Congratulations to all the Murderball players who were picked by diaper-wearing old men last night, and will get paid legally rather than under the table until their sport deems them worthless at Age 26 and screws them out of their contract, or "restructures" it so that they're playing for $2.13/hour + tips. I went to grad school at OU (and am still an adjunct faculty member there), so here's hoping the Browns can keep Baker Mayfield alive long enough to experience a win.
*Gerrit Cole (1.3 fWAR) and Justin Verlander (1.2 fWAR) rank 3rd and 4th in MLB.
*National Treasure Susan Slusser writes about tonight's opposing starter, Sean Manaea - who is coming off a no-hitter of the Red Sox - and the challenges the Astros will pose. Hinch:
It's a challenge because a guy is coming off his best performance and the emotional high of accomplishing something so unique. It's hard to study film of his most recent start - you don't really want to see that. So you focus on what he might do against you.
*In THE ATHLETIC Jake Kaplan says that, five turns through, the Astros rotation has been as advertised.
*Hunter Atkins thinks Jake Marisnick is showing signs of breaking out of his slump.
*White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar is up and walking around the ICU.
*T.R. Sullivan summarizes the closer situation around the AL West.
*Hey AC readers in the UK (I know there are a few of you), you can now get Bravado Spice on Amazon UK!
*SI has an article about James Paxton's struggles, so I present this stat to you:
Paxton vs Houston, 2018: 6IP, 3H/1ER, 7K:3BB
Paxton vs Everyone Else: 25.2IP, 27H/17ER, 37K:12BB
*How Hayden Hurst went from minor-leaguer with the Yips to the 25th pick in last night's NFL draft.
*From FanGraphs: Should Kyler Murray play football or baseball?
*Preston Tucker thinks Ronald Acuna (I don't know where the accent mark thing is) could be the Braves' Carlos Correa.
*Did the Rangers ruin Matt Bush by letting him go through Spring Training as a starter?
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
