Pitching Grips

2:01 Jason Martinez : Welcome to the RosterResource chat! Always a pleasure to join you all and talk some baseball. Here we go … 2:01 Metsox : Whats up with Jose Fernandez’s playing time? He seems to young to sit on the bench, but maybe isn/t? Could the DBacks move Marte, which they want to do apparently, and create space for him? Could he move to OF. He hits the ball hard and has been solid so far. 2:04 Jon Becker : He’s playing a decent amount, but it’s damn near impossible to sit Ildemaro Vargas with the way he’s hitting. As for the OF, he’s never played there as a pro and I haven’t seen anything about him getting work there, so that’s probably off the table for now. It’ll be interesting to see what they do when Carlos Santana is back, since Vargas/Fernandez getting playing time makes the most sense but I don’t think they’d DFA Santana based on such a small sample size since he’s such ...

Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images On Tuesday night, the Astros came away with a big win against the Dodgers, but they suffered an even bigger loss, as an ankle injury in batting practice resulted in Carlos Correa being pulled before the game. The exact extent of the injury was not initially known, with the shortstop/third baseman scheduled to visit a specialist today, but Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reported late this morning that Correa will have surgery and miss the rest of the 2026 season: Astros source: Carlos Correa will have surgery on his left ankle and will be out for the season. A devastating injury blow for the Astros. — Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) May 6, 2026 This didn’t seem like the sort of mild sprain that’s healed by a bag of ice and a weekend spent watching old episodes of Top Chef with your foot elevated. Indeed, the initial returns Tuesday night were already pretty concerning, with McTaggart reporting that “ the expectation was that Correa w...

Brett Davis-Imagn Images I don’t think many would quibble with me too harshly if I characterized the last two seasons for the Atlanta Braves as dreary disappointments. In 2024, the Braves were generally believed to challenge the Dodgers for the title of best team in baseball. This held true for about six weeks, but for the rest of the season, they suffered myriad injuries and played .500 ball, barely hanging onto a wild card spot before quickly being dispatched by the Padres. Going into 2025 with the hope for a healthier, bounce-back season, nothing of the sort happened. Atlanta finished at 76-86, the franchise’s first losing season since 2017. Expectations coming into this season were more muted. While the Braves were expected to be competitive (the FanGraphs projections were more optimistic than ZiPS), the excitement was certainly dampened compared to the previous two years. So far in 2026, the Braves have defied the pundits and computers, dominating the NL East and spor...

Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images The best team in baseball will be without its biggest star for a few weeks. The Braves placed Ronald Acuña Jr. on the injured list Sunday with a strained left hamstring. Acuña exited Saturday’s game after pulling up in considerable pain while running out a groundout. Manager Walt Weiss told reporters that imaging revealed a Grade 1 strain, the least severe grade. According to MLB.com, Weiss said: “It’s not going to be just a couple days. It’s gonna be more than that, so we need to put him on the IL, and hopefully it’ll be sooner than later. No idea with these soft tissue injuries how long they’re gonna take, but I think the silver lining is that the MRI showed it wasn’t too serious.” While many players return from Grade 1 hamstring strains in just a couple weeks, or even following the 10-day minimum, this is an injury that can linger and delay a return. This is, obviously, less than ideal for the Braves. Acuña is thei...

Stan Szeto-Imagn Images I don’t pay too much attention to the standings in April. I look at them, of course, but that’s more a matter of routine than a desire to learn something substantial. It’s hard for teams to pull ahead of the pack this early in the season, and I’d rather not read too much into the fact that, say, the banged-up Blue Jays are a few games below .500, or that none of the five teams in the NL Central has a losing record. It takes time for these things to sort themselves out. And yet, upon checking the standings Friday morning, I found myself pondering the significance of what I saw: specifically, that only three teams in the American League had a winning record. After a dizzying 20 minutes of digging, I lifted my head from my laptop in a daze, wondering how the heck I ended up staring at Baseball Reference’s playoff odds for the 14-18 White Sox. I think seeing the number 16.1% is what snapped me out of my stupor. (For what it’s wor...