MLB News and Rumors

They say you judge your baseball teams after 40 games of the regular season. The Cleveland Indians have played 41 games and they have played most of them very well. The team is in first place in the A.L. Central and even the starting pitchers have done better than expected. The Indians won another one run game over the Seattle Mariners yesterday. That makes 2 games they won in the late innings and 2 games they were able to pull off to take over first place in the A.L. Central. The Indians started Zach McAllister, he continues to throw well and he pitched for 7-1/3 innings giving up only 2 earned runs on 6 hits. Chris Perez came in to close it down in the 9th but wasn’t able to hold the Mariners. He gave up 2 home runs and the Tribe had to pull out some more of their late inning magic to pull out their 24th win. Mark Reynolds was able to pull out an infield hit that knocked the Mariners short stop on his butt trying to filed the ball. His throw was bad coming to the plate and Jason K…

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Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jonathan Sanchez has been suspended for six games by Major League Baseball after he hit Allen Craig with a pitch in Friday’s loss to St. Louis.
Sanchez began the game by allowing back-to-back home runs to Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran. After giving up a single to Matt Holliday the 30-year-old pitcher had enough and hit Allen Craig with a pitch.
With Sanchez owning a 12.71 ERA and a 2.56 WHIP the Pirates should be in no hurry to rush him back to the mound. Sanchez has lasted past the fourth inning just once in his four starts this season. Last season Sanchez made 15 starts for Colorado and finished the year with an 8.07 ERA.

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The Toronto Blue Jays have assembled a contender for the 2013 season. The team is off to a disappointing 8-12 start, but there is a lot of baseball left to be played. Last season, the Blue Jays finished the year ranked 23rd in the MLB in attendance. This year, they rank 10th and are drawing an average of just under 30,000 fans at home games. According to former Jays catcher Gregg Zaun, the early-season losses have resulted in those 30,000 becoming some of the most unruly in baseball. “It’s very, very prevalent at the Rogers Centre, especially in the later innings when the Jays are losing that people lose their minds,” Zaun told The Toronto Star when asked about the reputation the fans are earning. They’re getting drunker, and drunker and drunker and it’s because fans are getting younger and younger.” Zaun said he feels that profanity should not be tolerated at all, but he also expressed concern over fans tossing stuff onto the field. “As a player who played for 16 years, anytime I saw a fan thr

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Can Chris Davis make it 5 for 5 tonight?
When Chris Davis hit a grand slam Friday evening at Camden Yards, he became one of only four major league baseball players to ever hit four home runs in their first four games of the season. He joins the likes of Willie Mays, Nelson Cruz, and Mark McGwire as the only players to accomplish that feat.
Davis is off to a ridiculously hot start to this season and has been one of the keys that have lead to Baltimore’s 3-1 start. 4 games in, Davis is batting .600 going 9-15 with 4 home runs and 16 RBIs.
If you think Crush Davis’ start to this season is just a fluke, think again. Sure he will not be able to go yard every night, but if you go back to last year, he now has hit 11 home runs in the last 11 regular season games.
Baltimore’s clean up hitter has a chance to make history tonight as he can become the only player to ever hit 5 home runs in the first 5 games of the season as the O’s host the Twins at 7:05. I don’t want to put the jinx on hi…

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BALTIMORE, April 5 — Baltimore Orioles slugger Chris Davis is on top of his game early into the 2013 season. 
On Friday he became just the fourth player in major league history to hit a homerun in his first four games of the season.
Please click here to read this story.
The post Baltimore Orioles Chris Davis homers in his first four games to join exclusive club appeared first on Players View.

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Over at The Cub Contrarian, Kyle used an estimated WAR for players to get a team win total. I thought I’d do the same thing, but I’m going to do it two ways: projections and my wild ass guesses.
Wild Ass Guess
Catchers: Welington Castillo (1.0), Dioner Navarro (negative infinity)
I could easily see Castillo being a 2 WAR player, but I’m not buying it. I could also see him being replacement level, but I think he’ll end up adding some value, but not a whole lot. Dioner Navarro is a waste of a roster spot and perhaps the most overpaid player in baseball history in that he’s earning infinitely more than he deserves to be paid.
1st Base: Anthony Rizzo (3.0) backups (0.0)
I think Rizzo is a very good young player, but I don’t believe he’s a future superstar. I think he’ll make some all-star teams and provide a lot of value while being paid little. That sounds like what the Cubs need.
2nd Base: Darwin Barney (2.5), backups (0.0)
Barney isn’t much of a hi…

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The Texas Rangers have been extremely good at winning series this year, going 34-13 with two splits.

If they win their next one, they will guarantee themselves at least a share of a third consecutive AL West title.

After escaping Seattle with a 3-2 win over the Mariners on Sunday, the Rangers return home to face second-place Oakland for four games. The Rangers hold a four-game lead on the A’s with 10 to play, giving them a magic number of seven.

Win three of four and they guarantee themselves a tie; pull off a sweep and they’d have the division title in hand with six games to go.

“Monday, that’s all we’re concentrating on,” said closer Joe Nathan, who picked up his 35th save of the season and the 296th of his career. “You worry about anything else at this point, like taking three of four or splitting, and you are asking for trouble. Hopefully, we come out and play well. Our approach is not to change anything and then see where the chips fall.”

Manager Ron Washington said, “I just want to win tomorrow. I’m not thinking three or four games ahead.”

The Rangers play seven of their final 10 games against Oakland. If Texas can simply win the best-of-seven series, it would also clinch the West. The season series, through 12 games, is tied at six apiece. The Rangers have won four of the last six.

However, the division title isn’t the only thing the Rangers are playing for. They hold a two-game lead over the New York Yankees for home-field advantage all the way through the AL playoffs. If the teams end up tied for the best record, the edge would go to the Yankees, who won the season series, 4-3

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Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Corey Hart, who missed eight games with ruptured plantar fascia in the arch of his left foot, is in Thursday’s lineup for the team’s final game of its series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The two-time All-Star’s absence hasn’t seemed to hurt the Brewers’ offense much, as the team is 7-1 since he injured his foot rounding second base against St. Louis.

Hart’s status has been very much in question given the nature of the injury, even forcing manager Ron Roenicke to question whether the slugger would be available the rest of the season. Plantar fascia injuries can be nagging and very painful.

Hart was eager to get back in the lineup last week but had a setback Sunday when he tried to run the bases. The injury makes it very difficult to run in anything other than a straight line.

But it seems Thursday and possibly going forward Hart will try to play through the pain. That could be very good news for the Brewers, as Hart is batting .278 with 27 home runs and 77 RBI in 137 games and was one of the driving forces behind the team’s late-season turnaround.

Follow Ryan Kartje on Twitter.

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