Kuzul

It’s official: We can now add “weather correspondent” to Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout’s resume.

Trout has made it known he is a “weather guy,” writing in the Players’ Tribune he has direct messaged people at The Weather Channel about storm models. With Winter Storm Jonas burying the East Coast, the 2014 American League Most Valuable Player had a chance to live his dream.

He got to give a weather report.

On Friday night, Trout shared a video of himself driving through the snowstorm back home in New Jersey:

That tweet set the stage for an appearance on The Weather Channel.

Trout called the station Saturday morning to give Jim Cantore a report on the weather conditions in Millville, New Jersey. While Cantore ranked the experience among the best of his career, it was probably an even bigger thrill for the four-time AL All-Star.

How did Trout do as a weather correspondent? Let’s see what Cantore had to say:

It looks like Trout may have found a new job—for the offseason.

[YouTube, Twitter; h/t Deadspin]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

At the age of 34, St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright will be looking to once again prove he is one of the best starting pitchers in all of baseball after tearing his Achilles early last season.

While he still believes in himself, some fantasy baseball owners may be cautious when it comes to taking the veteran pitcher. As good as he’s been through the years, he still hasn’t started a game since last April. That makes him a bit of a risk in fantasy baseball leagues.

Right now, he feels a bit disrespected.

Just listen to how Wainwright handled being taken in the seventh round in an expert fantasy baseball draft on Sirius XM. The three-time All-Star called in to a radio show to voice his displeasure about being taken that late—and he only got more disgusted when he found out that 21 pitchers were taken before him. 

After being given an initial recovery time of nine to 12 months, Wainwright returned from his Achilles injury last year in just five months. That gave him a chance to pitch down the stretch, where he allowed two runs in six total (regular-season and postseason) appearances out of the bullpen.

Pitching in relief and starting are completely different. However, Wainwright has proven throughout his career that you should never count him out. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2011 and won 14 games in 2012. Not only that, but he made the National League All-Star team in both 2013 and 2014, winning a total of 39 games over those two seasons.

In other words, he can bounce back from injuries.

Wainwright has won at least 19 games in four of the past five full seasons he has pitched in. Nobody is doubting that he still has what it takes to be an ace, but there are some who are concerned about his durability. And there’s nothing the right-hander can do about that until he takes the mound.

[Sirius XM, h/t Fox Sports]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When it comes to his alma mater, Minnesota Twins closer Glen Perkins is more than happy to give back when he can.

The 32-year-old Perkins was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, went to the University of Minnesota and was drafted by his hometown Minnesota Twins, the only organization he has ever played for. To put it simply, he is a Minnesotan through and through.

On Tuesday, Minnesota Golden Gophers pitcher Ben Humbert decided to tweet at Perkins to see if the former Golden Gophers star would be willing to help out the team a bit:

Athletes and celebrities receive tweets like that from random people a lot. Most of the time there is no response, but the Minnesota freshman decided it was worth a shot.

“I thought it would be awesome if we could score a PS4 for our new locker room because we love to game outside of playing baseball,” Humbert said in an email to the Star Tribune‘s Howard Sinker. “I’ve never met or talked to Perk before but I knew that he was an alumni and a huge supporter of Gopher baseball. So I took a shot.”

As easy as it would have been for Perkins to ignore the tweet, it took less than an hour for the three-time All-Star—who signed a $22.175 million extension in 2014—to come through for his old squad:

Regardless of what the southpaw is making in the majors, he didn’t have to do this. And Humbert knows that. That’s why he was extremely grateful for the kind gesture:

For those who see this and are thinking about trying to get Perkins to send you a PlayStation 4, he’s not going to give in every time. This was Perkins’ way of thanking a school that did so much for him, per Sinker:

Every once in a while someone sends me a tweet asking for something. Sometimes it just seems like the right thing to do. That school and the people there did a lot for me. I thought about how awesome it would be if something like that happened when I was there, and really it didn’t take much thought at all. I thought [it] was funny and ballsy that someone asked for a PS4 so I figured why the hell not.

Great reasoning. Great guy.

[Twitter, h/t CBS Sports]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The phrase “Netflix and chill” often gets misused on the Internet, as not everyone fully understands its meaning.

That may or not be the case with newly acquired Toronto Blue Jays reliever Drew Storen. If he does know what the popular phrase means, then he just gave everyone a bit too much information.

On Friday night, the Washington Nationals traded Storen and cash to Toronto in exchange for outfielder Ben Revere and a player to be named later. Given that it’s the offseason and the trade went down late at night, the 28-year-old may not have been totally aware of what was going on before he was informed of the deal.

In fact, Storen was apparently spending some quality time with his wife when he got the call from Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo:

TMI alert.

It’s unclear if he actually knows what the phrase means because he really was just watching Netflix and chilling, according to Megan Robinson of Global Sports:

Now that’s a show that requires your undivided attention.

Before you go tweeting at him about the show, be mindful: Storen hadn’t finished the series when he talked about the trade.

He’s just getting into the craziness that is Making a Murderer. If you’ve seen it, keep your trap shut.

Pitchers and catchers don’t report for another month, so Storen has plenty of time to finish Making a Murderer and, um, do some more “Netflix and chilling.”

[Twitter]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With the 2016 MLB Hall of Fame class set to be unveiled Wednesday, there will be a couple of storylines to keep an eye on.

The most intriguing aspect of the class will be whether or not former Seattle Mariners superstar Ken Griffey Jr. will become the first-ever unanimous selection. After that, all eyes will be on those players who are linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Most notably, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Many have taken a strong stance against purported steroid users, saying that those who needed PEDs to get an advantage should be barred from Cooperstown. Both Bonds (MLB’s all-time home run leader) and Clemens (a seven-time Cy Young Award winner) have been on the ballot for a few years now, with neither coming close to getting the call. 

If former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay had it his way, neither Bonds nor Clemens would ever get into the Hall of Fame:

Halladay, an eight-time All-Star and two-time Cy Young Award winner, came up during the steroid era. The right-hander won 203 games during his 16-year career and threw both a perfect game and a no-hitter. 

For a good part of his career, Halladay was considered to be among the best pitchers in baseball. He undoubtedly went up against some who were using PEDs, so we can only wonder if his numbers would have been even better if everyone he played against had been clean.

One thing is for certain: Halladay does not want to see Bonds or Clemens—or any suspected steroids user—ever getting a plaque in Cooperstown.

Update: Thursday, January 7

The final HOF vote affirmed Halladay’s wish, keeping Clemens and Bonds out of Cooperstown for at least one more year.

Clemens, however, was not pleased with Halladay’s comments. The former pitcher referred to Halladay as “ill-informed,” calling his comment “asinine” in a statement released following Wednesday’s announcement, per Sports Illustrated.

Although he did not refer to Halladay by name, he did indicate his thoughts regarded “the latest coming from a former Blue Jays pitcher.”

What’s more, Clemens seemingly accused his critic of his own PED use.

“Just to enlighten [Halladay], he was accused of using amphetamines by the ‘strength coach,'” the statement read. “You should be very careful when putting tweets out while not having your facts on the matter at hand.”

As Sports Illustrated pointed out, Halladay never failed a drug test nor was he accused of steroid use in his 16 years in the league. While he didn’t cite this in his response to Clemens’ backlash, he did tweet he would let his reputation “speak for itself”:

[Roy Halladay, h/t to Sports Illustrated]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

After spending 13 years pitching in the major leagues, Dan Haren has compiled plenty of thoughts and stories only a big leaguer has experienced.

Now that he’s retired, the 35-year-old is willing to open up a bit about what it’s like to be in the majors.

Haren bounced around the league quite a bit during his career, playing for eight teams in 13 seasons and five in the last four. He may not have had overpowering stuff (hence the Twitter handle “@ithrow88”), but the right-hander made three All-Star teams and received Cy Young award votes a couple of times for knowing how to get hitters out.

After contemplating retirement last offseason when he was traded from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Miami Marlins, Haren decided to hang up his cleats after this past season, finishing with a career record of 153-131 and a 3.75 ERA.

But even though he has walked away from the game, he is still making sure he stays in shape. On Monday, Haren tweeted that he would be dishing out some thoughts on his career while he worked out:

And off he went:

Unfortunately, this Twitter session had to come to an end when his workout was done.

The key is to always leave the audience wanting more—and that’s exactly what Haren did. Now we can’t wait until he hops back on the bike.

[Dan Haren]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It appears as though one of the things New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard wanted for Christmas was for veteran teammate Bartolo Colon to re-sign with the team.

Santa Claus may not have made it happen, but that’s only because the Mets’ front office had already taken care of it.

Colon and the Mets reached a deal earlier this month to bring the fan favorite back for the 2016 season. That news apparently was a big hit with the Syndergaard family.

On Christmas Eve, Syndergaard posted a picture of his family wearing “Big Sexy” shirts in honor of Colon. And they now have a picture to use on Christmas cards for many years to come.

[Noah Syndergaard, h/t Fox Sports]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Anybody who has watched Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper in his first four years in the majors knows he has incredible strength.

As this video shows, the 2015 National League Most Valuable Player wasn’t just born with the ability to crush 450-foot home runs. He puts in the work in the weight room.

Harper took to Instagram on Friday afternoon to give fans a look at one of his offseason workouts.

In case you haven’t tried it before, dead-lifting 500 pounds is no easy task.

The rest of Major League Baseball better watch out. Harper (42 home runs, 38 doubles and a .649 slugging percentage in 2015) is already at the top of the NL at just 23 years old—and he’s only getting stronger.

[Bryce Harper]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Houston Astros have high hopes for 22-year-old pitcher Lance McCullers—because of his arm, not his hops.

Well, his hops just add to the package.

McCullers took to Instagram on Wednesday to show off his bounce. All the 2012 first-round pick did was nail a 61.5-inch box jump. Because the 59.5-inch box jump apparently wasn’t challenging enough.

The only thing better than that athleticism might be the reaction from the dude screaming toward the end of the clip. He’d make a great hype man.

[Lance McCullers Jr.]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

No matter who is on the roster, the Arizona Diamondbacks are going to appear quite a bit different in 2016.

That’s because the team has used this offseason to “evolve” and update its look.

On Thursday night, the Diamondbacks unveiled new logos and uniforms that they will use moving forward. This makeover blends the franchise’s beginning with its present. 

Much to the fans’ delight, the snakehead logo is returning.

Home 

Road 

Alternates

Throwback

Hispanic Heritage

 How does this makeover grade out?

[Arizona Diamondbacks]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com