Chavez Ravine

Kershaw on the 10 day DL. Seeing the consulting doctor. Cobb and Manny in a package deal... or do the Dodgers become sellers?

Now a double so far today; his BA is .352. I was wrong, I thought at least this year would be a value hole. He did make a critical error in the 2nd....must be chaneling O’s outfield vibes.

A check swing roller no less.

And Belt promptly ends it with a single.

Patrick Corbin has a no hitter 2/3 through the 8th against SF.

No hitter gone; Astros have men on 2nd and 3rd nobody out.

Perfecto gone with a walk in the 8th. It is a 1-0 game.

Bartolo Colon has a perfect game through 7 against Houston.

This is obviously not recent, but it gives you the idea.

A cynic might say they stopped playing in Latin America when they could no longer fill out their 40 man for 7K. But I agree with Connolly, being opposed on principal...and digging in no matter what...is very much PA's style. It is actually one of his better traits, I think.

I am not sure if this is relevant to any of this, but I stumbled upon this NYT article from 1998 "breaking the news" that Latin America was a vast underutilized pool of inexpensive baseball talent. Baltimore gets noted twice as being at the front of the charge: https://nyti.ms/2BB5ADB

Who needs starters? I am kinda excited about this season. Will throwing a revolving door of 3 inning dudes and AAAA relievers at the wall halfway stick?

One thing I have wondered about while drinking beer: how does the length of the contract interact with the total value? For instance, if teams could only at most give out three year contracts, what would be the value of the contract Manny would get? Presumably without long-term deals total value would decrease because right now teams get to amortize the costs and also essentially use credit to buy near term performance.....which to my non-economist mind seems like it would tend to inflate how much teams are willing to shell out. But on the other hand, (luxury taxing aside), many teams don't seem to have near term cash flow issues. Free from the worry of accumulating underwater contracts, I could see the bidding on 3 unfettered prime Manny years getting intense.

I assume someone in the basement of League offices has played around with even more radical adjustments. It would be fun to see them. How about a 100 game season with expanded playoffs?

There was even a very long discussion of the evidence among the umps before he was thrown out of the game in the first place!

The bean ball to McCann's head was scary. But I guess those hi-tech batting helmets work.

Yeah...I though he had it for a moment.

Insane. Hill gives up a lead off home run in the 10th for the loss!

No hitter intact. On to the 10th.

Forsythe is a lonely man at the moment.

Perfect through 8. Utley saved it with a leaping catch of a line drive. 8th inning ended on a 3-2 strikeout. oh, BTW, the game is tied.

21 batters in a row now.

Rich Hill has retired the first 18 Pirates he faced so far. The Dodgers are up in the top of the 7th.

Rosenthal claims that the Giants had an entirely different issue with the physical than the Orioles did. Really? Seems somewhat far fetched. https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/896398867763261440

Some churning and rumbling https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2017/8/2/16079742/sf-giants-minor-lines-8-1-17-where-is-jack-conlon Either the Giants got scared by the physical as well or we are seeing a practical example of just how much the draft suppresses prospect compensation.