I'm curious about the dugout dynamic of position players pitching.  Does the manager ask for volunteers, or does he ask a specific player?  And if that player is a fringe MLBer, can he really say no?

Not sure about the last two. But first five seem reasonable and not all that expensive.

... Ramos and Advocates held conversations with Mets minor leaguers, who contributed to a list of seven proposed changes that Ramos included in the letter to Cohen:

1. Pay weekly salaries all year round, without periods of free work.
2. Provide or cover the cost of in-season housing.
3. Provide or cover the cost of three meals per day during the season.
4. Provide multiple buses on road trips and sleeper buses on overnight road trips.
5. Assist players in shipping their cars to a new affiliate if reassigned and assist players without a car in getting to the field each day.
6. Cover the cost of offseason training.
7. Adjust salaries and per diems based on the cost of living in different affiliate home cities.

Four other New York State senators — Rachel May, Diane Savino, Timothy M. Kennedy and John Mannion — were co-signers of the letter, which was copied to commissioner Rob Manfred as well.

Advocates for Minor Leaguers aims to improve the lot of players in all organizations. But Advocates saw a new entree to engage with an individual team based on an argument lawyers representing MLB made that teams are free to set their own pay for their minor leaguers, a person with knowledge of the meetings said.

https://theathletic.com/3367752/2022/06/15/mets-minor-league-pay/

Rotoworld:

06.16: Tyler Anderson allowed one run on one hit over 8 1/3 innings in Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Angels. (Anderson
very nearly had himself a date with immortality on Wednesday, coming
within two outs of a no-hitter before Shohei Ohtani wrecked the
narrative with a triple. Ohtani would subsequently score after Anderson
was lifted from action. The veteran southpaw struck out eight and walked
two in the outing.)

The win pushed the NL back ahaead of the AL, 57-56. Run differential: 485-469.

Rotoworld:

06.16: Will Smith went 1-for-4 with a three-run home run in Wednesday's win over the Angels. (Smith took Reid Detmers deep for a three-run home run with one out in the first inning, helping to set up starter Tyler Anderson -- who almost
threw a no-hitter -- for success.)

It's time to give some love to Wilmer Flores, the younger brother of yes, Wilmer Flores. After a so-so 2021, the Tigers starter looks to be stepping it up and as a 21-year-old has now made it to Double-A. He's currently a bit under-the-radar, but not for long. Walk and K rates are great and I'd highly recommend finding room in deeper Leagues and get him rostered now, before the serious hype comes to the fore. I believe it will. 

A lovely overall game in Coors.

Rotoworld:

06.16: Amed Rosario went 3-for-5 with a solo homer, a triple, a steal and four runs scored in Wednesday's 7-5 win over the Rockies. (Lovely
overall game for Rosario, who finished a double shy of the cycle. His
solo home run came off Austin Gomber with one out in the third inning.
Over the course of 214 at-bats this season, the 26-year-old shortstop is
putting up a .271/.304/.360 triple slash with one homer (Wednesday's
big fly was his first of the summer), 14 RBI, 31 runs scored and six
steals. He has been hitting everything he sees of late, collecting a
hearty eight hits over his last three games (14 at-bats).)

Yoan Moncada	Manny Machado	Amed Rosario	Tyler Anderson	Zac Gallen

Jun 15, 2022 Top Performers

Pitchers:

Tyler Anderson (LAD): 8.1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 8 K, 83 GmSc

Zac Gallen (ARI): 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 70 GmSc

Kyle Gibson (PHI): 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 6 K, 70 GmSc

Spencer Strider (ATL): 5.2 IP, 2 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 11 K, 68 GmSc

Jose Berrios (TOR): 7.0 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 8 K, 67 GmSc

View All of Yesterday's Pitchers at Baseball-Reference.com

Yoan Moncada	Manny Machado	Amed Rosario	Tyler Anderson	Zac Gallen

Jun 15, 2022 Top Performers

Batters:

Yoan Moncada (CHW): 5-6, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 R

Manny Machado (SDP): 3-4, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R

Amed Rosario (CLE): 3-5, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 R, 1 SB

Austin Riley (ATL): 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (TOR): 4-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R

Ryan Mountcastle (BAL): 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Jorge Alfaro (SDP): 3-6, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R

José Abreu (CHW): 4-5, 2 RBI, 3 R

Bryan Reynolds (PIT): 2-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 R

Luke Voit (SDP): 3-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 R

View All of Yesterday's Batters at Baseball-Reference.com

Hey, he's a first baseman, of course his arm is sore.

Rotoworld:

06.16: Frank Schwindel is not in the Cubs' starting lineup for Thursday's contest against the Padres. (Schwindel,
who has pitched in mop-up duty on two of the last four days for
Chicago, will get Thursday's series finale off as the Cubs try to snap a
nine-game losing streak. Patrick Wisdom is at the cold corner with
Jonathan Villar covering third base on Thursday afternoon.)

Jumps the Clemens duo up to the top of the strikeout leader board for father-son pitching combos ...

Listening to Braves games, they're absolutely loving his glovework.  The inflated BABIP has given him a chance to get a toehold, and I think it will take a pretty severe slump for him to not be given regular time to patrol CF.

With teams carrying an abundance of RP on their active roster, do we really need the constant stream of Frank Schwindel types lobbing them over in the ninth-inning? I'm tiring of the novelty. 

It's not right that Leury has no comments since February. Not when he refuses to pad his stats, which so sorely need padding, batting in the seventh inning yesterday against Harold Castro.

The ESPN play by play:

• 
  110

  PITCH	TYPE	MPH
  1Strike Looking	Eephus Pitch	47
  2Foul Ball	Eephus Pitch	43
  3Strike Swinging	Fastball	80

• 0 RUNS, 1 HIT, 0 ERRORS

Another Clemens goes into the Baseball Encyclopedia with a pitching line.

The last three pitchers for the Tigers yesterday against the White Sox actually weren't that bad. Harold Castro, Kody Clemens and Tucker Barnhart collected nine outs, allowed seven hits (no homers), one walk and two runs. Castro struck out Leury Garcia (pinch-hitting for Robert) on three pitches.

With help from the likes of Frank Schwindel pitching the ninth yesterday in Wrigley, the MLB batting average crept all the way to .241.

06.16: Luke Voit went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, a solo home run and two runs scored in Wednesday's 19-5 dismantling of the Cubs. (Voit
was one of four Padres batters to finish with three hits in the blowout
victory. His solo homer did not come until the ninth inning and helped
to serve as an exclamation on a fireworks-filled evening for the road
team. In 169 at-bats this season, Voit has posted eight homers and 28
RBI. He has now homered in three of his last four games.)

Sat what?

Rotoworld:

06.15: Juan Soto (knee) remains out of the Nationals starting lineup on Wednesday night against the Braves (It's
the second straight start that Soto has missed after banging his knee
on the bench during Monday's game. The Nationals have no reason to rush
him back into action, so they'll continue to proceed cautiously here.
He's still considered day-to-day.)

I can't quit you, Art.

With four earned runs in a third of an inning yesterday, he now has a 12.15 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in his last 21 days. I have him in NL Doubt.

One game is a small sample size, but I'll place a side bet on Nasty Nestor, Tim.

Ticket prices are No. 1 for what keeps me out of Yankee Stadium. Acoustics are No. 2.

This was not the year to boycott the Yankees, but boycott them I did. Could have said 2, when someone else said 1 for Holmes. Didn't. Could have bid more than a few pennies for Matt Carpenter. Didn't.

The Post, if you can stand it, is doing a nice job of chronicling their historic season.

Mike Vacarro today:

t really doesn’t matter where the Yankees play baseball games these days, because they are more likely than not going to win the game. It doesn’t matter who they play, since this much-anticipated 13-game swing against fellow contenders is off to a breezy 2-0 start after they dismissed the Rays, 4-3, Wednesday night.

Once upon a time, the slogan on the T-shirts declared: “We play today, we win today.” The way this season has gone so far, that isn’t just a goal, it’s a daily fact of life. They are 46-16. They are 30 games over .500 half a month before the Fourth of July. We can talk about the pace they’re on (it’s 120-42) and the near-perfection with which they play each game.

It all matters. It all applies.

But it’s worth noting something else that has developed over the past couple of weeks. The win Wednesday was the 13th in a row at Yankee Stadium. It is the longest home winning streak the Yankees have put together since June-July 1973. That’s one stadium and one renovation ago, and that’s notable.

Think about all the terrific teams that populated the second iteration of Yankee Stadium, from 1976-2008. Six of them won World Series. Seven of them won more than 100 games. Eighteen of them went to the playoffs. None of them won as many as 13 games in a row there, and that second version of the original Stadium is often credited with providing one of the great home-field advantages of all time, in any sport.

It is an encouraging harbinger. Since the newest version of Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, they are 22-13 there in the postseason. But much of that damage was done in two Octobers: 2009 (7-1) and 2017 (6-0). The Yankees have lost three elimination games there. It has been, as often as not, as advantageous as a neutral site.

There has been the sense that for whatever reason — acoustics, ticket prices, lack of energy — the House the Boss Built has been a pale comparison to the House that Ruth Built across the street. Early returns this year indicate it’s a whole new experience now...