As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Pitchers’ Duel in Atlanta:
Just two weeks after Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford faced off against Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga in an early-season pitcher’s duel that pitted the then-best righty and lefty in baseball by ERA against each other in Boston, Crawford will again take the mound opposite one of the other best starting pitchers in the league to this point in the young 2024 season: Braves right-hander Reynaldo Lopez. Crawford sports an excellent 1.56 ERA with a 2.52 FIP and a 24.2% strikeout rate through seven starts this season. Those figures are very similar to those posted by Lopez in five starts this season: a 1.50 ERA, 2.94 FIP and 27% strikeout rate.
Those hot starts have left Crawford as the fifth-best starter in baseball by ERA with at least 30 innings of work this season, while Lopez ranks fourth. The strong results early in the season are all the more impressive given the fact that neither hurler was starting games this time last year; Lopez had pitched almost exclusively in relief over the past two seasons before being stretched out by Atlanta this winter, while Crawford was bumped to the bullpen in early April of last year and did not return to the Boston rotation until June. The two righties are set to face off this at 7:20pm local time this evening in Atlanta.
2. Series Preview: Astros @ Yankees
A three-game set featuring one of the more heated inter-division rivalries in recent years is set to kick off at 7:05pm local time in the Bronx this evening as the Yankees host the Astros. The look of the rivalry is very different six weeks into the regular season than it was in 2023, however. Last season saw the Astros capture their sixth-consecutive full-season AL West crown and make their seventh-consecutive trip to the ALCS as the Yankees missed the postseason for the first time since 2016, but this year the Astros have struggled badly in the early going while the Yankees have gotten off to a strong start on the back of offseason addition Juan Soto.
That’s left the Astros (12-22) with a nearly mirror opposite record to the surging Yankees (23-13) headed into this week’s series. It’s an important series for both clubs, with Houston desperate to make up ground in the AL West and avoid falling even further out of the playoff picture while the Yankees sit just one game back of the AL East-leading Orioles. Tonight’s game will see the Astros send future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander (2.08 ERA in 2024) to the mound opposite Yankees righty Luis Gil (3.19 ERA). Gil will be followed by left-hander Carlos Rodon (3.68 ERA) on the mound for New York tomorrow, while the Astros figure to counter with youngster Spencer Arrighetti (8.27 ERA). Right-handers Ronel Blanco (2.09 ERA) and Marcus Stroman (3.41 ERA) will finish off the series for the Astros and Yankees respectively on Thursday.
3. Recent veterans who’ve opted out:
First baseman Mike Ford, left-hander Chasen Shreve and right-hander Mychal Givens opted out of their respective minor league deals with the Reds, with the Rangers and with the Marlins last week.
Ford, in particular, has had a massive start to the season in Triple-A, hitting .297/.381/.538 with six homers in 105 plate appearances. That followed a huge spring training performance in which he hit .455/.486/.727 in 35 trips to the plate. Shreve posted a 2.61 ERA in 10 1/3 Triple-A frames and posted a 4.63 ERA in 44 1/3 big league innings last year. He’s worked to a career 3.97 ERA in 356 MLB frames. Givens was tagged for 10 runs in 11 1/3 innings with the Marlins’ top affiliate, but half of those came in his first appearance of the season after signing late in spring training. Knee and shoulder injuries limited him to four innings last year, but he has a lengthy track record as a successful late-inning arm. Any of the three could help out a big league club and should come off the board again before long.
Hope they bring Givens back to Cincinnati. Better late inning option than Sims.
But this is the same team who sent Moll, a lefty, to the minors and kept Sims around to stink up the joint.
Mike ford 3rd stint in Seattle incoming?
temporary DH platoon with garver?
Now that the baseball season is 20.062% over…
Mike Ford future star of a weekend men’s softball league
Most honest team in sports because they admitted to the low level “cheating” (debatable) and completely made up for it. Way more than made up for it. Meanwhile, every other team continues much much higher level cheating to this day, all while lying about it. Best organization in MLB. Best and most underrated stadium/fanbase/city/history in all of international sports.
The next time they’re called the “Trashtros” or theres any reference to “cheating” theres going to be a problem
The Astros could NEVER even remotely approach the Yankees despicable behavior which has gone on for decades. Numerous PED users with massive contracts, numerous law breakers, some of them thankfully in jail, numerous players who have no qualms about cheating (Error in Judgement, throw up your hand, loser) and an endless list of crybabies, when in fact the umpires consistently favor them over every other team. Plus a fan base that has thrown more objects on the field than every other franchise combined. But other than that, hey, they’re great.
like every other team in the sport the yankees have employed PED users and awful human beings (chad curtis) but they’re not some type of organized crime outfit as you seem to believe
Did I say organized?
Like a corporation that only cares about making money, the Yankees only care about winning.
Lewis Black said it quite well, “Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for Exxon to raise their gas prices.”
When you set an objective without any regard to any other issues, you operate completely without any morals whatsoever.
Solid trolling (or unabashed stupidity). The only way they can even come close to “making up for it” is to admit the 2017 season was a sham and give back the WS trophy. This will not happen.
Regarding the whole “everyone else was doing it, they just singled out the Astros because reasons” is still comical. Haven’t seen a shred of evidence that the vast majority (if not all teams as you say) were using the same level of systematic and intricate cheating. Or are using it to this day.
Players admitted it because they were granted immunity, not out of the goodness of their hearts or to clear their conscience. And even then, excuses and incoherent rationalizations were the themes. You are right in that it’s a great stadium.
TLDR: Please disregard username1’s post.
@Bravos ATL9521
If you want teams to return trophies, I’d suggest all of the teams return them as they’ve had various forms of cheaters throughout the years. All those years of pitchers with sticky stuff cheating? Or PED users filling up rosters while actually talented players are left in the minors? MLB is on the same level of professionalism as the WWE.
The difference being this was a full team effort, whether all the players in the dugout utilized this tactic or not. There couldn’t have been a single player that didn’t know what was going on. And seeing something and not doing anything still makes them culpable. This extended to the FO and the workplace culture in place during the Luhnow era.
Regardless, steroids/spider tack seems to be an apples to oranges comparison to the Astros. Don’t think it’s a good argument to use or even relates to this kind of team cheating. If you can make a strong argument that’s fine. Tbh I don’t care either way, I’m talking about the Astros unique situation.
@Bravos ATL9521
My point is, throughout the years, teams and players have used various manners to get an advantage. How good were some of those PED players if they weren’t actually doing it? And it was throughout the MLB not just 1 or two players. That helps teams win games and championships. Having more control over your pitches also helps teams win games and championships. Just because you don’t want to acknowledge that teams benefited from cheating doesn’t mean they should keep the trophies.
Wow, The Onion couldn’t even write satire this good and of course you drew the attention of the biggest goof on this site
TheOpener’s new alt. Remember when TheOpener used to spam “The next time they’re called the “Trashtros” or theres any reference to “cheating” theres going to be a problem” on every article last year? Username1 is his new account, MLBTR doesn’t ban people apparently, but just so people are aware who to mute now.
Found the main Trashstros
The whole “everyone else was doing it“ argument is the excuse a five year old would make. It not a valid excuse for them and it’s certainly not one for a group of grown men. The fans who use that excuse are even more pathetic.
I remember when the Red Sox were punished for sign stealing. Supposedly, they were using a TV to get the catcher’s sign, decoding it, sending a sign to the runner on second base, who then signaled the batter. All this somehow transpired in the time between the pitcher nodding for the sign and throwing the pitch. Banging on something makes a whole lot more sense when you realize how little time is involved. But the whole thing is absurd and just a ridiculous attempt by baseball to show that they’re actually doing something about cheating. All that baseball has ever done about cheating is a sham.
Not “everyone else was doing it”. It’s “everyone else was doing it, is doing it now and will always be doing it”.
I’m fairly confident that baseball fully encouraged sign stealing by choosing to ignore/not punish it.
I would find it very unlikely that the White Sox didn’t make a formal complaint to the league given their pitcher(s) on the mound threw their hands up in the middle of the game after hearing the signal. So the league “not knowing” the Astros were cheating, unlikely. The Yankees also complained openly about the Astros stealing signs.
It’s just like the “steroid era”, baseball didn’t care. Contrarily, they encouraged it.
Manfred, since day one, has been looking for ways to increase offense. I believe he was perfectly happy with turning a blind eye in hopes the fans would never find out.
And it’s just great watching all the pitchers blow their arms out trying to compete with Manfrud and Sellig and the Olympic Shyster Uberoff and Bowie Kohn’s Chicks Dig the Long Ball mentality.
Came to see where ppl think the relievers will end up and find ppl defending the Astros for no apparent reason. Ridiculous bait to get ppl arguing. I would like to see the cubs grab one of the relievers.
#freeBauer2024
What? Are you in a Mexican jail or something?