Kuzul

The Colorado Rockies will call Roy Oswalt up from Double-A back to the MLB on Thursday after completing his rehab, according to Troy Renck of The Denver Post.  Official that Oswalt will start Thursday— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) June 18, 2013  After breezing through the minor leagues in his rehab starts, Oswalt is on his way up, according to NBC Sports. Oswalt made five starts in the minors, throwing 33 innings with a 2.16 ERA and 25/7 K/BB ratio at Double-A, where he was just named the Texas League pitcher of the week. He held opponents to a .211 batting average, but did serve up five homers in five starts. Oswalt’s most recent outing was 8.1 innings of shutout ball Friday with seven strikeouts versus one walk. Oswalt will face the Washington Nationals in his first start this year, a team that he has gone 4-4 against with a 3.33 ERA ...

Everybody's favorite son had another big week for the big league team, including his first ever MLB-level heave-ho. Yasiel Puig continues to pound the baseball into submission for the Dodgers, prompting Don Mattingly to announce that he will stay up when Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp return.That means Joc Pederson is stuck in Double-A until further notice, and pending a trade or injury, probably won't see any action until the rosters expand. Given Mattingly's announcement, this will be the last week we see Puig in our rankings, as a full-time Major League player will no longer be considered a "prospect" for me. The bad news for the Dodgers is that they are in last place, about seven games out of first place. The good news is that everyone else is lumped in a cluster about two games apart at the top of the division, and will be beating each other up ...

Clayton Kershaw is not happy with the Los Angeles Dodgers.According to The Los Angeles Times, Kershaw was displeased that contract discussions were leaked to the media, saying it's now a distraction."I think the reason we've been able to continue discussions for this long is that it's not been talked about," Kershaw said. "And now that I'm having to talk about it, it's a distraction because people are talking about it. I guess you'll have to talk to the Dodgers as to why it came out now. I don't love the fact that I have to talk about it."Kershaw felt he had a gentleman's agreement with the Dodgers to not talk speak about the contract publicly."It didn't come from our side," Kershaw said. "I'm going to still hold up my end of the bargain and not talk about it."The question now is does this hurt the Dodgers' ...

In a year that has featured a couple of blockbuster deals for pitchers, it appears that Clayton Kershaw may very well be the next pitcher to land a megadeal. According to a report by Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com, the Los Angeles Dodgers are currently in talks with Kershaw about a contract extension.  The extension would likely be for seven years and over $180 million, which means it would top the deal Justin Verlander got back in March.  Felix Hernandez was able to sign a seven-year deal worth $175 million back in February. That means that if this deal goes over the $180 million mark, Kershaw will be the highest-paid pitcher in baseball.Apparently, the two sides also talked about a few other deals, including a deal that would be for 12 years and worth $300 million. The 2011 NL Cy Young Award winner has a 66-41 record and 2.71 ERA to go ...

Since the Barry Bonds era came to a close, the San Francisco Giants have been winning games because of top-notch starting pitching.However, this season, it's been different. San Francisco's rotation has been horrendous, and the bullpen is falling apart. Surprisingly, the Giants are 35-31 and right in the thick of things in the NL West, but if they don't make improvements soon, they'll fall behind.Who could help the Giants stay in the playoff picture? Here are three players the Giants should target at the 2013 MLB trade deadline.Begin Slideshow

Yasiel Puig has quickly taken baseball by storm, but if he wants to keep playing at a high level, the Dodgers need to rein him in.The 22-year-old outfielder is batting .487 with four home runs and 10 RBI in just 12 games.But yet after just 12 games, he's already refused to speak to reporters. And there's his role in this epic brawl with the Diamondbacks, in which he strained his shoulder and was forced to miss a game due to the injury:If that's not enough, his teammates knew that his pugnacious style would get him in trouble. As catcher Tim Federowicz told ESPN: "We knew at some point somebody was going to try to knock [Puig] down." In addition, Mark Saxon of ESPN reported that the Dodgers have been worried about Puig's "showmanship" since spring training. That's quite the rap sheet for someone who's been in the bigs for just a few weeks. Everyone knows about Puig's ...

In the short span of two weeks, Yasiel Puig has become the hottest player in baseball, adding yet another top player to an already star-studded lineup. Nevertheless, as Puig joins All-Stars and Cy Young winners like Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, there is a cluster of Dodgers whose contributions don’t typically make it to the front page of the LA Times. The journeymen, the role players, if you will. Let’s take a look at the Dodgers players who have excelled so far this season and haven’t necessarily gotten the recognition they’ve deserved. Begin Slideshow

The San Francisco Giants didn't select any high-ranking prospects in the 2013 MLB draft. Nonetheless, two of their picks will be showcased this weekend in the College World Series. Nick Vander Tuig, SP, UCLAWith their sixth-round pick (193rd overall), the Giants selected Oakdale native Nick Vander Tuig. As a starting pitcher with UCLA in 2013, the right-hander went 12-4 with an impressive 2.37 ERA. Despite the shiny peripheral numbers, Vander Tuig—who underwent Tommy John surgery in high school—didn’t dominate college competition, striking out only 81 batters in 114 innings pitched. But he was still hard to hit, as he held opponents to a .237 batting average and managed a 1.02 WHIP. A 6’3” righty, Vander Tuig sits at 91 MPH with his fastball, which has good tailing movement. He also throws a slurvy slider and a changeup—both of which project as major league average pitches. He’s confident in his ability and ...

Cal Ripken Jr., he is not.Like Ripken, Troy Tulowitzki is a big, power-hitting, MVP-caliber shortstop.As far as staying healthy, though, Tulowitzki and Ripken are on opposite ends of the spectrum.Ripken, of course, was nicknamed Iron Man for his record 2,362 consecutive games played.  Tulowitzki, meanwhile, has done it again in the middle of what was shaping up to be a career season.Hit the disabled list, that is.This time—and we say "this" because it's happened on quite a few occasions previously—the Colorado Rockies star is out with a broken rib that, according to Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post, he suffered when he made a diving stop on a ground ball Thursday night.Making matters worse, outfielders Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler also left Thursday's 5-4 loss to the Washington Nationals with foot and finger injuries, respectively. They're day-to-day.Tulowitzki, however, is not. He's expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks, ...

About a decade ago, I got a text from Peter Gammons. "When did baseball players start having obliques?" Peter knew that players had always had the muscle, but it did seem that we were suddenly seeing more of them injured about that time. This year, it seems to be rib injuries that are the hot new thing in training rooms around the league.But why?Anatomically, there's no difference. Ribs are ribs, and we have to assume that in almost all cases, MLB players have normal ribs in structure and strength. The game is also much the same—at least in terms of the stresses that it places on the ribs. We then have to look at the method of injury in context. For Troy Tulowitzki, he was injured on a diving stop of a grounder while at shortstop. Ian Kinsler injured himself twisting away from an inside pitch at the plate, though many ...