Kuzul

Justine Siegal made MLB history Tuesday, as the Oakland Athletics announced she would serve as a guest instructor for their Instructional League club, making her the first woman to coach in big league history.

“It’s a dream come true,” Siegal said, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. “The A’s are a first-class organization, and it will be an honor to wear their uniform.”

Siegal, 40, has completed the Major League Scouting Bureau school and has her Ph.D. in sport and exercise psychology. Her duties will include “a little bit of everything,” ranging from hitting infield practice to offering her knowledge in meetings, according to Athletics assistant general manager David Forst, per Slusser.

“As a rookie coach, I expect to hit a lot of fungos, throw a lot of batting practice and help out wherever they want me to help,” Siegal told Slusser. “And I do like talking about life skills—I like to help people achieve their life goals.”

Siegal’s hiring continues an upward trend for women in men’s professional sports. The San Antonio Spurs made history by hiring Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, and the former WNBAer led the Spurs’ summer league team to a championship in July. The Sacramento Kings followed suit by hiring Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman to serve as an assistant under head coach George Karl this summer.

Siegal’s situation is perhaps most comparable to that of Jen Welter, who served as a coaching intern with the Arizona Cardinals during training camp. Like Welter, Siegal was not hired for a permanent position but as temporary help during a time when a team needs all hands on deck.      

“Justine knows that nothing has been promised, but we’re not ruling that out,” Forst said of a full-time position.

That leaves the NHL as the only major professional sports league that has not had a female coach.

The Athletics previously employed Kate Greenthal in their scouting department from 2012 to 2014, and this hire shows they’re still among the most progressive organizations in baseball. Even if Siegal’s just a guest instructor, this is progress worth celebrating and, hopefully, a sign of things to come.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The American League West is completely invested in and totally behind the implementation of the second wild card. It has to be. 

If it were not for that spot, two of its postseason contenders would be left out of the tournament, fighting solely for first place in the division.

As things stand, the Texas Rangers are looking down at the others. The Houston Astros are chasing the Rangers while also trying to kick back the Los Angeles Angels, a team with six consecutive wins as of their Monday night walk-off victory over the Oakland A’s and hanging just a half-game behind the Astros.

The Rangers lost their third in a row Monday, and the Astros won their third consecutive contest. Texas now leads the division by 1.5 games, with the Angels lurking two back. That bunch-up will cause plenty of scoreboard-watching and tense times over this final week of the season.

Let’s get weird. AL #WildCard is shaping up towards a crazy finish: http://t.co/F4gJ07DHcE pic.twitter.com/RadGhxNTru

— MLB (@MLB) September 29, 2015

“We’re hanging in there,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, per Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. “We’re hanging in there.”

That is because of that second wild-card berth. It also means this division is going to keep an entire baseball-watching country interested in late-September baseball. It’s going to be a good time.

Meanwhile, Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West” plays on the stadium speakers. Fitting — and fun!

— Alden Gonzalez (@Alden_Gonzalez) September 29, 2015

Making it better is that the Rangers host the Angels for a four-game, season-ending series starting Thursday. All games count for the same number of wins and losses, but that series, depending on what happens over the next two days, could do more to determine who participates in the postseason than any other for any team this year.

The fact that it might very well affect four clubs, all within whispering distance of each other, makes it the series to watch for all fans. The Houston Astros, who oddly finish their season with three games in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, and Minnesota Twins will be paying close attention as well.

The Twins have been a little overlooked because of this western ordeal, but they are maybe the most surprising playoff contender of the bunch. They also won Monday, their third consecutive victory, and are 1.5 games back of the Astros for that second wild card. They finish off with the Cleveland Indians and then the Kansas City Royals, who may very well be resting some regulars by the time that weekend series is played.

“It feels good but we’re obviously not finished yet,” Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe said, per Jordan Bastian and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “We’ve been battling all season. We’ve put ourselves in a good position and we’re looking forward to these last six games. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Astros, Angels, and Twins all won. Lots of moving parts in the AL wild card race and Houston is only 1.5 games behind Texas in the AL West.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) September 29, 2015

The Rangers are giving the ball to Cole Hamels on Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers, and this is the kind of start an ace is made for. He has to stop the bleeding, and based on his recent outings, he is the perfect bandage.

Since missing a start because of a groin injury in mid-August, Hamels is 5-0 with a 2.78 ERA in eight starts. The Rangers have won all of Hamels’ turns in that time, and the only other occasion during that run he started a game after a Rangers loss he pitched seven innings, allowed one run and struck out 12 against the Seattle Mariners. That is the definition of a “stopper.”

“We’ve got our guy going tomorrow,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said after his club lost Monday, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

The Rangers desperately need Hamels to produce a win, because the Astros are playing in Seattle and will not have to face ace Felix Hernandez in their next two before heading to Phoenix. And once there, Houston will throw ace Dallas Keuchel, while the Diamondbacks have the inconsistent Rubby De La Rosa and Jeremy Hellickson scheduled to pitch the first two games, though Hellickson has a 2.49 ERA in his last five starts. 

The Angels have two more against the A’s before that big Rangers series, and they face Chris Bassitt on Tuesday and Barry Zito, who allowed four runs in two innings in his only start this season, on Wednesday. Garrett Richards, the Angels ace, who has five quality starts in his last six outings, opposes Zito, making him available to pitch the season finale against Texas on short rest if needed.

With all three teams seemingly set up well, none of the leads are secure or safe.

“Safe? There’s nothing safe in baseball,” Banister said Sunday, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). “You’ve got to continue to play. It’s about competing. These guys, they’ve never taken that approach. We’ve been playing from behind all year long. We’ve worked way too hard to get to this point to think that anything is safe.”

Thank you for that and this entire week, second wild card.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Los Angeles Angels are in desperate need of healthy pitching depth for the season’s stretch run, and they added some Monday in the form of veteran Mat Latos.

The team announced it signed the right-hander to a major league contract and placed catcher Rafael Lopez on the 60-day disabled list.

The Angels are three games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West and 0.5 games behind the Houston Astros for the final wild-card spot. If Latos pitches for his new team as it chases a playoff berth in the season’s final week, it will mark his American League debut after he played for the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports noted the Angels have a “serious pitching deficit due to injuries.” Jered Weaver and Matt Shoemaker are suffering from nagging injuries, while Huston Street and Joe Smith are both likely done for the regular season. Perhaps Latos can provide critical innings in some form for Los Angeles following Monday’s move.

Those innings will not come in the postseason, though. Sports Illustrated noted Latos will not be eligible to pitch in the playoffs, should the Angels qualify.

Latos started the season for the Marlins and struggled on the way to a 4.48 ERA in 16 starts. The Dodgers acquired him at the trade deadline, but things got worse when he tallied a 6.66 ERA in 24.1 innings of work. Latos last appeared in a game Sept. 15 as a reliever for the Dodgers, and the team eventually released him after designating him for assignment.

Latos is not far removed from five straight seasons with a sub-3.50 ERA from 2010 to 2014. He was at his best in 2010, when he notched a 2.92 ERA and 189 strikeouts for the Padres, but he was a reliable middle-of-the-rotation starter for most of his career until this season.

He is only 27 years old and likely has years of baseball ahead of him. Perhaps a change of scenery and the chance to help his new team reach the postseason will invigorate Latos in crunch time.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

After resigning from the Los Angeles Angels earlier in the year, Jerry DiPoto’s next big gig will keep him in the American League West. The Seattle Mariners announced Monday they hired the 47-year-old as their new general manager.

“Jerry impressed us at each step of the process,” said team president Kevin Mather. “He has a very unique skill set, having been a successful player in the majors, then moving into front offices with steadily increasing responsibilities. Jerry has scouted, spent time in player development and has a track record as a very successful general manager.”

DiPoto will be tasked with a somewhat similar situation to that with which he dealt during his last few years with the Angels: The Mariners have a handful of veterans eating up a good chunk of the team’s budget. Robinson Cano will earn $24 million a season through 2023, while Nelson Cruz is making $14.25 million annually through 2018.     

Even the seven-year, $175 million extension owed to Felix Hernandez could pose a problem down the line if 2015 is a sign of things to come. Hernandez’s earned run average (3.53) is his highest since 2007.

Analyst Peter Gammons doesn’t think DiPoto will take much issue with the team’s current payroll:

However, ESPN’s Dan Szymborski wonders whether any GM could find a solution for what’s plaguing the organization as a whole:

Ideally, ownership will give DiPoto time to rebuild a minor league system that Baseball America ranked 25th to start the season. But he may not be afforded such patience when the team is paying so much money to veterans like Cano and Hernandez in an effort to win now.

DiPoto will also have to figure out what to do with manager Lloyd McClendon, who is signed through next year. Seattle has taken a big step back in 2015 after winning 87 games last year. If McClendon goes, then the Mariners might have to gamble on a relatively inexperienced replacement.

The good news for Mariners fans is that DiPoto is incredibly bright and one of the best candidates out there for the job. The question is whether he’ll get the full support of his bosses to make the necessary moves to turn Seattle’s fortunes around.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Huston Street was forced to leave Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners with a groin injury that will likely end his 2015 campaign.

Continue for updates.

Street Ruled Out for Regular Season

Sunday, Sept. 27

Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reported Street was diagnosed with a Grade 1 left-groin strain and that he is hopeful he’d be available for the playoffs if the Angels make it.

Los Angeles hasn’t been eliminated from postseason contention yet, but Street’s injury could hamper the team’s quest to pull off the improbable.

Entering Saturday night’s 3-2 win over the Mariners, Street led the American League in saves with 40, and the team’s next-best option is rookie Trevor Gott.

On Sept. 21, an MRI confirmed that setup man Joe Smith had suffered a sprained ankle, per MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez, and Smith only started playing catch again Saturday.

Scioscia is unsure whether Smith will be able to return, per the Orange County Register:

The chances of him getting back and pitching might be there, although there is a lot that has to happen before he’s out there pitching in a game. You are going to have to get him on the mound and see how he does. See how he recovers. He’s not at that point yet. There is more healing that has to take place.

Given the perceived severity of Street’s injury, Los Angeles is in deep trouble as it heads down the regular season’s home stretch.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

First off, this isn’t a postmortem. If things ended Friday, the Houston Astros would be in the postseason, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

But, whereas the surprising ‘Stros looked like an October lock for much of the season, now they’re hanging on by a thread—one that’s slipping rapidly from their grasp.

After Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Texas Rangers, Houston now sits 4.5 games off the pace in the American League West with eight games to play.

And with the Los Angeles Angels‘ 8-4 win over the Seattle Mariners, Houston is just a half-game ahead of the surging Halos for the AL’s second wild-card slot.

For a moment, it looked like things might get even worse for the Astros, when second baseman Jose Altuve left Friday’s game following a nasty collision with rookie shortstop Carlos Correa:

Altuve showed no signs of a concussion, per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart, which would have knocked him out for at least seven days.

“We feel like we dodged a little bit of a bullet there,” manager A.J. Hinch said, per McTaggart. “Maybe something went our way.”

Not much else has lately. The Astros are 7-15 in September, and in that span they’ve watched a four-game division lead melt into a daunting deficit. 

FanGraphs’ postseason projections still give the Astros a 58.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, though their odds of winning the West have sunk to 3.6 percent. Given how they’ve been playing, that feels generous.

After two more crucial contests with the Rangers, the Astros finish with six games on the road against the Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks, sub-.500 squads with losing records against Houston this year.

So there’s hope. Tomorrow is a new day, and other platitudes.

But this isn’t how the Astros’ Cinderella season was supposed to end. They came out of spring as the team no one believed in. Then the pumpkin turned into a coach. Now, it all might vanish in an instant.

There are several explanations for the ‘Stros’ slide. The offense, which ranked No. 4 in baseball in runs scored in the first half, has fallen to a tie for No. 19 since the All-Star break, just ahead of the woeful Philadelphia Phillies.

And the pitching staff has posted an unsightly 5.06 ERA in September, with the formerly stalwart bullpen looking particularly ugly.

Even ace and Cy Young contender Dallas Keuchel has faltered in the final lap, coughing up nine earned runs in 4.2 innings in a blowout loss to the Rangers on Sept. 16.

“It’s extremely disappointing, just because I couldn’t help the guys out like I normally do,” Keuchel said after the dispiriting outing, per McTaggart. “I know they were kind of leaning on me to kind of go out there and perform.”

Keuchel bounced back with a strong start, and a win, against the Angels on Sept. 21. And he could take the mound two more times before season’s end, depending on how the Astros set up their rotation. They’d obviously like to have Keuchel rested and ready for the do-or-die AL Wild Card Game—which will be played Oct. 6, likely in New York against the Yankees—but they have to get there first.

OK, so the bats have lagged and the arms have sagged. Is there anything else fueling Houston’s collapse?

Experience isn’t everything, but it can tip the scales. And compared to their Lone Star State counterparts, the Astros’ collective postseason resume is thin, as Chron.com’s Evan Drellich noted:

Current Rangers, including the injured Josh Hamilton, have 902 plate appearances in the playoffs lifetime. That’s more than seven times more the Astros’ tally, 125.

Jed Lowrie is the Astros’ leader in postseason experience at the plate, with 66 trips. The Rangers’ Prince Fielder (164), Hamilton (162), Mike Napoli (162) and Elvis Andrus (158) each have more plate appearances as individuals than the Astros do on a whole.

That doesn’t necessarily tell us what’s going to happen, only what has happened. Veteran leadership is a sometimes overrated asset; talent is talent.

But inexperience might cause a club to reach more quickly for the panic button when a once-sparkling season loses its sheen. 

The Astros aren’t buried yet. They still control their own destiny, at least in terms of the wild-card race. All they need to do is win, and keep winning.

And if they don’t? Well, check back here for the inevitable postmortem.

All statistics and standings current as of Sept. 25 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve was back in the lineup on Saturday, after he was forced to leave the team’s game against the Texas Rangers on Friday. “He’s sore but he’s in there top of the lineup and good to go,” manager A.J. Hinch said on Saturday, per the team.

The shortstop was removed after colliding with shortstop Carlos Correa, according to the team’s official Twitter account. 

“We feel like we dodged a little bit of a bullet there,” Hinch said after Friday’s game, via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. “Maybe something went our way.” McTaggart also reported Altuve showed no signs of a concussion.

Altuve is a crucial piece of the Astros lineup and one of the most valuable players in the American League when healthy. His ability to get on base and wreak havoc to create extra runs is one of the main reasons for the team’s success.

Unfortunately, injuries have started to become a bigger part of the story for the infielder this season. Earlier in the year, he dealt with nagging hamstring issues that knocked him out of the lineup, and now Houston awaits further word on his latest ailment.

Altuve missed no more than 15 games in any of the previous three seasons. He played in 158 of 162 contests last year as he started to become a household name with a .341 average and 56 stolen bases. He’s continued his strong play throughout 2015, showing those numbers were no fluke.

Altuve is batting .314 with 12 home runs and 59 RBI. His .314 average ranks third among all AL batters behind only Miguel Cabrera and Xander Bogaerts. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Sure, 2015 might have been a down year by the standards of Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano. Yet he still is managing to reach milestones. 

On Wednesday night, Cano lined a single to left field in the top of the eighth inning against Kansas City Royals pitcher Kelvin Herrera for his 2,000th career hit. 

MLB.com has the video of Cano’s momentous single:

According to the Mariners, Cano is just the 14th player in MLB history to reach the 2,000-hit plateau in his first 11 seasons, but he is the first full-time second baseman to do so. They included the stat in their congratulatory tweet:  

Even though Cano looks like he’ll record a batting average under .300 for the first time since 2008, he is second on the Mariners in hits only behind Nelson Cruz, who is putting up numbers worthy of AL MVP consideration (.311/42 HR/88 RBI). He is the first Mariner to collect his 2,000th hit since Ichiro Suzuki did so in 2009.

Beginning his career with the New York Yankees in 2005, Cano has never recorded fewer than 150 hits in a single season, recording 1,649 of his hits in the Bronx. He’s been ranked in the top 10 of the American League‘s hits leaders in seven of his first 10 years. 

At 32 years old, Cano is the fifth active player to reach 2,000 hits before his 33rd birthday, joining Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre and Albert Pujols. 

This down year aside, Cano has proved over the years that he is one of the best pure hitters in the majors with one of the sweetest swings you’ll see. It looks like he still has plenty more productive years ahead of him as the next milestone, 3,000 hits, could very well be attained in the next five or six years if he continues his current pace.

Stats courtesy of MLB.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There has been very little for Oakland Athletics fans to cheer for during the 2015 season, but that will change Saturday when fans are treated to a nostalgic afternoon of baseball.

The team announced Tuesday that Barry Zito will start Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. One of his former Oakland teammates, Tim Hudson, will toe the rubber for San Francisco in a showdown that is bound to conjure memories for those in attendance.

This clash is particularly noteworthy for Athletics fans because Zito, Hudson and Mark Mulder formed the backbone of a strong pitching staff that helped the team reach the postseason four straight years from 2000-03. Oakland won the American League West three times during that span as well, thanks largely to the dominating performances that can be seen below:

Both veterans are expected to retire after the year, which will mark the end to two incredible careers.

The fans will not be the only ones excited by Saturday’s festivities, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle noted:     

As if the starting pitching matchup weren’t enough, all three players will be honored in a pregame ceremony before Sunday’s contest, as the team announced:

The three pitchers will throw ceremonial first pitches Sunday before Oakland’s final home game of the campaign.

Oakland is eliminated from the postseason race, and the Giants are virtually out of contention (although not mathematically). While both teams would prefer a high-stakes clash on the Bay with postseason positioning on the line, the fans will settle for a look back at the good old days with the former stars.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The reappearing act is an underrated one.

That is mostly because it is shrouded in disappointment, which is a necessary prerequisite. Without a massive letdown, there is no unexpected burst back onto the scene to stun the masses.

The Los Angeles Angels have both ends covered now.

They started this season as a team coming off a 98-win campaign, the highest total in Major League Baseball in 2014. But the disappointment of being swept out of last year’s playoffs bled into this summer. And the team that seemed most likely to win the American League West severely underachieved and went into September 7.5 games out of first place and 3.5 games back in the race for the second wild-card spot with two clubs ahead of it.

Less than three weeks later, the Angels have reappeared. They swept a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins—one of the teams they were trailing in the wild-card standings—on Saturday to move a game ahead of them and 1.5 behind the Houston Astros for that second berth.

The #Angels sweep, leapfrogging past #Twins and now closing in on #Astros for 2nd wild card spot

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 20, 2015

“My group of guys, they’re not going to quit,” manager Mike Scioscia told reporters after the Angels won the first game 4-3 in 12 innings. “They’re going to keep playing hard. Everybody’s upbeat on the bench.”

There is reason to be. This latest pair of victories gives the Angels 11 in their last 17 contests, spanning this month. Before this run they had lost nine of their previous 11 and 26 of 37. They looked like a team simply trying to finish out what had, to that point, become a truly disappointing year.

The Angels had already watched a beef between Scioscia and their general manager, Jerry Dipoto, play out publicly and lead to the theoretical superior quitting on the spot. The losing ways and the fall from relevancy were just more to add to the trash heap.

“It’s one of those times in the season when things go wrong and things kind of pile up on top of each other,” left-hander Hector Santiago told reporters after the Angels lost their 19th game of August, their highest loss total in that month since 1999.

Since then, everything has gone right, and that pile of issues has started tumbling. The rotation has become quite good. Mike Trout is hitting like Trout typically hits. And the Angels are moving up the standings toward where we all figured they would be when this season started.

In the 17 games since the start of the month, when this winning run commenced, the team’s starting pitchers have a 3.62 ERA, second-lowest in the league, and lead all AL rotations with an 80.9 percent strand rate, according to FanGraphs.

Garrett Richards, the team’s ace last season who has failed to live up to the billing this year, gave them one of their best outings of the month in the second game Saturday, throwing 8.2 innings and allowing two runs.

Meanwhile, Trout went into the end of August having hit .194/.336/.290 with a .627 OPS and one home run in the first 27 games of the month. He went 4-for-4 on Aug. 30, a prelude to the damage he would do in September.

Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Trout was hitting .280/.422/.660 with a 1.082 OPS for the month, which was sixth-highest in the league. His 193 wRC+ was seventh. He had only one hit Saturday against the Twins, but it was a home run, his sixth of the month, which is tied for second-most in the AL in September.

While those numbers seem pedestrian for a guy like Trout, they are far better than they were in the previous month and might be another precursor of what’s to come if the Angels end up in the playoffs.

“Mike does what Mike does, but we need to be more than a one-trick pony,” Scioscia told reporters Thursday (h/t Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). “If the only thing we have going is what Mike is going to do, it’s not going to happen for us. He’s part of the core of the lineup, but we need nine guys swinging it so we can pressure other teams.”

For too long the Angels were almost all Trout and very little else, which is a big part of the reason they currently sit outside of the playoff picture. And Scioscia is correct in the obvious assessment that if no one else helps, this season will end with the Angels missing the postseason for the fifth time in six years.

The help has come, though, and Trout is mostly back to his normal, incredible self. This team has reappeared. The trick now is keeping itself in plain view.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com