Category: Sports News

Today’s Reflections

“Oh, what a (couple of) night(s)!” as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (almost) sang!

A historic lead-off and walk-off home-run Monday night by Pete Crow-Armstrong, followed by another lead-off HR by PCA and a pair of game-tying and game-winning RBI singles by Alex Bregman Tuesday definitely gave the two games a play-off feel.

I think it is normally is best for the Cubs if the hitting and scoring is scattered among the players, keeping everybody either hot, or at least really warm. And that causes a lot of stat-juggling over two games to determine the best performer over the period.

It’s cut-and-dry (and no surprise) in this article. Crow-Armstrong and Bregman combined to go 10-for-19 with four walks, three runs scored, six RBI, two doubles and three home runs.

PCA led the way, with the three home runs, going 5-for-8 with three walks, three runs scored, four RBI and a double. While PCA was the showman, Bregman was the workman, churning out five hits in nine AB with a walk, a double and the two huge RBI singles.

There were a few more key hitters over the two games. Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch each joined PCA with a first-inning solo home run on Monday and Tuesday. Nico Hoerner went 4-for-5 with 2 RBI on Monday. And Carson Kelly, who entered the game late Tuesday for Miguel Amaya, hit a lead-off double in the bottom of the ninth and eventually scored the winning run.

On the pitching side it was a mixed bag, but overall a good pair of starts. Shota Imanaga pitched extremely well Monday, as he allowed just two hits and walked three over six innings while striking out 10. However, he had to give up his obligatory home run — unfortunately it was of the three-run variety, but the Cubs were able to overcome it. Kevin Gausman had to battle a painful-looking cramp on his glove hand, which shortened his outing to 4.1 innings. He allowed the Complimentary Starting Pitcher Solo Home Run (CSPSHR from now on), but otherwise scattered seven hits and two walks while striking out five.

But the two big pitching performances were Javier Assad’s emergency scoreless three innings in relief of Gausman. And Jacob Webb picking up his fifth and sixth wins of the year with a scoreless inning of work in each game.

Yeah, what a couple of nights, huh?

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

Tuesday’s Game Stories:

• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune {$}): City Series: Pete Crow-Armstrong goes deep early — and then Cubs walk off White Sox on Alex Bregman’s RBI. “The White Sox were not going to let Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong walk them off for a second straight night.”

• Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Alex Bregman comes through in another dramatic Cubs win over White Sox, 13th Wrigley walkoff this season. “After an hour and a half of waiting out a late rain delay, Alex Bregman delivered a game-winning hit, giving the Cubs another dramatic win over the White Sox and their 13th Wrigley walk-off victory this season.”

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Gausman ‘doing well’ after exiting start with cramp in non-pitching hand. “”“I kind of couldn’t even put it in my glove there in the fourth before I got some electrolytes in me. … It’s pretty frustrating, to be honest. First start here as a Cub. Obviously, not what I’m trying to do.”“

• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): A viral fight, a rain delay and a pair of walk-offs have made Cubs-White Sox unforgettable. ““You got a second-place team in us, but a first-place team in them,” Pete Crow-Armstrong noted, making the rivalry “really frickin’ cool.”

Monday’s Game Stories:

• Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Pete Crow-Armstrong homers twice, joins 30-30 club and gives Cubs walk-off win vs. White Sox: ‘Pete’s my MVP’. “Crow-Armstrong delivered his latest MVP moment, with his second home run Monday giving him his second straight 30-30 campaign and sending the Cubs to their 12th walk-off win of the season at Wrigley Field.”

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): PCA secures 2nd straight 30-30 season — & boosts MVP case — in epic way. “The chants began before the Cubs could even hit play on the hype video ahead of the bottom of the 10th inning on Monday night.”

• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune {$}): City Series: Pete Crow-Armstrong walks off a historic night as the Cubs beat the White Sox 7-5 in 10 innings. “PCA slugged two home runs, including the walk-off winner, to become the first player in Cubs history with back-to-back 30-30 seasons in the City Series win over the White Sox.”

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Jacob Webb Showed Off Some Serious Stones in the 10th Inning Last Night. “Getting through an extra-innings inning without allowing that free runner at second base to score is an ENORMOUS thing.”

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): ‘An amazing game’: Cubs outlast White Sox in Crosstown contest for the ages. ““This might be (PCA’s) best game in the big leagues right here,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.“”

The Return of PCA-Mania:

• Joe Greenberg (The Athletic {$}): Pete Crow-Armstrong is bringing back memories of Derrick Rose’s MVP year. “Why not Pete Crow-Armstrong?”
• Josh Davis (ClutchPoints): Jon Heyman is absolutely right on gripping Pete Crow-Armstrong vs. Shohei Ohtani MVP race. “In one of the greatest MVP races ever, PCA and Shohei each had 4 hits and 2 HRs last night. But PCA homers were a leadoff HR and walkoff HR vs. rival White Sox. Their season stats/achievements are debatable but PCA fairly leads due to incredible narrative/unmatched dramatics”
• Jackson Stone (ClutchPoints): How Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong accomplished feat not seen since 1957 vs. White Sox. “Chicago Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong etched his name in the MLB record books with his performance on Monday.”
• Chris Pownall (DaWindyCity): Pete Crow-Armstrong believes he has answered Cubs’ biggest concern. “Pete Crow-Armstrong understands exactly what went wrong late last season. His blunt explanation should leave the Chicago Cubs feeling much better about what awaits them this October.”
• Ruston Dodd (The Athletic {$}): Pete Crow-Armstrong lets his mind wander during games. He might be onto something. “At first, Pete Crow-Armstrong’s offseason comments sounded a bit unconventional.”

Injury and Bullpen Talk:

• Bryan Logan (ClutchPoints): Daniel Palencia gets official injury return date as Cubs tries to hunt down Brewers. “The Chicago Cubs are trying to chase down the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, and now are getting a pitcher back.”
• Jordan Campbell (Chicago Tribune {$}): Cubs Injury Update: Justin Steele optimism, Hunter Harvey setback, Riley martin. “Don’t give us hope.”
• Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Cubs’ late-inning bullpen puzzle: Daniel Palencia back soon, Jacob Webb dominates, Ryan Zeferjahn gets hit. “While Webb has shone out as the team’s go-to reliever, there is a late-inning puzzle to put together as the most important games of the season get closer and playoff baseball casts a glaring spotlight on high-leverage moments.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Cubs left searching for ideas as Edward Cabrera returns to the IL: ‘It hasn’t clicked’. “I wish every story was a success story. This one, right now, is not.”
• Jordan Baastian (MLB.com): After latest trip to IL, could Cabrera shift to Cubs’ ‘pen? “His first season with the North Siders has featured frustratingly mixed results and multiple trips to the injured list.”

Assorted Stories:

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Cubs bolster SS depth, claim Arias from Mets; transfer Maton to 60-day IL. “Adds a layer of insurance not only at shortstop, but around the infield; buys time until another utility man, Matt Shaw, can make his own comeback from the 10-day IL.”
• Ankit Kumar (The Big Lead): Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong shares why childhood hero Javy Baez meant so much to him. “Pete Crow-Armstrong explains why Javy Baez was his favorite player growing up.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune {$}): Column: 20 years after A.J. Pierzynski became a City Series villain, Pete Crow-Armstrong steps into the void. “The Chicago Cubs have a villain from central casting for White Sox fans in Pete Crow-Armstrong, who put his stamp on the City Series on Monday.”
• Matt Sullivan (Sporting News): Cubs have a big 3.5 fWAR pitching problem that could sink postseason chances. “The Cubs have a massive problem that could wind up sinking them come the MLB postseason this October.”

Food For Thought:

Robert Calvin Bland (January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby “Blue” Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as “among the great storytellers of blues and soul music… [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed.” The inspiration behind his unique style was a Detroit Preacher, CL Franklin, because Bland studied his sermons. He was sometimes referred to as the “Lion of the Blues” and as the “Sinatra of the Blues”.

Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as “second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis’s Beale Street blues scene”. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Bland at number 163 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series.

Willson Contreras had some interesting comments following yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the D-Backs in which an angry contingent of Fenway fans booed him for not running hard up the first base line during his tenth inning groundout. But before we get to the quotes, here’s a look at the play just to make sure everybody’s up to speed:

Immediately after he arrived back in the dugout, the fuming first baseman engaged with one of the more aggressive fans and had them removed from the ballpark.

After the game, Chris Cotillo of MassLive got the follow quotes from Contreras regarding the incident:

“If you’re a smart fan, you know what’s going on,”

“I’m not gonna get hurt running on a ground ball. If you’re a real fan and you know baseball, there’s no case for me to hustle out of the box.”

“I’m not 100%. We never are, but I’m taking care of my leg. If I have to run, I push it a little bit. If I don’t, my manager has my back. I talked to him and he gave me permission to do whatever it takes to take care of my legs.”

“I was feeling better until last night when I full-stretched my leg and it grabbed me a little bit. My manager knows that.”

On one hand, Contreras is absolutely right. No single groundout is worth hustling over if it means risking blowing out your leg, particularly if you’re unlikely to beat it out anyway. It’s far more prudent to nurse it where he can and save the more taxing efforts for high leverage moments. In this larger context, it all makes sense.

Or, at least it would make sense if the Red Sox were in a slightly different place in the standings. Because while the philosophy holds water while zooming out from an individual play to an entire game, it all gets flipped on its head once you zoom out further from the perspective of an individual game to the remaining season as a whole.

Right now, thanks largely to the gluttonous owners and their absurdly bloated playoff structure, the Red Sox find themselves in the rather ridiculous position of being both far enough behind Tampa for the division lead that they’re extremely unlikely to catch them, but also far enough ahead of the third Wild Card cutoff that they’re extremely unlikely to fall out of a postseason spot. They’re so far removed from a meaningful tension point, Fangraphs gives them a 95.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, but just a 2.7 percent chance to win the division. In other words, there’s a 92.4 percent chance they’re going to end up in that best-of-three Wild Card round.

Circling back to Contreras and his leg, if we’re going to apply the principle of giving up on certain plays with a low likelihood of mattering in favor of long-term health, shouldn’t we apply that same concept to the season as a whole? More to the point: If Willson Contreras can only run some of the time, why isn’t he on the IL?

If his leg is bothering him enough that he needs to (rightfully) manage it on certain low leverage, low probability plays within a game, why aren’t the Red Sox demanding he do the same on certain low leverage, low probability games within a season?

Unfortunately, the single most important thing Contreras can do to help the team right now is be as ready to go as possible for a best-of-three series starting on September 29th. I detest that MLB has come to this, but it’s the reality of being in an oversaturated playoff field. If this was 20 years ago, with just one Wild Card available, the Red Sox and Yankees would be locked in a highly captivating duel for the last crumb on the table. Every game would matter, animosity would be building, and we’d be scoreboard watching like a hawk for six weeks.

In that world, Contreras’ approach of playing through injury in this manner would be on the money. But we don’t live in that world anymore. Instead, we’re basically sitting around seeing how healthy everybody can get for a best-of-three series at the end of September. (I can’t tell you how angry this makes me as a baseball fan!)

In any case, the Red Sox are already playing the “get ready for September 29th” game with Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock, who are both on the IL. And the funny thing is, not having either of them around to pitch in the top of the tenth yesterday was a whole hell of a lot more impactful in terms of why they lost that game than Contreras not running out his grounder. So if we’re going to swim in those waters, why be inconsistent about it?

Oh, and if your concern here has anything to do with the bottom falling out in a potential Contreras absence, don’t worry about it. This group has already proven they can handle the ship in short bursts without their stars. Since July 1st, Contreras has missed or left 11 games from either suspension, sickness, injury or rest, and the Sox are 10-1 in those contests.

Ultimately, the bottom line is this: Contreras is either healthy enough to run down the first base line consistently or he’s not, and if he’s not, he shouldn’t be in these games. They’re not important enough. (Thanks MLB!)

Lastly, the Red Sox medical staff has already had a disastrous year in terms of diagnosing the initial severity of injuries, and if this season ends up crashing and burning in part because Willson Contreras ends up out for the year on an injury that could have healed with rest, I’m going to be a whole lot angrier than the fans who were booing Contreras at Fenway Park yesterday.

Thirteen years ago, on the final Sunday in September, Skip Schumaker struck out. It was the last out in the last game of the regular season.

For the Dodgers, no big deal: They had won the National League West, and the playoffs were four days away.

For Dodgers fans that subscribed to Cox Communications, it turned out to be the start of a bizarre and protracted blackout that cost viewers the final years of Vin Scully and the golden years of three World Series championships.

After 4,560 days, the blackout is over.

Read more:California regulators approve $34.5-billion Charter-Cox merger

On Friday, for the first time in 13 years, Cox subscribers within the Dodgers’ broadcast territory will be able to watch the team on their local television home. Fans can find SportsNet LA on Channel 63 in Orange County, Channel 54 in Palos Verdes, Channel 36 in Santa Barbara and Channel 50 in Las Vegas.

How did this finally come to pass? Those channels no longer belong to Cox.

Charter Communications, the company responsible for getting SportsNet LA on as many cable, satellite and streaming options as possible, on Thursday closed its $34.5-billion purchase of Cox.

For Dodgers fans, the takeaway is this: It no longer matters that Cox did not want to pay Charter for the rights to air SportsNet LA. Charter made the 13 years of that moot by buying Cox.

Charter offers broadcast service under the Spectrum brand.

In 2013, with the team in the final year of its local television agreement with Fox Sports, the Dodgers announced it would launch a team-owned channel the following year.

Read more:Shaikin: MLB’s wild pitch: Using fan-despised TV blackouts as leverage against players

In exchange for the rights to market and distribute that SportsNet LA channel, Time Warner Cable agreed to pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over 25 years. It was the last great regional sports network deal, with traditional broadcast audiences about to fragment amid the rise of streaming and cord-cutting.

The guaranteed rights fees are as sure of a revenue stream as anything in baseball, and the Dodgers’ success amid all that cash is one of the triggers for major league owners in their push for a salary cap.

However, the great regional sports network deals relied on cable and satellite subscribers paying for every channel in a bundle, most of which viewers never watched.

With DirecTV leading the resistance, cable and satellite providers balked at signing up for SportsNet LA: a few dimes per month per subscriber for a news or entertainment channel was fine, but they drew the line at $5 per month subscriber for a baseball channel.

No major Los Angeles outlet besides Time Warner Cable carried SportsNet LA until 2016, and then only because Charter bought Time Warner Cable. Even then, less than half the households in the Los Angeles market could get SportsNet LA.

In 2020, DirecTV and AT&T struck a deal with Charter, not so much to liberate Dodgers fans as to help the parties maintain a shrinking base of subscribers amid a proliferation of video options.

“I think I can speak for a lot of people who will say this is, maybe, long overdue,” Dodgers star Justin Turner said then.

Six years later, as a longtime Cox subscriber excited to see SportsNet LA for the first time, your humble correspondent can say this: I think I can speak for a lot of people who will say this is definitely long overdue.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Every pitcher in the Little League World Series works under a hard limit. Once a 12-year-old reaches 85 pitches in a game, he or she comes off the mound, and how many pitches they threw determines how many days they have to sit before they can pitch again.

The rules come from the Little League rulebook. They apply the same way in Williamsport as they do on any field in the country. Managers plan around them from the first day of the tournament, because a double-elimination bracket rewards teams with a third and fourth pitcher more than teams with one good arm.

Little League moved to pitch counts in 2007, replacing a system that limited pitchers by innings. Under the old rules a 12-year-old could throw well past 100 pitches in a six-inning game, a number big league starters rarely reach. A 2011 University of North Carolina study commissioned by Little League found the program cut shoulder injury risk among pitchers ages 8 to 13 by half.

Here is how the limits, the rest chart and the catcher restrictions work:

How many pitches can a Little League pitcher throw?

Limits go by league age, not calendar age.

• Ages 13 through 16: 95
• Ages 11 and 12, the World Series division: 85 pitches
• Ages 9 and 10: 75
• Ages 7 and 8: 50

When a pitcher hits the number they're done. The one wrinkle is that they can finish the batter they're facing, staying in until that hitter reaches base or is retired or the third out ends the inning. So you'll occasionally see a kid finish with 89 in a game that caps at 85, and nothing is wrong.

Warm-up pitches don't count. Only what a pitcher throws to a hitter counts.

Hello, friends.

Pete Alonso hit a fair ball into the left field seats last night that should have been a go-ahead home run. Let’s just get that one out of the way right off the top. It’s unbelievable that the umpire did not call a fair ball live and it’s even more unbelievable that the replay center did not accept the decisive angle that would have given the Orioles a 4-3 lead. I don’t subscribe to any conspiracy theories. I think those people are just bad at their jobs.

It is one of those times I would have liked to see some fire from the manager. The figurative shadow of Earl Weaver looms over any major league field involving the Orioles. Craig Albernaz doesn’t have to do it Earl’s way, but he does need to do it some way. Just get caught being mad at the umpires when the process has screwed over your team. Point, yell, gesticulate, whatever, let the team know you’re not going to take it sitting down. Go around yelling at people until they eject you, then yell a little more.

Albernaz doesn’t seem to do this; he didn’t do it last night anyway. I don’t think it’s why the Orioles lost the game. They lost because they have an insufficient number of relievers to rely upon, and also because they went 0-6 with runners in scoring position. I just think it’s something that Albernaz should have done.

After this mishap, in classic 2026 Orioles fashion, a variety of stupid things occurred and the result was a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Yankees. Check out John Beers’s recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals.

The Orioles bullpen being what it is lately, maybe Alonso getting the home run that he deserved would have only set up an even more tragic way of blowing the freshly-earned lead. Two runs were charged to Cam Sanders in an eighth inning outing where he hit two batters and walked another one. It’s not good to have to rely on guys of this ilk. You might get a few pleasant surprises out of them initially but guys like this are relatively cheaply available for a reason and the longer you give them, the more likely they’ll show you.

It’s a bad way to build a bullpen and these weaknesses have been exposed even more since Mike Elias decided to trade Tyler Wells ahead of the deadline. Grant Wolfram has fallen apart. Rico Garcia had his problems recently. Yennier Cano has hit a rough patch since being called into higher-leverage later-game situations. And those are just the ones you might have liked at one time. There are other, rougher names involved.

Perhaps there’s going to be at least one new face coming soon to the bullpen. Orioles beat writers, including The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka, put this one out last night:

Is De León going to be anything? I don’t know. He was only promoted to Triple-A Norfolk recently and he’s got a 5.28 ERA and 1.83 WHIP through his first four games. Just last night, he walked three batters over the course of a scoreless inning of relief. He is the #7 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s recently-updated top Orioles prospect list. He becomes Rule 5 draft eligible this offseason. Perhaps they think he can be an extra weapon out of the bullpen. Perhaps they’ll even be right.

The 2026 American League playoff situation being what it is, the Orioles did not lose any ground in the wild card chase. The Blue Jays lost. The Guardians lost. The Tigers lost. The Rangers lost. Only the Twins were winners, so they now stand in the third wild card spot, half a game ahead of Texas and a touch farther ahead of others. Minnesota is off today. The Orioles only have to win to peel back the half game.

They need the win also to avoid being swept by the Yankees. I’ve gotta say, folks, it is entirely in character for the 2026 team to really rope people in with winning the first three games of that Rays series only to fall apart after that. They lost the next three games, each in fairly agonizing fashion. They try to avoid a fourth straight loss as the series concludes starting at 6:35 tonight. It won’t be easy: Gerrit Cole is pitching for New York. Kyle Bradish makes the start for the O’s.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Which teams have suffered the most due to injuries? (FanGraphs)
You probably won’t be surprised to know that the Orioles are in the top 5 of this ZiPS-projected WAR lost to injury.

To try and get his bat going, Gunnar Henderson needed more than batting tweaks (Baltimore Baseball)
There are some encouraging signs for Henderson recently. Hopefully we continue to see encouraging signs.

Albernaz must trust starters when they earn it (The Baltimore Sun)
The Sun was taking Albernaz to task yesterday for pulling Shane Baz in Tuesday’s game. Many people took the opposite view, that Baz wasn’t pulled soon enough.

Alexander nearing rehab assignment and return (School of Roch)
Samuel Basallo is back, Blaze Alexander is close to a rehab assignment, is there enough time for things to come back together? On that question, make sure you vote in our poll that’s running this week.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The most recent Orioles victory on today’s date came two years ago, when they knocked off the Mets by a 9-5 margin to pull into first place in the AL East by a half-game margin. Anthony Santander and James McCann each homered in the game. Dean Kremer was pretty good. Just four of the fifteen players who appeared in that box score for the team are on the 40-man roster right now.

There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1996-2001 outfielder Gene Kingsale, and 1955-59 pitcher George Zuverink.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Chilean Supreme Director Bernardo O’Higgins (1778), 23rd president Benjamin Harrison (1833), horror author H.P. Lovecraft (1890), baseball Hall of Famer Al López (1908), musician/actor Isaac Hayes (1942), TV weatherman Al Roker (1954), actor Ke Huy Quan (1971), and singer-songwriter Demi Lovato (1992).

On this day in history…

In 636, the expanding Rashidun Caliphate defeated the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of the Yarmuk, seizing control of the area of modern-day Syria from the Byzantines.

In 1648, France defeated a Spanish-Lorraine force in the Battle of Lens, a decisive victory that paved the way for the Peace of Westphalia and the end of the Thirty Years War later in the year.

In 1858, the theory of evolution developed by Charles Darwin was first published in a journal titled The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London.

In 1882, the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky had its premiere performance in Moscow.

In 1977, the Voyager 2 probe launched, actually launching before Voyager 1 even though it’s numbered second. The probe passed by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune over the next 12 years and is now over 13.3 billion miles from Earth.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 20. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!

The Phillies have the day off today before they will look to continue their recent streak of good play against the Cardinals this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. It’s probably for the best the off day is today, as it looks like it would have been incredibly difficult to play a ballgame with tonight’s forecasted weather.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• ICYMI, the Phillies agreed to a major league deal with former All-Star starting pitcher Nestor Cortes.
• Zack Wheeler hasn’t been quite his usual ace self lately. He’s still working on making adjustments. ($)
• Derek Hill has been a godsend for the Phillies this season, coming through in multiple clutch moments despite pedestrian playing time and an unassuming stat line. Here’s a deep dive in exactly what all of that means from FanGraphs’ Michael Baumann.

MLB news:

• Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s businesses are shifting around billions of dollars as the mogul’s sports portfolio comes under federal investigation with the sale of his ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers. ($)
• The first of Jorge Polanco’s two seasons with the Mets is officially over, as he was placed on the IL yesterday and is headed for ankle surgery, ending his disastrous debut in New York.
• Statcast has a new metric that measures a first baseman’s ability to receive throws from other infielders. Here’s where notable players, including Bryce Harper, rank.