If You Only Read One Thing…

Last Sunday night, the Houston Astros made head lines when they decided to call up their top prospect, Carlos Correa, from Fresno. Six days later, two other teams decided to join in on the fun by calling up their top prospects as well. The Minnesota Twins have been a great story so far in 2015, as the Astros have been, which has led them to give Byron Buxton the call up to the big leagues. These two teams have struggled in recent years but are both currently towards the top of their divisions in the standings, which ultimately, could be one of the primary reasons why we are seeing these guys now instead of later in the season or even in 2016. The Indians also called up Francisco Lindor to man shortstop for the foreseeable future.   These kind of prospects usually do not get the call to end up going back down.

Just As We Expected…

Gerrit Cole dominated again on Saturday, going six innings for the Pirates, allowing just one run on five hits and struck out seven. He improved his season ERA to an impressive 1.71 and picked up his 10^th win of the season. He also has 93 strikeouts on the season, as he continues to have a Cy Young caliber season for Pittsburgh. Cole goes out and dominates just about every team he faces, as a three run outing where he lasted just five innings on May 6^th against the Cubs is the worst outing he’s had this year. He has now picked up a win in each of his last five starts, and he will look to improve that record on Thursday against the White Sox.

But We Didn’t See This Coming…

Mat Latos returned from the disabled list on Saturday with the best outing of the season, as he went seven strong innings against the Rockies where he struck out 11 batters. The 11 strikeouts was easily a season high, and even with the impressive outing and giving up just the one run, his season ERA still sits at 5.44 on the year. The Marlins need him to have more performances like he just had if they’re going to get back in the race of the National League playoff picture.

Save Opportunities….

Jake McGee appears to have locked up the closing job for the Rays, as he has now closed the game for the third straight time for the Rays.

Brett Cecil picked up the save Saturday night for the Blue Jays in the 11^th inning, his fourth of the season. The save chances have been few and far between for Cecil, but he has now picked up his second save in as many days. The Blue Jays score a lot of runs, which makes it difficult for them to play in low scoring, close games.

There was a rare save for Willimas Perez on Saturday for the Braves, as they also played in an extra inning game in New York. The Braves closer, Jason Grilli, came in and pitched a perfect 10^th inning and earned the win for Atlanta, so there shouldn’t be any worry on his job as the closer.

Huston Street, Brad Ziegler, Mark Melancon, Craig Kimbrel, Trevor Rosenthal, AJ Ramos, Cody Allen also picked up saves on Saturday night.