Hours after Marlins right-hander Edinson Volquez threw the first no-hitter of the year, Angels designated hitter Albert Pujols added another notable accomplishment to the 2017 ledger, belting his 600th home run. Pujols skied a grand slam off Twins right-hander Ervin Santana to become the ninth player in the history of the sport to go deep at least 600 times. The former Cardinal has already hit nine homers this year, and he figures to pass both Sammy Sosa (609) and Jim Thome (612) on the all-time list by the end of the season.
As Pujols joins his teammates and fans in celebrating his historic feat, here’s more from the West divisions…
- An Adrian Beltre trade is something the Rangers will have to consider if they end up as sellers at the trade deadline, opines Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter links). Beltre has established himself as a franchise icon since joining the Rangers in 2011, but the potential Hall of Famer will turn 39 next April and is due $18MM in 2018 to conclude his contract. As such, it might make sense for the Rangers to shop him, though Grant doubts they’d be willing to eat any of the money left on his deal. It could be a moot point, anyway, as Beltre has the ability to block any trade via his 10-and-5 rights.
- The Rockies will place left-hander Tyler Anderson on the disabled list Sunday, retroactive to May 31, with left knee inflammation, per Nick Groke of the Denver Post. While Anderson has dealt with the issue since early May, he doesn’t believe it’s serious. Neither does manager Bud Black, who indicated that Anderson’s DL placement is “precautionary.” Anderson is one of four Rockies to make 11 starts this year, but he has allowed home runs on 24.1 percent of fly balls en route to a 5.85 ERA over 60 innings. For now, Anderson’s spot in the rotation will go to well-regarded right-hander Jeff Hoffman.
- The Padres entered the season with three picks from last winter’s Rule 5 draft on their roster, and one – outfielder/shortstop Allen Cordoba – has stood out, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Cordoba, then a member of the Cardinals organization, spent last season in the rookie-level Appalachian League. Now, he’s a .298/.333/.442 hitter over 111 plate trips with the Padres. Manager Andy Green has taken notice of the 21-year-old’s success, saying that Cordoba “continues to impress. He’s earned every bit of the opportunity that he’s receiving right now. Nothing’s been given to him. He’s earned the right to be out there. He’s earned the right to be hitting at the top of the order, and it’s been very, very impressive.”
- Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said Friday that Jean Segura could miss two months with a high ankle sprain, but the shortstop has a much more optimistic outlook, relays Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. “I don’t think this is going to take a month,” Segura stated. “Maybe a couple of weeks. We’ll see how it feels the next couple of days.” Segura went on the DL on Friday after slashing a stellar .341/.391/.462 in his first 198 plate appearances of 2017.
Congrats to Albert. A grand slam at is a dramatic way to do it.
1. Wow, hitting none home runs in two months is quite impressive.
2. Wow.
You’re a tool. If you don’t think Pujols accomplishment tonight was anything short of spectacular
More likely like 8 Einstein!
Yep. Pujols is really living up to that fat contract hitting .249. Legendary.
600 HRs is legendary. Forget living up to a contract. Hes made it far enough to have 600 HRs in a HOF career.
You don’t get paid for what you are GOING to do, you get paid for what you have done. That how mid-career baseball contracts work. It’s the main reason why the players are still okay with the pre-arbitration structure as is.
Pujols is also going to set a major-league record this year – most double-plays grounded into. Nobody really mentions that, though. Pujols received MVP votes for 11 straight seasons. We were witness to one of the best players in baseball history but somehow, because of his late career fall-off, we don’t really think of him in that way.
The other crazy thing about Pujols is that he’s signed through 2021. Talk about contracts that won’t end well.
This is true. It’s on the owners for signing these 10 year contracts knowing the later years will be bad. His contract runs until 2021.
He’ll probably retire and rework the rest of the money on his contract into some sort of annuity for the rest of his life, or possibly a partial ownership of the team. He won’t play it out.
He has ten-year personal services contract already that kicks in after 2021.
Who cares how many double plays he’s hit into?
Well, the idea at the plate is to avoid making outs. Hitting into double plays is sort of the opposite of that. It’s not that big a deal, but it is interesting; 8 of the top 10 leaders in GIDP are Hall of Famers, so it’s mostly a function of being a right-handed hitter and being slow and having a long career. I just thought it was a curious part of Pujols’ career record.
Wonder why teams don’t mind the amount of K’s now a days. Don’t want the middle of the order guys hitting into DP’s when they’re not mashing HR’s & Doubles.
You are saying Pujols will definitely set a season record on June 4th? At this pace Judge will hit 58 home runs. I highly doubt either will happen.
A career record. He needs 9 GIDPs to pass Ripken for the most all-time.
Reminds me of how those Rangers are living up to their HYPE. ALL those World Series titles Will make people forget. OH WAIT, never mind.
What hype? Everybody has practically undersold them except for this year, lol. Nice try though
Oh yea, 150mil plus payroll every year, but undersold, huh?? They’re undersold NOW b/c they’re gettin they’re doors blown off by the Astros. DITTO on he nice try
Oh, how cute–some relic who still uses batting average to determine a player’s worth. Go use that rotary phone of yours and spread the news.
Not saying it will happen with Corboda because it won’t but I was curious, has there ever been a rule V player who won the rookie of the year? I’m assuming it has to be a no.
I know Dan Uggla had a big rule V season but he is the only one of recent memory that I can think of.
That rookie rule 5 with the ranger two years ago hit .300 plus
He played center then he dropped off the next year
Did Roberto Clemente get rookie of the year? He was a rule 5 guy
You’re thinking of Delino DeShields Jr. He didn’t win ROY and neither did Clemente. Clemente is the only Rule 5 draft to make the HOF.
Johan Santana has a chance this year as well, but will probably fall short. Although his numbers are relatively similar to Koufax. If he stayed healthy he would have been a no doubt HOFer.
No. Most rule 5s don’t even stay around long enough to win ROY, and most that do are stashed/reserves.
Besides, my money is on one of the two in the Rockies rotation, or Bellinger.
Margot dude
Margot isn’t nearly as good as Senzatela, Freeland or Bellinger. Just look at the stats.
And I say this as a Padres fan.
Love the Rox kids (and Hoffman’s probably better than all of them), but Bellinger would have to drop off something fierce to not win ROY.
Bellinger is hitting .250 and falling Lets not anoint him yet.
Not happened yet, Although there have been two future MVPs picked in Clemente and Josh Hamilton.
Jose Bautista and George Bell were rule 5 picks who had notable careers. Shane Victorino was pretty good for a while. Bip Roberts, I believe, was a rule 5 pick. Off the top of my head, those are some good ones. Uggla had a nice career. Clemente obviously was pretty amazing. Hamilton was a rule 5 pick because of the off-field issues; he was a first overall draft pick who should have had a career anyway. I also think Marwin Gonzalez, who is having an all-star season, was a rule 5 pick.
Beltre to the Yankees!
For their top prospects!
Rangers would have to eat some money and still wouldn’t command Torres or probably not Frazier. I’d start with Mateo or Rutherford and Abreu or Acevedo. Beltre wouldn’t command that much anymore. But again, depends on how much the rangers eat. If they don’t eat anything, then no top prospects
Completely makes sense and avoids rushing Gleyber Torres. The Red Sox would also be a nice fit. Boston could be very motivated to make sure Beltre does not end up in New York. Both team’s should be motivated to tap into his ability and veteran leadership. With Boston’s recent deals trading prospects, New York should have the edge in acquiring him.
It wouldn’t be the first time a high-priced yet very talented left-side-of-the-diamond infielder went from the Rangers to the Yankees.in a trade.
Complimentary PED bonus gift with every order.
Both the Yankees and the Red Sox are trying to stay under the luxury tax this year so they can re set it. Don’t see them adding Beltie’s salary even though it would make a lot of sense.
If they send Torres back I’m sure the Rangers would eat some money.
What a completely ludicrous post! DM
Does anyone know the story of why Cordoba was stuck in Rookie ball in the Cardinals organization? He was there 4 years, and really hit well the last 2 years. It seems odd, and it is clear that he could have handled a higher level, since he’s not embarrassing himself in the majors.
The Cardinals were trying to teach him to play shortstop but he can’t do it. He’s actually a defensive liability anywhere on the field. That was the basic reason, plus he was a really young player, even for rookie ball.
He hasn’t been a defensive liability in LF……at least not yet and esp. considering he’s learning at the ML level.
He’s been worth Negative 3 runs in left field already this year. Which is not good but not terrible . But his numbers at short are comically bad. -70 DRS/150.
He’s played there for a irrelevant amount of innings.
The reasoning for keeping Cordoba in rookie ball is dumb, he can be taught to improve his defense in low a ball
Kind of a joke to try to use DRS or UZR metrics for a kid that has played 20 games or so in the majors and only 3 starts at short. It takes 4000 innings or about 450 games of data for DRS to be an accurate measure of defense according to the guys that developed the stat. UZR must be similar. That is why no team would use data like that. StatCast says he is major league average in terms of the balls he gets to. That is data you can count on.
I wouldn’t say he’s a liability anywhere on the field. He hasn’t played OF professionally until this year and he’s been passable in LF. Obviously he’s sub-par but he’s 21 and still learning. He has the athleticism and skills to be a good defender but clearly needs more time and reps to polish his play.
Out of curiosity where is your judgment that he can’t play SS coming from? He’s played such limited reps there for the Padres this year (although its been really bad) I don’t think its really a good sample size. Everything I’ve read says he has the arm and range to stick at SS but makes too many mistakes. It looks like he was going to get at least another year or two there in the Cards system to see if he could cut down the miscues before the Cards moved him to 3B.
I was just reading scouting reports. The cards didn’t think the bat was going to play anywhere except short but he just couldn’t play there. And look at the evidence. The Padres don’t really have a shortstop, and they won’t even play him there.
The bigger problem with playing Cordoba in left is that the Padres are already running Renfroe out in right field. Renfroe might be the worst defensive outfielder I’ve ever seen, aside from Matt Kemp, and in that big park having below-average defensive outfielders in both left and right really makes the center fielder’s job harder.
You don’t watch much baseball I take it.
You think Renfroe or Córdoba are good out there? I’ve watched as many Padres games as I can and, yeah, they’re not good.
Cordoba is playing the position for the 1st time in his career. He has done exceptionally well considering all he has to learn. Statcast has him as average. I have only seen two plays he has blown so far this season and both were failing to pick up the baseball cleanly, not failing to get to the ball or making a bad throw. The kid has serious wheels. No one knows what he can do at shortstop because he hasn’t played there much yet, but he will soon enough. Aybar is not long for starting SS and d’Arnaud is a career also ran.
Renfroe also played CF until last season. Makes rookie throwing mistakes, but he can get to the ball with the best of them and he has an absolute cannon. The kid already has two 5 star plays in RF this season according to StatCast. If you think he is the worst you have ever seen, then you obviously don’t see much baseball. He will win a Gold Glove before his career is over.
Please don’t even try to use defensive metrics that are worse than useless until there are 3 seasons of stats. John Dewan has been very clear about that fact with DRS. Tango has said similar things about UZR and the stats disagree about many, many players even after getting enough data.
Well the stats are terrible so I won’t use them. Ok. I watch the games. Renfroe can’t seem to read the ball off the bat, he misplays balls, then tries to show off his arm by throwing to the wrong base or missing the cutoff man or overthrowing it. Dude has made six throwing errors in a third of a season, which is nuts.
As far as Córdoba, Green has basically said he won’t use him at SS this year unless it’s necessary. They’re apparently working with him before games. But his minor league numbers were just so bad, I can’t quite imagine he ever gets the hang of it at the major league level.
Cordoba seems to think that he was blocked by international signees who signed for a lot more than he did. His singing bonus was for just $7,500,
He was under the impression that the Cards wanted to see what the guys they invested more heavily in could do. Basically since he wasn’t a top prospect he sorta fell through the cracks.
He was blocked in short season, low A and high A with the Cardinals in 2016. Really no place to put him. Tommy Edman was in short season State College, Edmund Sosa was in Low A and Oscar Mercado was in High A.
Even after 2 straight rookie league batting titles he wouldn’t even be in Low A with the Cards this year with Tommy Edman there and with Edmund Sosa slated for High A Palm Beach.
As far as scouting reports go, BA has him projected as a 60 defender at SS and MLB said in their scouting reports of the players taken in the Rule % draft – “A gifted hitter who controls the strike zone and has solid speed and defensive skills at a premium position, he’s the most talented player taken in this year’s Rule 5 Draft”.
In SD he has had no chance to play SS. Just 3 starts. No way to judge what he can become from less than a handful of games.
Just read an article that said Pujols wife texted him hitting advice after he struck out in his first at bat and it’s wrinkling my brain. Since when are players allowed to pull out a cellphone on the bench and start texting people?
The article you read is fake news. There are no cellphones or tablets or anything allowed in dugouts.
You might want to check your facts. They are using I Pads on a trial basis in some of the dug outs. Edgar Martinez uses one in Seattle’s dug out and has all season. As for his wife texting him hitting advice that seems far fetched.
That’s interesting. Until 2016 no technology of the sort was allowed in dugouts. I’m assuming, though, from reading the articles, that players are still forbidden from using technology in dugouts. The iPad Dugout thing seems to be used solely for strategic stuff, not for things like texting and getting online.
You do realize that’s guys to the clubhouse between innings often, right?? Especially if they are DH-ing. Not that hard to figure out.
Guys in the middle of a game go into the clubhouse to check their texts? I would bet teams would highly frown upon this.
Best player in baseball in the 2000’s. Congrats pujols on a historical achievement
Best player in the 2000’s? Not named Mike Trout and you can be taken more seriously
I believe he meant from 2001-2010