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Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout was removed from the lineup for Saturday night’s game against the Oakland Athletics as a result of back stiffness, per Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com:

Trout was originally set to DH but has since been replaced by C.J. Cron:

So far this year, Trout has failed to match the stratospheric heights he reached during his first two full seasons in the league.

His batting average has dropped from .323 at the end of 2013 to .294. His on-base and slugging percentages have also decreased slightly to .380 and .549, respectively. Trout’s strikeout percentage has also risen, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Ryan Parker of Baseball Prospectus (subscription required) identified slight tweaks in Trout’s swing as the biggest reason for his regression.

However, it’s likely only a matter of time before Trout irons out the issues in his swing and is back to his old self. He didn’t get to this level without being able to adapt when necessary.

Since this injury doesn’t appear to be too serious, the 22-year-old shouldn’t be on the shelf for too long.

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For St. Louis Cardinals fans, it’s been a long wait to see top prospect Oscar Taveras in action. The 21-year-old Dominican Republic outfielder was ranked as the No. 2 prospect for 2014 on MLB.com, but he wasn’t called into action until Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. 

As it turns out, he appears to be well worth the wait. 

In just his second major league at-bat, he flashed the power that makes him such an exciting prospect. He took the 1-0 pitch deep to right-center to notch his first career home run and give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead over the Giants. 

Given Taveras‘ youth at just a shade under 22 years old, the home run was a historic one in franchise history, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Taveras finished the day 1-for-3 at the plate as the Cardinals moved to 30-26 on the season in a 2-0 win over the Giants. However, the solo shot was all the slugger needed to launch his candidacy for honors as the National League Rookie of the Year. 

With the season just over a third of the way in, Taveras has some ground to make up. Contenders such as Michael Olt and Chris Owings have played as many as 45 and 51 games, respectively. But make no mistake about it: Taveras will quickly enter himself into the race. 

The hype surrounding Taveras is backed up by his impressive minor league numbers.

Prior to his call-up to replace an injured Matt Adams on the Cardinals roster, Taveras was hitting .325 with seven homers and 40 RBI in 49 games at the Triple-A level this season. 

Of course, the obvious retort to Taveras becoming a front-runner for the NL Rookie of the Year honors this year would be the case of Yasiel Puig last season. After all, the hyped Los Angeles Dodgers slugger was passed over for the award last season in favor of Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez. 

Would a similar power barrage for the Cardinals rookie equate to a similar failure to bring home the hardware?

Possibly, but the situation is quite different. 

Whereas Puig came into a Rookie of the Year race loaded with contenders, Taveras is entering a race that doesn’t feature many well-qualified candidates this early in the race. Here’s a look at what a few of the top candidates thus far have done at the plate:

As one can see, there are some solid numbers being put up in the National League, but the competition isn’t nearly as stiff as in the American League. Players like Jose Abreu and Masahiro Tanaka are putting up numbers that Taveras won’t be able to make up as the season goes along. 

The wait might have been excruciating for Cardinals fans. It’s never fun waiting on a tantalizing talent like Taveras to make his debut. But he’s entering the season with plenty of time to make his impact on the season. 

With his first game already providing some fireworks at the plate, that impact is going to be felt not only by the opposing pitchers, but by his fellow Rookie of the Year contenders. 

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Recording artist Chance the Rapper was invited to throw out the first pitch in his hometown Friday, and fortunately, he was able to avoid embarrassing himself like 50 Cent did.

Before the Chicago White Sox played the San Diego Padres, Chance tossed the ceremonial ball. He looked poised on the mound, and while his throw was a bit lofty, it successfully reached home plate.

[MLB.com]

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Welcome to The Show, Oscar Taveras.

The 21-year-old St. Louis Cardinals rookie made his MLB debut on Saturday against the San Francisco Giants, and he made sure to start his career on a high note. In his second at-bat in the bottom of the fifth inning, Taveras got his first career hit on a home run to right field.

The Cardinals called up Taveras on Friday evening to replace Matt Adams, who was put on the disabled list with a left calf strain. After hitting .325 in the minors with seven home runs and 49 RBI in 40 games in 2014, Taveras wasted little time getting his bat acquainted to the big leagues. 

[MLB.com]

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Rookie relief pitcher Dominic Leone has earned a spot in the Seattle Mariners bullpen and could soon be moving into a more critical role for the team.

Since making his debut April 6, the 22-year-old right-hander has excelled as yet another power arm in Seattle’s bullpen. In 19 appearances, Leone has a 1-0 record with a 1.57 ERA and the peripheral statistics to suggest he should be able to continue pitching at a high level.

For a number of reasons, Leone has been used often as a long relief man or in mop-up duty. But he’s now ready to step in to a larger role and pitch in more high-leverage situations.

Leone was selected by the Mariners in the 16th round of the 2012 draft and quickly became a highly touted pitching prospect, reaching Double-A Jackson in less than a year. A starter at Clemson, the Mariners figured Leone’s fastball-cutter combo would be better suited for a bullpen role and converted him to a closer in the low minors.

They were rewarded for that decision, as Leone cruised through his first three stops, running strikeout rates around 30 percent along the way. He reached the High-A level early in 2013 and held his own with a 2.50 ERA and two home runs allowed in 29 games at hitter-friendly High Desert.

Part of Leone’s success has been thanks to increased velocity on his fastball. Early on in his career, Leone’s velocity would range between 90 and 92 miles per hour. At High Desert, he was suddenly sitting in the mid-90s and touched 97 at times, which he continues to do in the majors.

Leone talked to George Alfano of MiLB.com last year about his bump in velocity, crediting it to improved mechanics.

“I keep a consistent approach,” he said. “If you do that, the strikes will come and you’ll keep the ball down. I keep my motion fluid and my arm is getting on top.”

Leone reached Double-A shortly after and skipped the Triple-A level altogether. He was called up when Hector Noesi was designated for assignment April 6, marking yet another incredibly fast riser in Seattle’s organization.

Since then, Leone has been strong out of the bullpen and is rewarding the Mariners for rushing him through the minors. Leone’s ERA ranks 11th in the American League among relievers, bolstered by an 8.1 inning-long scoreless streak throughout most of May.  

Leone is also running an impressive strikeout rate of 27.7 percent, adding yet another powerful arm with high strikeout potential to Seattle’s bullpen. He struck out five while allowing just one hit and no walks in 2.1 innings in his most impressive outing of the year May 14 against the Tampa Bay Rays.

As it was during most of his minor league career, Leone’s most valuable pitch has been his cutter. Per FanGraphs, opposing hitters have swung and missed at the pitch 13.3 percent of the time and have only made contact at a rate of 72.5 percent.

Leone’s slider needs a bit more refinement, but it is developing quickly. He has successfully mixed in his slider on just over 19 percent of his pitches and is continuing to get better command with the pitch.

As you might expect with a pitcher two years removed from the draft, Leone’s biggest issue has been his control. Leone’s walk rate of 9.6 percent is a bit higher than you’d like to see after he struggled a bit with throwing strikes in April.

But Leone is quickly improving with that aspect and has only walked one batter over his last seven appearances. Fellow reliever Tom Wilhelmsen praised Leone’s recent approach of aggressively attacking the strike zone, via Greg Johns of MLB.com:

He’s kind of the leader by example right now. He’s doing pretty darn well for himself. He just gets in and shows strike one, strike two and is just a bulldog. He goes right after you. He’s truly fun to watch. I’m just trying to follow Dom’s lead.

Despite the instant success, Leone has mainly been used as a long reliever. He’s gone over two innings in five different appearances and has rarely been used in the late innings of close games.

That has mostly been out of necessity. The Mariners don’t really have another pitcher for long relief and the team has needed one pretty much every time Brandon Maurer has started.

But that could be changing in the next month. Taijuan Walker and James Paxton are hoping to join the team sometime in June and will be taking over two rotation spots when they do, altering the dynamic of Seattle’s bullpen.  

That is likely going to bump Chris Young out of the rotation. However, Young has pitched well enough to earn a spot on the team, particularly at Safeco Field, as Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN points out.

Young is an ideal fit for that long relief role, potentially freeing up Leone for some more high-leverage situations.

Obviously, Leone won’t instantly become a closer or primary set-up man. But he does have enough ability already to be the third guy out of Seattle’s bullpen and set up Fernando Rodney whenever Danny Farquhar needs a day off.

Giving the inconsistent Yoervis Medina or Wilhelmsen’s innings to Leone is only going to improve the team. Leone has the most upside of anyone in the bullpen other than Farquhar and is getting better with more experience as a pro.

Just two years removed from the draft, Leone is already ready to step into a critical role in Seattle’s bullpen. He can improve the Mariners at the present moment while also being groomed as a potentially dominant reliever in the future.

All stats per FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Wil Myers is currently battling through a right wrist injury that he suffered in Friday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox, according to the Tampa Bay Times‘ Joe Smith on Twitter:

Smith explains how the injury came about:

The 23-year-old Myers is batting .227 with five home runs and 25 RBI through his first 53 regular-season appearances in 2014 and has started 52 games in right field for the Rays.

With Tampa Bay currently in last place in the American League East division, it’s safe to say that the Rays can ill afford to be without Myers for an extended period of time. Runs have been awfully difficult to come by for the Rays this season, and although Myers has struggled immensely at the plate in his sophomore season in the bigs, he brings tremendous potential to the table, as pointed out by ESPN’s Buster Olney during Wednesday’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays:

After all, the Thomasville, North Carolina, native batted .293 with 13 homers and 53 RBI in his debut season in 2013. 

Myers’ strong play was a key force in Tampa Bay’s playoff push last fall, and there’s no question the Rays are worse off without him. 

Fortunately for manager Joe Maddon and the team, Myers’ injury doesn’t appear to be all that serious or anything that will keep him out of the lineup for a lengthy period of time. Perhaps a short break will even be good for Myers, who has clearly lost his rhythm and confidence at the plate. 

It remains to be seen how long Myers will be out for, but it’s obvious that the Rays have bigger issues to address heading into the season’s midway point. 

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The Chicago Cubs split their series against the New York Yankees, and now that the series is over, the team is auctioning off the chair that Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka sat in while in the locker room.

For some reason, the chair is being auctioned off to commemorate Derek Jeter’s final game at Wrigley Field. Tanaka pitched during the series, but he didn’t do particularly well, giving up four runs in six innings while earning the loss.

As of Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, the chair was selling for $310.

[The Big Lead]

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After an 18-year career in the majors, Johnny Damon feels he was forced to leave the game of baseball before he was ready to hang up the spikes. The reason for that, according to Damon, is because he never used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

In an interview with 810 CBS Sports, the 40-year-old was asked to consider his place in baseball history. In addition to the stats and the accolades, Damon said the following should be considered:

I played it clean. That’s what everybody’s going to be looking at. I think I’m one of the only players to come out and say, “I guarantee you there is nothing I’ve done that enhanced my baseball career.”

Over the course of those 18 years, Damon played with a handful of notable players tied to PED use. To name a few: Manny Ramirez, Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettitte, David Ortiz, Roger Clemens, Magglio Ordonez and Gary Sheffield. 

He makes an interesting case for his enshrinement amongst baseball’s greats. With 2,769 hits, a .284 average, 1,139 RBI and two World Series championships (2004 and 2009), Damon certainly had an above-average career with the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Indians. With no evidence or speculation contradicting his claimed cleanliness, he might just have a case for Cooperstown. 

However, that debate is for another day. The rest of the interview was far more notable and worth talking about, as Damon looked at more than his own career, focusing on some of the problems with Major League Baseball as the game tries to move past the PED era:

The game today, it’s a slap on the wrist for people, and it sends a bad message to kids, the families. You can’t fault someone who has a chance to make $20 million, $50 million, $100 million for going against the system to get to where they are. You can’t fault them.

There are certain guys who cheated the system and they’re still being patted on the back. That’s not great for our kids, especially my son. He’s playing high school baseball now and these kids are very influenced, and if you tell a kid, “You do something and you’re going to have a chance to make $100 million,” people are going to sign up.

I don’t want my son or anybody else’s kid to get involved with it. But it seems like Major League Baseball is allowing it.

Now, who might Damon be talking about? Who fits that mold of getting a slap on the wrist for cheating the system? A few players come to mind, including Jhonny Peralta, Nelson Cruz and Melky Cabrera.

After being suspended 50 games in 2013 as part of the Biogenesis scandal, Peralta signed a lavish four-year, $53 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals this past winter. Cruz, who was also suspended as a part of the scandal, signed a more modest but still generous one-year, $8 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles. And after being suspended 50 games as a member of the 2012 San Francisco Giants, Cabrera agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.

These players cheated the game, yet following their suspensions, they were welcomed back with open arms and millions of dollars. Damon is right—that does send a bad, bad message, especially to youth ballplayers.

Two of those guys came back to make an average annual salary of $8 million, while the other, Peralta, got over $13 million a year. In what other profession can you break the rules and hurt your organization, yet somehow get such a grand reward? 

Any young ballplayer, whether he be in high school, college, the minors or the 25th man on the big league roster, is looking at these cases and thinking, “Hey, this (PEDs) is worth it. Even if I get in trouble, I’m going to get paid. I could make millions.”

This, as Damon said, is something Major League Baseball needs to look at. The league needs to strengthen its substance-abuse policy, because as much as it says it cares about cleaning up the game, the way Damon and so many others see it, it’s still beneficial for players to cheat. The consequences have yet to outweigh the rewards.

That means going beyond suspensions and public shaming and hitting players where it hurts, their pockets. One way to do this that frequently comes up is to limit suspended players to a certain salary, say the league minimum, come their next free-agent contract. It’s a great idea, one that would truly make players pay for their actions and would tell other players to stay clear of PEDs.

The problem with this is that the player’s union would never agree to it, because, well, there are still cheaters out there. Those cheaters want to get paid if they get caught, just like Peralta, Cruz and Cabrera did.

The best option available, as far as cleaning up the game goes, is for the league, its teams and its players (the clean ones) to take a moral stand against PED use. Back in November the Arizona Diamondbacks made headlines for their tendency to avoid players with ties to PEDs.

Arizona’s Brad Ziegler made his personal thoughts known as well following the Peralta signing:

This is what Major League Baseball needs. More players, active ones, have to come out and shame those who disparage the game of baseball. More teams have to refuse to bring these guys aboard. The suspensions do no good if teams are still lining up to pay the cheaters.

Damon is on to something here. Baseball is sending mixed messages about the pitfalls of PED use. Getting caught is not teaching players the lesson the league wants them to learn. It’s time the MLB as a whole got on the same page and started sending the right message.

There can be no reward for cheating the game.

All stats were obtained via Baseball-Reference.

Question or comments? Feel free to follow me on Twitter @GPhillips2727 to talk the Yankees and Major League Baseball.

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Entering the latter stages of their rebuilding program, the New York Mets have a crucial amateur draft coming up in June.

Over the recent years, the Mets have drafted very young players with an emphasis on tools rather than filling needs. With a much deeper farm system than just a half-decade ago, the Mets could potentially alter this strategy for 2014.

The Mets seem primed to compete next season, as well as try to push for an optimistic 90-win season this year.

Therefore, it is reasonable to believe the Mets may emphasize filling holes with veteran collegiate talent. Draft picks out of college need much less grooming time in the minors, so a player who is drafted in 2014 could be in the majors by 2015 or 2016, right when the Mets plan to compete again.

At the same time, if a high-ceiling player were available for the Mets at pick No. 10, recent history shows they will not be afraid to pull the trigger.

With these ideas in mind, here are four potential draft targets for the Mets with their first-round pick in 2014:

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Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier has already shown off plenty of power this season with 11 home runs, but he’s also willing to show off his brains.

To prepare for his team’s “Turn Back the Clock” game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Dozier claimed he could solve a Rubik’s Cube in 90 seconds. Some of his teammates were intrigued, so they wanted to see what he could do.

The 27-year-old was close, finishing in 96 seconds.

[MLB.com h/t Next Impulse Sports]

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