Athletics aim to stop road losing streak, play the Blue Jays
Associated Press
Athletics (23-33, fifth in the AL West) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (27-28, third in the AL East)
Toronto; Thursday, 7:07 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Athletics: Jacob Lopez (0-2, 2.57 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 17 strikeouts); Blue Jays: Jose Berrios (1-2, 4.22 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 56 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Blue Jays -148, Athletics +124; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Athletics travel to the Toronto Blue Jays looking to end a seven-game road skid.
Toronto has a 27-28 record overall and a 16-12 record at home. The Blue Jays are 20-6 in games when they out-hit their opponents.
The Athletics have a 23-33 record overall and a 14-14 record on the road. The Athletics have hit 69 total home runs to rank fifth in the AL.
Thursday's game is the first meeting between these teams this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has eight doubles and seven home runs for the Blue Jays. Addison Barger is 10 for 37 with four doubles over the last 10 games.
Brent Rooker is second on the Athletics with 22 extra base hits (nine doubles, a triple and 12 home runs). Nick Kurtz is 7 for 34 with four home runs and nine RBIs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 5-5, .215 batting average, 2.45 ERA, outscored opponents by one run
Athletics: 1-9, .259 batting average, 6.47 ERA, outscored by 29 runs
INJURIES: Blue Jays: Bo Bichette: day-to-day (back), Andres Gimenez: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Tyler Heineman: 7-Day IL (concussion), Yimi Garcia: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Max Scherzer: 60-Day IL (thumb), Erik Swanson: 60-Day IL (hand), Ryan Burr: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nick Sandlin: 15-Day IL (back), Alek Manoah: 60-Day IL (elbow), Angel Bastardo: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Athletics: Nick Kurtz: 10-Day IL (hip), Zack Gelof: 60-Day IL (hand), Gio Urshela: 10-Day IL (hamstring), J.T. Ginn: 15-Day IL (quadricep), T.J. McFarland: 15-Day IL (groin), Jose Leclerc: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Brady Basso: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Ken Waldichuk: 60-Day IL (elbow), Luis Medina: 60-Day IL (elbow)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Twins' minor-league adventure: Tampa, Sacramento trips marked by ‘difficult' playing conditions
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The risk simply wasn't worth it for Carlos Correa. Recognizing the soreness developing in the middle of his back after two days of slipping and sliding in a rock-hard batter's box at Sutter Health Park, the Twins shortstop elected to sit out the final two contests of a four-game series at the new, temporary home of the Athletics. Advertisement In abandoning Oakland to spend three seasons in the California state capital before they move to a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip, the A's made a controversial decision by voluntarily relocating to a Triple-A stadium they're sharing with a minor-league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. While the refurbished facility's amenities drew rave reviews from every Twins player interviewed by The Athletic, including Correa, several noted a number of 'minor-league' issues with its playing surface. After playing in West Sacramento and at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the temporary home of the Tampa Bay Rays and spring training facility for the New York Yankees, during their recent three-city road trip, the Twins have a fresh perspective on Major League Baseball's minor-league issues as the weather heats up. From Tampa's oppressive heat and humidity to its poor outfield lighting and short foul poles to a batter's box in Sacramento multiple players described as akin to hitting on cement and a rigid pitcher's mound that's drawn the ire of hurlers across the league, the Twins experienced the full range of challenges these parks present in playing seven away games against the Rays and A's since May 26. Correa's experience with the batter's box represents one of the bigger hardships Twins players faced during their minor-league adventure. 'It's the worst box I've ever stepped in,' Correa said. 'I like (the park). The ball travels very well. The facilities are good. They did it right. The plate is the only problem. … I'm not going to sacrifice two months of my season because of a couple of at-bats here.' How the clubhouses at both temporary stadiums are arranged isn't an issue. But the playing conditions are a different story. In Sacramento, the dirt and the disconnected dugouts create difficulties for the home and visiting players. Both teams' clubhouses are located beyond the left-field fence at the ballpark, which means players and trainers are often commuting across the field between innings. Advertisement Athletics pitcher Luis Severino voiced his frustration with his home stadium last month. During a typical start, Severino reportedly likes to retreat to the clubhouse between innings to watch film and move around, something he can't do at Sutter Health Park. This season, Severino, who signed a multi-year contract with the A's in free agency, has a 0.87 road ERA and a 6.99 ERA at home. Before their four-game series began Monday, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli joked about how awkward it would be to get ejected, as he did in Seattle on Saturday night. Noting fans described the potential scenario as a walk of shame, Baldelli suggested he'd be worried about how his stride would look with such a long walk. Still, Baldelli determined if an ejection occurred, he'd make the most of it. 'It's the march of triumph,' he said. The batter's box and mound, which are pored over by the grounds crew daily to handle a combined 156-game schedule for the Athletics and Triple-A River Cats, also have been heavily criticized for their firmness. When he pitched in Sacramento on May 24, Philadelphia Phillies starter Zack Wheeler struggled to dig a hole on the mound in front of the rubber with his foot because of the hard clay used. Wheeler said he couldn't 'get into the dirt to drive' through his pitches, which left him throwing 'all arm.' Wheeler's phrasing stuck with Twins pitcher Joe Ryan, who wondered aloud if a firm mound played a role in the significant injury suffered by teammate Pablo López this week in Sacramento. Coming off a daytime start in which he pitched in 100-degree temperatures in Tampa, López suffered a Grade 2 teres major muscle strain on Tuesday and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks. Ryan is perplexed by how a teammate as fit and process-oriented as López — 'he spends hours a day (warming up) to go play catch' — could suffer such an injury. Advertisement 'The first thing I thought of was Wheeler saying, 'I was all arm when I was here,'' Ryan said. 'Does that play into that? Someone was mentioning it. We're in the big leagues and we have these amenities for a reason. It's to get prepared and go inside if you need to for a second. Whatever your routine is, you can't do that here. You can't do that in Tampa. As (Lopez's) teammate, it makes it sting a little bit more. I don't think Pablo is the kind of guy that's going to say (the mound was the issue), but I'll say it.' During his May 28 start in Tampa, López called a timeout in the first inning for groundskeepers to fix the mound. Ryan also took issue with the mound in Tampa and said it was much different than the one he warmed up on in the bullpen before his start. 'Tampa was a fricking sh– box and they have a massive mound in the bullpen before,' Ryan said. 'It's a huge contrast.' According to players, the issues in Tampa — which is scheduled to be used by the Rays for only the 2025 season after Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field last September and caused massive flood damage — include poor outfield lighting, a short porch in right field and short foul poles. The miniature poles likely cost Aaron Judge a home run in an April 20 game as the ball appeared to incorrectly be ruled foul. Poor lighting seemed to hamper Twins outfielder Trevor Larnach's ability to track fly balls in a May 26 loss to the Rays. 'I could see better at Tampa at the beginning of the game and then at night it was really difficult for me,' Larnach said. '(In a regular park), the lights are bright and you see the ball a tad bit better, whether it be in the outfield, at the plate or whatever.' Lighting doesn't seem to be an issue at Sutter Health Park, which has a berm beyond the fence in right field with trees that offers fans a unique way to catch a major-league game. But the lack of a third deck in both stadiums allows wind to impact the ball in different ways. The ball carries extremely well in Sacramento, which Baseball Savant ranks as tops in the majors — tied with the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards — in Park Factor, meaning it is the most hitter-friendly park in baseball. 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Even the view of left field from the visiting dugout in Tampa is deceiving. From his perch atop the dugout, Baldelli couldn't see any plays that occurred in left field. The park's configuration is such that the visiting dugout juts out into the field of play with the left-field foul pole situated about 15 feet behind where Baldelli stands. 'Every ball that's hit down the left-field line, we think it's foul by like 100 feet,' Baldelli said. 'It looks like it's foul off the bat, like the hitters not even hitting it, and it's getting blown up, and they're fair.' Both parks are expected to heat up like a microwave as summer arrives. The heat issues in Tampa are concerning enough that MLB scheduled the Rays away from home for a 10-game road trip in July and a 12-gamer to the West Coast in August. Despite pitching at night in Tampa on May 27, Twins starter Chris Paddack went through four baseball caps and jerseys as well as multiple undershirts. 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Yahoo
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New York Times
2 hours ago
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Jac Caglianone, Ronny Mauricio and more top waiver wire adds for fantasy baseball
This week's big waiver pickups include some youngsters getting their first shot and veterans on hot streaks. We're going to start with Yahoo's most added hitters and then get into some deeper cuts. If all of the names on the list below are already rostered in your league, feel free to scroll down. Here are Yahoo's most added hitters across all leagues (minus a couple of recent callups who we're going to handle separately): Max Muncy, Brandon Lowe, Willi Castro, Michael Busch, Jonathan Aranda, and Andy Pages are all solid hitters who have caught fire recently. A lot of that is BABIP noise, but Muncy is finally delivering after spending most of the year severely underperforming his expected stats. All of them have a solid floor, even when the current magic wears off. Go snap them up if they're still available. Advertisement Don't let Hunter Goodman sit out there either. He cut his chase rate enough to tap into considerable power. The strikeouts put a ceiling on his average, and the hot streaks will be balanced by cold ones, but this level of production from a catcher is worth it. Dillon Dingler is similar. The contact skills are better, but he doesn't walk at all, so he's more BABIP-dependent. He doesn't have Goodman's power or park, but he has enough to be solidly productive. As for the breakout Blue Jays, Addison Barger is the interesting one here. Ernie Clement makes a ton of contact, and he has run into a couple of homers recently, but he is only a deep-leaguer going forward. Barger, on the other hand, is a legit beast against righties. He swings really hard while remaining around league average in contact and strikeout rate. He loses some value in weekly leagues, but he's good enough when he's in to be worth a spot anyway. Masyn Winn has the speed to be a huge value, but until he actually starts stealing more frequently, he's more serviceable than exciting. Some big prospects have been called up, and more are on the way. With all of them, the standard caveat applies: no one knows how they'll perform in the majors. That's true in general and doubly so in their first taste of action. Jac Caglianone (1B/OF, KCR) With great power comes … the hope it'll play against MLB pitching. Caglianone hit 15 homers in 50 games across two levels with a .322 average before getting the call to Kansas City. Based on his strikeout and walk rates and raw power, Matt Olson looks like a reasonable comp. He's a must-add. Kyle Teel (C, CHW) Teel is on his way to Chicago and could be a nifty add for teams who need a boost at catcher. He offers some rare speed at the position (12 steals last year, seven so far this year), decent power, good-enough contact and a great eye (he gets a boost in OBP leagues). He'll be learning a new staff while he learns how to hit MLB pitching, so don't be surprised if it doesn't all click right away, but he looks like a solid value going forward. Advertisement Ronny Mauricio (3B, NYM) Mets fans have been hearing Mauricio's name for years, and now, after missing all of 2024 and playing only 19 minor league games this year, he's getting a shot to be this year's Mark Vientos while Vientos recovers from injury. The upside is lots of power and speed. The downside is that he strikes out too much for the tools to matter. He's worth a speculative add in 12-teamers and deeper, but you can move on if he can't control the whiffs and chases. David Festa (SP, MIN) With Pablo Lopez on the shelf for a while, Festa may get some runway as his replacement. The first outing back didn't go so well (possibly because he got woken up for some short-notice travel after Lopez went down), but I'm intrigued by the strong strikeout and walk numbers he put up in the minors and 64 MLB innings last year. He should be useful in 12-team leagues and a solid addition in deeper leagues. Ben Rice (1B, NYY) Apparently, Rice's .250/.337/.522, which is more than backed up by his process stats, is not enough for 51% of Yahoo leagues. He loses PAs against lefties, and that's basically the only real negative I can find. Go get him. Jake Burger (1B/3B, TEX), Rhys Hoskins (1B, MIL) Burger was a popular preseason pick who remains ice cold on the surface stats, but the power is still there, and his xwOBA is on the rise. Even where he's rostered, he will probably be fairly cheap to acquire. Hoskins is just a solid hitter playing to his level. I prefer both over Nate Lowe and Wilmer Flores — first basemen with similar ownership rates. Gabriel Moreno (C, ARZ), Tyler Stephenson (C, CIN), Agustín Ramírez (C, MIA) Catcher isn't so bad these days! We're still grading on a curve here, but these three all offer good production and regular playing time. Stephenson is the upside play — you're essentially betting the 16% barrel rate is for real and the 37% K-rate is a blip. The swinging strike rate is just 11.1%, so the K% should come down. The barrel rate will too, but his home park will help make up for that. Advertisement Moreno is your guy if you're more concerned about batting average. He also has the highest R/RBI floor of the three. Ramírez is my favorite of this trio. He's solid across the board — even throwing in the occasional steal — and he's in the lineup every day. The main downside is the rest of his team. Parker Meadows (OF, DET) He's a five-category contributor when he's right. It's too soon to tell if he is, but now is the time to roster him so he's on your squad if he's his normal self. Andrés Giménez (2B, TOR), Jose Caballero (2B/SS/3B/OF, TB), Victor Scott II (OF, STL), Chase Meidroth (SS, CHW), Lane Thomas (OF, CLE), Chandler Simpson (OF, TB) Need speed? Caballero and Scott give you the most bankable steals. Meidroth chips in his share with a nice average. Simpson stole five bases in two days and then got sent down to the minors. He's a one-category play if he comes back, but he still might be worth it. With Giménez and Thomas, you're paying for the past. Both are deep-league or category-desperation plays for now. Thomas is recovering from plantar fasciitis, which one imagines might slow him down on the bases. Still, he stole 32 with 15 homers last year. That's enough to make him a good IL stash. Carlos Santana (1B, CLE) At 39 years old, what you see is what you get, but that's still pretty good. He provides a decent average and 20-ish homers. Trevor Larnach (OF, MIN) Larnach has similar production to Santana but with more upside. He has been making better contact of late, and he showed some excellent skills last year. Brett Baty (3B, NYM) It's been an up-and-down season for Baty, but he's been smoking the ball lately. You just wouldn't know it from his surface stats. The upside is still top-10 at the position. Connor Norby (2B/3B, MIA) Norby's stock has dropped since the start of the year, when he looked like a nifty power/speed play. He has also been hitting the ball a lot harder lately, and could see better results soon. Advertisement Ryan Jeffers (C, MIN), Francisco Alvarez (C, NYM) It's been a rough year for Alvarez, but the power is still there, and we'll start to see it in the numbers once his 6% HR/FB rate starts to rise. Jeffers is the more solid option and a good position stabilizer for those who need it. Cam Smith (OF, HOU) The bat speed and minor league success give Smith a ton of upside. He might need a swing change to get the full breakout, but the tools are all there. Gavin Williams (CLE). Mick Abel (PHI), Will Warren (NYY), Eury Pérez (MIA) Williams is somewhat volatile, but that includes plenty of excellent performances. Abel has monster stuff and has been great so far. Warren's 19.4% K-BB rate is 25th among pitchers with at least 50 innings. His ERA is inflated by a low strand rate. Pérez has ace-level stuff and has looked great in his rehab starts. All are worth adding in basically any league. Ben Brown (CHC), David Festa (MIN), Landon Knack (LAD), Sawyer Gipson-Long (DET) Brown's K-BB rate is right in between that of Paul Skenes and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — not bad company for the most predictive in-season stat. His near-6.00 ERA is less ace-like, but FIP, xFIP, and SIERA all see him as a mid-3s guy. His BABIP and LOB% both indicate plenty of room for improvement with better luck. Gipson-Long is a high-upside arm coming back from Tommy John surgery. He'll have to shake off some rust, but he could be a good second-half guy, and the park will cover some mistakes. Knack is not going to blow anyone away, but he's been solid after a rough beginning to the season, and a solid pitcher with a great lineup and a favorable park can be nice rotation spackle. Daniel Palencia (CHC), Robert Garcia (TEX), and David Bednar (PIT) are still somehow available in more than half of Yahoo leagues. Meanwhile, the rest of us are scraping for every ninth-inning appearance out there. Calvin Faucher may have the Marlins job, but if he falters, Ronny Henriquez is lurking. Both are widely available. So is Tommy Kahnle (DET), who picks up saves semi-regularly as the guy behind Will Vest. (Top photo of Jac Caglianone: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
