Last week, someone asked me whether baseball coaches ever go back and forth between college and the pro’s, the way coaches do in football and basketball. “Not really,” I said, “or at least not the way it happens in basketball and football. College baseball is a bit of a different game from the Major Leagues. Although the Cubs’ hitting coach did come from a junior college.”
Now here comes Wes Johnson, making me look like an idiot.
To be fair, Johnson leaving his role as the Twins’ pitching coach to take on the same position at LSU does track with my explanation: This isn’t Nick Saban going from LSU to the Dolphins to Alabama. Wes Johnson is a good coach, but a small deal. And while the managing of the game is different between college and the pro’s (because in college, each game has higher stakes and there’s often a much larger talent disparity), coaching college pitching is not as different.
Still, it’s a high-profile poaching of a coach between the college ranks and the pro’s, and the direction is a surprise: LSU is willing to pay its pitching coach more than the Twins pay theirs.
The real takeaway here, then, is that college baseball is growing. It’s always been a big deal at LSU, but a big-enough deal to make this investment worth it for the university?
We talk often about ESPN and SEC Network and the rise of the lower-money college sports. I’m not sure about the numbers on this—the attendance numbers nationally, the viewership numbers for regular season games (the College World Series is enough of its own event that I wouldn’t think of its ratings as a phenomenal proxy for college baseball’s popularity as a whole, but regular season streaming numbers interest me)—but my impression is that more people are following more college sports that aren’t football and men’s basketball. My impression is that sports like college baseball and college volleyball and college gymnastics are growing. It’s a bet central to my career. Things like this—things like LSU taking a swing and landing an MLB pitching coach—reinforce the theory.
It tracks, too, that baseball fans might turn to the college game more and more, or that baseball-curious sports fans might be more captivated by the college game than its professional counterpart. Its schedule is more digestible, with a shorter season and more days off. The game isn’t so clinical, with less shifting, more aggression, and an abundance of emotion. Omaha will never hold the same mystique as Opening Day, the All-Star Break, or World Series games on frosty nights in October, and it would be outlandish to suggest college baseball will ever surpass the Majors in popularity, but could college baseball grow? Yes. Could it grow at the expense of professional baseball? Um…maybe? It could take viewers away, but it could also connect people back to a baseball more soul-stirring than the current MLB product. One where Wes Johnson plays a bigger role than Tom Ricketts.
Suspensions, Surgery, a Shutout, and the Senate
Pre-appeal, the Angels have gotten a total of 32 games worth of suspensions from Sunday’s fight, while the Mariners have received 14 games. The Mariners had more active player suspension impact—all 14 games went to athletes, split between Jesse Winker (7), J.P. Crawford (5), and Julio Rodríguez (2). The Angels only had seven games go to the 26-man roster—Andrew Wantz (3), Ryan Tepera (2), and Raisel Iglesias (2) were each disciplined—but injured Anthony Rendon got five games, and the coaching staff got a noteworthy 18 games between itself (ten went to Phil Nevin, three other coaches received at least one game) while even interpreter Manny del Campo got two games.
What a fight.
In personnel news:
- Bryce Harper will undergo surgery on his thumb. The word is that he’ll be out six weeks, which isn’t a terrible prognosis for the team. Worth remembering, though, that Harper also can’t throw right now because his UCL is partially torn. The man is beat up. Elsewhere on that roster, Zach Eflin is going on the IL with a bruised knee.
- Kenley Jansen is newly on the IL with a reoccurrence of his irregular heartbeat issue. Fingers crossed for a quick and full recovery. Atlanta’s saying he won’t be out long.
- Brandon Woodruff and Kolten Wong have been reactivated by the Brewers for tonight’s game. Big pickups for a team trying to reassert itself as the dominant force in the NL Central.
- Kris Bryant came back for the Rockies last night, trying to turn around what’s been a painful start to his tenure in Denver for both his back and his bat.
- The Royals have called up Vinnie Pasquantino, a top-100 but not top-50 prospect. He’ll replace Carlos Santana, and he enters with a reputation of having slugged all through the minors.
- Michael Brantley is going on the IL with shoulder discomfort.
- The Guardians have bought Sandy León from the Reds. León hasn’t been replacement-level by fWAR since 2018, but with Austin Hedges going ono the concussion IL, Cleveland needed a guy.
On the field last night:
- The Yankees bounced back after Paul Blackburn troubled them, scoring six in the seventh inning to beat the A’s 9-5.
- Kevin Gausman shut down the Red Sox, throwing seven scoreless innings while striking out ten.
- The Twins whooped up on the Guardians, winning 11-1 and moving above 50% likely to win the AL Central in FanGraphs’s Playoff Odds, at least until the Guardians beat them in the doubleheader opener earlier today.
- Chad Kuhl, of all the people, threw a complete-game shutout of the Dodgers. 102 pitches. Five strikeouts. Zero walks. Great moment for Kuhl, and for a Rockies team in need of great moments.
- Juan Yepez homered twice for the Cardinals while Paul Goldschmidt was on base four times, including via a home run of his own. They took down the Marlins 9-0. Adam Wainwright threw seven shutout frames, striking out nine.
- The White Sox lost again, this time to the Angels, 4-3, as Noah Syndergaard went seven strong.
And finally:
The U.S. Senate sent Major League Baseball a letter saying they’re investigating MLB’s antitrust exemption, granted 100 years ago last month by the Supreme Court and since protected by various acts of Congress. The letter is specifically about the minor leagues, focusing on minor league pay, the minor league overhaul from last offseason, and the organization’s international amateur systems.
I’m not a legal expert. I’m not an expert on the minor leagues. But it’s unclear to me exactly what removing antitrust exemption would do in the realm of the minor leagues. Should MLB have this exemption? No, of course not, there’s no need from a baseball league to be federally protected from competition. Will anyone successfully challenge the Major Leagues? Maybe. Maybe the Saudis have an idea to shake up the game. But with the minors…be careful what you wish for. If MLB is forced to pay players better—I personally believe the pay scale shouldn’t be dictated from on high by the MLB commissioner and that the draft should be abolished so teams are more incentivized to treat minor leaguers well, but that’s a little beside this point—there’s going to be a flipside where a lot of teams don’t want to have as many minor league affiliates. Could this translate to more independent leagues? Yes, but people have to go to those games for those leagues to survive. Absent the developmental aspect which justifies MLB subsidization, I’m not sure the minors can continue in even their now-altered form. It seems very possible to me that we could see the minor leagues eliminated entirely and replaced by 1) slimmed-down farm systems housed entirely at spring training complexes in Florida and Arizona and 2) volatile independent leagues in the ballparks these minor league teams once called home.
The Cubs
The Cubs start a series with the Reds tonight, and it’s a bittersweet time of year. We probably only have a month left with Willson Contreras. We might only have a month left with Ian Happ and Kyle Hendricks. Meanwhile, we move on through the rebuild, and weekends like this past one leave some reminders of the thrill of winning individual games and series. On the news front, I don’t think there are any roster moves today, but basically everyone continues to progress in injury recovery, including Seiya Suzuki, who could embark on a rehab assignment as soon as tomorrow, per Meghan Montemurro.
Wall, Westbrook, Will Hardy
I’m so bad at following the NBA that every now and then, when the name of a memorable college player pops up in the news, I do the metaphorical equivalent of spinning my head in a restaurant to hear what’s being said. Is Collin Sexton having a good pro career? I don’t know. But I see he got a qualifying offer from the Cavs.
The big NBA offseason news of today seems to be as follows:
- John Wall’s opting out of his deal with the Rockets and trying to join the Clippers.
- Russell Westbrook’s opting into his deal with the Lakers, costing the Lakers 47.1 million dollars.
- Celtics assistant Will Hardy is going to be the Jazz’s next head coach.
- Jalen Brunson’s probably going from the Mavericks to the Knicks.
Did I miss anything? I would imagine that I did. The takeaway seems to be that the Clippers are getting to shape the “superteam” they want: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, John Wall as a big three, recently-extended Ivica Zubac as a role-playing starter, all those guys like Zubac who were good enough to get them almost to the playoffs even without Leonard or (for a lot of the year) George…it’s a compelling recipe. As we talked about yesterday, “superteams” might be going out of vogue, but you’d imagine that roster will be competitive.
Luke Richardson to Chicago
In the big NHL offseason news of the day (yesterday, actually), Chicago’s hired Canadiens’ assistant Luke Richardson to be its new head coach.
What Are the Browns Going to Do?
And, in the big NFL offseason news of the day, Deshaun Watson’s disciplinary hearing began while Baker Mayfield, in a coincidence (?) that would make Veep producers blush, hosted a youth football camp back in Norman. Still no trade there, and judging by Mayfield’s comments today, he’s not likely to start for the Browns while Watson’s suspended.
Obviously, there are a lot more important people in this story than Baker Mayfield, and there’s a lot that’s more important about this story than who the Browns start at quarterback, but on the less-important topic of football: What the hell did the Browns think would happen? Must really like Jacoby Brissett, I guess.
Other news: Terry McLaurin got an extension from the Commanders.
***
Viewing schedule tonight, second screen rotation in italics:
- 7:05 PM EDT: Atlanta @ Philadelphia, Morton vs. Wheeler (MLB TV)
- 7:07 PM EDT: Boston @ Toronto, Wacha vs. Stripling (MLB TV)
- 7:10 PM EDT: Houston @ New York (NL), Valdez vs. Carrasco (TBS)
- 7:10 PM EDT: Milwaukee @ Tampa Bay, Woodruff vs. Baz (MLB TV)
- 7:10 PM EDT: Minnesota @ Cleveland, Winder vs. Pilkington (MLB TV)
- 8:05 PM EDT: Cincinnati @ Cubs, Castillo vs. Thompson (MLB TV)
- 9:40 PM EDT: San Diego @ Arizona, Manaea vs. Gallen (MLB TV)
And then, of course, more Wimbledon tomorrow morning.
