Dein erstes Forum » A look at what’s happening around the majors today:

DEADLINE DAYTeams have until 4 p.m. EDT to swing a trade without waivers http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-khris-davis-jersey , meaning it could be the last chance for contenders to land some top targets. Could Bryce Harper really be on the move? Will the Rays find a new home for Chris Archer? What about the Rangers and Adrian Beltre? Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen, Twins second baseman Brian Dozier and Rays reliever Sergio Romo could go, too. Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any movement from the Mets to trade Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard, though Zach Wheeler could still wind up elsewhere.THE CLOSER’S OPENERBefore Roberto Osuna steps onto the mound as Houston’s new closer, the Astros want him to stand in the clubhouse and explain himself. The former Blue Jays closer was traded by Toronto to Houston on Monday Reggie Jackson Jersey , but he won’t pitch until at least next week as he serves a 75-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Osuna was charged with one count of assault in Toronto in May, which remains pending. Astros pitchers Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers Jr. have been outspoken in their disdain for domestic abusers, and Verlander expects that Osuna will address the team before he makes his Astros debut.”We don’t know the whole story,” Verlander said. ”Obviously I’ve said some pretty inflammatory things about stuff like this in the past and I stand by my words.”But I think with an ongoing case as is this one, just see what happens. But it will be interesting. I think he plans to talk to us when he gets here and we’ll go from there and see what happens.”DEALIN’ DIPOTOMariners GM Jerry Dipoto has given manager Scott Servais a whole new bullpen. Seattle acquired left-hander Zach Duke from the Twins and right-hander Adam Warren from the Yankees on Monday. Dipoto also acquired righty Sam Tuivailala from St. Louis last week. Dipoto said the additions combined with what Seattle already has in its bullpen should help Servais keep everyone fresh.”Obviously a lot of teams are looking to add to the bullpen this time of year with the trade deadline coming up. I’m not surprised,” Servais said. ”It may not be the last thing we do.”BABY BRAVESKolby Allard is set to become the latest prospect to debut for Atlanta this season when the 20-year-old left-hander starts against Miami. Allard was a first-round pick in 2015 and has been at Triple-A all of this season http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-khris-davis-jersey , going 6-4 with a 2.80 ERA. Allard joins Ozzie Albies, Luiz Gohara, Ronald Acuna and Mike Soroka as Braves players to debut before their 22nd birthday since the start of 2017.— The new leadoff man is off to a great start for the Twins"editor’s note: Today we welcome Cooper Carlson to the front page. You may have seen his fanposts under the name mntwinstalk.When Max Kepler signed his five year, $35 million dollar extension this past offseason, there were a few differing opinions about it. Some thought Max didn’t bet on himself and would soon be underpaid for his value, while some people thought we were already seeing the best of Max Kepler. I have always sided with the people who think Kepler still has a lot of talent to show off Glenn Hubbard Jersey , and that seems to already be showing early in 2019.Although it is a small sample size, Kepler has improved in just about every offensive statistic so far in 2019 (stats below show improvement from 2018 to 2019 and then his current stat):AVG: +49 points (.273)OPS: +92 points (.819)BABIP: +54 points (.290)wOBA: +31 points (.347)LD%: +4.7% (20.6%)Barrel%: +5.2% (11.8%)Exit Velocity: + 2.5 MPH (92.0)Hard hit%: +13.5% (51.5%)So as we are just beginning the season he has shown the signs of becoming the hitter that the Twins front office believes he can be. The improvement that catches my eye the most is the batting average on balls in play (BABIP). In 2018 he was the third worst in all of baseball with a .236 BABIP. That requires a lot of bad luck and it’s not like he wasn’t hitting the ball hard. He was ranked in the mid fifties for hard hit percentage last season so there wasn’t a good reason as to why the balls he was hitting weren’t resulting in hits. To see him hitting .290 in that category is a really good sign of what is to come for Max.Something else you may have noticed if you watch the Twins once in a while is that Max Kepler is swinging the bat much more than we are used to. He is swinging at the first pitch of an at bat 51.1% (27% in 2018) of the time and swinging at any pitch 54.2% of the time. This approach is much different than than in 2018 when he swung 42.2% of the time. Perhaps the most important stat to come out of this is the fact that he’s not just swinging at these pitches, he’s hitting almost all of them. When a pitch is thrown in the strike zone, Kepler has hit 96.6% of them and that ranks third in the MLB.Below are Kepler’s swing percentages over the last two years. 2018 (top) versus 2019 (bottom)One of the most surprising outcomes of Spring Training was the fact that Kepler had become the leadoff hitter. Before 2019 he had never hit leadoff in the majors, his only previous experience was rookie ball but new manager Rocco Baldelli seems to really like Kepler in that spot. In fact he would often text mock lineup cards to Derek Falvey during the offseason and most of them had Kep in the leadoff spot from the beginning. He’s obviously not your typical leadoff hitter, but the coaches like the power and the quality of at bats he brings to the table.The final point on Max Kepler is that his power is looking very good to start the year. He has seen increases in his barrel% Rickey Henderson Jersey , exit velocity, launch angle and slugging. Also, if you’re into player comparisons, Statcast has Max Kepler as a similar batter to the Astros Alex Bregman.Overall we are still early in the season but I thought we may as well take a look at this because the new manager combined with Keps new roll in the leadoff spot could both lead to consistent results of what we are seeing right now.