Marlins right-hander Edinson Volquez threw the first no-hitter of the 2017 season on Saturday, tossing a 10-strikeout, two-walk gem against the Diamondbacks en route to a 3-0 victory. He accomplished the feat on what would have been the 26th birthday of late Royals righty Yordano Ventura, who passed away in a car crash in the Dominican Republic over the winter. Volquez, also a native of the Dominican, was friends with Ventura and teammates with him in Kansas City from 2015-16. Volquez paid tribute to Ventura on Instagram prior to the game and dedicated the performance to both Ventura and late Marlins ace Jose Fernandez afterward (Twitter link via Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star).
More from Miami and two other NL cities:
- Although Padres righty Jered Weaver has been among the majors’ worst starters this season, the club isn’t ready to give up on the soft-tossing 34-year-old, according to Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Padres’ hope is that Weaver will be able to competently eat innings when he’s ready to return from the disabled list. Weaver hit the DL on May 20 with left hip inflammation, a condition the ex-Angel says has been dealing with “for three or four years now.” Before landing on the shelf, Weaver recorded a 7.44 ERA and a 7.99 FIP over nine starts – all Padres losses – and 42 1/3 innings.
- The Cardinals are candidates to add Cuban righty Hector Mendoza, who’s eligible to sign with a major league organization July 2, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America (subscription required and recommended). The 23-year-old Mendoza is exempt from bonus pools, meaning the Cardinals won’t have to pay an overage tax if they sign him, notes Badler. Mendoza, who has pitched in both Cuba and Japan, features “a three-pitch starter’s mix,” per Badler, though he’s likely to end up in the bullpen if he cracks the majors.
- Marlins reliever Junichi Tazawa’s recovery from the rib issue that has sidelined him since mid-May hit an unusual snag, relays Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The Japanese righty’s interpreter quit, thereby delaying his rehab assignment as the Marlins looked for a replacement. The club didn’t want to Tazawa to go it alone in Jupiter, Fla., “and potentially get lost or confused,” writes Jackson.
Today would have been Ventura’s 26th birthday? Oh man… the Dee Gordon home run, then the Edinson Volquez no hitter… this is heavy, makes you wonder if they really are coincidences.
Rip Ventura
Don’t drink and drive
I don’t believe they ever said that he was drunk, so unless there is proof out there, don’t jump to conclusions.
RIP Ace.
It doesn’t make driving sober any less important.
Agreed, but he’s implying that Ventura was drinking and driving.
I am implying it
Anytime they keep the toxicology reports a secret, implies their was alcohol involved. This ain’t a conspiracy.
Rip Ventura
Don’t drink and drive
On the Marlins too
Weaver is toast.
Course he is. Only reason he is still around is he is going to be what gets the padres a top 5 pick in next years draft. Throw him out there every 5th day itll kill any momentum they have.
Yes, that is exactly the key to this masochistic Weaver experiment. He might be the worst pitcher on the team, but he is the one who is going to lead them to that first pick in next year’s draft.
Cool then they can draft for signability again like with Matt Bush.
Weaver may be the worst pitcher in the league. His ERA is the worst of any that have 9 or more starts.
Wrong decade. The Padres ownership now are in spend mode when it comes to international signing and drafting players. It’s too bad Angelos refused to sign young international players.
As much as I understand the “tank” in NBA or NFL, I just don’t see it in baseball. Unless there’s a Bryce Harper or Stephen Strasburg in next year’s draft (and there isn’t) it just makes little sense to me. Top draft picks in MLB flame out with alarming regularity.
You need to stop it with your pathetic little quest to invalidate the #1 overall pick. It is more valuable than any other pick if not because you get first priority in the draft, then because you get the biggest signing bonus cash pool. That is easily worth more than a few extra wins in a season that was clearly over before it even began. Once again, screw the product on the field.
Oh and you keep saying there is no Harper or Strasburg in next year’s draft. We don’t know that yet. The prospects available in the 2018 draft have a full year to show the baseball world what they are made of. Idk when it was decided that Bryce Harper was the slam dunk #1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t before the 2009 draft.
Cause signing quantril to an overslot deal last year and a projected 5 mill for groome had he fallen definitely screams budget and signability. Oh and giving thompson and lawson over double their slot values too. Ffs, at least keep up.
Yup. The Matt Bush thing will never happen again because of the slotting system. Draftees can no longer demand insane bonuses and expect some rich team to draft them and meet their demands. Every team, from the Padres to the Yankees, has a finite amount of money they are allowed to pay their draftees and your payroll has no bearing on that amount of money. Sure, if the Padres take some high schooler who has a full ride to a prestigious college and intends to honor that commitment, they will have to pay him way over slot and then draft a couple other signable guys to make up for it, but it’s the same way with all the other 29 teams. And every team spends their entire cash pool (or close to it) on their draftees.
Bryce Harper was on the cover of SI two years before he was drafted. So there’s that. The Padres had six first- round picks in the 2007 draft. None of them had a major league career. Baseball just isn’t like other sports.
Well, the Padres aren’t going to draft a high school player 1-1 overall, and full-ride baseball scholarships to college don’t exist. Right now the only guy in the 2018 draft class people are talking about is Seth Beer, and if the Padres take him they’re almost certainly making a massive mistake. And yes, it’s not too early to start picking out the 2018 draftees. That’s what scouting departments do. Like I wrote above, Harper was already being touted as a HS senior; Boras shepherded him into JUCO so he could develop as an outfielder and so Boras could get him to Washington, where Strasburg had just gone the year before. There’s not a guy like that in the 2018 draft.
Here’s maybe a better way to look at it: the 25th pick in the 2009 draft has more WAR than every #1 overall pick taken in the last ten years. Combined. Crazy, huh? The Padres, in that 2009 draft, unencumbered by slotting limits, spent the most money they’ve ever spent on a player in the draft. 6.7 million dollars. That guy is currently attempting to walk-on as a college quarterback at age 26. The draft is a crapshoot.
That’s a text book example of using statistics to back your point. I appreciate the lesson MathTeacher….the Padres are perpetual losers and Preller and Co. seem to have a zig zag direction for this ball club. Not a sign of a franchise trending in the right direction.
From the time Harper was 16 and on the cover of SI it was basically consensus that he would go 1-1 when he was eligible
Point taken on Harper. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that the 2018 draft prospects have a full year to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd. Could also go the other way around. For example, in January 2002, Bobby Brownlie was considered the slam dunk #1 overall pick in that year’s draft, but he fell to #21 after an injury-marred junior season.
By your logic the Padres should just trade all of their first round picks right now before they end up being busts. Just because a previous regime was historically bad at drafting doesn’t mean the draft is worthless. If there was actually some incentive to win more games even if we weren’t going to make the playoffs you might have an argument. But there isn’t so you don’t.
It was actually a couple years before the draft when teams Knew he would be 1 overall
Can’t trade draft picks in baseball.
Well, the incentive to win is that people pay money to watch baseball. Even if it was just prospects it would still be more entertaining than watching Jhoulys Chacin and Yangervis Solarte flail around out there. When I was a kid in San Diego we could afford to go to maybe two games a year. Even as a kid I would have been annoyed to watch a team that was trying to lose.
I still go to just as many games regardless of how good or bad they are and Yangervis Solarte is a terrible example for the point you are trying to make. The only player on the Padres who I think they are straight up “trying to lose” by signing is Weaver. You could argue the Rule 5 guys too but with them there’s the chance they develop into something good in like 2020.
They have a pretty clear direction now and if you were paying attention you’d know that.
You’ve watched Jhoulys Chacin, right? And what, Solarte? A 30 year old powerless middle-infielder who can’t run or play defense is a fun player to watch? Heck, at least Schimpf is interesting because he’s such an oddball.
Pretty clear with Wil Myers ha
If he can throw 85-100 pitches and lose every fifth day, that contract is paying dividends for the Padres. Their only prerogative is to lose and conserve the bullpen so they can flip as many relievers as possible at the deadline. The rebuild will pay off though.
True, so long as Weaver can consistently survive the 3rd and 4th innings on “just” 85-100 pitches. At a certain point, the league’s just got to figure out his wear-and injury-limited junk (see also, Jamie Moyer circa 2012).
Amazing performance and awesome story, RIP Yordano and well done Volquez!
I thought the Tazawa story was kind of funny. Of all the reasons to have a setback in his rehab, that was probably the least likely.
Junichi Tazawa has been in the US for nearly ten years. This is one of the many childish excuses we hear from athletes… But then again, Japanese don’t blame or make excuses, do they?
I doubt he lives here off-season, English is a hard language to learn, and neuroscientists have proven that learning a second language is much harder as you get older in life; the part of the brain that controls language hardens and begins atrophying before you’re even ten years old.