The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we're running here at MLBDD and rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be shared? Hit us at @mlbdailydish on Twitter.
Good morning baseball fans!
With the MLB Draft right around the corner, there are some teams more prepared in their prospect systems than others. Here are five of those teams.
There are good ways to cover the MLB trade deadline, and then there are not so good ways to cover the trade deadline.
Clayton Kershaw is closing in on history.
Obviously, this is jumping the gun a bit, since 2016 is less than one-third complete, and it's plausible that Kershaw could falter. But recall the beginning of the article: he's leading the rest of the league by a full win! The next closest player by fWAR is Noah Syndergaard, and if Kershaw stopped pitching today, Syndergaard—who's thrown 60 innings with a 1.69 FIP, and also been outstanding—would need to throw another 30 such innings, just to erase the deficit Kershaw has created. That's half his season! This is the second-best pitcher in baseball right now, and Kershaw is just wrecking him.
There's an argument to be made that this isn't using WAR correctly, and that it's more important what figure someone gets than whether or not there's anyone higher than them. Possibly true! Irrelevant, however, to how a player makes you feel. If Kershaw had been cloned, and there were two of him mowing down anything resembling a batter, it would be less special. He's standing alone, at the very top of the league, where he's been standing for three years already and might be standing for another year or (fingers crossed) two or three. He's in incredibly rarified air, doing things nearly no one has done before.
The MLB owes international signees a real education, says our own Mike Bates.
Here is a roundup of AL West news.
And Jonny Gomes is calling it quits, retiring after 13 seasons.
It's officially hit rock bottom for Diamondbacks pitcher Shelby Miller.
Mechanically, I’m an idiot. I don’t know Shelby Miller’s mechanics like Shelby Miller, nor do I know them like Miller’s coaches. They’ve been working on him for weeks, and they could have their own suspicions. What is evident is that Miller isn’t yet fixed. They’ll keep trying, but the season keeps going, and the numbers keep getting worse. You wonder if they could even get any worse.
That’s what’s known: performance-wise, Shelby Miller is at rock bottom. My guess is what’s featured above; I think his delivery might be off from the start, and that would leave him out of whack. If this is an issue with Miller’s right leg, that seems like the kind of thing that could and should be fixed. There’s not actually all that great a distance between this version of Shelby Miller and a successful one. You could forgive Miller if he feels like he’s a million miles away.
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Today in Baseball History: In 1946, Mel Ott decides to stop playing after hitting.048 for the season, and will only manage the Giants.