13) I’m still amazed that the pitching coach of the Minnesota Twins was making $350,000, so he quit and became the pitching coach at LSU, where he now makes $750,000.
13 pitchers on a team that has 26 players on it; pithing coach is basically the manager for half the team, and he makes half what the minimum wage is for a player ($700,000)? Wow.
12) Can we just give Baltimore skipper Brandon Hyde Manager of the Year right now? Last year, Orioles were 52-110, a dreadful team. This year, they head to the All-Star break 46-46.
Part of the improvement goes to management, which made left/left-center in Camden Yards way bigger, which has to have helped their pitchers’ confidence.
11) Further evidence of the excellent job Hyde is doing:
Baltimore’s total payroll for 2022: $32,918,626
Max Scherzer’s salary for 2022: $43,333,333
10) All five teams in the American League East are .500 or better; last time a division had all of its teams at .500 or better on July 17? Back in 2005, the National League East.
9) Freddie Freeman heads into the All-Star break 16 for his last 24; he is probably sad not to play again until Thursday.
8) Red Sox P Chris Sale has been on the injured list seven times since 2018; he is headed for trip #8. A line drive broke the pinky on Sale’s pitching hand Sunday- it didn’t look good.
7) Apparently the business of baseball is doing well:
— Aaron Judge turned down a contract $31M a year.
— Juan Soto turned down a 15-year, $440M deal
Agents for both players obviously think their client will wind up making more $$$.
6) Since June 28, Los Angeles Angels are 3-0 when Shohei Ohtani pitches, 0-13 when anyone else is the starting pitcher.
5) Texas Rangers’ SS Corey Seager has a .976 OPS in his home games, which is really good; his OPS on the road is .634, which is terrible. Weird thing is that Texas has a pitchers’ ballpark, so you figure he would hit better on the road.
OPS is on-base %age plus slugging %age.
4) Boston Red Sox are 12-26 against their division rivals, 36-19 against everyone else. Boston has fallen out of the playoff picture; they’re still really close, but they need to pick it up against their AL East rivals.
3) Philadelphia Phillies are 27-14 since they changed managers, 11-8 since Bryce Harper broke his hand.
2) Colorado is 28-22 at home, 15-27 on the road; do opposing teams struggle playing in Denver, and if so, why? Rockies haven’t gotten much from newly-signed Kris Bryant until recently; will they be a better team after the All-Star break?
1) Trade deadline is August 2nd; with 12 teams making the playoffs now, will be interesting to see which teams sell off players for prospects and which teams try to fortify their roster.
