Why are the bids showing $5-7? That can't be right...

I toggled him tonight. $19 as a pitcher, $27 as a hitter. I'm surprised by the hitter price. Obviously not an OBP league.

So homer number 29 tonight to shut me up!  I love the guy and root for him. Go Joey!

So now the Mets mention the torn UCL thing.  Thanks for nothing!

09.07... Mets president Sandy Alderson revealed Tuesday that Jacob deGrom was diagnosed earlier this summer with a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow.
Spin: It has felt for a while like deGrom might be dealing with more than just inflammation, as he's been sidelined since mid-July and only recently resumed throwing on flat ground. Alderson did note that "the ligament is perfectly intact at this point," but there remains no timetable for the ace right-hander's potential return in 2021.

Jen McCafrey at The Athletic:

It was a long 10 days quarantining in Cleveland for Kiké Hernández. Very long.

So much so that while watching Red Sox games at night in his hotel room, Hernández put on his Red Sox uniform, wore a mask and called his fellow COVID-quarantined teammates to pretend like they were still with the team.

“I’d put on my pants, put on my top, my hat, and I’d wear a mask just if I was in the dugout,” Hernández said Tuesday, his first day back with the team. “I would start FaceTiming guys, try to lighten up the mood. It was cool to see how engaged everybody was watching the games, they weren’t just shutting it down and doing their own thing. Everybody was engaged. As not cool as it was, it was kind of cool.”

Hernández, who is vaccinated, was the first among the Red Sox to test positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 26 in Cleveland, beginning an outbreak on the team that sidelined 11 players and three coaches. He returned to the lineup at last on Tuesday, going 0-for-5 as the depleted Red Sox were pummeled 12-7 by the Tampa Bay Rays to drop their third straight.

Hernández said he started feeling symptoms the day before the team left for Cleveland but thought his body aches were more a result of long games, dehydration and, as he quipped, the fact that he’d been getting on base more often than he was accustomed to. He didn’t think it was anything more than midseason fatigue, especially considering he didn’t have any chest congestion or coughing. But when he woke up the next day in Cleveland, the chest congestion had surfaced, so he requested a COVID-19 test and it returned positive. After two days of solid sleep, he was feeling better by day three.

“I’m glad that I was vaccinated because this thing got me pretty good for a day-and-a-half,” he said. “I’ve heard from some other people, not just in baseball, but throughout this whole thing, that have felt symptoms for way more than a day and a half. I guess I got lucky on that side.”

Hernández felt guilty for being the first among his teammates known to have contracted the virus, especially at a crucial point in the season with the team pushing for the playoffs. But he was proud of how the team rallied with so many key players out.

“I guess you can call me patient zero on the team,” he said. “I just felt shitty, whether I was the first one or not, I was the first one that actually tested positive and after that, we lost, like, 40 percent of our team. But I’m really proud of what they did while we were out. We still have a lot of guys out, but the fact that they went out there, won the series in Cleveland, split in Tampa, and won against the Indians here, they showed a lot of grit, a lot of battle. It says a lot about those guys.”

... Even though he’s vaccinated and still got sick, Hernández tried to take something out of the situation, realizing how fleeting his time is as a major leaguer.

“The game got taken away from me for 10 days. It sucks,” he said. “It puts things into perspective. This career is very short. It was 10 days, but it just puts you in a different perspective. Every day that you’re in the big leagues, you need to enjoy this thing, because this career just goes by so quickly.

“I always talk about how much I embrace being in the big leagues and trying to have as much fun as I can on a daily basis,” he said. “It’s a long season. It’s a long grind. You go through good runs, bad runs. And you know, you’re still living the dream. You’re still playing in the big leagues. So I think I — not ‘learned,’ but it was a reminder that I need to really enjoy this every single day.”

The best battle, by far, is the Giants and Dodgers for the division. Whic makes the next best the Padres and Reds for the second wild card. Baseball-Reference gives the nod to the Reds, probably because the Padres have to play more games against the Giants and Dodgers from here on out.

Postseason Races

Most Likely Playoff Scenario
Division Winners: TBR, HOU, CHW
Wild Cards: NYY, BOS

Most Likely Playoff Scenario
Division Winners: SFG, MIL, ATL
Wild Cards: LAD, CIN

division leaders in bold, Full Standings

See Full Playoff Odds

Yesterday's Debut

P Mike Baumann (BAL)

Born: September 10, 1995 (Age: 25-362d)

Drafted: Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 34th round of the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft from Mahtomedi HS (Mahtomedi, MN) and the Baltimore Orioles in the 3rd round of the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft from Jacksonville University (Jacksonville, FL).

Debut: 3.2 ip, 0 er, 1 k, 1 bb

Others

• Kervin Castro (SFG), P, 22-212d

Yesterday's Biggest Play

Batter: Alex Bregman (HOU)

Pitcher: Paul Sewald (SEA)

Situation: Bottom 9th, 1 out, 3-1 count, Runner On 1st

Score:  SEA 4, HOU 2

Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep LF)
2 runs scored on the play, and HOU's win probability increased 47% points, to 58%
HOU went on to win the game, 5-4

View the full game Boxscore at Baseball-Reference.com

We will be overbidding for him next year, too. How can we not?

Stathead Spotlight: Blake Snell

Back-to-back games of 7+ IP, 10+ strikeouts and 1 hit or fewer allowed

See the list at Stathead.com's Pitching Streak Finder

Threw seven pitches last Thursday, got the save. Had four days off. Threw seven pitches last night, got another save.

Archie Bradley has two saves.

Yesterday's Top Performers

Pitchers:

Blake Snell* (SDP): 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 11 K, 76 GmSc

Eric Lauer* (MIL): 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 73 GmSc

Wade Miley (CIN): 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 8 K, 71 GmSc

Packy Naughton (LAA): 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 66 GmSc

John Gant (MIN): 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 7 K, 64 GmSc

View All of Yesterday's Pitchers at Baseball-Reference.com

* - pictured above

Getting the call to the majors. He and his brother went to the local HS here where the coach has 4 championships and was #1 in the state during 2020 before Covid shut things down.

Yesterday's Top Performers

Batters:

Nelson Cruz* (TBR): 4-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R

Mike Zunino* (TBR): 3-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

Alejandro Kirk* (TOR): 3-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R

Bobby Dalbec (BOS): 2-2, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

Pete Alonso (NYM): 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Steven Duggar (SFG): 3-5, 3 RBI, 1 R

Justin Turner (LAD): 2-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Will Smith (LAD): 4-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 R

Jordan Luplow (TBR): 3-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Ozzie Albies (ATL): 2-3, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

View All of Yesterday's Batters at Baseball-Reference.com

* - pictured above

https://nypost.com/2021/09/08/gerrit-cole-injury-means-its-time-for-yankees-fan-to-panic/

Closer Monkey:

September 8, 2021

Arizona Diamondbacks — The Diamondbacks have placed Tyler Clippard on the COVID-19 list and sent Taylor Clarke down to Triple-A. We expect Noe Ramirez, who pitched the ninth in a losing effort yesterday, to take over as closer while Clippard is out.

Updated hierarchy: Ramirez | Wendelken | Mantiply.

Thx for link ... the summary/overview ...

In the 10-year period from his first full season in 2008 through his MVP runner-up turn in 2017, Votto paced the entire sport in on-base percentage (.429) and weighted on-base average (.413), and his 158 weighted runs created plus and 52.2 FanGraphs wins above replacement trailed only Mike Trout. Going into the 2018 season, Votto was baseball’s active leader in OBP and the 11th-best all-time, sandwiched in between inner-circle Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx and Tris Speaker.

So is the thrill gone?  In the past 3 weeks he's hitting .175 with a 39% K rate.  And right as 538 did a nice article on his comeback!  Ah, those baseball gods.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-resurgence-of-joey-votto/

Done.

I mean his stats are fixed. Apparently he's not done in New York.

I didn't, so I still have a great shot at....6th place.  Drat.