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#MNTwins receive LHP Adalberto Mejía from the Giants in exchange for infielder Eduardo Nuñez. Jorge Polanco called up. Mejia to Rochester

Good, we can put Nunez rumors to rest. Now bring up Diaz.

With Jonathan Papelbon struggling mightily at the back end of Washington’s bullpen, the Nationals acquired All-Star closer Mark Melancon from the Pirates on Saturday in exchange for lefthanded reliever Felipe Rivero and minor league lefthander Taylor Hearn.

Melancon led the National League with 51 saves last season and was just named to his third All-Star Game in the last four years. The Nationals entered the day tied for the best bullpen ERA in the majors (3.05), and Melancon now shores up the closer spot. He is scheduled to be a free agent after this season.

It is also the first indication the Pirates could be sellers at the deadline despite entering the day only three games out of National League wild card spot.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington, it should be noted, said the deal is not an indication Pittsburgh won’t be pushing hard for its fourth straight postseason berth.

“We continue to push forward to be one of the five playoff clubs at the end of the season, and in the interim we’ve strengthened (20)17 and ’18 as well,” Huntington said in a conference call with reporters. “We’ve dealt from an area of strength, and strength in our future, without changing our goal for this season.”


PIRATES ACQUIRE
Taylor Hearn, lhp
Age: 21

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound southpaw was drafted in the fifth round out of Oklahoma Baptist in 2015 and entered this season ranked the Nationals No. 28 prospect. His first full season got off to a tough start when he broke his foot covering first base in his second start of the year for low class A Hagerstown in April and missed the next two and a half months recovering. After a rehab stint he returned to Hagerstown on July 4 and has pitched as the long man out of the bullpen since, recording 27 strikeouts against just six walks in 17 1/3 innings of relief since his return. He has pitched exactly three innings in five of his six relief outings, portending to an eventual return to the rotation, where he began the year. Hearn uses his 6-5 frame well to create a good downward angle on his fastball, which typically sits in 93-97 mph and reportedly touched 99 mph in instructional league last season. He uses a power slider as his main secondary pitch, and encouragingly has thrown strikes on 68 percent of his pitches this season. Some see his future in the bullpen unless his changeup progresses into a quality third pitch, but Huntington said the Pirates plan on developing Hearn as a starter for now.

“The Nationals were in the process of using him in a protected role in the bullpen, building him up (after his injury), and we will continue that plan,” Huntington said. “We do so see starter traits in Taylor, but we need to connect with him, to understand where he is in his program, where he is in his process, and we will look to continue to build his pitches and get him in a role that he believes he’s comfortable with and we believe we can maximize his potential. We are hopeful that we can get him stretched out as a starter.”

“We see a loose arm, we see a good athlete, we see a man that shows some feel on the mound,” Huntington added. “We see flashes of a really good breaking ball and we see flashes of really quality hand speed, which is the key to a good changeup.”


Hagerstown (SAL) LoA 1 0 3.18 8 2 22.2 25 13 8 3 7 31


Felipe Rivero, lhp
Age: 25

Rivero was a four-time BA organizational top 30 prospect – three times with the Rays and once with the Nationals – before breaking into the majors for good in 2015. Despite being a lefthander, the 6-foot-2 Venezuelan actually has better splits against righthanded hitters in his career, holding them to a .190/.246/.322 slash line compared to .259/.329/.340 against lefthanded hitters. His four-pitch mix is headlined by a 95-97 mph fastball, with an upper 80s changeup and low-to-mid 80s slider his primary secondary pitches. His home run and walk rates are slightly up this year over last, but his strong peripherals indicate some bad luck has been involved with his current 4.53 ERA. Regardless, Rivero’s stuff has demonstrably played against all types of hitters, making him a valuable piece of Pittsburgh’s bullpen for years to come. For now, Huntington said they plan on using Rivero in the seventh inning to get to Neftali Feliz in the eighth and Tony Watson in the ninth.

“You get quality production in Felipe Rivero,” Huntington said. “We get this year and five more years of potential contribution…if everything comes together the way we believe it will, we’ve got six years of potential contribution from a very talented lefthanded arm.”


Washington (NL) ML 0 3 4.53 47 0 49.2 43 26 25 4 15

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/n ... w3kXxZJ.99

Oops. Guess I was wrong. Still a full fledged fruitcake.

Yasiel Puig did not travel with the Dodgers on Monday when they flew to Denver for a three-game series against the Rockies.

Puig, 25, stormed off after arriving at Dodger Stadium and being informed that he would either be traded or sent to the minors, according to major-league sources.

He was not traded before the non-waiver deadline at 4 p.m. ET, but the team’s immediate plan for him is unclear.

Club officials declined comment.

The Dodgers acquired outfielder Josh Reddick from the Athletics earlier Monday, jeopardizing Puig’s place with the club. Team officials had maintained that they would trade Puig only if they added another outfielder, but they did not find a taker.

Puig, in his fourth season with the Dodgers, is batting .260 with seven homers and a .706 OPS. He made a spectacular debut for the Dodgers in 2013, but his OPS has declined every year since.

Francisco Mejia is one game away from history.

The Indians’ catcher has hit safely in 44 consecutive games in a streak that began in late May in the Midwest League and that has continued through a promotion to the high Class A Carolina League.

That puts him one game short of James McOwen’s 45-game hit streak in the California League in 2009 for the longest minor league hit streak of the modern era of minor league baseball, which was reclassified in 1963.

Mejia’s streak will also crack the top 10 hit streaks in organized baseball history if he can get a hit tonight at home against Potomac.

Wichita’s Joe Wilhoit (Western League) holds the all-time minor league record with 69 games in 1919. Joe DiMaggio actually holds two of the three longest hit streaks in pro baseball history. In addition to his 56-game MLB record set in 1941, he also has the second-longest minor league streak with a 61-game hit streak in the Pacific Coast League in 1933.

Mejia’s streak is even more impressive in that it has continued this week even after he prepared to switch teams only to find that he was still a Cleveland Indian after Jonathan Lucroy turned down a trade to Cleveland.

Mejia is considered one of the better catching prospects in the minors right now. He ranked 70th on Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100 Prospects list.

So who was Wilhoit? He was a very good hitter taking advantage of how different the minor leagues were in the early parts of the 20th century. Wilhoit had hit .274 for the big league Giants the year before. When he was let go by the Giants, he didn’t go to the highest levels of the minors (Double-A at the time) but instead landed in the Class A Western League.

“He was good enough to have been with the New York Giants the year before and to play in the 1917 World Series,” Wichita Eagle reporter Peter Lightner, who served as the Wichita official scorer in 1919, told Whitney Martin of the Special News Service in 1941 when Joe DiMaggio was in the midst of his 56-game hitting streak.

“So he was entirely too much player for the Western League, which was known in the good days as a hitter’s paradise,” Lightner said. “After facing major league hurlers the last two years, Wilhoit had a picnic. He was about 28 then, I believe, still young enough. A fine bunter and place-hitter and a great outfielder.”

Minor league records are difficult to pin down because many stats weren’t tracked years ago to the degree they are today. Hit streaks are one stat that caught the attention of statisticians, so while it is possible that a player that switched leagues might have seen records of his combined hit streak fall through the cracks, in most cases we can feel confident that we have a solid record of hit streaks going back to the start of the organized minors at the turn of the 20th century.

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/f ... hQQV4TC.99

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal tweeted that, having undergone two neck surgeries in 27 months, Prince Fielder is expected to retire. He has played for the Brewers, Tigers and Rangers.

LOS ANGELES --

Yasiel Puig stated two simple goals as he spoke to reporters in an informal press conference Friday. He was in Oklahoma City to become a better player and a better teammate.

"I'm here because I was not doing the right things over there," Puig said through an interpreter. "I'm here to improve myself. I'm here to become a better athlete again. That's their decision, if I have to go back to the big club. Right now, I'm going to focus on being better around the plate and being a better athlete."

Puig was demoted to Triple-A last week, due to a lack of on-field performance and his off-field behavior. He openly admitted his play had declined, saying "I'm going to do my best to become the player that I was."

He later added that his actions were why he was in the Minors.

The outfielder's demotion ended a two-week period of trade speculation and several games missed due to a hamstring problem. In the end, Puig wasn't traded, but he was still replaced by Josh Reddick, whom the Dodgers acquired in a five-player deal with Oakland.

So far, Puig has shown success at the plate with Oklahoma City. In four games since getting demoted, he's slugging 1.000 and went 3-for-5 with a homer and triple in Friday's game against El Paso.

Off the field is a more mixed story.

"My friends back in LA, they texted me and they told me 'This could happen to anyone. What you need to do right now is focus, do what you need to, and be a better teammate and support your team.'"

Puig's efforts as a teammate have been a hit-or-miss affair so far in Oklahoma City. On one hand, he spent Thursday night playing Pokemon Go around the city with teammates.

On the other hand, he shared video of the team's Monday night outing on a party bus via Snapchat and drew a public show of disapproval in a statement from Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who said the incident would be addressed internally.

"I really didn't know how to use Snapchat. I was just playing around with my teammates," Puig said when asked about the incident.

[ Even with all the baggage, I'd still like to see the Indians pull off a deal for Puig. Jorge Soler would be a nice addition also ]

TORONTO --

It appears as though the wait is almost over for Yulieski Gurriel, as Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow noted the team expects to call up the Cuban baseball sensation prior to Tuesday's opener against the Cardinals.

Gurriel, 32, signed a five-year, $47.5 million deal with the Astros in mid-July, and he has spent the early part of his North American career in the Minor Leagues.

After a scheduled off-day Thursday, Gurriel was back in the lineup on Friday for Double-A Corpus Christi, batting third and playing third base.

"He'll play today, tomorrow and maybe Sunday [at Corpus Christi]," Luhnow said Friday. "We will see where he goes after that. Monday is an off-day for us. We're still hoping everything will line up so he can participate on Tuesday when the Cardinals come to Houston."

Across three Minor League levels this season, Gurriel was hitting .321 with one home run and nine RBIs entering Friday.

A trade that might just work out for everybody.

Justus Sheffield, lhp, Yankees. The start of Sheffield’s Yankees career has gone well. On Tuesday, he pitched six scoreless innings as high Class A Tampa beat Clearwater (Phillies) as part of a doubleheader despite getting just one hit. In three starts since his trade from Cleveland, the 5-foot-10 lefty is 2-0, 1.04 with 17 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.

Lucroy making presence felt on Rangers

Recently acquired catcher a hit with batterymates, is thriving at plate

ARLINGTON --

It hasn't taken Jonathan Lucroy long to make an impact offensively for the Rangers since being acquired from the Brewers on the Aug. 1 non-waiver Trade Deadline. In 15 games, he's hit seven home runs with 14 RBIs.

But Lucroy's presence is being felt more than just at the plate. He's learning how to work with a new pitching staff after being thrust into the middle of a pennant race. Manager Jeff Banister has said Lucroy has had an immediate impact in that area as well.

"He's really honed his craft and it takes a while to learn that. ... The fact is, is that our guys, in my opinion, have thrown well to him," said Banister. "You can see some confidence in that regard."

Lucroy said he has come to the perfect situation.

"It has nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with this clubhouse. They've been nothing but accepting of me," Lucroy said. "It's been pretty impressive how much these guys want to win and how hard they play every day."

Before the acquisition of Lucroy, Bobby Wilson, Robinson Chirinos and Bryan Holaday had caught the bulk of Texas' games. Wilson and Holaday were designated for assignment on Aug. 1 and Chirinos has moved to a backup role.

Lucroy's preparation is something that has stood out to the Rangers' pitchers. His locker in the clubhouse is in a corner away from most of the starting pitchers. But that hasn't kept Lucroy from making his rounds as he continues to learn about his new teammates.

"He really does put in a lot of time to studying guys and having conversations with us to know how we tick and what our philosophy is in trying to get guys out," said Cole Hamels. "That's been nice to see that and to build on that."

The time Lucroy puts into preparing for a game stands out.

"I've seen him in the clubhouse early, always studying, so it gives me trust about the pitch calls," Yu Darvish said. "He frames the ball well, so borderline pitches are called strikes. For me, that's a big thing."

Lucroy's routine has helped him become a two-time All-Star in his seven-year career, and it gave him some credibility before he even caught a game with Texas.

"If you go hire a CEO and he's got awards for turning companies around and doing great things, yeah, there's credibility. You go hire a writer and he's won a Pulitzer Prize, he's got instant credibility," Banister said. "So it's an All-Star coming over. He's going to have credibility with that."

Banister said that the trust you build with a pitcher can be lost as easily as it's gained. But Lucroy's preparation and track record makes a difference.

"The trust is being built based on success and it's based on preparation," Banister said. "The more comfortable you can make a guy on the mound, and you essentially kind of turn that white noise off inside his skull and put him on autopilot. It makes almost every pitcher more valuable."

It's not just the pitchers who have taken notice of Lucroy's work behind the plate.

"We knew when we acquired him he was a good hitter and good catcher, but he's been above what we expected," Adrian Beltre said. "It's nice to see him not only swing the bat well, but call a good game and play a mentor for the pitchers that we have."

As quick as the pitching staff is to credit Lucroy for his ability to handle them so far, they're not forgetful of the catchers that preceded him. Those catchers -- Wilson, Holaday, Chirinos and Brett Nicholas -- have been essential in the Rangers being in first place in the American League West since May 29.

"We're on the top because they've helped the team get here," Martin Perez said. "I have to give credit to those guys, too."

Lucroy, who turned 30 in June, has maintained that his simple approach at the plate is what's helped him get off to a good start offensively with Texas, and it's the same approach he's taken at the plate his entire career.

Lucroy has been able to translate that mentality over to his defense, as well. He consistently reciprocates the credit that the pitching staff has given him start after start early into his Rangers tenure.

"It's pretty simple catching these guys. Everybody's going to have their days when they're not as sharp as they could be," Lucroy said. "We've had some really good starts, and we've had some guys put up some really big innings for us. It's pretty easy for me to be back there."

It's been five years since Lucroy has played in the postseason, so he is eager for another chance with his new team.

"You start connecting and having fun together and winning, and things start rolling. It's pretty fun," Lucroy said. "It's a long season, you got to have fun together and you got to make it interesting. These guys here definitely do, and it's helping me kind of open up."

Placing the Cleveland Indians catchers' offensive futility into historical context

CLEVELAND, Ohio --

Roberto Perez's batting average dipped below the .100 mark again on Wednesday night.

The .200 mark is referred to as the Mendoza Line, an ode to Mario Mendoza, a career .215 hitter during nine seasons as a big-league infielder. The .100 mark doesn't have its own moniker -- yet.

The Indians' catching corps is establishing new depths of offensive misery this season.

Perez's slash line is an unsightly .097/.266/.145. His one saving grace at the plate has been his patience; his walk rate and strikeout rate are identical, at 19 percent. The walk rate is well above the league average. Then again, why display eagerness when the odds forecast a groundout?

The Indians have patched together a tandem of Perez and Chris Gimenez to replace Yan Gomes behind the dish. Gomes suffered a separated shoulder in mid-July. He isn't expected back for at least a few weeks.

The thing is, Gomes wasn't producing, either. Two years ago, he earned a Silver Slugger Award for his prowess at the plate. This season, he has posted a .165/.198/.313 clip.

Gimenez has logged the most fruitful results, though his numbers don't exactly glisten. He owns a .217/.254/.322 slash line this season.

The Indians' catcher is lacking confidence, drowning in frustration and tiring of noticing those conspicuous, gruesome numbers that follow his name on every scoreboard and stat sheet.

All together, Tribe catchers rank last among the league's 30 teams with minus-1.1 WAR, a figure that considers the group's effectiveness behind the plate, too. Let's not ignore the work the catchers have put forth on defense and in handling the Indians' pitching staff. Perez has nabbed six of 10 potential base-stealers. Gomes threw out 11 of 30 before he landed on the disabled list.

Still, the No. 9 spot has been a black hole in a lineup that, overall, has rocketed past many expectations. The Indians rank third in baseball in scoring, even though their catchers have combined for a .169/.225/.291 slash line. They rank last in batting average, last in on-base percentage and second-last in slugging percentage. By comparison, the Nationals' catchers have produced a .309/.367/.512 slash line this season.

Let's place that into historical context. For this exercise, we'll consult Baseball Reference's database, which keeps splits back to 1913.

The 2015 Mariners received less offensive production from their catchers than any other catching unit in baseball history. The group produced a .159/.205/.259 slash line (.464 OPS).

The 2016 Indians are right behind them. The .169 average is the second-worst of any catching unit of all time. So is the .225 on-base percentage. The unit's .516 OPS is the ninth-worst of all time.

The Indians attempted to remedy their lack of offense at catcher by acquiring All-Star Jonathan Lucroy prior to the Aug. 1 trade deadline. Lucroy, however, exercised his veto power and ended up with the Rangers instead. Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki reportedly cleared waivers and can be dealt to any club.

Would the Indians be willing to add an offensive-minded catcher such as Kurt Suzuki or will they stand with pitching-oriented catchers Roberto Perez and Chris Gimenez?

[ I am as excited to have Miller on our team as I am disappointed to have lost Lucroy.

I really understand the allegiance the manager and the organization has for Gomes but from my perspective, the first priority is the team. If you have a chance to improve the team this dramatically, regardless the position, I think you have to go for it.

The guarantee of a starting job was admittedly a problem. I wonder if the possibility of competing for the starting assignment next year was ever discussed?!?!? Gomes/Lucroy??? Winner starts, loser backs up. If Lucroy has as much confidence in his abilities as he believes he does, he shouldn't have had any problems winning that job.

It's just a scary thought to think that we have an excellent shot at the playoffs and are committed to Giminez/Perez/Gomes when Lucroy was more than available. I don't see the offensive production from these three players improving that dramatically down the stretch. I think the above article speaks volumes.

Hopefully 1: That Gomes comes off the disabled list and reverts back to his form of two years ago!!!

Hopefully 2: That we score enough runs to make Miller time possible and the catching woes become a moot point. ]

Gomes' slump was in a slump before his injury. He hit less than .100 in his last month. Perez is the best of the bunch at throwing out runners. He gets on bench reasonably often with his walks. His rare hits are often doubles. Gomes appeared totally frustrated at bat. Perhaps two months away will allow him a fresh start. But I'm not excited about his return.

You seem to forget how important Gomes is to the pitching staff.

Gurriel and the Astros waited out two separate rain delays -- the first over four hours before the first pitch -- before Gurriel's first at-bat. Gurriel worked the count to 3-1 in the second inning before singling to center off Yovani Gallardo for his first Major League hit. Gurriel was 1-2 with a walk in the game.

You seem to forget how important Gomes is to the pitching staff.

You're right on that. I just wish he could hit a little bit.

Benintendi's catch to rob homer
MLB.com•Aug 22, 2016, 11:29 PM

Andrew Benintendi makes an unbelievable catch that takes part of his body over the wall to rob a home run in the bottom of the 8th inning

http://sports.yahoo.com/video/benintend ... soc_trk=fb