MLB Daily: The Jays Finally Lose; Welcome Back Jose Fernandez
By Mike Cardillo
Welcome to MLB Daily on a Tuesday. Smile! …
On cue: Monday in this space I praised the Blue Jays. Naturally later that day their 11-game winning streak ended in the bottom of the 12th against the Mets via a single by Wilmer Flores off Brett Cecil. If anyone who writes about sports truly possessed that power they’d be living in a penthouse at a ritzy Las Vegas casino, reckon.
Get off my lawn: Call me a dinosaur or a purist or whatever, but 99.9 percent of the time I loathe interleague play — especially when it happens every day of the baseball calendar. This week baseball gets it right with all 30 teams playing four games against interleague opponents split between the two cities, home and away. The Yankees and Marlins celebrated the 12th anniversary of the 2003 World Series last night in South Florida, no doubt. Remember back then, the Marlins represented all of Florida rather than just Miami. You had to be there, man.
Welcome Back: Jose Fernandez, who up until Tommy John Surgery last May, might have been the most-enjoyable (read: fun) pitcher to watch in baseball will return on July 2. That’s good news for fans and great news for the Marlins. For all the optimistic projections about Miami in the winter, its pitching still looked weak on paper. That’s not to say the Marlins have been bad — a 3.98 staff ERA is 18th in baseball. Without Fernandez the Marlins starters are thoroughly non-descript. I wouldn’t be able to pick Tom Koehler out of a lineup of five players — and I write a daily Internet baseball column.
As of today the Marlins are seven games off the first-place Mets and eight from the Wild Card. Logic says it would be unwise to push Fernandez this season, but this is the Marlins so who knows what they will do.
Either way, Fernandez and Giancarlo Stanton are enough reason to keep the Marlins relevant for the rest of the season.
Something Bud Black: San Diego fired Bud Black yesterday. In nine seasons, he compiled a 649-713 record with one 90-win season and never made the playoffs. That is about as mediocre as it gets. I didn’t ask Lisk but this might fit into some sort of Jeff Fisher NFL corollary, an idea for another day. The Padres are 32-34 this season — so why play it out under Black? Dave Roberts managed last night. AJ Preller is expected to name an interim manager for the rest of the season later today.
Is it Black’s fault Wil Myers is stuck on the disabled list or that Matt Kemp is slugging .336? No. I don’t usually think managers make all that big an impact, but sometimes change if only for the sake of change is worthwhile.
That’s good (or bad): Pirates 11, White Sox 0. Francisco Liriano — a contender for most-underrated player in the game — shut down his former team over eight innings. This tweet from a friend of the blog about the South Siders’ struggles made me laugh.
Not because I like seeing the White Sox lose — I guess I do — but moreso because I can relate to the frustration.
Speaking of underrated: Paul Goldschmidt doesn’t get mentioned a lot in the national baseball conversation — whatever that is — because the Diamondbacks aren’t really contenders or a team that gets a lot of publicity — although they are ahead of the Padres in the standings today. Statistically, Goldschmidt continues to marvel. At least he’s relevant from a fantasy perspective with 18 homers and 10 stolen bases, among his many feats.
Highlight Reel: Old Man George Springer hit a pair of homers and added some great plays in the outfield for the Astros.
Springer is 25 — which is totally ancient for modern day Major League Baseball.
This & That: The Angels were on the wrong end of two replay calls vs. the D’backs last night. Craig over at Hardball Talk took the legal route on it and his main point–the review shouldn’t need overwhelming evidence based on the on-field call–is valid. Under the system now, if it’s close we’re still kind of in “tie goes to the runner” or in this case, ump mode. … Wei-Yin Chen threw eight scoreless innings for the Orioles over the hapless Phillies. … Yadier Molina hit a home run! … Anibal Sanchez shut down the Reds for his second straight good start for the Tigers. … The Cubs called up another prospect, Kyle Schwarber, a catcher in the minors. He’ll be up for a week to DH in American League parks and acclimate himself to the club, per the Chicago Tribune. … Boston is on a seven-game losing streak and 11 under .500. Will they press the reset button again this summer?
TEASE: COMING LATER TODAY LISK AND I DEBATE THE ROYALS AND THE ALL STAR GAME — IN VIDEO FORM!!!
[Lead photo via USAT]