With MLB’s schedule roughly 70% complete, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. White Sox, Guardians await suspensions:
The White Sox and Guardians got into one of the more memorable benches-clearing fights in recent memory on Saturday, with Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson and Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez at the center of the chaos. Unlike the majority of MLB skirmishes, actual punches were thrown between Anderson and Ramirez before the pair were pulled away from each other. The fracas lasted for several minutes, and each of Anderson, Ramirez, Guardians manager Terry Francona, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, and Guardians third base coach Mike Sarbaugh were ultimately ejected. While Anderson was out of the lineup during yesterday’s series finale, the league has yet to hand down any suspensions in the aftermath of the scuffle. Tom Withers of the Associated Press writes that the clubs expect to hear from MLB as soon as today regarding likely multi-game suspensions for both Anderson and Ramirez.
2. Rodon to undergo MRI:
Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon exited yesterday’s start against the Astros with left hamstring tightness. He’s scheduled to undergo an MRI today, though in comments to reporters (including the folks at YES Network) Rodon indicated that he did not anticipate the MRI revealing anything overly concerning.
The first year of Rodon’s six-year, $162MM contract hasn’t gone the way the sides had hoped as Rodon missed the entire first half due to a strain in his left forearm. In six starts since since returning from the injured list, Rodon has looked nothing like the ace who made consecutive All-Star appearances while finishing in the top six of Cy Young award voting in both 2021 and 2022. He’s posted a 7.33 ERA while failing to make it out of the sixth inning in any of his appearances. In the event Rodon requires another trip to the injured list, right-handers Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez could be among the club’s options to take over in the rotation.
3. Perez returns to the majors:
Marlins phenom Eury Perez was shut down in the midst of a sensational rookie season (2.36 ERA across 11 starts) last month as Miami keeps a close eye on the 20-year-old hurler’s innings. With the team currently dealing with a losing streak that has extended to four games and half a game out of the final Wild Card spot, club brass have made the decision to bring Perez back into the fold of the major league rotation. He’s slated to start this evening’s game against the Reds in Cincinnati and figures to help anchor the Marlins’ rotation throughout the remainder of the 2023 campaign alongside Sandy Alcantara and Jesus Luzardo.
I was trying to tell Yankees fans who thought the Rodon addition made them World Series favorites that Rodon’s good season was fluky and he’s really not that good, especially in the playoffs.
Truth is you can ever count the Yankees out. They’re always in the running to start the year. They spend money, they have “go for it” mentality, and they always finish ahead of the Red Sox lol.
Wow.
Why is it that whenever someone levels just criticism at another team, especially NYY, the fans of that team go on a rampage and respond with personal attacks? People should be able to offer their personal opinions without being personally attacked. Especially people you don’t even know and have never met. Do you find their opinion to be THAT offensive? Or are you just hyper sensitive and incapable of hearing criticism of anything with which you are associated, including athletic teams?
amen to that stwawk…the “my way or the highway” mentality is toxic for everyone..those type of people have no capability to reason..no capability to set their pride aside..no capability listen..no capability of being empathetic, that it’s so pathetic..there’s a possibility that they have no sense of being humane
@stwawk welcome to the comments section of this site. Full of boomer yankee fans that can’t handle the slightest bit of criticism that impacts their victimization and persecution complex. They can dish it out but can’t take it. Must be tough rooting for a last place team.
Kind of funny, I had it the other way around but totally see both sides of your comment
Yes, bring up politics, that’ll calm things down.
Badge has nothing to do with it. I’ve been on here 10 years and didn’t contribute a dime. I don’t deserve any credit at all for the contribution of 30 bucks one time, it’s just that I thought I would this year because I’m on both these sites five times a day, especially around draft day and trading deadlines. lol.
whether right or left, it still comes down to us all being Americans. We need to respect other opinions.
Now i know why i get into a discussion with Barron, he’s a Brandon supporter. Why do i waste time with these ppl?
@Foxtrot. Quick reality check. The economy and employment continue to grow quite well.. The US economy has recovered quicker from the COVID downturn than most other developed economies. Yes, gas prices rose significantly in 2020-2022, but have fallen since though not to their pre-COVID levels. Interestingly, the major oil companies keep reporting record profits year after year. And Americans keep on driving. Other prices rose for a variety of reasons including change in consumer demand, changes in consumer spending, and the COVID stimulus as well as supply chain problems.. If you were in the trades, you saw plywood prices skyrocket and government had nothing to do with it. Lumber companies expected reduced demand during COVID so they cut production, but demand shot up as homebound consumers during COVID decided to remodel. Whoops. Presidents, whether Republican or Democrat, unfairly often get blame for a bad economy or claim credit when the economy is doing well. In truth, the effect of their actions is pretty limited in the short term. .
@ThurMattingly1523Ave: A better question is why do you waste our time being alive and running your mouth?
Somewhere out there, a tree is working hard to produce oxygen for you to breathe. You really need to go and apologize to it.
Is it a generational thing? Not that all generations don’t have their examples. The reason I ask is because the %’s of people that I encounter thst are under 25-30 ( I have 2 kids that count) seem to be in an “attack mode” anytime they don’t hear exactly what they want to hear.
@ Skeptical – Thank you for some truth!!! It’s so easy and sad to point the finger, everytime, at the government but yet hard to look up creditable facts..
I’m 99% certain that StephCurry… is the new name being used by this sites’ biggest clown, A’s Fan in the UK. I guess he had to change his name after looking at that dumpster fire this year. Not worth arguing with a petulant child like that
@kylelohse- why can’t you just go somewhere else? Hate to break it to you nobody wants or likes you on this thread or site, so go haunt a family member or a pre-school of your choice.
Letting people go back to work after preventing people from working isn’t job growth or growing employment numbers.
That’s like me stealing 20 bucks from you and giving you 20 bucks for your bday as a present then expecting you to thank me for giving you a present.
Presidential policies, presidential orders, people put in positions of power by president to oversee things and run things all impact things you mentioned. President has more influence than you think. Is president ever solely to blame or congratulate? No. But they have a hand in the mess and a hand in the success more than people realize.
Rodon has one postseason start. He was the best left handed pitcher in baseball for two years straight but the injury history will be his downfall.
Well…not sure about WS favorites as ESPN and the likes always comes out with their predictions which the Yankees have no control over…..but I can think of many teams who would trade places with their record of making the playoffs almost each season….of course this season may be the abboration but you can’t argue with their success IF the goal is to make the playoffs and see where they go from there……
I’m a Yankees fan but this Rodon guy……I swear the Yankees were bidding aging themselves for his services. It’s only year 1 but what a horrible way to start and who didn’t see the train wreck coming down the track. Another terrible decision by the decision makers in The Bronx.
Yeah, there was the Carl Pavano goof, but with how frequent they’ve been recently (Ellsbury, Hicks, now Rodon) and Severino’s extension faceplanting, Cashman has to go
Happens to every team. Seems like the percentage of successful free agent signings is around 50/50. All teams get bit by that snake. I often wonder why teams don’t draft more pitching in the early rounds and then sign free agent fielders/ batters?
Mind you I can’t stand the Yankees, how can you blame cash man for the constant injuries on people they sign??? Everyone is an injury risk. Some more than others. But still it’s all a crapshoot. If anything, with all these injuries the blame has to fall on the training department not the GM. Everyone quickly blames the easiest scapegoats.
Just so you know, Boone and Cashman were both awarded with extensions last season
@Bizzy, and I’m pretty sure we all knew how trading for that Stanton mega deal was gonna turn out. Now he’s hardly hitting over .200 these past 2 seasons and he’s on the books through 2027.
With his injury history, and DeGrom’s for that matter, I thought giving either more than a two or three year deal was silly. But I say three year max for any pitcher any more.
Tim Robinson’s suspension should be double what Ramirez’s suspension is because he both started it and lost
Bill Robinson retired many years ago, mid-80’s, I believe
Billy Robinson was also a great old school European wrestler.
Persky- Haha. Billy Robinson would have destroyed Ramirez.
Given the common names, you’d think there would be a “Tim Robinson” who appeared in the MLs.
But nope, the only Tim Robinson was a minor league OF in the Yankee system.
Tim Robbins played Nuke LaLoush. Does that count?
You already know he was taking about that ponzu trying to play DS for the ChiSox. Who cares what his real name is
Just be glad Jackie decided against boxing long ago!
Tim Robinson was great in Shawshank Redemption
Bozo did the dub
Kopech also deserves a suspension for headlocking Jose Ramirez when his beloved teammate TA was punching at Ramirez.
Furthermore, for saying afterwards that the Pale Hosers “won’t be bullied”.
Mike, the bully wannabe is your own teammate, not Jose Ramirez. Wake up.
So what you’re saying is you think he should leave? For a few games at least?
Anderson should get 15 games. Ramirez should be given a medal.
TA should also be fined 15 rounds of boxing lessons for community service!
Tim Anderson usually embarrasses himself every time he opens his mouth so this time he decided to let his glass chin do the work.
Such an unprofessional organization. Grifol has to be one of the worst managers of all time. Unfortunately TA is past his prime. I thought he’d ascend to star status, but he can’t get out of his own way. What a joker.
I believe that Grifol was dealt a short hand by Hahn, Williams, Reinsdorf when they hired him. The roster was/is a dump.
That said, how does Grifol a) not address the incident after the game, and b) astonishingly put Kopunk back on the mound after it all !!???
Include former players ripping the lack of accountability in the clubhouse to the list.
Well, there was a reason the Royals didn’t promote him when he had a chance.
See what Kenyan Middleton said about White Sox after being traded to the Yankees- he hit the nail on the head
Yeah the ump ran out of there looking like a fight referee starting round 1
Why you gotta disrespect Jackie like that?
Most I’ve laughed watching a baseball play in months
Most *watched* baseball play in months…
His Mouth Made Him [Feel] Like He Was Gonna Win…
His mouth is still going like he thought he won
Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson.
The Yankees love acquiring high-risk players for gigantic amounts of money. But in fairness, I didn’t thing Rondon would be this injured and this inadequate when he was on the mound.
just somewhat injured and somewhat inadequate?
Forcing the Guardians to face two left-handed starters for the Blue Jays in a row without Ramirez and (Josh) Naylor is gonna starve families. Jose better appeal
Having the first year of big contracts go bad is generally unexpected, but in the case of Rodon, I’m not surprised at all.
Donaldson was right about Tim Anderson.
Hey at least Jackie got up! Can you imagine someone actually having to count how long his was on the ground for? 1-2-3-4-5-6…
Hey
Hey, wrong Eury Perez
Every time
“Down goes Anderson! Down goes Anderson!”- Cleveland announcer cracking me up.
Here’s the video of the call sports.yahoo.com/jose-ramirez-punch-puts-tim-ander…
Nobody’s brought it up, but Anderson vs. Ramirez happened 30 years to the week that Robin Ventura fought Nolan Ryan. THAT was a legendary bench-clearing brawl.
Still a great watch on YouTube!
Baseball brawls usually are just shoving matches, but in the rare instances where two guys are able to go at it for a few seconds before they’re mobbed, you get a pretty good fight out of it. Probably one of my favorite is when Kyle Farnsworth picked up and slammed Paul Wilson into the ground.
1-Bautista dropping like a rock.
2-Ray Knight hitting Eric Davis so hard that Davis popped up looking the wrong way.
Nolan Ryan had a pretty good defense of the mound in the 80’s – maybe late 70’s.
Paul Molitar maybe?
You tube it.
I posted that comment but incorrectly said it was Molitor.
I’m not sure which dropped faster: Tim Anderson’s baseball stock, or Tim Anderson himself. Lol
Down goes Jackie! Would of been a better call though.
Hammy just punched his Ford C. Frick HOF ticket for next year. An instant classic call!
From Jackie Robinson to Jackie Jawed in one fell slug.
Still laughing.
They suspended Jackie Robinson?!? There should be an outrage.
One of the local Chicago sports reporters slipped “fired white Sox manager Grifol was ejected.”
Maybe Jerry is bringing Tony LaRussa back, haha
Perez, closer to 19 then 21. Woah that’s young! Physically gifted indeed. I guess pretty chill too? For Ng to drop him in to this situation, gifted mentally/emotionally as well?!
Perez is 20 years, 114 days today, so he’s closer to 21 *than* 19.
Regardless, he’s been amazing so far.
Oops, yes, “than” not “then”. That said, I’ll take my math over yours.
Bottom line, agreed, “regardless, he’s been amazing so far”. Cheers!
Ahhh, good point. I was thinking relative to his 19th birthday, not simply being 19. I stand corrected.
I wish him continued health and success.
Cheers!
I’d say Rodon’s making his way up to the top3 Yankees worst long contract ranking. His WAR is -0.5 so the team is better off without him.
And only 5 years to go!
Nah, way too early to say that. You do realize this is his spring training, right?
Funny, I coulda swore that rehab assignment was his spring training…
“Pulled apart”?.. Jose was pulled away by Kopech. I guess TA’s lifeless body was pulled away by gravity.
Love seeing Jackie get his comeuppance.
Grifol chickened out of putting Anderson in the lineup for the final game and the team ended up playing better and won the game.
The Marlins (and anyone else who may have been “interested”) dodged a bullett not trading for that clown at the deadline
Jose Ramirez got Player of the Week. Apparently he landed the biggest hit of the week.
Anderson nickname should be KO’d. Rameriz nickname should be “Haymaker”
Rougned Odor got eight games for punching out Jose Bautista. That should be the starting point for any suspension here.
I am really curious to see where the league lands. Both are veteran players with well-established reputations. Ramirez got the altercation started but Anderson escalated it by dropping his glove and taking a fighting stance, as well as throwing the first punch.
yes they both have well established reputations, but thats not a plus in Anderson’s favor.
Anderson has a reputation of being a punk and Ramirez has a reputation for being easy going.
Yes. Anderson should get double that for instigating the fight and Ramirez should get 8 games. .
Jose Ramirez can head straight to Cooperstown into the builder’s wing for his contribution to the game of baseball with one swing.
Anderson needed a better mentor. Great talent.
No reason for T.A. to stand over Ramirez after the slide. Bush league. Obv. looking to start an incident without regards for anyone else. I can’t see his White Sox teammates/coaches defending his actions this time. A 12-game suspension should be the minimum.
I think it was the tag that bothered Ramirez. If you watch it you can see how he hits him with unnecessary force. I don’t think it was standing over him because he slid between his legs. Couldn’t really avoid standing over him?
But yes I would agree with Anderson wanting to start something.
There were tensions leading up to the game on Saturday, including TA heckling Arias and forcing Rocchio off the bag during the game on Friday night. He was called out on a terrible overturned call.
He didn’t stand over him to gloat or to express power. Ramirez slid under him and nearly past the bag. It is definitely a baseball play to keep the tag on in case the runner comes off the bag. Plays like that happen every day in baseball.
It is not a baseball play to put your fists up like a prizefighter when someone points in your face and comes after you, though.
You are not supposed to straddle the bag ever. You learn that in Little League. Plays like that one by Anderson almost never happen in MLB because the players are supposed to know the fundamentals.
If that was the only thing that Anderson did, Ramirez would likely not have said a thing. Anderson had been running his mouth for 2 games. The umpire had to tell him to cool it or get ejected. That says volumes. Then several uncalled for hard tags of other Guardians players. It all culminated with that play on Ramirez and him running his mouth after Ramirez was safe on the play.
We all saw the result. Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
It was how Tim applied the tag. He could have broken Jose’s neck the way he stayed like a wall and through the glove in the face and held it. He was trying to injury Jose. Ramirez had every right to be pissed off dealing with such a low and dirty player like Tim Anderson.
Bro thinks he’s Glass Joe
They did not play any better…the Guards gave the game away with two consecutive errors with 2 out
This is thanks to Galaxy Brain Tito playing Kole Calhoun at 1B for the first time in nearly a decade, plus J Naylor and Fry being injured
Anderson got Bart Gunn’d
Jackie should get 8 games for instigating the fight and 8 games for getting knocked out.
And another 8 games for being publicly embarrassed on TV. Did anybody get a license plate #, or report the accident?
1-800-CALLSAM
1-800-RIPBOZO
It looks like Anderson didn’t think his value was quite low enough. The Sox will buyout that option.
“I want to fight”…bad, bad decision, Tim. That punch to Anderson’s chin reminds me of the punch Tyson used to end the Michael Spinks fight at around 30 seconds into the first round. Ramirez’s punch was even more impressive when you consider that Anderson and Kopech were double teaming him. Ramirez should never again have to pay for a drink in any tavern ever again.
Why not pick up the option, cause he got the beat down?
Because he can’t play and is not worth all the trouble he causes. WAR -1.6 with a 60 OPS+. Even with that abysmal OPS+, his dWAR is even lower than his oWAR.
I’m saying this is one more reason no team is going to want him when the Sox cut him loose. There’s no way they pick up that $14 million option.
So is Donaldson still the fault of all of Anderson’s problems? Donaldson was not TA’s first issue with another player.
@JoeBrady- It seems like Donny got in trouble for calling him Jackie. Wasn’t he giving him a compliment, calling him that? So confused. How was that an actual insult? Smh.
Tim Anderson’s legacy is sealed for all eternity. That clip of little Jose Ramirez cold cocking him after he ‘put up his dukes’ is epic. It will live in baseball infamy.
It really is embarrassing for Anderson. Not only does he have a huge reach advantage over Jose.. but Jose allowed Anderson to take the first swing and he was also partially obstructed by Kopech. It looked like the lights were off when Anderson went down.
@basquiat- Tim Anderson? Oh yeah right. You must mean, Jackie? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Wonder if MLBtv will pull the Tim Anderson Boys and Girls club commercials.
Why can’t they permanently ban players like Josh Donaldson, Anderson, Verdugo, etc? Suspensions don’t work
I would think the White Sox do the 1 million payout on TA and he hits free agency on a bad note. This guys actions are going to cost him. Not even mentioning his off the field behavior.
The White Sox are the most unlikable team in sports, notice how well everyone is doing that they traded, they are so happy to be out of there