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Pretty bad time to tank. This part of the season is always crucial for teams hovering around .500, as Tigers fans are acutely aware. But while the Tigers have faltered, the White Sox have fallen flat on their faces. The team is 3-9 in their last twelve with 2 walk off losses in the past 5 days. Someone check on Hawk.
After looking like a buyer two weeks ago, it is now unclear which direction they will head. A 2015 Tigers approach might be advisable considering there are quality pieces in place already. However, one thing is clear. Chris Sale is not on the market.
Another source says the #WhiteSox were offered a "king's ransom" for Sale in the last 48 hours and responded with a flat "no."
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 21, 2016
Gerber recall. Get it? Because Gerber baby food recently had to recall some of their organic mix? Never mind, the important thing is that the Tigers finally realized they could not ignore the amount of rake that Michael Gerber was putting on Advanced-A and promoted him to Double-A Erie. I have no idea how they plan to play 5 outfielders but it should make for some interesting defensive alignments.
It's quiet. Too quiet. No chatter out of the Tigers camp on buying, selling, or really anything related to the trade deadline. To fill that space, here are some additional opinions on who should be brought in, who could be sold, and who should be jettisoned into the sun (hey Mark Lowe.)
The rest of the league has been quiet too, but that doesn't mean there isn't interesting conversations going on behind the scenes. Exhibit A:
Exec from team that's been talking with the Rays says he sees such a good fit with Dodgers, places odds at "70 pct" Chris Archer lands in LA
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 21, 2016
Should be a fun week and a half.
What now? Last links I covered the escalating possibility that the season will be trimmed to 154 games. On the heels of that, a much more drastic change is being discussed, limiting the number of pitchers to pitch in a game. We don't even need to go into how logistically impossible that is and I would put the likelihood of this happening at zero. Now we are just considering things to consider them.
The Royals visited the White House. Because they won last year. Remember that? Oh you blocked it from your memory as well. Cool. Anyway, Obama went on to make fun of the player's nicknames, which, he's not wrong. Moose, Hoz and Salvy? REAL ORIGINAL. The other reason I included this in your links was for:
Politics is a rough subject lately, but we can all support Obama's face while receiving a Royals jersey.
Sticking with Missouri. That's right, someone actually gave Missouri two baseball teams. For some fun facts about the other Missouri team, did you know that, for the first time in four years the Cardinals completed "Stars Wars" night without an injury? They are also having a historically unlucky season considering they are 3rd in run differential and 13th in win - loss. If anyone deserves some bad luck, it's Cardinals fans.
Baseball is awesome.