Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s OK, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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Remember back during the long, cold offseason when everybody was actually excited about what the San Diego Padres were up to? By golly, they were making moves! The famously boring team from the most beautiful part of Southern California was finally shaking things up by bringing in big names. The eyes of the baseball world were finally gazing upon the Padres, and it seemed as if GM A.J. Preller had finally given us something to talk about when it came to San Diego’s baseball club.
Well, fast forward to this past Friday’s trade deadline, and we’re still talking about the Padres. However, the conversation concerning San Diego is far different from what we expected. As of right now, the Padres are two games under .500, eight games back in the NL West and six-and-a-half back in the wild card race. After being aggressive buyers during the offseason, the Padres were seemingly in a position to sell at the deadline. After all, when your team is in a position like the Padres are, and you have pieces like Craig Kimbrel and Justin Upton, you should probably be selling.
Instead, the Padres inexplicably stood pat, and have decided to stay with what they’ve got in an effort to make the postseason. To be fair, this team has been playing better as of late (7-3 over their past 10 and they ended July on a pretty good string of results), but let’s be honest here: It’s going to take an absolutely massive effort for San Diego to make a serious run at the playoffs. Why not try to offset some of he potential damage from a quick-rebuild-gone-wrong by selling at the deadline? The Padres may have made a huge mistake by standing pat at the deadline. It’s admirable that they’re trying to make a playoff push with what they’ve got, but it also could be the latest mistake in what’s seemingly been a season full of them for the 2014-15 Hot Stove Champions.
- Clayton Kershaw pitched on eight days of rest on Saturday, and he ended up stretching his scoreless inning streak to 37.
- In those eight scoreless innings that Kershaw pitched, it included this meeting of baseball’s two reigning MVPs. Mike Trout came out with the short end of the stick on this occasion.
- C.J. Wilson has an elbow injury and is probably out for the rest of the season. Reportedly, some of his teammates are skeptical of the severity of the injury. Oh, Angels. Don’t ever change.
- There’s going to be a bit of a shake-up in Red Sox Nation, as President/CEO Larry Lucchino is stepping down from that role with the team.
- Cole Hamels made his debut as a Texas Ranger on Saturday night against the Giants. There was no way that he was going to top his final appearance as a Phillie, and it wasn’t exactly a sparkling debut.
- Speaking of the Giants, the defending World Series Champions are going to have an extremely tough road to travel down during the month of August.
- Toronto fan-favorite Danny Valencia was recently DFA’d. Our friends over at Bluebird Banter are currently trying to figure out why this happened.
- Lucas Duda hit a double during the eighth inning of last night’s Mets/Nationals game. For Duda, that was his first hit since July 25th that wasn’t a home run.
- The Phillies beat the Braves 12-2 last night. They’re also 12-2 since the All-Star break, which is the best record in baseball since that point. Yes, those Phillies!
Anthony Rizzo’s got four home runs in four days. Here’s a look at number four!
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