th percentile on squared-up rate, despite a first-percentile chase rate.

Phillies vs Blue Jays same-game parlay (SGP)

Like Clement, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. profiles well against Sanchez, who throws sinkers and change-ups most often. Vlad owns a .371 average against those pitches and also has a .917 career OPS against Sanchez.

I’m also going to fade the struggling Phillies bats, who own a lowly .687 OPS this season, while ranking dead last in batting average against Jays starter Patrick Corbin’s two most utilized pitches (sinker/slider). The veteran hurler has gone Under 2.5 earned runs in seven of his 11 starts this season, and I'll take him to do it again.

Phillies vs Blue Jays SGP

• Ernie Clement Over 1.5 total bases
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Over 0.5 hits
• Patrick Corbin Under 2.5 earned runs

Phillies vs Blue Jays home run pick: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (+625)

Sanchez doesn’t give up much hard contact and has been tagged for just three home runs in 13 starts this season, so we’ll make this just a half-unit wager.

A Vlad breakout is coming.

The power numbers have been trending upward over his last 40 at-bats with a 58.8% hard-hit rate, up from his season average of 44.6%, which suggests production may soon follow.

Furthermore, in that same stretch, his hard-hit rate against the sinker/changeup, Sanchez’s most utilized pitches to right-handed hitters, is 87.5%.

Phillies vs Blue Jays odds

• Moneyline: Philadelphia -170 | Toronto +145
• Run line: Philadelphia -1.5 (+100) | Toronto +1.5 (-120)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-105) | Under 7.5 (-115)

Phillies vs Blue Jays trend

The Toronto Blue Jays have hit the Game Total Over in 8 of their last 9 games (+6.90 Units / 71% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Phillies vs. Blue Jays.

How to watch Phillies vs Blue Jays and game info

Phillies vs Blue Jays latest injuries

Phillies vs Blue Jays weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

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Let's start the week right with a three-pack of MLB same-game parlay predictions for the shortened slate on Monday, June 8.

My top MLB picks begin with a high-scoring bout between the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles and wrap up with the Milwaukee Brewers winning in the nightcap.

Today's best MLB SGP picks

Game	SGP Odds
SEA vs BAL	+315
PHI vs TOR	+395
MIL vs ATH	+500

Mariners vs Orioles SGP: Bombs away in Baltimore

Sure, Seattle Mariners righty Emerson Hancock has pitched well (3.40 xFIP), but there’s also a huge statistical correction coming to his unsustainable .243 BABIP and 85.7% strand rate considering he posted respective .289 and 72.2% marks last year.

The Baltimore Orioles pack punch at the dish with a sixth-ranked wOBA against righties, too, and Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo lead the way in the metric with a matching .378.

Of course, Orioles starter Trey Gibson sports a discouraging 5.28 xFIP in limited action, so I expect this total to fly Over the number tonight.

This SGP is playable down to +300.

• Time: 6:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: MASN, SEAM

Phillies vs Blue Jays SGP: Sanchez boosts Cy Young bid

Toronto Blue Jays lefty Patrick Corbin sports a 7.46 ERA with 5.4 BB/9 while allowing a monster .442 wOBA and 1.035 OPS across 35 innings against the Philadelphia Phillies since the beginning of the 2022 season, so the Phils have a huge edge on the mound with NL Cy Young odds favoriteCristopher Sanchez toeing the rubber tonight. 

Turning to Adolis Garcia, he’s sporting a rock-solid .351 wOBA and .807 OPS against lefties this season and is positioned to fill out the box score, hitting behind the big bats in the Philadelphia lineup.

I recommend backing this SGP as short as +370.

• Time: 7:07 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Sportsnet, NBCSP

Brewers vs Athletics SGP: Milwaukee makes it four straight

The Milwaukee Brewers are dealing with a slew of bullpen injuries, so I’m anticipating star lefty Kyle Harrison having a long leash against the Athletics on Monday. Harrison has spun an elite 2.86 xFIP while holding opposing hitters to a minuscule .262 wOBA and .576 OPS, so I also expect him to pave the way to a Milwaukee win. 

The odds for this SGP climb with the potentially uncorrelated Over 4.5 hits allowed by Harrison, but the deeper into the game Harrison deals, the more opportunities the A's will have to record five or more tonight.

This SGP is still in play down to +475.

• Time: 10:05 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: NBCSCA, BREW

See full analysis of this game in our Brewers vs. Athletics predictions.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The Mariners opened their road trip with a particularly deflating series loss to the Detroit Tigers, but the good news is that now Motor City is in the rearview (for the regular season, anyway). Also fortunately in the rearview are the weird 10 a.m. PT start times; this week, they’ll be replaced by some good ‘ol fashioned afterschool baseball in the great state of Maryland.

It’s not very descriptive to say that the Orioles have had a funky start to their season, because for most of this decade and a good chunk of the preceding one, funk has been the rule, rather than the exception. (Funk, as a verb here is expansive – like the groovy tunes some years, like the odor of bleu cheese other years, one consonant off from a common uttering most years.) They’re eight games back of their division with a 31-35 record but only 1.5 games out of a wild card spot, floundering in the muck of mediocrity alongside the A’s and Blue Jays. They had a start to the season that led my Orioles fan friend, Alex, to text things like “Please reassure me that 53 plate appearances is too early to judge a one dimensional slugger on a newly-minted long term contract.” and “Historical precedent is strictly descriptive, not determinative, right?” and “There is no god.”

But these O’s have picked themselves up a few times over now, and while they may not be world-beaters, there are signs of life and upside (not in the bullpen, don’t look over there, spare yourselves!). You can read their thoughts on the impending match-up over at Camden Chat.

The Orioles currently have the fifth-highest strikeout rate and the sixth-highest walk rate paired with some distinctly middle-of-the-road contact numbers. It’s also worth noting that only four players have accrued 200+ plate appearances at this point, indicative of intermittent injury struggles and some reclamation projects. Former AL Rookie of the Year contender and longtime light at the end of the Bad Years in Baltimore Tunnel, Adley Rutschman (“play badly for Adley” is a clever little ditty that will live on in my brain for eternity) had a torrid start, but has cooled in recent weeks. Gunnar Henderson is being propped up by his good defense, Taylor Ward is as annoyingly-decent as ever, and former “friend” Leody Taveras has slashed his strikeout rate by third, which makes him a reasonably functional big leaguer. Their big offensive signing, Pete Alonso, petrified everyone with his frigid start, but he’s since been about what you would expect. Other names to note are Samuel Basallo, their younger, better (?) catcher who had a scorching month at the plate in May; Jackson Holliday, former top prospect and eternal nepo baby, who started the season on the injured list; and Coby Mayo, pressed into service at third after Jordan Westburg’s season-ending elbow surgery.

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

Update: The Orioles placed Chris Bassitt on the IL with back discomfort and will be calling up Trey Gibson to make a spot start on Monday.

Despite possessing a deep seven-pitch repertoire, Chris Bassitt leans on his sinker nearly 40% of the time. His other six pitches are peppered in sparingly with his cutter and curveball making up the majority of his secondary pitch usage. He has enough unique looks that he can keep batters off his sinker, but it also means his strikeout rate remains pretty low. He’s managed to maintain a great amount of consistency with that profile; over the last seven years, he’s averaged 2.4 fWAR per season. It isn’t exciting, but it gets the job done, and that’s exactly what the Orioles were looking for when they signed him as a free agent this offseason.

Trevor Rogers enjoyed a bit of a resurgence with the Orioles last year. A one-time top prospect with the Marlins, he finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2021 but injuries derailed his career over the next three seasons. It looked like he had finally regained his skills last year, posting a 1.81 ERA and a 2.82 FIP in 18 starts for Baltimore, but things have fallen apart again this season. His velocity looks intact — that was the key to his success last year — but his breaking balls have suddenly lost their effectiveness and his ERA has ballooned to over six.

Brandon Young graduated from the Orioles’ development pipeline last year after landing sixth on their 2025 prospect list. He’s got above average skills across the board but no clear carrying tool to push his profile above a back-end starter. His fastball is probably his best pitch, though he’s introduced a new slider this year that shows a lot of promise. He’ll also mix in a curveball and a splitter to keep left-handed batters at bay. His strikeout rate isn’t all that impressive, but he’s found some success by limiting the amount of hard contact he allows.

Kyle Bradish looked like he had made the jump to ace-dom back in 2024 but Tommy John surgery derailed his breakout. He returned to the mound late last year and looked like he was ready to pick up exactly where he left off. Things haven’t gone so smoothly this season, however. The key to his success all those years ago were his two breaking balls. His curveball has looked fine this year, but his slider has been knocked around a bunch. The effectiveness of his sinker has also waned a bit because he’s struggled to locate that pitch in the zone. That’s led to a pretty big jump in walk rate to go along with a much lower strikeout rate.

The Big Picture:

The Rangers gained a game on the Mariners by winning their weekend series against the Guardians. Texas heads out on a road trip this week beginning with a three-game set in Kansas City. The Astros won their series against the Athletics over the weekend. Houston is now just 4.5 games back in the division after going 10-6 over their last 16 games. The Astros travel to Los Angeles to face the Angels while the Athletics host the Brewers in their Triple-A affiliates’ stadium in Las Vegas.

44 games have passed since these two teams last faced off and it has been interesting to see one team basically takeoff and become a surprise and another team perform to their worst possible projection. If you had sent that sentence back to March, you’d say that it was the Giants who were the surprise. Instead, it’s the Nats.

They’re 23-21 since the Giants took 2 out of 3 from them in Washington while the Giants have gone 18-26. The Nats’ pitching hasn’t been the story of their season-long success (#5 in MLB in hitting), but since they faced the Giants, they have a 4.11 ERA (14th) and 4.46 FIP compared to a 4.65 ERA (25th) and 4.45 FIP for the Giants. That might explain the entire season, even with the Giants’ terrible lineup performance for most of the year factored in.

Of course, over the past month (since May 8th), something very interesting has happened. The Giants have been the best lineup in baseball (.277/.331/.480 — 126 wRC+). The Nats have stayed right there with them at #4 (.246/.322/.447 — 115 wRC+), but let’s stick with the Giants. The Giants haven’t remade themselves so much as they’ve done better at what they’ve wanted to do. Their 6.5% walk rate as a team is close to what it’s been all year, along with the 19.9% strikeout rate. The .277 team batting average leads the sport by a wide margin (Pittsburgh is #2 at .262). It would appear that Buster Posey is successfully recreating the championship era (the Giants from 2010-2016: .258/.320/.392 — 7.8 BB%, 18.3 K%) where the lineup is concerned.

Should we talk about the pitching?

This is a stark battle between old school “Computers Bad” and new school “Computers Good and/or Necessary” where the Nationals have seemed to have done what Farhan Zaidi did when he took over the team: quickly maximize the talent through technology while the Giants are sort of stubbornly sticking to “throw talent into the deep end and see if it can swim.” An organization that celebrated the removal of computers from the clubhouse. To be clear, the Giants do use computers and other technologies, but seem to want to limit it to a tool rather than as the centerpiece of scouting and development. Has that sea change/course correction worked out in the past 18 months? The results suggest no. Then again, it’s not like the “computer is supreme” model of the prior front office showed remarkable success (except for that one year).

The tough road trip that saw them do okay — and possibly become a more cohesive unit — might’ve planted the seeds for a more competitive summer, but the Giants also showed that they are deficient enough to be simply a bad team for the next 4 months rather than one of the worst teams ever fielded.

And, yes, it’s because of the pitching.

The Giants have a team ERA of 5.09 over the past month (27th in MLB). They have been the third-least valuable staff in the sport over that same span (+0.2 fWAR) behind just the Cubs (-0.4) and Reds (-0.8). In other words, the Giants haven’t been able to time solid pitching with an offensive streak that has gotten most of the roster back to their career averages or season projections.

The Nats, meanwhile, have been the sixth-worst over this same span and just good enough to not totally work against their lineup. On the other hand, we’ve seen the Giants’ lineup get healthy via some blowouts. There hasn’t been an equal distribution of runs over this span.

Now they return home with some confidence. Maybe that will help the Giants’ bats some more and maybe Oracle Park will be just what the beleaguered pitching staff needs to not be so terrible.

But if you had gone into the season thinking that a new front office would’ve figured out the situation for the Nationals faster than the Hall of Fame brain of Buster Posey and Zack Minasian, you would’ve been labeled a heretic.

Series overview

Who: San Francisco Giants (27-39) vs. Washington Nationals (33-33)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Monday & Tuesday at 6:45pm PT, Wednesday at 12:45pm PT
National broadcasts: None.

Projected starters
Monday: Miles Mikolas (RHP 1-5, 6.39 ERA) vs. Logan Webb (RHP 3-4, 4.25 ERA)
Tuesday: Andrew Alvarez (LHP 1-0, 3.54 ERA) vs. Adrian Houser (RHP 2-5, 5.49 ERA)
Wednesday: Foster Griffin (LHP 7-2, 3.63 ERA) vs. Robbie Ray (LHP 4-6, 4.12 ERA)

Players to watch

Nationals

CJ Abrams & James Wood: The two best position players on the Nats have effectively carried the team this season, including the past month (148 wRC+ and 173, respectively)

Foster Griffin: He’s wound up being the best of the “returned from overseas” pitchers to sign back with US clubs this season. The 30-year old lefty is a soft-tosser, averaging 87.8 mph with his primary pitch — a cutter — and 91.3 mph with his four-seamer. He also has a sweeper, a sinker a changeup, curveball, and split finger. A real kitchen sinker. Ordinarily, that would probably mean the Giants lose 9-0, but I think Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Arraez are setup to do well against him and I’m curious to watch Matt Chapman and Willy Adames face off against him, too. Some real wild cards: Eldridge and Devers, who could go either way against such an arsenal.

Curtis Mead: The 25-year old utility hitter has a bright red Statcast page and along with being a boon to my fantasy team, he’s been a key fill-in for Washington. Over the past month (22 games, 86 PA0 he’s slashed .278/.395/.542 with 13 walks and 17 strikeouts bracketing 4 doubles and 5 homers.

Giants

Rafael Devers: He’s sort of been forgotten in this Giants’ offensive outburst, and het he’s an important part of it. His 136 wRC+ over the last month is fourth-best amongst the regulars after Jung Hoo Lee (179), Willy Adames (161), and Bryce Eldridge (142). He’s hit for a bit more power at home on the season (.453 slug vs. .395 on the road), but the home/road split is where his season-long problem really shows up: 4 walks against 35 strikeouts. That’s nearly a 9:1 strikeouts to walk ratio. On the road, it’s 15 walks against 52 K (~3.5:1). The Nats’ 7.8 K/9 is 26th in MLB. Will Devers be able to make hard contact in the series?

Willy Adames: He’s slashing an abysmal .195/.288/.305 (.592 OPS) in 146 career PA against the Nationals. It’s his third-worst performance against a team he’s had at least 100 plate appearances against, behind the Phillies (.553) and Marlins (.537). But over the past month he’s hitting .302/.354/5.86 with 8 homers and 23 RBI. This feels like an immovable object versus the unstoppable force situation, but which is which where Adames is concerned?

Dylan Smith: He’s not not the closer now, given Tony Vitello’s determination that the bullpen shouldn’t have defined roles; but, on the other hand, the Giants did throw their ostensible closer Keaton Winn back-to-back days and 2.2 innings, so, he’s almost certainly unavailable for at least game 1 of this series.

Tony Vitello watch

It’s been a minute since he’s made a movie reference. Will he make one this weekend? People are returning to the theaters, not just because of mainstream fare like that Star Wars movie or Masters of the Universe, but also because of stuff like Obsession and Backrooms. Will he make a reference at all? If so, to something more current — or, something that he would’ve seen in a hotel room on a road trip back in the mid-aughts?

Prediction time

I had such a good time negatively predicting what would happen to the Giants against the Cubs that it feels right to keep those bad times rolling in this section. The Nationals are a remarkable 21-13 on the road this season with a +31 run differential. They took 2 out of 3 in Atlanta late last month followed by 2 out of 3 in Cleveland, and this 6-game road trip they’re on right now has already seen them take 2 out of 3 from the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

To put it another way, the Nationals have lost just two series on the road all season (at Philadelphia, March 30-April 1, at Miami, May 8-10). They’re 8-2-1 overall. Meanwhile, the Giants are just 12-16 at home (-29 run diff.) No reason to think they’ll lose this series against the Giants, but it’s worth noting that the Giants are 5-4 in home series and the record really only looks bad because they went 1-6 against the Yankees and Mets to start the season. They’re 11-10 since.

In case I’m unclear, my prediction is that the Nationals will win the series.