Latest news with #Cabrera
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Joze Azocar elects free agency, Génesis Cabrera to sign with Cubs
José Azocar and Génesis Cabrera, two veterans recently designated for assignment by the Mets, are either seeking or have already found new organizations. Azócar has elected free agency after the Mets outrighted him following his DFA, and Cabrera is set to sign a major league contract with the Cubs. Both players started the 2025 season in Triple-A Syrcause before getting called up to the Mets' major league roster. In just 20 plate appearances, Azocar hit .278/.350/.278 with an 88 wRC+, and he only got into 12 games after the Mets called him up from Triple-A Syracuse. Advertisement Cabrera threw 7.2 innings for the Mets and had a 3.52 ERA with a 4.11 FIP. He struck out seven, walked three, and gave up one home run in that span. Azocar was replaced on the Mets' active roster by Jared Young, who has already gotten nine plate appearances, nearly half of Azocar's total. And Cabrera was replaced, at least temporarily, by fellow left-handed pitcher Brandon Waddell. Both replacements have options and give the Mets some roster flexibility, particularly on the pitching side as the team is set to activate Paul Blackburn in the near future—with the returns of Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea in the works. Montas made his first rehab outing of the season in Brooklyn on Saturday. More from
NBC Sports
2 days ago
- Business
- NBC Sports
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Edward Cabrera, Matt Wallner, and Sawyer Gipson-Long
We're officially into June and must take an honest look at who's playing well, who's playing poorly, and who we can truly count on to help us out through the long summer months ahead. With that, the waiver wire has been picked over and it's getting more difficult to find impact players readily available in most leagues. Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers in both the short and long term. D.J. Short, Here are three players that are under 40% rostered on Yahoo leagues that you should strongly consider adding. If you want a larger list, Eric Samulski wrote his extended waiver wire piece on Sunday. Edward Cabrera, SP Marlins Stop me if you've heard this before, but Cabrera might be taking a step forward. So far this season, he's running the lowest walk rate of his career at 9.6% and has thrown his highest rate of pitches in the zone at 49.7%. At the same time, he's maintained a strikeout rate in line with his career norms and a 4.14 ERA through nine starts. While those numbers don't jump off the page, they've been underscored by a very different movement profile from most of his pitches because he's dropped his arm slot. For Cabrera, moving his arm slot down has given all of his pitches more horizontal movement and reduced their vertical movement. Look at his pitch movement plots from each of the last two seasons courtesy of Baseball Savant and check out how each pitch besides his curveball has drifted towards the right of this chart in 2025 compared to 2024. With this new movement profile, Cabrera has become much more comfortable throwing his sinker. Its usage has risen from 9.2% to 24.4% from last season to this season and it's now his most thrown pitch against right-handed batters. Also, it has the highest zone rate for any of his individual pitches at 65.6%. Cabrera has never thrown a pitch in the strike zone at least 60% of the time for a full season in his entire career. Yet, it's being hit very hard. Opposing hitters have a .556 SLG against it. Perhaps he can massage its usage a little bit – especially against left-handed batters – but it may just be important for Cabrera to literally throw pitches in the zone that some damage is tolerable. That's because his secondaries are incredible. Each of his changeup, curveball, and slider have at least a 28.9% whiff rate and each have at least a 106 Stuff+. And no one on earth can throw a 95 mph changeup quite like Cabrera can. Edward Cabrera, Filthy 95mph Turbo Changeup. 👌 At worst, there are adjustments happening here to help Cabrera avoid walks, which have always been his kryptonite. His stuff remains electric and he has a guaranteed rotation spot plus a great home park to pitch in with the Marlins. The glimmer of hope in a good situation makes him worthy of a speculative add. Matt Wallner, OF Twins Wallner returned off the injured list this past weekend from a serious hamstring strain that kept him out since April 15th. In his first at-bat back, he smacked a home run at 100.8 mph against Bryce Miller and hit a 108.2 mph groundout later in the game. Despite going 1-for-5 last night, he had three batted balls hit harder than 104 mph with the hardest being 111.1 mph. That is the story with Wallner: he hits baseballs incredibly hard. Since the start of the 2024 season, his 19 batted balls of at least 110 mph are tied for 36th-most in the league. That may not seem special, but he's only played 96 total games over that span. For comparison's sake, he's tied with Marcell Ozuna with 19 such batted balls and Ozuna has played 217 games over the same span. Wallner's gaudy exit velocities are paired with near top of the league bat speed and one of the highest pulled fly ball rates in the league. In terms of a batted ball profile, few have a better one than Wallner. On the other hand, he's always struggled to make contact consistently. Heading into this season, his strikeout rate for his career was an obscene 34.5%. Somehow, that came with a chase rate that was better than league average. He knows which pitches to swing at, he just takes such aggressive swings that he often misses. Regardless, he had a career .866 OPS in spite of that high strikeout rate, and he's cut it down to 25.9% in 21 games so far this season. His incredibly high quality of contact has made him productive enough in spite of that awful strikeout rate to be viable in 12-team leagues. If he can manage to keep it down while maintaining his same elite bat speed, he could flirt with a 40 homer pace. The one caveat to his value is that he's in a strict platoon. He hasn't played against a left-handed pitcher yet this season and don't expect that to change. So, his value is hurt in weekly leagues where you can't manipulate your roster as much. He's still a great option in daily leagues where you can be sure he'll be in your lineup every time the Twins face a righty. Sawyer Gipson-Long, SP DET This is one to keep a close eye on. Gipson-Long is scheduled to make his season debut today, on Tuesday against the White Sox. That outing is expected to be somewhat abbreviated though because Gipson-Long has thrown just 56 and 53 pitches in each of his most recent rehab starts. The Tigers need someone to step in though for the injured Jackson Jobe, so this will likely be something like a 75-pitch rehab start in the majors for Gipson-Long. Once he's built up to a regular starters' workload, he could be a very interesting option. When last healthy in 2023, Gipson-Long burst on the scene somewhat out of nowhere with a 31.7 K%, 9.8 BB%, 2.70 ERA and 1.10 WHIP across four starts as a 25-year-old rookie with next to no prospect pedigree. He found success by leaning on his excellent command and secondary pitches. Against right-handed batters, he mixed his sinker and slider evenly as dual-primary pitches and was able to lean on his excellent changeup to generate swings and misses. It's rare that a pitcher can find such effectiveness with their changeup against same-handed batters, but Gipson-Long did so with ease. Against left-handed batters, he leaned on his fastball with that same slider and changeup flanking it. While his fastball doesn't look so special sitting at 93 mph with a pedestrian movement profile, Gipson-Long releases it with 7.5 feet of extension. That helps a pitch that appears ordinary play up. In all, this is a pitcher who has multiple weapons against hitters from each side of the plate and should be a stable option as long as he maintains his command from pre-surgery. He'll have a decent runway to prove his worth too with Jobe out indefinitely.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Do it for every veteran': Hemp business leaders call for Abbott to veto THC ban
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — 'Like thousands of us, I went through the government's solution — a never ending parade of pills: Vicodin, Valium, Tramadol, Neurontin, antidepressants, sleeping pills, the list goes on and on. Those drugs nearly destroyed me,' Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran Dave Walden said on Monday. 'Legal hemp-derived consumable THC gummies brought me back.' Walden spoke on behalf of the Texas Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), who are vehemently opposed to Senate Bill 3 — the THC ban bill. 'Since 2018 I haven't touched a single opioid or any of the other drugs that I mentioned above. I've rebuilt my life. I've become a better leader, a better husband, a better father. And ultimately a better man,' Walden said. 'But now Senate Bill three wants to turn this into contraband. It wants to turn me and thousands of other veterans into criminals for choosing an alternative that works for us.' Currently, the fate of the Texas Hemp industry lies in Gov. Greg Abbott's hands. He has until June 22 to either veto or sign SB 3. If he fails to make a choice, the bill will go into effect unsigned. 'Today, over 10,000 hemp business owners — women and men — request that Governor Abbott veto SB 3,' President of the Texas Hemp Business Council Cynthia Cabrera said. Cabrera is also the Chief Strategy Officer at Hometown Hero, an Austin-based consumable hemp company. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tossed a package of Hometown Hero Cereal Bites at reporters while arguing the dangers of THC products, saying 'nobody knows what's in it.' 'Make no mistake, the idea that no one knows what is in these products is false. For the past six years, Texas law has mandated third-party lab testing and clear labeling,' Cabrera said. 'The only goal of these scare tactics was to frighten legislators and the public into going along with an agenda they did not ask for. The Texas hemp industry is comprised overwhelmingly of law-abiding, compliant entrepreneurs, mom and pop stores, distributors and ancillary businesses.' The conference featured hemp industry leaders from all sectors, including hemp farmer Colton Luther. While he acknowledged he will still be able to grow hemp, he said his fields are currently empty because he's uncertain of this year's demand is SB 3 goes through. 'If you take away the market that creates the demand that the farmers are upholding, What business do we have left,' Luther said. 'It is a shame that we are trying to ban these things and take away the market that these farmers depend on to sell their crop.' Later Monday, the group Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas held a competing news conference to preach the harms of THC. 'What you never hear people discussing is the impaired driving consequences resulting from use of these intoxicating products in Texas. While alcohol remains the leading cause of fatal crashes, alcohol combined with cannabis is the second most common cause of deadly impaired driving crashes,' their CEO Nicole Holt said. 'In our state, the combination of alcohol and cannabis is the most common drug combination in impaired driving crashes in our state as well. And young drivers are particularly at risk. 26% of crash fatalities among those 25 and younger involve both cannabis and alcohol. 'Those are real lives. Those deaths are someone's life ended too soon, those families will never be the same, and when there's an impaired driver on the road, we are all at risk.' They also invited State Rep. David Lowe, R-Fort Worth, a war veteran. 'I'm deeply troubled that veterans are being used as props,' Lowe said. 'I believe passing Senate Bill three is one of the greatest accomplishments of this legislative session, and I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick for his strong, steady leadership when it mattered most.' However, the Texas VFW says Lowe does not speak for them. 'Our national convention and our state convention… set the number one priority… as protecting any alternative to opioids,' Walden said. 'That's one veteran's opinion. I have written consent that I speak for 64,000 veterans in Texas, not just one.' Abbott has until June 22 to make a decision on whether or not to veto SB 3. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas Hemp Advocates Deliver 100,000+ Signatures to Stop SB 3
Urge Governor Abbott to Veto Flawed Legislation AUSTIN, Texas, June 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Texas veterans, small business owners, farmers and other industry leaders stood together Monday at the Texas Capitol calling on Governor Greg Abbott to protect personal liberty and Texas jobs by vetoing Senate Bill 3. SB 3 would ban hemp-based products that were made legal by the state and federal governments during President Trump's first term. Republicans and Democrats throughout the state have expressed anger and concern since the Texas Legislature approved SB 3, sending it to Governor Abbott to decide whether it should become law. Representatives from the Texas Hemp Business Council today also delivered 5,000 letters and a growing petition with more than 118,000 signatures to Governor Abbott, urging him to veto SB 3 and save 53,000 Texas jobs connected to hemp. 'Senate Bill 3 was designed to destroy a vibrant and legitimate industry,' said Cynthia Cabrera, president of the Texas Hemp Business Council. 'The bill now awaits review by Governor Abbott. We respectfully urge him to consider the facts, listen to our appeal and make the logical decision to veto SB 3.' Cabrera also addressed recent scare tactics used by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick as he pushed SB 3 through the Legislature. 'Make no mistake, the idea that 'no one knows what's in these products' is false,' added Cabrera. 'For the past six years, Texas law has mandated third-party lab testing and clear labeling. The only goal of these scare tactics is to frighten legislators and the public into going along with an agenda they did not ask for.' SB 3 would force Texans who use hemp-based products to seek those products through illicit, unsafe black markets. It will also create havoc and uncertainty for farmers, small business owners, and others who have devoted years of their careers to safe hemp-based products. 'This bill is not designed to regulate us,' said Tara Latil, owner of CBD American Shaman. 'It's designed to bury us in fees, paperwork and fines until we have no choice but to shut down and walk away, leaving the market wide open for a few wealthy players who've been quietly funding this ban from the sidelines — not to mention an unregulated black market.' Veterans have been especially outspoken against SB 3 because many of them have found better treatment from regulated hemp-products than prescription drugs. 'Senate Bill 3 will take away hemp-derived consumables, which is an important alternative modality to the opioids and anti-depressants that the VA has been negligent in shoving down our throats for the last 25 years,' said Mitch Fuller, a veteran of the Iraq War who is the national and state legislative chairman of the VFW Department of Texas and the chairman of the VFW National Legislative Committee. 'Please don't take something away from us that works. Hemp-derived consumables work. They have helped thousands of veterans in this state and millions across the country avoid the pharmaceutical cocktail of opioids and anti-depressants.' Governor Abbott has until June 22 to decide whether to sign bills into law, veto them, or allow them to become law without his signature. More and more Texans have voiced their support for legal, regulated hemp in recent weeks. 'Prohibition did not work in the 1920s for alcohol and it will not work now for hemp — not with e-commerce and an American public that's more mobile than ever,' said Mark Bordas, executive director of the Texas Hemp Business Council. 'Border security and cartels remain chief concerns for Texans. The number one killer of Americans 18 to 45 years old is fentanyl, according to the CDC. If the cartels didn't bother to get licensed by the state of Texas, they won't be bothered by an unenforceable ban.' As lawmakers debate SB 3's future, rural communities—many of which rely heavily on hemp production—are bracing for economic fallout. 'There's a huge threat to rural economies on this,' said Colton Luther, managing partner at Geremy Greens Farm. 'A lot of the business and farmers I know are in rural communities, and we are losing additional jobs and funds in those communities." Press Conference Replay A replay of today's press conference hosted by the Texas Hemp Business Council can be viewed by clicking here or visiting About the Texas Hemp Business Council The Texas Hemp Business Council is an industry organization dedicated to promoting the hemp-based cannabinoid industry in Texas, while advocating for consumer safety, education and stakeholder engagement. More information is available at Media Contacts: Natalie Mu/George Medici PondelWilkinson 310.279.5980 nmu@ / gmedici@
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Guerrilla-turned-filmmaker: Colombia's versatile envoy in Beijing
Colombia's ambassador to China first arrived in Beijing six decades ago and trained under Mao Zedong's revolutionary forces, before returning home to join a communist guerrilla group. Sergio Cabrera then made a name for himself as an acclaimed filmmaker, and now his storied career has brought him back to the Chinese capital where he is spearheading Colombia's landmark rapprochement with the Asian giant. The 75-year-old envoy was a young teenager when he came to China in 1963, accompanied by his communist parents who entered the country secretly in order to teach Spanish. His return to Beijing is "stimulating and very exciting", he told AFP, especially with the capital city now full of skyscrapers and modern electric cars on its streets. "Compared to Bogota, Beijing was a village," Cabrera said in an interview inside the stately Colombian embassy, with shelves lined with books and walls adorned with posters of his films. "It was a one-storey city. There were no avenues, no cars, people were dressed all the same. It was a poor country. I remember my sister saying to me: 'Why is dad bringing us here?' "You see this country now and it is a country full of abundance, of possibilities, where there is everything," he said. "At that time there was nothing." Those years followed shortly after Mao's ruthless reform to modernise China's agrarian economy, known as the Great Leap Forward, causing enormous shortages and millions of deaths from famine. The young man knuckled down to learn Mandarin, which he still uses today, and soaked up the revolutionary thinking of the times. He served as a Red Guard in the Cultural Revolution Mao's violent movement against capitalist and bourgeois influence and worked in agricultural communes and factories. After training with the People's Liberation Army he returned to the Colombian jungle to join the communist guerrilla movement. But after four years, he told AFP he left the armed struggle feeling "deeply disappointed". "I realised that there was a tendency of pathologically lying, to invent that we were very powerful and to believe it," he said. From Colombia he returned to China, where he studied at Peking University before turning to what had always been his dream filmmaking. Through movies with strong political undertones such as the acclaimed "La estrategia del caracol" , Cabrera found "ways to revolutionise a little" the public's mind on the silver screen. "Since I can't do it the hard way, or with bullets, I'm going to do it the good way," the director told AFP. And in contrast to that passion for "creating worlds" in cinema, his job as ambassador for more than two years has involved grappling with real-world issues on behalf of leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro. A former guerrilla like himself, Petro has entrusted him with the task of strengthening ties between Colombia historically aligned with the United States and China. "I can't make a revolution through diplomacy," he admitted. "But I can continue with the idea of transmitting, of somehow improving bilateral relations." As a result of the diplomatic pivot, Colombia this month signed up to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a project already involving two-thirds of Latin American countries. "We were like the black sheep of the flock," Cabrera said, branding the step as "very beneficial" for Colombia. However, the agreement has aroused the unease of US President Donald Trump's administration, which sees Latin America as a crucial player in its struggle with China, and Cabrera admitted the move comes at a "delicate moment" in relations with Washington. "There have been frictions and we know that President Trump is against any rapprochement with China," he said. But "the sovereignty of one country cannot depend on the need to be allied with another". Closer relations have been years in the making. Over the last decade, imports from China doubled to $14.7 billion in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, they even surpassed those from the United States, which nevertheless remains the main destination for Colombian products, with almost 30 percent of the total. As Bogota draws closer to Beijing, Colombian business owners have grown concerned about the impact on the volume of US-bound foreign trade. But Cabrera urged them to overcome their "fear of the reactions of the United States". According to Cabrera, the agreement will generate investments in transport or clean energy and will help to open up the Chinese market to products such as beef or coffee, which is becoming increasingly popular in the traditionally tea-drinking country. The possibilities would be even better with a trade deal with China like those signed by Chile and Peru, he argued, while conceding that "in Colombia, there is not a good climate for a free trade agreement". bur-dbh/je/hmn/rsc
