This Week in Baseball – Home Run Derby, Trade Deadline, Severino Injury, Keuchel/Kimbrel, Dykstra Charges
Winner Winner $1 Million Chicken Dinner…
The 2019 Home Run Derby is giving away $2.5 million in prize money for the contestants, including $1 million for the winner. The league is trying to get high-profile players more interested in being in the competition. You know, guys like Mike Trout and Giancarlo Stanton—who combine to make nearly $60 million per year. And, I guess, want an extra $1 million to redecorate the guest house of one of their mansions?
Keeping Up with Kimbrel/Keuchel…
Welp. There still isn’t anything to report with Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel. Each week we keep thinking there will be a resolution to this never-ending story. And like The Neverending Story, we have The Nothing. Hopefully Falkor can fly in and save them from the Swamp of Sadness.
Severe Injury for Severino…
Yankees pitcher Luis Severino is going to be out until at least May with rotator cuff inflammation. Severino has yet to throw in a spring training game. He was scratched from his scheduled debut on March 5 because of discomfort in his pitching shoulder. We can only hope the Yankees kept the receipt on Severino’s $40 million contract extension.
Ch-ch-ch-changes…
MLB is dropping the convoluted August 31st waiver trade deadline this season. This simplifies things for teams who will now have to make up their minds by the end of July whether they want to buy or sell. This also simplifies things for when you used to try to explain to people that the trade deadline just passed, but the next trade deadline is a month away but it’s a different kind of trade and the first deadline wasn’t REALLY a deadline. Also, next year teams will add a 26th man to their rosters which many consider is just a gateway drug to getting a DH in the National League.
Lenny Being Lenny…
A judge has dropped drug and terroristic threat charges filed against former MLB outfielder Lenny Dykstra after an incident with an Uber driver. The charges were dismissed after Dykstra pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was fined $125. Dykstra said that he is happy this chapter of his life is behind him. We are now figuring out the chapters of his life are in a crime novel.
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