— Saturday is May 4th; Miami Marlins have already tanked this season; they traded 2B Luis Arraez to San Diego Friday, for three outfield prospects and a relief pitcher.
Arraez hit .354 last year, is hitting .299 this year.
As for the four guys Miami got:
a) one guy is hitting .176 in the hitter-friendly AA Texas League.
b) another guy is hitting .237 in Class A ball
c) third guy is hitting .292 in the Texas League.
d) relief pitcher has allowed 7 runs in 12.1 IP for the AA team.
As an A’s fan, I can testify that this is depressing for Marlin fans, just quitting this early in the season. The prospect book I buy every year has the three OFs listed as the Padres’ #’s 7-11-17 prospects; the relief pitcher isn’t listed in the book.
— I pay a decent amount of $$$ for MLB.TV, so I can watch any baseball game I want, but part of the deal is the two New York teams get blacked out, until 90 minutes after their games end, plus on Fridays, Apple TV has two games which you can’t watch, unless you have that streaming service.
So, of the seven 7:00 games on Friday’s card, I could only watch three of them live. No bueno.
— Wednesday night in Nashville, they drew 7,568 fans for a minor league games with Norfolk against the host Nashville Sounds.
Meanwhile, the Rockies-Marlins major league game drew 7,171 fans; the Pirates-A’s game drew 4,679 fans in Oakland.
In the next few years, MLB is going to expand to 32 teams; Nashville is a pretty good bet to get one of the two new teams.
— Thursday night, the Knicks eliminated the 76ers from the NBA playoffs, winning Game 6 in a close 118-115 game.
Tobias Harris played 29:00 for Philly; in those 29:00, he was 0-2 from the floor, didn’t score; he had 4 rebounds, 3 assists. 76ers were minus-10 in his 29:00 on the floor, not exactly the kind of production you’d like from a guy making $37M a year.
— Lakers fired coach Darwin Ham Friday, after Denver ousted LA from the playoffs; in his two years coaching the Lakers, Ham had a 90-74 regular season record, 9-12 in playoffs; Lakers won the in-season tournament, which gets exposed for what it is, a meaningless mid-season event.
The whole coaching staff was told to take a hike after the Lakers failed to protect a double-digit lead in all four of their losses to Denver in the series.
— 78 players were invited to the NBA Draft Combine, where players work out for teams; there are only 58 players drafted
— Kentucky Derby is Saturday; the five longest shot to win the Derby:
91-1: Donerail, 1913
80-1: Rich Strike, 2022
65-1: Country House, 2019
50-1: Mine That Bird, 2009
50-1: Giacomo, 2005
— Miami Dolphins signed WR Odell Beckham Jr for one year, $3M, that with incentives, could get as high as $8.25M.
— Famous birthdays for May 4th:
George Will, 83
Rene Lachemann, 79
Butch Beard, 77
Ken Oberkfell, 68
Rick Leach, 67
Cleveland Gary, 58
Dawn Staley, 54
Ben Grieve, 48
Rory McIlroy, 35
— Baseball injuries:
Pirates activated C Yasmani Grandal, sent Henry Davis to AAA
Rangers put P Nathan Eovaldi (leg strain) on IL.
— Dodgers 4, Braves 3 (11)
Andy Pages’ 4th hit of the game was a walk-off single in the 11th inning.
— Bronx 2, Tigers 1
Stanton tied game with a 9th-inning double; Rizzo won it with a walk-off single. New York has scored a total of eight runs in its last five games.
— A’s 3, Marlins 1
Sears tossed 6.1 scoreless IP, as the A’s won their 5th game in a row.
Rooker homered for Oakland.
— Brewers 3, Cubs 1
Milwaukee scored 3 runs in 8th, as Craig Counsell lost to his old team.
— There were four games Friday that were scoreless after five innings; are the baseballs dead or something? Offense seems to be way down so far this season.
— Rays 10, Mets 8
DeLuca had 3 RBI in his first game this season, coming off a hand injury.
Quintana got racked for 10 hits, 8 runs in 2.2 IP.
— If the playoffs started today (they don’t):
NL: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers. Wild Cards: Braves, Cubs, (NYM-Cin-Wsh)
AL: Orioles, Guardians, Mariners. Wild Cards: Bronx, Royals, Twins
