The baseball season is long. And we’re here to help: MLB Overnight covers the interesting night-in, night-out goings-on of The Show.
Even the Astros’ Extras Are Doing Work
Lance McCullers is the Astros’ fourth starter. Even though the rotation is loaded, McCullers is a bit of a luxury as a number four: While he hasn’t shown full-season durability or long stretches of consistency during his short career, he’s a 10 K/9 guy coming off an abbreviated season where he was a 3.0 bWAR pitcher. He dropped in this zany two-seamer against the Twins on Wednesday:
Meanwhile, Tony Kemp is a diminutive afterthought beyond the fringes of Houston’s galaxy of baseball superstars. This is absurd for anybody:
Fernando Tatis Jr. Getting Up
There are a bunch of sons of recently-active ballplayers in Spring Training camps this season. Fernando Tatis Jr. is one of the highest-rated of the prospect progeny. MLB Pipeline ranks the 6’3” shortstop as the eighth-best prospect in baseball. He has a plus bat and a big, athletic frame that should keep him on the left side of the infield for a long time. He’s part of a promising Padres youth movement that super-agent Scott Boras recently called a “volcano of hot talent lava.” I don’t know if that makes volcanological sense, but Tatis Jr. is showing glimpses of baseball proof behind Boras’s science.
Michael Taylor Brings It Back
I really enjoy watching Michael Taylor play defense at any time of the year:
New York’s Near Future
This was the Yankees’ starting lineup against the Tigers yesterday:
It’s pretty close to the everyday lineup Bomber fans can expect to see when the games start counting. The middle of the order is as powerful from the plate as it is surreal to see in the lineup card. Gary Sanchez hit a ball into the sun that JaCoby Jones barely moved for:
On the Mets’ side of things, Matt Harvey took the mound against the Braves. Harvey, who gave up a run and two hits with two strikeouts over two innings of work, is trying to recover some semblance of the ability that has eluded him since the Mets made the World Series in 2015.
Harvey has been set back with injuries and atrocious runs of form that have robbed him of the swing-and-miss stuff that made him a sensational ace in the first place. Harvey averaged seven strikeouts per nine innings the last two seasons after starting his career up by the nine K/9 mark.
For a Mets team that has already started production on its walking wounded sequel, a productive, healthy Harvey would be a needed boost. For Harvey, headed towards unrestricted free agency for the first time, a strong 2018 could help him recover a little more of the value many thought he would’ve had at this point. Zack Wheeler also chipped in an inning of work. He gave up a run on three hits while striking out two.
Khurram Kalim is a senior writer for Bronx to Bushville.
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