Update from madfriars.com ...

Ty France once again led the Chihuahuas offense, finishing up the fireworks in the second with a  three-run home run. France came back from an 0-2 count to drive the pitch over the right-center field wall for his 27th homer of the year. He also clubbed a pair of doubles on the night. Each part of his ridiculous .406/.482/.790 slash line leads all of full-season baseball. On the year, France has 55 extra-base hits against 48 strikeouts. 

With his opposite-field triple in the eighth, Fernando Tatis Jr. extended his hitting streak to 14 games. That’s the longest by a Padres player this season and the longest active mark in the big leagues.

If Tatis gets four plate appearances on Sunday, he will qualify for the Major League leaderboards, and his .324 average should put him in the thick of the race for the National League batting title. He’s 12 points behind Christian Yelich.

Mired in an 0-for-19 rut, Manny Machado laced a game-tying RBI double into center field in the fourth. In his eight-year career, it was only the second time Machado had fallen into a hitless drought of 19 at-bats. He’s never been 0-for-20.

Munoz threw a 102.8 mph fastball to Ryan McMahon, who was late and managed to foul it into the left-field seats. That's the hardest pitch Statcast has ever tracked from a Padres pitcher. (Munoz has thrown each of the top 44.)

With all the movement in today's 25-man MLB squads, there seems to be a replacement level hitter or two available most weeks. Plain Wheeler Dealer League (AL, 1991, now 5x5) has been 13 and 10 for at least 5 years. It does not change the FA pool for pitchers, nor prices at auction, as those pitchers at the end usually are $1.

In our league, no active player may be kept on minors/injured list more than two weeks, though one of our owners takes great pleasure in keeping a player (or two) on that reserve squad to the limit. 

Jose Castillo Out For Season With Torn Hand Ligament

I call that "spit the bit" ... yow :-(

Here's how it was reported at mlbtraderumors.com ...

Snitker did not commit to permanently utilizing Melancon in the closer’s role, though he did indicate that the veteran will be trusted with the job for some time to come.

... I wonder if "some time" is up yet? 

That works for me, though I think my scheme would end up with the same players rostered. Though maybe enforcing two Catchers would make a difference. I'm fine either way, but 13 rather than 14 hitters won't really improve the FA pool much, but it will mean one fewer bum you have to carry.

And promptly was shelled for 4 hits and 4 ER in his first outing, converting a non-save situation into an eventual loss and spoiling a Soroka gem.

His first homer in the majors ties the game in the 8th and the Mets win their 8th in a row. Citi Field has been transformed from a morgue into a madhouse.

Amazing.

As for the reduced hitters, Peter spelling it out has given me an idea. Two C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, Four OF, IF, UT, UT.  This is one extra IF (any), one extra OF, and then two open hitting spots.  

My league's current free agents are 7 Catchers, 1 2B, 2 3B, 3 SS, 7 OF, and Dylan Moore 2/3/S/O, and 81 pitchers.  And, that's with 14 hitters and 10 pitchers active.

The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitiational consists of 21 15-team leagues made up primarily of fantasy baseball writers, radio folks, and experts. You can win your own league, that's one race, and then there is a combined race. Teams were put together in drafts in late March.

There is also a standings for players. You can set the filter for players taken in all 21 leagues. One player taken in all 21 leagues is owned by teams with a worse composite standings than Kyle Freeland. Justus.

We like 10 pitchers, and think going to 13 hitters would be even better. I don't know that anyone has talked about this, but why not C 1B 2B SS 3B OF OF OF UT UT UT UT UT?

One thought on roster construction: The MLB is going to 26-man rosters next year. While this could, in theory, lead to some 14-pitcher rosters, it will probably mean anywhere from 6-to-10 extra hitters in both the AL and NL.  That should lessen a lot of the pressure that comes with carrying 14 hitters. By the way, the American Dreams League went to 10 pitchers about five years ago. And 10 pitchers have not in any discernible way affected pricing. 

The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitiational consists of 21 15-team leagues made up primarily of fantasy baseball writers, radio folks, and experts. You can win your own league, that's one race, and then there is a combined race. Teams were put together in drafts in late March.

There is also a standings for players. Which players are on the worst teams overall.

In order: Freeland, Joey Wendel, and Brandon Nimmo.

The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitiational consists of 21 15-team leagues made up primarily of fantasy baseball writers, radio folks, and experts. You can win your own league, that's one race, and then there is a combined race. Teams were put together in drafts in late March.

There is also a standings for players. Which players are on the best teams overall.

The top 3 are Rosario, Cody Bellinger, Max Scherzer.

For now he's been given the closer's seat in the Braves' bullpen.

For the 25th consecutive day, at least one hitter hit at least one home run. Yesterday there were five.

Batters:

J.D. Martinez* (BOS): 4-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 4 R

Ronald Acuna Jr.* (ATL): 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R

Bryce Harper (PHI): 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R

Teoscar Hernandez (TOR): 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

Carson Kelly (ARI): 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R

* pictured (at Baseball-Reference)

We had similar problems in our 33 year old League. We changed from 26 teams with 23 active roster slots to 10 teams with 46 active rosters. Went from Freeze Rosters with 15 MLB and 10 Farm to 15 MLB and 6 Farm. A fantastic Freeze Roster alone no longer automatically beats any other tactics. We're an Auction league with a Salary Cap on Auction Day. We've remained a General Manager league rather than a daily manager of lineups. We have no bench. With 460 active players instead of 598 there are more players available during the season which has promoted more activity and fewer Ghost teams. We also split into 2 divisions, which we should have done when we had so many teams. We now have 3 winners out of a possible 10 each season- 2 division winners and a play-off winner. Lastly, we changed our scoring categories to have more counting ones and less rate ones which has encouraged teams to keep playing- adding starters, filling reserved players to have more slots pumping out stats each day.  Quality of owners beats quantity of owners. It's easier to find 10 active ones than 26.

Our league, also old/4x4/AL-only has gotten a little dry.  We had a major dumping crisis in the late 90s (long story), and BANNED dumping.  If you trade a guy during the season, he's not keepable.  Trades are few and far between.

We have recently expanded DLs to 6 (from 3), starting next year; we have 3-man reserve lists.  I was not particularly in favor -- the FA pool is already thin.

I have suggested a jubilee draft, to ZERO enthusiasm.