Kuzul

There’s rebuilding projects, and then there’s the Houston Astros.  Ever since the team went to the World Series in 2005, the entire organization has been in shambles. 

Sure, they won 86 games in 2008, but that is their only time in the past eight years to win more than 80 games.  They are currently on their seventh different manager in those eight years, and their attendance has plummeted to one of the lowest in the league.

Even worse, the Astros continued to refuse to secede into full-blown rebuilding mode.  General managers Tim Purpura and Ed Wade repeatedly made questionable decisions in trades, in the draft and in offseason free agency.

Despite maintaining a higher payroll than they should have, the Astros still could not find any success.  Finally, Drayton McLane mercifully sold the team to Jim Crane, giving the franchise the opportunity for a fresh start.

Crane hired Jeff Luhnow to be his GM.  Luhnow, a Penn-educated engineer, drastically cut the Astros’ payroll and started over.  He got rid of all the team’s established players, fielding a roster of mostly minor league caliber players.  It was an admirable undertaking, but one that was slated to get worse before it got better.

After nearly three full seasons utilizing Luhnow’s new ideals in the front office, it has definitely not been easy.  The Astros blew past the 100-loss plateau in both 2012 and 2013, and they are once again one of the worst teams in the league this year.  However, there is obvious improvement regarding the on-field talent, especially recently.

In their last series, the Astros beat the A’s twice in a best-of-three series.  This comes after they took three of four games from the Rangers and also swept the Angels in a brief two-game series. 

In the past, Houston wouldn’t have even been able to compete with legitimate playoff contenders like the Athletics and Angels, much less win.  Even with the recent turmoil in the front office—Luhnow was reportedly not seeing eye to eye with manager Bo Porter before Porter’s firing—the Astros are still winning. 

Unfortunately, winning the rest of the way will not be overly beneficial to the Astros.  They are nearly mathematically eliminated from the postseason at this point, currently trailing the Mariners by 15.5 games for the second Wild Card spot, so winning will only earn them a lower draft pick in next year’s draft.

However, with Luhnow’s past success in the MLB draft, it won’t much matter what spot they get.  The Astros are already slated for the second overall selection in the 2015 draft due to their inability to sign this year’s first overall pick Brady Aiken. 

The Astros might be undermanned at the big-league level, but there is plenty of talent working its way up the minor-league ladder.  Carlos Correa headlines the plethora of highly-touted prospects in the Houston farm system, but Mark Appel, Domingo Santana and Colin Moran are also projected to be solid major leaguers. 

Widely thought of as one of the top three farm systems, the Astros’ future is only a few years away from reaching the big leagues.  Recent draft picks Lance McCullers Jr., Rio Ruiz, A.J. Reed, Tony Kemp and Derek Fisher are already making a name for themselves in the lower levels of the minor leagues.  Expect them to move up the ladder at an expedited rate.

Not to mention the high-upside youngsters who are already at the big-league level.  Jon Singleton, the team’s former top prospect, is working out the kinks in The Show after his June call-up.  Mike Foltynewicz has been a nice weapon out of the bullpen, as his 100 mph fastball suits him as a reliever more than a starter.

Dallas Keuchel is a homegrown pitcher, and his breakout season has him looking like a solid future starter.  The starting rotation is filled with other young arms, and they will only get better with time.  Also, they recently announced that they will be implementing a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future.  They recalled Nick Tropeano, the Astros’ No. 13 prospect, according to MLB.com, to fill that sixth slot.

They have been relatively quiet this season on the trade and free-agent market, but they did make one move at the July 31 trade deadline.  They shipped Jarred Cosart and others to the Marlins for outfielder Jake Marisnick and Colin Moran.  Moran, the sixth pick in the 2013 MLB draft, was expected to be the centerpiece of that trade, but Marisnick has been better than expected.

Always known for his outstanding defensive attributes, Marisnick has contributed with the bat so far in Houston.  He sports a .250 average during his time in Houston after hanging around the Mendoza Line in his past MLB experiences.  He has also chipped in with several timely hits for the Astros, and that kind of clutch hitting is a luxury going forward.

The organization also has a few cornerstone players who the Astros can build around if they choose.  Jose Altuve has blossomed into one of the most productive second basemen in the entire MLB.  He has always been a solid infielder, but 2014 has been the ultimate breakout season. 

Always known as a free-swinging singles hitter, Altuve has set career highs this year in hits, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and Wins Above Replacement (WAR).  There are still 20 games left to play, plenty of time for the Venezuelan second baseman to also surpass his previous career highs in both home runs and RBIs. 

Most impressive, however, has been his aggressiveness on the basepaths.  He has stolen 51 bases this year while only being caught seven times.  His 5.2 WAR ranks eighth in the American League, meaning he is one of the most valuable players in the Junior Circuit.  To put his number into context, Mike Trout’s WAR is 6.6 and Jose Bautista’s is 4.2.

The Astros might have also uncovered a gem in Chris Carter.  The powerful right-handed hitter has shown his massive power on occasion in the past, but he finally put it all together this year.  His average still sits at a paltry .235, but he is finally tapping into his prolific home run potential.  He is currently second in the American League with 36 home runs and has driven in 85 runners, many of them coming late in close games. 

I’m not sure if he is in the Astros’ long-term plans because of his age and propensity to strike out, but he is an excellent placeholder even if the Astros have another first baseman/designated hitter in mind.  Carter doesn’t bring much to the table regarding defense or baserunning, but if you’re only going to possess one of the five tools that scouts talk about, power is the one to have.

While the two aforementioned players are very good, there is one player in the organization who is in a league of his own.  Unlike Carter, outfielder George Springer is a legitimate five-tool player.  He can hit tape-measure home runs and is also very fast, giving him the unique blend of power and speed that is matched by very few. 

Springer was called up in April, and after adjusting to major league pitching, he started to rake.  He launched ten homers in May and then six in June.  The former first-round pick struck out at an alarming rate, but he has been working on that and should be able to hit for a higher average in the future.

So with the Astros’ string of moderate success, it seems they are barely even scratching the surface of their overall potential.  With all the losing, the Astros have stockpiled plenty of jewels in the draft.  It has been a drastic uphill climb, but they finally have a loaded farm system that is poised for possible greatness.

It will be interesting going forward to see what the Astros do next.  Once the first crop of prospects is in the major leagues, Luhnow will have to decide when it is the right time to become buyers instead of sellers.  When it is indeed time, the Astros will not hesitate to pull off a blockbuster trade or sign a marquee free agent. 

“If we do our jobs and get some breaks going our way and the fans start coming back,” Luhnow said in an early 2012 interview.  “We’re going to be able to push the payroll to a point where we can compete year in and year out.”

However, Luhnow knows that there must be a steady nucleus of homegrown players to make free agents work. 

“You can’t win with just free agents.  Everybody knows that.  Even the Yankees know that,” Luhnow said in that same interview.

There are still plenty of questions regarding the club’s future, including the fact that most of the prospects are largely unproven.  However, considering Luhnow’s phenomenal success rate from his time in the St. Louis Cardinals’ scouting department, the Astros are in pretty good shape.

But Lunhow’s arrogant nature has to be concerning as well.  He all but ran Porter out of town because they did not see eye to eye on all issues.  If for some reason his plan doesn’t begin to show some dividends in the near future, his seat will consistently get hotter and hotter.

The bullpen has been a massive question mark for the Astros this year as well.  Veteran closer Chad Qualls has repeatedly blown huge leads, and the rest of the relieving core has been below average at best.  Tony Sipp is a decent left-handed specialist, but after that it gets shaky.  Foltynewicz will eventually be a valuable weapon out of the pen, but in the interim, the Astros are going to lose a lot of leads late in games unless they specifically address that area.

All in all, the Astros have arguably the most long-term potential of any organization in the league.  Still, their future success is solely dependent on how fast the prospects progress.  Once they start producing at the major-league level, the front office can explore other avenues to solidify the roster. 

2015 is not going to be the year when they are legitimate contenders, but I think by 2016 or 2017 they will be one of the premier teams in the American League.  Prospects are incredibly tough to gauge, but the Astros have stored up enough of them that at least a few of them will become stars.

If that happens, all of the losing will be worth it.  Hopefully a few winning seasons will bring more spectators to Minute Maid Park, and they can build a loyal fanbase that will support them in the coming years.

The American League West has developed into one of the toughest divisions in all of baseball, but if the Astros’ prized prospects become as good as most scouts think they can, Houston’s ceiling is nearly unlimited.

They are a team of the future, and if Sports Illustrated’s recent proclamation that the Astros will win the 2017 World Series is any indication, that future is very, very bright.

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It has been a difficult season for the Texas Rangers (54-89), who are now 35 games under .500 and without Ron Washington, their manager of eight years.

Injuries have ravaged the roster, forcing the club to make so many moves that they set a record for most players used in a season (60). That happened on Sept. 2 when Derek Holland made his first MLB start of the year.

However, many of the team’s best prospects provided bright spots elsewhere in the organization. Their High-A affiliate Myrtle Beach finishes the Carolina League Championship Series on Sept. 9. The Pelicans have had a relatively stacked roster for most of the season.

With so much success in the minors, we are going to put together the Rangers’ All-Prospect team. This team will be based mostly off of individual statistics. There will be one player for each position, including one starting pitcher and one reliever.

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They don’t hand out Rookie of the Year awards in September.

If they did, the safe money would be on Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox and Billy Hamilton of the Cincinnati Reds taking home the honors in the American League and National League, respectively.

Those two players have one thing in common, though, besides being unarguably good: They both play for teams that’ll almost certainly be sitting home come October.

Other awards, most notably the MVP, frequently consider whether a player led his club to the postseason. 

Rookie of the Year winners, on the other hand, aren’t always held to that standard. In fact, of the last 10 winners in each league dating back to 2009, half have been from non-playoff teams. 

That’s not to take anything away from Abreu, Hamilton or anyone else. It is worth asking, though: Who’s the best rookie on a contending club, one with a realistic shot at the World Series? 

Paging Matt Shoemaker.

Shoemaker made the Los Angeles Angels‘ 25-man roster out of spring training as a bullpen arm, a fringe contributor. Less than six months later, he’s helping baseball’s top squad shore up a shaky rotation.

Entering play Tuesday, the Angels sport an MLB-best 88-55 record and an eight-game lead over the Oakland A’s in the American League West.

Their rotation, meanwhile, is in shambles.  

Injuries to Tyler Skaggs and ace Garrett Richards have critically thinned the Halos’ starting five, casting a serious pall over an otherwise stellar season.

Shoemaker has stepped up in a big way, lessening—if not eliminating—the doubts.

“Once you get that opportunity you want to run with it and do as best as you can,” Shoemaker told the Los Angeles Times‘ Helene Elliott. “It’s one of those things where every time I get the ball I try and be as aggressive as I can and just keep going out there and try and get outs, put up zeroes for the team, and at the end of the day the team getting the win.”

“You’d like to do that your whole career,” Shoemaker continued. “I just want to keep it going.”

So far, so good. Shoemaker went 6-1 in August with a 1.31 ERA and 0.77 WHIP, earning Player of the Month honors in the process. 

More importantly, the Angels went 19-10 and extended their advantage in the hyper-competitive AL West, which features the A’s and Seattle Mariners, two potential playoff teams.

Overall, Shoemaker is 14-4 with a 3.25 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. That might not be enough to overtake Abreu (.317 BA, 33 HR, 99 RBI entering play Tuesday). But it’s more than enough to impress his manager.

“Shoe is just getting an opportunity and he’s making the most of it,” Los Angeles skipper Mike Scioscia said, per Elliott.

A hirsute, under-the-radar 28-year-old who entered the season with a grand total of five big league innings on his resume, Shoemaker was no one’s idea of a sure bet.

As Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram noted recently:

Shoemaker…pitched parts of seven years in the minor leagues, where he compiled a record of 50-40 with an ERA of 4.52. He was not even drafted out of Eastern Michigan University, the Angels signing him in August 2008 as an amateur free agent. But here in 2014, he has had such a solid season he has pitched himself into the conversation for Rookie of the Year. That doesn’t mean he’ll rest on his laurels. That is not in Shoemaker’s make-up.

The Angles certainly hope not. They need Shoemaker to keep flashing his surprising skills well into October. 

Ultimately, the Halos’ hurler may not win Rookie of the Year honors regardless of what he does the rest of the way.

If he helps Los Angeles hoist the second Commissioner’s Trophy in franchise history, though, it won’t matter.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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This is not on Billy Beane, and it is not a result of Yoenis Cespedes living in a different time zone.

This is just epic all on its own without placing blame or cause on either of those two men.

The 2014 Oakland A’s have set themselves on fire, and it is quite something at which to marvel. The best team in baseball five weeks ago is now playing like the worst, capped Monday night by maybe its worst loss of the season that now has it eight games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the American League West while cutting its wild-card lead to 1.5 games.

After giving up the lead to the Chicago White Sox with one out to go, the A’s lost the game in the 12th inning when Tyler Flowers, who tied the game with a homer in the ninth, won it with a walk-off home run.

This latest loss, on the heels of blowing a ninth-inning lead by allowing two runs without giving up a hit in the inning against the Houston Astros on Sunday, was brutal. 

that is a horrendous loss for the Athletics

— Mark Simon (@msimonespn) September 9, 2014 

I am out of words for you A’s.

— Wendy Thurm (@hangingsliders) September 9, 2014

Those are the kind of reactions the A’s have been eliciting since last month. The team is 14-23 since July 30 and 2-9 since Aug. 28. Its lead in the AL West has gone from four games on the morning of Aug. 11 to a virtually un-erasable hole.

In their last 27 games, the A’s have lost 19 times and given up nine games in the wild-card race.

This downward spiral, a pool of quicksand the A’s find themselves in, has all happened in a flash, coinciding with the trade that some believed would make the A’s favorites to reach the World Series in the AL.

When Beane traded for a true No. 1 starter in Jon Lester, it cost him Yoenis Cespedes, but it made complete sense. Cespedes was going to be in a walk year the following season and wasn’t exactly setting major league records for hitting proficiency—he hit .256/.303/.464 with 17 home runs in 101 games. Lester gave the A’s, on paper, the best rotation in the league and made what many considered was the best team in the league even better.

And then, this epic collapse started. However, to properly understand just how bad it has gotten for Oakland, you need to know how good it was before.

“When you put it into perspective,” A’s manager Bob Melvin told John Hickey of the San Jose Mercury News heading into the All-Star break, “overall the numbers suggest we’ve had a pretty good first half.”

*The A’s won 59 games before the All-Star break, the most of any team in franchise history.

*Their run differential at the break was plus-145, which Hickey reported is the fourth-best mark at the break of any club since 1940.

*The A’s led the majors in walks, were second in runs scored and had the fourth-fewest strikeouts.

*Their pitching allowed one run or less in 27 of 95 games, and their overall 3.09 ERA was second-best in the majors.

*At one point in the first part of the season, the A’s were flirting with the 100 percent mark when it came to their chances to make the playoffs.

They’ve gone splat since then.

They are 21-27 since the All-Star break, but while the run differential has gone up to plus-152, the ERA has grown to 3.72. Stud starters Sonny Gray (2.79 ERA in first half, 4.06 in the second), Scott Kazmir (2.38, 5.96) and Jeff Samardzija (2.78, 3.99) have all pitched far worse than they had in the first three-and-a-half months.

The offense batted .222/.300/.344 in August, and it hasn’t gotten any better in September. While the A’s missed Cespedes’ power, his replacements were getting on base more often than Cespedes in August.

Oakland also hasn’t been very good in one-run games this year.

The A’s were 30-20 in one-run games last year. 20-23 in one-run games this year, including 3-9 since Aug. 10, 1-5 in last six games.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) September 9, 2014

Meanwhile, Lester has been just fine with a 2.59 ERA since arriving in Oakland, and the bullpen, with its 2.85 ERA, continues to be one of the best in the league despite Sunday and Monday meltdowns.

As you can see, the blame here can’t be placed on general manager Beane or the loss of Cespedes. This is quite simply a very good team collapsing on itself at all levels.

“You’ve got to get 27 outs, not 26,” A’s outfielder Sam Fuld told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle after Monday’s blowup. “Morale has been fine, it’s not a lack of effort on anybody’s part, we’re just not playing very good baseball, really, it doesn’t have anything to do with our character. Unfortunately we just don’t have a lot of guys swinging it as well as they’re capable of, and we had some miscues. But it’s not a lack of focus or lack of effort.”

It certainly is not, and it is also not because the A’s don’t have Cespedes in the lineup. It’s a combination of a lot of things, none of which is because Beane acquired Lester in a shrewd deadline move.

For the A’s to fall after the kind of first half they experienced, it was going to take something more historic than trading away a power source. And with a few weeks to go in this season, the A’s are making their best effort to accomplish exactly that.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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An elbow injury has brought Yu Darvish‘s season to an early end.

The Texas Rangers shut down their ace for the remainder of the 2014 campaign on Saturday, per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com:

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels spoke about motivation behind the decision, via Anthony Andro of Fox Sports Southwest:

Back in August, the Rangers placed Darvish on the 15-day disabled list due to inflammation in his right elbow. He hasn’t returned to the field since going on the DL, which led many to wonder if Texas should go ahead and write this season off.

With a 53-88 record, the team has nothing but pride to play for at this point. The Rangers were the first team mathematically removed from playoff contention, per SportsCenter:

Now that the 28-year-old is shelved until 2015, he can focus solely on his recovery and take as much time as needed to heal up. If Darvish rushed back to the field this year, he could have potentially risked further damage to the elbow.

ESPN Dallas’ Calvin Watkins wondered if Darvish‘s workload, especially in relation to his transition from Japanese baseball, was partially to blame for his elbow soreness:

The workload might have something to do with the arm issues in baseball, particularly with pitchers coming here from overseas. Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka also is out with arm problems. Darvish has avoided injuries for the most part, but Tanaka didn’t, and he was going on five and six days rest at times during the 2014 season.

“It’s way too short,” Darvish said then of the rest between starts. “That’s why they have pitch-count limitations, but pitch count doesn’t have much to do with it. You could throw 120 pitches, 140 pitches and have six days rest and the inflammation on the ligament will all be healed. So I think that’s it.”

Watkins added that the specter of Tommy John surgery likely played a large role in the Rangers’ handling of Darvish after his injury.

This situation is a microcosm of the Rangers’ 2014 season. No team has been more disappointing, but the blame doesn’t exactly lie solely with Texas. The team has been hammered by injuries the entire year, with Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, Martin Perez, Jurickson Profar and Mitch Moreland, among others, going down.

The sooner this season ends for Texas, the better. With no playoff spot in reach, the last thing the Rangers need is for one of their core contributors to suffer an injury while playing relatively meaningless games.

The Rangers have the talent for a quick turnaround in 2015, but the health of Darvish will be a major storyline. The team will need him back at 100 percent when spring training rolls around to have genuine playoff aspirations next season.

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The Texas Rangers, beset this season by injuries and poor performance to the point where they currently own the worst record in Major League Baseball, face yet another challenge with the surprise resignation of manager Ron Washington.

The 62-year-old, who has been the club’s bench boss since 2007, decided to step down Friday to deal with what he called “an off-the-field personal matter,” according to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com.

Here’s Washington’s statement in more detail:

Today, I have submitted my resignation from the job I love — managing the Rangers — in order to devote my full attention to addressing an off-the-field personal matter. As painful as it is, stepping away from the game is what’s best for me and my family.

This is in no way related to the disappointing performance of the team this season. We were already discussing 2015 and looking forward to getting the Rangers back to postseason contention.

Under Washington’s watch, the Rangers have posted a .521 winning percentage, captured two consecutive American League pennants in 2010 and 2011 and came within one strike of winning the first World Series in franchise history in 2011.

While critics have taken to second-guessing Washington’s occasionally questionable in-game decision-making and old-school approach, watching the winningest manager in team history walk away unexpectedly is a blow to a club that already has endured more than its share this year.

The Rangers were expected to once again contend in the competitive AL West entering the season. That goal fell apart early on, primarily due to an avalanche of injuries, including but certainly not limited to: pitchers Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Yu Darvish, as well as second baseman Jurickson Profar and the club’s two big offseason acquisitions, first baseman Prince Fielder and outfielder Shin-Soo Choo.

Given the team’s talented (if injury-ravaged) core, a quick turnaround certainly is possible. That makes this a coveted skipper’s spot, one that will be filled by bench coach Tim Bogar on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Of course, well-wishes go out to Washington as he deals with this personal matter. And the door appears to be left open to a possible return, if Washington wants the job back.

But if that doesn’t happen and the franchise chooses to go in a different direction than Bogar for a fresh start in 2015, what qualities might the Rangers be targeting for their next manager?

It’s possible the organization could turn to someone already on the coaching staff for a smoother transition, but considering the Rangers have the roster to return to relevance in short order, there’s a good chance experience would be a big factor, too.

That in mind, here’s a list of candidates who could take over as the Rangers’ next manager.

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Felix Hernandez has put together an illustrious career as the ace of the Seattle Mariners for nearly a decade, with 2014 ranking as his best season yet.

However, Hernandez has tended to stumble a bit as each year winds down, owning a career 3.55 ERA in September, second worst of any month. His strikeout, walk and home run rates down the stretch have also been slightly worse than his career averages. 

The trend has been especially noticeable in the past three seasons after Hernandez posted a 4.11 ERA in the second half last year and ERAs above 5.00 in September of 2012 and 2011. 

Whether it be fatigue, random statistical noise with a small sample size or the fact the Mariners have always been out of the race by September, Hernandez has tended to give up more runs down the stretch. 

This year has to be different. With Seattle narrowly trailing in the wild-card race and a tough schedule coming up, it can’t afford to have Hernandez at anything less than full capacity.

When Hernandez turned in a couple of poor starts near the end of August, concern began to grow. Hernandez’s major league record of 16 consecutive starts with at least seven innings pitched and fewer than three earned runs came to an end on August 16 against the Detroit Tigers, and he lasted just 5.2 innings while allowing three runs in his next outing against the Boston Red Sox.

The worst start of Hernandez’s season followed that, as he gave up five runs in seven innings to the Washington Nationals. Most concerning was the fact that Hernandez gave up four home runs after just allowing nine all season up to that point.

As Tim Booth of the Associated Press highlights, that was not a typical outing for Hernandez.

Hernandez appeared to have trouble locating his devastating changeup and said he left too many pitches up in the zone, via Adam Lewis of MLB.com

“It was a tough day. I couldn’t get out of the middle of the plate the first four innings. I was up and I got crushed…Everything was off.”

Some of that was to be expected, as every pitcher around the league is dealing with fatigue at this point in the season and Hernandez wasn’t going to run a sub-2.00 ERA forever. Still, he looked off in those three starts and given his recent history in the final six weeks of seasons, there was reason to be a little troubled.

The Mariners pitching staff as a whole has been struggling over the past couple of weeks, at least compared to its previous run of form since the All-Star break. Hernandez is counted on to stop those streaks more than any other Seattle pitcher.

His turn in the rotation came last Wednesday against the Oakland Athletics with the Mariners needing a win to avoid dropping their third consecutive series. Fortunately for the Mariners, Hernandez returned right to form.

This is the latest in a season Hernandez has pitched a meaningful regular-season game since at least 2007, if not his entire career. He has been patiently waiting for a big stage (other than the All-Star Game) and certainly got one Wednesday against Jon Lester and an Oakland team that is suddenly only three games ahead of Seattle.

Hernandez delivered, allowing one run on three hits over eight innings. Other than an impressive Adam Dunn home run in the fourth inning, Hernandez was in complete control of the game.

Lloyd McClendon noted that Hernandez looked like himself bouncing back from the start against Washington, via Greg Johns of MLB.com

“He had tremendous command, he was down in the zone, he was 94 [mph] when he wanted to be 94, he elevated when he wanted to elevate. He made one bad pitch on a swing-back fastball that ran back over the plate just a little too much. But he was vintage Felix today.”

That home run looked like it was going to be enough to beat the Mariners, as Lester cruised through the first six innings. Kyle Seager and Cory Hart than launched unexpected back-to-back shots, giving Seattle a 2-1 victory and much-needed series win.

Hernandez has been far more dominant in other starts, as he struck out just four to two walks. But the fact that allowing five baserunners in eight innings against a tough lineup isn’t Hernandez at his most dominant speaks to his own lofty standards.

With the intensity ratcheted up, Hernandez proved he will keep pitching at the same level this time around.

That’s a huge positive for the Mariners. They trail a Detroit Tigers team, which seems like it should catch fire at any time, by half a game in the wild-card standings. Seattle simply needs to win every time Hernandez takes the mound here on out.

Hernandez is the perfect pitcher to take the mound in a one-game playoff. He will just have to lead the Mariners there first.

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The Seattle Mariners called up seven players from Triple-A Tacoma to boost a push toward the postseason, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times and other media reports.  

Interestingly enough, six of those seven call-ups have experience in the major leagues. A couple of prospects, particularly Ty Kelly, could have filled holes on the roster, but the Mariners decided to go with known veterans instead of unknown younger players.

Seattle’s starting lineup appears set, especially if Michael Saunders is able to return. Still, five of the additions appeared in Monday’s loss to the Oakland Athletics, and manager Lloyd McClendon said they could continue to get opportunities, via Greg Johns of MLB.com.

“I think all of them bring something to the table. And hopefully they’ll get opportunities to help us win games.”

While the Mariners have some idea of what to expect from most of the new additions, their roles on the team may change from previous stints in Seattle.

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The numbers are now celebrated only in relevant context, and the comparisons to himself as a productive superstar are less frequent, replaced by comparisons to himself as an injured shell of one of the greatest hitters the sport has ever seen.

Albert Pujols is again a meaningful piece of a contending lineup, albeit not as an elite bat or the driving force. The Los Angeles Angels, partly because of his steady health and above-average production, are a World Series threat three seasons into Pujols’ highly priced era with the Orange County franchise.

At what seems like an old 34, mostly because he hit like few others ever have for so long, Pujols is the elder statesman in a veteran clubhouse. But it is his winning pedigree, the October experience, and any kind of leadership qualities that should get better with age—those are things that make Albert Pujols as valuable as anyone else on the Angels roster.

Never one to be overly candid or to overtly display leadership qualities, Pujols keeps things simple, at least publicly.

“I’m just one of those 25 guys that want to accomplish the dream,” Pujols told the Los Angeles Times’ Helene Elliott last week, “and that’s to win a championship.”

With a steady Pujols, on the field and in the clubhouse, the Angels are as good a bet as any team in the majors right now.

The team’s four-game weekend sweep of their American League West rival, the Oakland A’s, goes a ways in realizing that dream. Pujols’ output in that series—four hits in 15 at-bats and two RBIs—was not eye-popping, but his numbers since the Fourth of July are as productive as any significant stretch he’s had with the Angels since signing his 10-year, $240 million contract before the 2012 season.

In his last 52 games, Pujols is hitting .311/.371/.485 with an .857 OPS, seven home runs and 33 RBIs. These aren’t superstar kind of numbers, but when you consider that Pujols, with the help of injuries, has been in extreme decline since leaving St. Louis, they are steady. And a steady Pujols, one who shockingly leads the team in games played (134), is a big deal.

Albert Pujols’ batting average since July 9th hasn‘t been higher than .279 or lower than .270 in 187 plate appearances, that’s hard to do.

— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) August 28, 2014

He is 10th in the AL in home runs (24) and RBIs (83) and has a realistic shot to hit the 30-100 plateaus, numbers that would be more meaningful this year as opposed to 2012 (30 and 105) when they were mostly empty calories.

“I think you’re seeing Albert closer to where he was in his heyday,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the Times’ Elliott. “He’s anchored the middle of our lineup.”

Depending on Pujols to do that entering this season would have created eye rolls and headshakes. His last two seasons have been riddled with injuries and limited him to 253 games. Last season, plantar fasciitis cut his season down to 99 games and led to career lows in average (.258), home runs (17), RBIs (64), on-base percentage (.330), slugging (.437), OPS (.767) and OPS-plus (116).

He was down across the board, and even though his contract seemed like a bad investment when it was initially made, it looked absolutely wretched after last summer. Wondering if Pujols would ever be healthy or productive enough to give the Angels acceptable value for even one season of the deal seemed iffy at best. 

Maybe as shocking as any of those slides is Pujols’ decline in walks. It is understandable that his walk rates would be down the previous two seasons—he had a career-low 7.8 percent in 2012, according to Fangraphs.com—but this season he is at 7.4 percent despite being productive and hitting in front of a productive Josh Hamilton most of the year. Pujols is swinging at fewer pitches outside the strike zone, but pitchers are simply challenging him more than they ever have before, as Fangraphs.com’s numbers show.

That is telling because the fear he once struck into pitchers has quickly faded.

There is also evidence that Pujols, probably because of knee and foot injuries, has driven the ball to the opposite field with less relevancy since becoming an Angel, again making him a diminished threat, according to ESPN’s Peter Keating. When Pujols does go the other way, though, he is productive, Baseball-Reference.com says. He is just doing it less frequently, again showing that pitchers are more willing to challenge him these days.

Pujols has had his share of critics, even during his St. Louis days, who questioned his role as leader as recently as the Cardinals’ last World Series run. And recently, there was a repeat of what has always been classic Pujols, telling the Times’ Elliott that reporters should not be so quick to criticize him since they’ve never played the game and don’t understand its difficulties.

Any reporter who has ever had dealings with Pujols and attempted to discuss anything other than his positive on-field exploits knows the player can be quick to cut off interviews. Criticism of any kind is dismissed with a gruff demeanor, unlike, say, teammate Josh Hamilton, who fields all questions with grace and poise even if some don’t like his answers. Finding Pujols in the clubhouse to answer questions after a bad game is a crap shoot, and he, the house, pretty much always wins.

Pujols has always been thin-skinned in this way. And according to Bleacher Report colleague Scott Miller, when Miller was with CBSSports.com, Pujols can also be this way with teammates. Miller cited sources in recounting a near fistfight in 2012 between Pujols and then-teammate Torii Hunter, recognized as a good teammate and mentor to young players, after Hunter criticized Pujols for pouting when he played poorly even if the team won.

As Pujols loves to remind, the past is the past. The Angels don’t need Pujols to be the rah-rah cheerleader type. But Pujols won two World Series with the Cardinals, and it is that experience that can help the Angels now.

Whatever advice or tutelage Pujols has in him, or in whatever ways he can lead by example, as the magnifying glass gets closer to this club, this is the stretch where it can become invaluable to a franchise that hasn’t seen playoff baseball since 2009.

Here is Pujols’ chance to add to his resume and reputation off the field.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous 3 seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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UPDATE: August 29 at 8:17 p.m. ET

According to ESPN, Montero will not play again this season after this incident.

—End of Update—

UPDATE: August 29 at 3:08 p.m. ET

Mariners cross-checker Butch Baccala (the scout involved in this strange incident) denies provoking or taunting Montero on Thursday night.

Baccala told Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times on Friday that he did not attempt to anger the catcher and that the events of the evening are being portrayed incorrectly. First, he denied sending Montero an ice cream sandwich then said he wasn’t allowed to talk about it.

He also told Baker to check whether they even sell ice cream sandwiches at Everett, Washington‘s Memorial Stadium (where the game was played).

“It’s not what is being portrayed,” Baccala told Baker. “Of course I wasn’t [trying to instigate Montero]. Why would I? I work for the Mariners. I’ve worked my [expletive] off for the Mariners. Why would I do anything to hurt anybody? That wasn’t even close to the intention.”

Baccala told Baker he didn’t know what the club intended to do regarding his employment and will not be able to speak further until meeting with Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik.

—End of Update—

In an incident straight out of a Seinfeld episode, Seattle Mariners catcher Jesus Montero threw an ice cream sandwich at an MLB scout after a bizarre heckling incident. 

MiLB.com’s Tyler Maun (h/t HardBallTalk’s Craig Calcaterra) brings news of the strange, ridiculous minor league run-in that occurred on Thursday night. 

According to Maun’s report, the drama occurred during a minor league game between the Everett AquaSox and the Boise Hawks.

Montero, playing with the AquaSox while rehabbing a strained oblique, heard a voice in the crowd yelling “Rapido! Rapido!” as he jogged off the field between innings.

This voice belonged to a “cross-checker,” which is a major league scout who presides over other scouts within a regional territory.

To reiterate the significance of this moment: A professional major league observer decided to put the screws to one of his team’s own players.

The screaming likely surprised Montero, who ignored the taunts and went to the dugout. A stadium employee approached the catcher with a special delivery shortly thereafter: one ice cream sandwich. 

Montero’s not-so-secret admirer? The yelling Mariners scout, who ostensibly sent the dessert over as a means of taunting the catcher’s overweight arrival at spring training in February.

Montero snapped upon receiving the sandwich.

The catcher stormed out of the dugout with a baseball bat and hurled the delicious frozen treat at his tormentor. Maun reports he was restrained by Everett pitching coach Nasusel Cabrera and returned to the dugout. Montero sat out the remainder of the game.

Zduriencik told Maun the team is assessing the situation and cannot comment. 

“I am aware of the incident in Boise,” Zduriencik said. “We are currently in the process of gathering information, but until I have all the details, I cannot comment.”

More details will certainly emerge as this story develops, but for now, it’s safe to say that the Mariners need to get their house in order. 

It’s time for Zduriencik to put on the big-boy pants and straighten out this tussle. You can’t fight ice cream sandwiches with ice cream sandwiches and expect to solve anything.

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