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Earlier in the 2014 season, pitcher Brandon Maurer’s future with the Seattle Mariners was in serious doubt.

Much like the year before, Maurer was forced into the starting rotation due to injuries and struggled, posting a 7.52 ERA (5.37 FIP) in seven starts while walking nearly as many as he struck out.

Although he just turned 24 years old, Maurer didn’t look to have a place in a healthy Seattle rotation, either in the present or in the future. He was sent down to Triple-A Tacoma on May 29.

The Mariners surprised by calling up Maurer on June 25, a few days before Taijuan Walker returned from a shoulder injury and took over the No. 5 rotation spot.

Even more surprising, Maurer came out of the bullpen that night in the late innings of a close game rather than the long-relief role he was placed in near the end of 2013.

Maurer didn’t just look better on June 25, he looked dominant.

In seven scoreless innings out of the bullpen so far, Maurer has given up only three hits and two walks while striking out nine. Seven innings isn’t enough to judge anything statistically, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Maurer’s ideal fit was in the bullpen all along.

Maurer has always had the raw stuff to be successful. He used a lively mid-90s fastball and assortment of various off-speed pitches to dominate the low minors, racking up strikeout rates north of 30 percent along the way.

The strikeouts came back to earth a bit in Double-A as Maurer began to struggle with his command, but he still posted a 3.20 ERA and gave up just four home runs in 24 starts. Seattle needed a starter at the beginning of the 2013 season and decided to have Maurer skip Triple-A to join the rotation.

It didn’t work, as Maurer looked completely overmatched as a major league starter. We can’t know how much those initial struggles impacted his confidence or mentality, but he continued to be ineffective for the rest of the year and early on in 2014.

Then the breakthrough came on June 25 against the Boston Red Sox, as he struck out the side in his first relief inning.

We’ve seen Maurer’s fastball sit around 95 or 96 mph before, but it has hit 99 several times since his move to the bullpen. With as lively as his fastball is, the increased velocity is going to be a challenge for opposing hitters. 

Maurer said pitching short outings out of the bullpen has improved his mentality, per Greg Johns of MLB.com.

“It’s fun. Just attack, get back in the dugout and let our hitters put up some runs…I think that has to do with adrenaline, just knowing I can get out there and let it rip for an inning or two and let it go that way.”

Maurer has also been using his slider effectively as an out pitch since moving to the bullpen. Data from PITCHf/x on FanGraphs.com indicates Maurer has done a good job of getting hitters to chase his slider out of the strike zone, generating a swinging strike percentage of 17.4.

It’s when Maurer tries to mix and match his other three pitches that he runs into trouble. Only having two plus pitches won’t work for a starter, but it can make for an effective short-inning reliever.

It’s still too early to think about prepping Maurer for a closer role one day, but he has the makeup and stuff for it.

Maurer’s command issues as a starter made him prone to big innings, even on the few occasions he started well. He also tends to throw far too many pitches, lasting past the fifth just once this year.

Both are things Maurer won’t have to worry as much about coming out of the bullpen, which could further help his mentality on the mound.

The other scenario Maurer’s conversion opens up is using him as a potential trade chip. If he continues to look dominant as the deadline approaches, the Mariners could use the opportunity to sell high on him in an attempt to get the right-handed bat they desperately need.

Seattle’s bullpen has been outstanding all year, leading the majors in ERA while striking out over a batter per inning. It would be nice to have yet another power arm in the bullpen, but the Mariners can survive without Maurer should a trade open up.

Just months after he looked lost, Maurer’s future is brighter than ever.

All stats via FanGraphs.com unless otherwise noted.  

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With a record of 37-49, the Texas Rangers‘ 2014 season is all but lost. For all the hype and anticipation following the offseason acquisitions of Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo, things have gone too far south about as quickly as possible. 

That’s right. It only took 86 games to completely bury this team that was a legitimate World Series contender on March 31. The day the Rangers acquired Choo and completed a monstrous offseason agenda, you’d be hard-pressed to find one living soul who would honestly tell you that he or she predicted death that quickly.

Right now, the Seattle Mariners are 10 games ahead of Texas. Ten games.

When was the last time you could say that? 2001?

Something like that.

And now with the July 31 trade deadline approaching, it’s time for the Rangers to start selling some of the few attractive pieces they have on their roster.

We’ll go through each tradeable candidate and discuss how likely they are to be dealt. Since we are still over three weeks away from the deadline—and given general manager Jon Daniels’ history of pushing right up against the exact deadline before deals in the past have been completed—I won’t speculate too much on what each of these guys could bring back to Texas.

Here we go. 

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The Oakland A’s made fireworks with a blockbuster trade to land both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel on the Fourth of July, according to ESPN insider Keith Law, giving up Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily and a player to be named later.

With it, they made one thing abundantly clear to the rest of baseball: The A’s are going for it all right now, and they are your 2014 World Series favorites.

This team already had MLB’s best record (53-33) and the American League’s best rotation before acquiring a dominant duo from the north side of Chicago. Oakland now has nothing short of an embarrassment of riches.

But let’s be honest—we’ve seen this all before. The A’s have always had arms for days, seemingly cornering the market in young, prized mound artists. What makes this the team that can finally break the playoff failures the franchise has seen during the Billy Beane run?

In a word: offense. Oakland is leading all of baseball with 430 runs scored and has a powerful trio of Brandon Moss, Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes leading the charge with a combined 51 home runs and 178 runs batted in before the All-Star break.

Throw in 72 more RBI from the remarkable catching trio of Derek Norris, John Jaso and Stephen Vogt, and you have a team that can shut you out and put up crooked numbers all over the scoreboard.

There is one key element of this trade that needs to be discussed, however.

In the deal, the A’s sacrificed one of baseball’s best prospects in Addison Russell, a shortstop soon to be ranked No. 6 in Baseball Prospectus’ next top-50 list (per BP’s own Jason Parks):

Addison Russell will rank #6 overall on the upcoming #BPTop50. That would give the #Cubs the #3, #5, #6, and #18 best prospects in MiLB.

— Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) July 5, 2014

This would be fine and dandy if Samardzija were a legitimate piece of Oakland’s future. The reality is, the ace pitcher will sprint away from the Bay Area for a $100 million contract in a little more than a year while the A’s sit back and look to execute their next move.

Hammel is a free agent following the 2014 season as well, so this smells very much like a bold rental to push for a World Series title that has suddenly fallen right into their laps.

A feel-good story for one of MLB’s most beloved underdogs has transformed into a Yankees-like championship-or-bust mentality, something this franchise is certainly not used to. A mediocre landscape of teams across the American League should give the A’s confidence, but the overhanging pressure of a bull’s-eye on their backs will be quite the hurdle to overcome.

If 2014’s bright hopes end in failure, Oakland will be just fine. The team will let Hammel walk and replace him with what it hopes is the Jarrod Parker of old—and we have no reason to believe he won’t be, even after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery.

And if all goes to hell, Billy Beane will simply hop on the telephone and trade Samardzija away to replenish the pieces he sacrificed to acquire him in the first place. The Matt Holliday experiment in 2009 provides a clear precedent there. (He was traded to St. Louis for Brett Wallace, Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson after appearing in 93 games with Oakland after signing on as a free agent.)

The benefit of acquiring a coveted pitching asset whose arm has very little mileage on it is that MLB teams will be no less desperate for his services a year from now. Samardzija can be flat-out nasty, and his body type and limited wear and tear should keep him healthy.

The A’s have identified a rare opportunity to break their 25-year title drought, and they just made the deal they had to make to build a proper postseason-ready rotation.

Some will question the forfeiture of such a dynamic prospect for what essentially amounts to a one-year rental, but it’s a rental that makes the difference between contender and clear-cut favorite in the American League, and that’s always a deal worth making.

These are not the A’s of 2002, when a 103-win team was just ninth in MLB in runs scored during the height of the steroid era. This team can mash, and it also has as deep a bullpen as anyone in the sport.

The A’s are making a stand and going for it all in 2014. When you put the pieces together, it looks like they just might succeed.

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Making his ninth start of the season and the 10th of his career, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker struck out seven Houston Astros over six innings in Thursday’s 5-2 victory.

The performance brought his strikeout total in 10 career starts to 57, setting a new franchise record for the most punchouts through the first 10 starts of a pitcher’s career, according to Eric Kay, the Angels’ director of communications.

Coming off a disastrous eight-run outing against the Kansas City Royals, Shoemaker appeared to be in for another rough day once the Astros plated a pair of runs in the third inning to erase the Angels’ early 1-0 lead. However, Shoemaker induced an inning-ending double play from Astros third baseman Matt Dominguez, thus limiting the damage in the top of the third.

The Angels would bounce back to score four runs in the bottom of the fourth, and Shoemaker ultimately bowed out after recording seven strikeouts over six strong innings, with his team holding a 5-2 lead. The bullpen finished things off, allowing Shoemaker to improve to 6-2 on the season.

The 27-year-old right-hander has seemingly come out of nowhere this year after making one start last season, in which he recorded five strikeouts over five scoreless innings. Despite that one strong outing, Shoemaker never made much noise, as his minor league track record is rather uninspiring.

Last season with Triple-A Salt Lake, he posted a 4.64 ERA and 7.81 K/9, on the heels of an even worse year in 2012. And he was no better earlier this season, as he owned a gruesome 6.31 ERA through 25.1 innings at the time of his call-up.

While he’s struggled in five appearances out of the bullpen this season, Shoemaker has made the most of his nine starts. He owns a 6-1 record as a starter and has only once surrendered more than three earned runs in an outing, in that aforementioned start against the Royals.

Shoemaker certainly hopes to have a better career than Bo Belinsky, the hurler whose franchise record he broke. Belinsky, a southpaw who played from 1962-1970, struck out 56 batters for the Angels in the first 10 starts of his career. Despite the early success, he ultimately retired with a 28-51 record and a lifetime 4.10 ERA.

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The Oakland Athletics own the best record in baseball but are currently fighting through injuries to critical players, most notably outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.

The 2013 Home Run Derby champion left Monday’s game against Detroit with a left hamstring injury. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle posted a picture of Oakland’s lineup prior to Tuesday’s game at Comerica Park, which didn’t include Cespedes. 

Despite Cespedes‘ absence on Tuesday, there’s the potential that he can avoid a stint on the disabled list. Slusser spoke to the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up prior to the game, and he said that tightness is the problem. 

The A’s have climbed to the top of the mountain with a 51-31 record through 82 games without playing their best baseball. Josh Donaldson was a mess in June, hitting .181/.223/.286, and Josh Reddick continues to be plagued by injuries. 

Cespedes has provided a nice bridge in the heart of Oakland’s order this season with a .497 slugging percentage and 14 home runs. It’s also been a strong bounce-back campaign for him following the disappointing .240/.294/.442 line last year. 

In addition to his prodigious power, Cespedes has been making the highlight reels for his defensive prowess—specifically his arm strength, which is often needed because of misplays with the glove. 

The A’s don’t boast a deep farm system at the moment. Most of their high-end talent is in the lower levels, and outfield depth isn’t prevalent at the upper levels. Cespedes doesn’t sound like he’s worried about the injury, so hopefully the slugger is back on the field in a day or two. 

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Seattle Mariners outfielder James Jones had a night to remember Monday against the Houston Astros, as he became just the second player in franchise history to record four hits and three stolen bases in the same game, per MLB Stat of the Day.

Unsurprisingly, the other player to accomplish the feat in an M’s uniform was future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, who registered four hits and four steals in a July 20, 2004 game against the Boston Red Sox.

Batting second and starting in center field, Jones started his historic game in rather inconspicuous fashion with a flyout to left field. It was the last time he’d be retired all night, as each of his following four plate appearances ended with a single.

After his first base knock in the third inning, Jones stole second base then proceeded to also swipe third before ultimately being stranded. He again stole second base after a fifth-inning single but was once again stranded in scoring position.

Jones didn’t get much chance to run after his third hit, as the next batter, Robinson Cano, smashed a three-run homer to extend the M’s lead to 8-3 in the seventh inning.

Jones got another opportunity in the ninth inning, and while he made the most of it with a base hit, Cano proceeded to single on the first pitch of the following at-bat. Jones perhaps could’ve tried to steal third base, but with a five-run lead in the ninth inning, it wouldn’t have been in good taste.

The 25-year-old rookie hasn’t brought much to the table in terms of power this season, but he finished the month of June with 12 steals in 12 attempts while also posting a .292 batting average. Still in search of his first career home run, Jones has proved to be a demon on the basepaths, if nothing else.

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For the first time since 2010, the Seattle Mariners will have a position player representative at the All-Star Game.

Robinson Cano will be making the trip to Minnesota on July 15 to play in his fifth consecutive All-Star contest. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will join teammate Felix Hernandez, who would be making his fourth straight appearance.

Cano and Hernandez have been virtual locks since the beginning of the season, but they may not be Seattle’s only representatives. The Mariners have two other players who have an outside chance of making the team.

After that, nobody else is realistically in the picture. But based on their season numbers, competition at their respective positions and voting results, four Mariners are candidates for the 2014 MLB All-Star Game.

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Things haven’t been nearly as bad in Houston as many expected they would be, with the Astros looking very much like a team that has finally taken a big step back towards respectability after years of being the laughingstock of the game.

General manager Jeff Luhnow has done a remarkable job in recent years of unloading his veterans for younger, less-expensive talent, and the current roster doesn’t have much in the way of valuable trade chips to peddle at the trade deadline.

That doesn’t mean that things will be quiet surrounding the club all month long, however.

Keep it here for the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the Astros, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it. While the post date will always show as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill as the Astros look to add pieces for a future playoff run.

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The Los Angeles Angels weren’t going to wait for the calendar to flip to July before making a move, trading their own disappointing closer, Ernesto Frieri, to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for another disappointing closer, Jason Grilli, toward the end of June.

But the Angels still have some holes to fill if they hope to remain in contention for both the American League West and one of the two available wild-card spots, with the bullpen remaining a work in progress that could be altered at any time.

While the club doesn’t have the high-end prospects needed to land a front-line starting pitcher like Tampa Bay‘s David Price or Chicago’s Jeff Samardzija, it does have an owner with deep pockets in Arte Moreno and a penchant for disregarding salary if it means improving his team’s chances of winning (see the Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton free-agent signings for proof).

Bleacher Report will be bringing you the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the Angels, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it. While the post date on this tracker will always show up as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill as the Halos look to bolster their roster for the stretch run.

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When you’ve got (arguably) the best team in baseball, the best manager in baseball and the best general manager in baseball, the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline would seem to be a rather irrelevant date on the calendar.

But if there’s one thing that we’ve learned about the Oakland A’s under the stewardship of GM Billy Beane, it’s that the team rarely passes up an opportunity to improve, regardless of their place in the standings.

Yet it can be difficult to keep track of all the rumors surrounding the team, especially if you’re hanging out at O.co Coliseum, where dodging puddles of raw sewage is sure to demand the bulk of your attention.

That’s where Bleacher Report comes in.

Keep it here for the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the A’s, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it. While the post date will always show as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill as the A’s look to clinch their third consecutive AL West crown.

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