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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!
If the Tampa Bay Rays are going to move their star pitcher, Chris Archer, they need to be overwhelmed in a deal.
Baltimore and Miami are two teams that are expressing interest in Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson.
The latest edition of the Rosterbatorical broke down the Cubs trade for Mike Montgomery, the Dodgers woes and the Indians.
Speaking of the Dodgers, add Jay Bruce and Carlos Gonzalez to the list of players they are interested in.
All of this is culminating into a trade market that is on the precipice of exploding.
Rangers Prince Fielder might be out for the rest of the 2016 season with potential neck surgery.
What truly is the value of Kyle Schwarber?
Like, say, adding Aroldis Chapman to the deal. Putting Chapman and Miller in the Cubs bullpen, along with Hector Rondon and Pedro Strop, would give the Cubs the best bullpen in baseball, to go along with all the other things they’re the best at. And at that point, the short-term upgrade would be large enough that I think the Cubs would have to at least consider moving Schwarber.
I know the Cubs love his personality and his work ethic, and perhaps he will turn into the kind of franchise cornerstone that justifies keeping him for the future, even if he could bring back a serious upgrade to the team in the short-term. But given the questions I have about his offensive upside, in addition to the real questions about his defensive value, I think I’d at least be engaging the Yankees on a Schwarber-for-Miller-and-Chapman deal. Schwarber looks like a very nice young hitter, but the Cubs have other guys who also look like nice young hitters.
What they don’t have is a World Championship in the last century. Kyle Schwarber can’t help them with that this year. Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman could, and from my perspective, the short-term upgrade might be worth the long-term cost.
A long awaited Andrew Cashner deal could come soon for the Padres.
Here is a roundup of news from around the American League East.
The White Sox are considering moving reliever David Robertson and third-baseman Todd Frazier.
More trade deadline previews, with the Giants and Pirates.
A pitcher may actually be starting to conquer Coors Field, and his name is Jon Gray.
A second, and perhaps more important reason for throwing the slider harder may be due to how the pitch performs at altitude. Looking back at Gray’s slider velocity plotted on a per-game basis, we see the two highest peaks occur in his last two home starts. Over the years, PitchFX data have revealed that sliders and cutters are among the most effective pitches thrown at Coors Field, and could work well when paired with a power fastball.
Obviously, it’s far too early to conclude that Gray has solved the Rockies’ age-old problem of pitching at Coors Field. This entire thought experiment is predicated on five starts’ worth of success (against lackluster offenses, no less) and includes fewer than 100 innings of data. However, the little anecdotal evidence we have suggests that there might be something here, and for a franchise that has struggled to pitch in its own ballpark for so long, might be worth latching onto so long as their young starter continues to rack up strikeouts.
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Today in Baseball History: Since the commissioner is considering limiting the number of pitching changes in an inning, this is a good one. In 1967, the Braves used a MLB record five pitchers in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the Cardinals.