Good morning folks! I hope the off-day treated you well. We’ve got more Mariners baseball coming up today, so here are some links to get you going until gametime.
In Mariners news...
- We’ve got some spicy Mariners trade rumors!
#Yankees and #Mariners both interested in #BlueJays LHP J.A. Happ, source said, and here is one reason why: The AL rival #RedSox have an @MLB-best .813 OPS against RHP but only .672 against LHP. @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 18, 2018
#Mariners once tried to acquire J.D. Martinez and Matthew Boyd from the #Tigers; Boyd (a Seattle-area native) remains a fit for Mariners. My latest Trade Deadline notes: https://t.co/HxTTCBsRGV @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 18, 2018
- Rian Watt at Fangraphs tries to figure out how the M’s have managed to stay successful with their bullpen.
- TJ Cotterill at The News Tribune talked about what makes the M’s so good in close ballgames.
Around the league...
- The big news yesterday was that the Nationals acquired Kelvin Herrera from the Royals for a trio of prospects.
- Hmm...what do you think?
#Nats' Juan Soto homered in his first @MLB start, and now, of course, he just homered in the resumption of a game that was started BEFORE his #MLB debut. So is this technically his first big league hit? Watch live: https://t.co/oRiWGgOqXL pic.twitter.com/AWMQEOIsbb
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 18, 2018
- The Astros have now won a dozen games in a row thanks to Alex Bregman’s walk-off yesterday.
- No surprise here, with the Astros on a roll and all.
Astros GM Jeff Luhnow's contract extended to 2023 and promoted to president of baseball operations
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) June 18, 2018
- The United States will field a team in the Women’s World Baseball Cup in August, and they just announced their roster. Two girls from the state of Washington made the team. I just realized that one of them went to elementary school with me, actually.
- Carlos Martínez wrote an incredible story about his upbringing and how he became the pitcher he is today through The Players’ Tribune.
- Jake Bauers sat down with the Cespedes Family BBQ crew to discuss getting his first big league hit against the M’s, and how Dee Gordon played into the equation.
- Yadier Molina just tied the record for most games caught with a single franchise.
- David Schoenfeld and Sam Miller at ESPN compares Mike Trout’s first 1,000 career games to those of other MLB greats.
- Melky Cabrera has been released from the Indians and is now a free agent.
- The Indians have also agreed to a deal with Marc Rzepczynski.