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The White Sox DFA'd Jeff Keppinger yesterday, which seems unwise. They paid $12 million, presumably after hearing about his unstoppable bat, and thy're just giving up on him? Take a cue from the Giants and Barry Zito: Just keep him around forever. It'll work out!
Pinch Blogging: Javier Lopez
Brandon Belt is on the DL, so it looks like various members of the team are going to take turns being The Other Brandon on the blog. Yesterday, Javier Lopez's number was up, so he just decided to roll out of bed and be eloquent, funny, and informative. What else could we have expected? After all, the FBI has high standards.
MLB Wants an International Draft. Here’s Why It Shouldn’t Happen
I dunno, I think that MLB really needs a way to further restrict the number of amateurs playing professionally. If there's one thing we all want, it's for talented players who might otherwise get a second chance to be overlooked and then never play major league baseball, possibly depriving us of watching a great player, and depriving him of earning lots of money. Plus, the poor owners would finally get a financial break after being in the red for years on end. Why, it's a wonder anyone owns a baseball team at all, considering how much money it costs.
Knowing Arky
How important is it for major league announcers to be familiar with baseball history? Joe Posnanski recently watched a Royals broadcast where their broadcasters misidentified the decade Honus Wagner played and flat-out admitted that one of them had never heard of Arky Vaughan. Now, this was not the only egregiously terrible statement they made that day, but it makes you appreciate the Giants broadcast team. Can you imagine any of them being almost proud of not having heard of one of the all-time greats? Of course not. The only fact they're proud of not knowing is the location of the App Store.
Notes on D: Giants benefit from shifts
We've all probably noticed that the Giants are shifting more than they used to, and how it seems like every time they do, Brandon Crawford catches a one-hop grounder behind second base. It turns out they've been the fourth best team in the majors in terms of runs saved through defensive shifts. Ron Wotus is totally getting first pick of the orange slices in the clubhouse.
GreenJackets Wrap-up: Reports on Mella, Polonius, Rojas
Scouting reports on three Augusta Greenjackets, including Keury Mella. from Augusta beatwriter David Lee. I think it's a really good idea to just pencil Mella into the 2018 San Francisco rotation right now. Yep, Bumgarner-Cain-Crick-Escobar-Mella looks pretty good to me, though I don't know if it'll be able to compete with the Cardinals' rotation of Farm System Guy-Farm System Guy-Farm System Guy-Wainwright-Random Amazing Free Agent. They're just scary from 1 through 5.