As the second half of the regular season gets underway, here are three things to watch around baseball this weekend:
1. Weekend matchups:
The two clubs battling at the top of the AL West will face off this weekend, as the Mariners host the Astros for a three-game set. It will be the final matchup between the division rivals until mid-September. Probable starting pitchers for the Mariners are Luis Castillo, George Kirby, and Bryan Woo (per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times), while the Astros are lined up to counter with Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez, and Ronel Blanco (per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). The series begins tonight at 9:10 PM CT.
Since the last time these two teams faced off, the Astros have gained 4.5 games on the Mariners, putting them just one game back in the AL West. With a series win this weekend, Houston would reclaim first place in the division for the first time since 2023. Meanwhile, if Seattle wins at least two of the three games, the Mariners will clinch the season series against the Astros. Winning the season series against a divisional rival became especially important in 2022 when the new CBA replaced tiebreaker games with mathematical tiebreaking procedures. Just last year, the Astros beat the Rangers for the AL West crown because Houston took the season series 9-4.
Over in the National League, the top two Wild Card teams are getting ready for a weekend matchup. If the regular season ended at the All-Star break, the Braves and Cardinals would be gearing up to play in a three-game Wild Card Series at Truist Park. Now, of course, there is still plenty of regular season left to play, which means their face-off this weekend in Atlanta is only a postseason preview.
Spencer Schwellenbach, Charlie Morton, and Max Fried are lined up to pitch for the Braves (per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), while Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Miles Mikolas are in line to start for the Cardinals (per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). The Braves will hope to increase their lead in the Wild Card race with a series victory, while the Cardinals could find themselves just 0.5 games back of the top Wild Card spot if they manage to sweep the three-game set. The first game begins tonight at 6:20 PM CT.
2. Top prospect promotions:
As Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported yesterday, the Athletics are planning to promote 22-year-old prospect Jacob Wilson, likely as soon as this evening’s contest against the Angels. The A’s selected him with the sixth overall pick in last year’s draft. Presumably, he will take over from Max Schuemann as the everyday shortstop in Oakland. The A’s have open spots on the 40-man and the active roster, so they do not need to make a corresponding move before announcing Wilson’s promotion.
Although a knee injury limited his playing time earlier this season, Wilson has been nothing but electric throughout his brief career in the minor leagues. Quickly rising through Oakland’s system, he has hit .401/.445/.613 (180 wRC+) across four levels. In 19 games at Triple-A this year, he has a .398 batting average with eight doubles, four home runs, and only three strikeouts. Baseball America recently ranked Wilson as the No. 19 overall prospect in the game, while MLB Pipeline has him at No. 50. The Athletic’s Keith Law did not include Wilson on his preseason top 100 prospects list but ranked the young infielder No. 2 in the Athletics system.
Meanwhile, down in Southern California, the Dodgers are reportedly planning to promote top pitching prospect River Ryan, according to The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. Manager Dave Roberts has not yet announced how he plans to line up his rotation to begin the second half, so it’s possible Ryan could make his first big league start this weekend against the Red Sox.
Baseball America ranks Ryan as the No. 10 prospect (No. 3 pitching prospect) in the organization, while MLB Pipeline has him at No. 4 (No. 2 among pitchers). The Athletic’s Keith Law was particularly high on Ryan entering the season, considering him the best pitching prospect in the organization and one of the top four pitching prospects in the sport. Shoulder issues delayed the beginning of Ryan’s season, but the 26-year-old has looked sharp in five Triple-A outings, pitching to a 2.76 ERA and 3.67 FIP with a 28.8% strikeout rate and a 60.0% groundball rate. L.A. has an open spot for Ryan on the 40-man and active rosters. Although he has limited experience at Triple-A and likely needs a bit more seasoning in the minors, the Dodgers will hope he can provide their beleaguered rotation with some temporary relief.
3. Hall of Fame induction ceremony:
Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, Todd Helton and Jim Leyland will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend, with the ceremony set for Sunday at 12:30 PM CT. The festivities will be broadcast on MLB Network. Beltre, Mauer, and Helton were elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for their playing careers, while Leyland was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee for his work as a manager. An additional 50 Hall of Famers will be present to celebrate their induction. More details about the event can be found on the Hall of Fame website.
Feels weird to not have something special done for Willie Mays. Hopefully they will.
Weird, Strange and Odd come to mind. A whole lot of people have Willie Mays in their all-time Top 5.
Hopefully something is done for mays and the other hall of fame players who have passed this year. However this day is about the group being enshrined and no matter how great mays was for the game his passing can not be a bigger story then that on this day either.
While it’s true that Sunday’s HOF induction is about the present, you have to also remember the past. Wee Willie Keeler, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, who is a close second in my all-time top five. The best baseball movie I’ve ever seen is “The Glory of Their Time.” That’s what those players were. Hopefully they’ll put a wreath or something on the chair Mays would have sat on this Sunday.
schell – Well said. It’s a jam-packed weekend honoring the newest inductees with a full itinerary, no time should be taken away from those being inducted.
And besides, the Baseball HOF has already honored Willie by bringing his plaque to Rickwood Field for the June event, and they put out a very nice video on Willie. ,
Doesn’t everyone have him in the top five? Those who don’t, please identify so your baseball privileges can be revoked.
Willie needs a whole presentation of his own. The man was the epitome of the five-tool player, he deserves it.
I’m sure they’ll do some sort of tribute at the ceremony.
lay – Moment of silence, along with other HOF’ers lost during the past year such as Orlando Cepeda and Whitey Herzog.
Leyland‘s plaque needs to feature him smoking a cigarette so his former players and family members can find him.
Slider: Aaron’s regime was one meal and six cigarettes a day. You could often see him trying to hide in the dugout having a smoke, especially in his DH only years.
And chewing out Bonds.
I love Jim Leyland. Glad to see he’s going in the HOF. He’s probably my favorite manager of all-time.
Mauer and Helton are not hall of famers.
For what it’s worth, none of them are in my mind. Beltre got “help”.
letit,
What “help” did Beltre have? Some actual evidence would be helpful.
I have news for you. They are. They were elected.
I don’t see your name on the voters’ list.
“Like a f*rt in the wind….”
Darren – You’re right, they are not …. until Sunday afternoon.
You re correct, but they will officially be HOFers this weekend.
I don’t see a scenario where they don’t honor Willie Mays at the Hall of Fame this weekend. Baseball is classier than that.
As for the weekend Match-ups; very possible the Astros claim the top spot in the AL West by the end of this series. Capping an incredible comeback from where they were on May 1st.
Let’s not forget the Red Sox are at Chavez Ravine to play the Dodgers this weekend. No Mookie but should still be a fun series
Rsox – The series has lost it’s luster though. No Mookie, JD, Martin, Turner, Verdugo, Brasier or Kelly.
Other than Jansen possibly closing out a game, it’s hard to get excited about Paxton & Kike facing their old team.
True but looking at it more from the perspective of can the Sox take another series from another juggernaut and that’s the interesting part for me
Rsox – Okay you’re looking at it from a reputation perspective.
Fact is the Dodgers are just 5-10 over their last 15 games, and 1-6 in their last 7 games.
Their pitching right now kinda sucks, have you seen their IL recently?
Brasier
Buehler
Glasnow
Gonsolin
Graterol
Kelly
Kershaw
May
Yamamoto
That’s why I laugh when people complain about Red Sox injuries ….. they pale in comparison to other teams.
Maybe it’s just the eternal optimist in me again, but I can totally see the Sox winning the series this weekend. They should just not pitch to Ohtani, which is easier to do now that Mookie isn’t there.
Fever, you mean you don’t want to see Houck against Ohtani? Oh wait. We saw that on Tuesday. Better for him to get a Sox pitcher then than this weekend.
dewey – Houck isn’t pitching this weekend, it’s Pivetta-Bello-Crawford.
Regardless of who is pitching, I’d walk him every time.
No Joe Kelly adds to the luster. And when I look at an upcoming series, the amount of ex-players facing their old teams has nothing to do with how good or interesting a series it will be.
Hank – Joe was just activated, should be fun.
There should be standards for the HOF.
Stop the popularity contests, the hall is meaningless if you let everyone in.
Mauer and Helton were great players but, no 3000 hits, no 500 hrs and no championships.
Stop lowering the standards.
Please respect the players that earned their way in the right way.
Sure, those guys who played in the intense blaring limelight of Minnesota and Colorado got in via a “popularity contest”.
Riiiiight….
Lmao
Sterling – The baseball hall is the hardest to get into of all the four major professional team sports. Some years there’s just one player inducted, or even none.
Mauer won three batting titles as a catcher, an MVP with what may be the best season by a catcher ever, gold gloves, etc. catching is far different for offensive stats than other positions.
There are no set-in-stone standards for the Hall. Mauer and Helton are both worthy. There are many, many players way inferior to them who are already in.
But also many out who are equal or better. Mayer for a short time was amazing but it was too short. I’ll take Munson for example. Reggie had the three homer game but Munson was their best clutch hitter (and that team had a few including Pineilla and Chambliss in addition to Reg-give).
There is a standard, it’s 75%
When you allow Harold baines in, it takes a shine off of things so I’m curious if anyone can tell me who this is from stats alone who compares favorable to mauer but didn’t even sniff the hall of fame. career war 46.4, 2445 hits, ba 303, runs 1179 rbis 1146, opb 383, ops 825, ops + 119, 4 gold gloves and and had the most hits and doubles in a decade, the only person to do that and not be in the hall of fame. any guesses?
Mauer shouldn’t be compared to Mark Grace. He was an all-time great catcher for ten years.
Baines is in the HOF thanks to the influence of Reinsdorf and La Russa over the voting committee.
Absolutely Bucket. I’m not a fan of Baines getting in. But I also don’t think it needs to be rehashed constantly.
You re spot on with Reinsdorf and LaRussa. Well what’s done is done, but ultimately many will echo your sentiment when they think of Baines. As for the committees, they need alternates for every member. If any committee member has a heavy biased they should be recused from voting on that particular player or any discussion of that player and an alternate steps in.
Babies is the obvious one and it’s not fair to him as he was a very good player. He’s just not HOF worthy in my view and gets skewered because of the way it went down. Ron Santo was another whose election was orchestrated but his selection was overdue. I hope when Dewey makes it, it’s not because of Rice, Eckersley and Boggs campaigning. Evans along with many others simply deserved the honor before Baines. Munson, Hernandez. Belle and Mattingky just to name a few.
Bucs need show up against Phils!
Took helton a few tries which makes sense
Mauer is borderline HOF
Beltre is 1st ballot
PED users excluded as they should be
All in all a solid hof class
There’s a bunch more who deserve to be in, and a few that dont
No, PED users should not be excluded. Almost everyone was using them during that era. But the only ones who get in are guys the like Ortiz, who has a personality that makes people give him a pass.
@ Utah I agree it’s a solid class. I wish Mauer would ve had to wait a year or 2. But like you said borderline and he just squeaked in. And although I like the luster behind first ballot label, ultimately I agree with the sentiment any player is just as HOF worthy first year as the last. It should be acut and dry yes or no.
What I don’t care for in regards to first ballot, what if every voter decided not to vote for a particular player just cus it’s first year and they drop off. Or what if for any first ballot guy other than Mo everyone took the stance they shouldn’t b unanimous. You could have had say Griffey fall off ballot just cus everyone wanted to be the few who didn’t make him unanimous. Luckily that never really happened, but that’s always a possibility with that mindset.
1-Dodgers minus Brais equals Red Sox sweep….2- HOF minus Curt equals a farce(voters)..3- Mr Mays and Hank..Jackie etc…having to play and perform with the ridicule and prejudice they had to endure at the toughest sport to excel in is unremarkable. Please take a moment and think about .. Hard in my eyes not to see one of them as greatest all- time when taken into account….
REMARKABLE(sorry)
olm – I totally agree on Curt Leskanic, the guy pitched some big innings for my 2004 Red Sox!