If Your Birthday is July 28th...

...you share it with Walker Buehler, the Dodgers pitcher hoping to make it back in September after 2022 Tommy John surgery.  Already with 14- and 16-win seasons (and two All Star game appearances) to his credit, a healthy Buehler is the logical successor to Clayton Kershaw as LA's ace -- as well as arm who could be the difference as the Dodgers battle to stay ahead of the Giants and Diamondbacks in the NL West.

Tylor Megill was a dependable middle-of-the-rotation starter for the '21 Mets, before dealing with injuries in 2022.  And this year, the Californian never got on track, before being optioned to their Syracuse farm club in late June.  (My image is from a June '22 rehab start for Binghamton.)


Some other names you might recognize in our July 28th birthday circle:

  • Spencer Howard, once a top pitching prospect for the Phillies, who has struggled with the Rangers since a deadline 2021 trade to Texas.
  • Carmelo Martinez homered for the Cubs in his first big league at bat.  Traded to the Padres the following winter, he was the 1st baseman on San Diego's first pennant winner but never reached the stardom that was expected.  For trivia buffs, the Puerto Rico native is a cousin of Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez.
  • Darin Ruf, who showed promise as a righthanded power hitter with the Phillies, and then turned things up a notch when he played in Korea.  The Giants brought him back to the states, where he posted a .905 OPS in their division winning 2021. But his numbers plunger after being traded to the Mets last summer.  Cut this spring, he's now on Milwaukee's 60-day Injured List.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rare Remnant of a Lost Ballpark

Image
When the subject of baseball in Brooklyn comes up, the discussion centers around Ebbets Field, the Flatbush venue most famously home to The Boys of Summer.  Those legendary 1940s and '50s teams that featured such historic and beloved players as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges. Ebbets Field hosted its last major league game in 1957 and was torn down during the winter of 1960. But decades earlier, just before World War One, the Dodgers were based in the Park Slope area and played at Washington Park.  Once they moved out, the land was occupied by another stadium, which housed a different franchise.  The upstart Federal League, which played in the 1914 and '15 seasons, had a Brooklyn team called the TipTops.  Owned by a local baking magnate Robert Ward, whose company produced TipTop bread, the club took over the abandoned lot along 3rd Street and built a new brick and steel venue. The only no-hitter in the Federal League's two-year r
Read more

Another Yankee Trade

Image
Yankee fans: here's a last look at shortstop Trey Sweeney .  The 2021 first round draft choice was part of the three player trade with the Dodgers that brings reliever Victor Gonzalez and infield prospect Jorbit Vivas to New York. Now seeking to rebuild their pitching depth after dealing for Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, the Yanks deemed Sweeney expendable.  While the Louisville native showed promising power in his three seasons with the organization -- he batted only .248 to go with his 36 career homers -- Brian Cashman has committed to Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza as his young middle infielders.  So Sweeney became a trade chip. ( My images of Trey Sweeney are from the Somerset/Binghamton AA games on July 15th and September 19th, 2023. )
Read more

Will He Wear Zero in the Bronx?

Image
The Yankees bolstered their starting rotation with Thursday's signing of Marcus Stroman .  The Long Island native, who spent 2019 and '21 with the Mets before moving onto the Cubs, brings a 77-76 career record to the Bronx, along with a recent loyalty to uniform number (?) zero.  If he requests that, he'd become the third Yank to wear it, following the path of Adam Ottavino and Domingo German.  Of course, neither of their Yankee tenures ended all that well -- Ottavino struggled badly in 2020, before reviving his career with the Red Sox and Mets; German's alcohol and domestic violence issues sabotaged such Yankee highlights as last year's perfect game. Can a number truly be lucky? You can understand kids in little league or high school ball wanting to wear 2 in honor of Derek Jeter or 7 for Mickey Mantle.  But is there an heroic ballplayer associated with 0?  The closest I recall comes from pro football, where the Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame center Jim Otto wore 00
Read more