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Hello again, RotoBallers. Another Monday brings another look at the biggest news in the baseball world. With waivers run and lineups locked, now is a great time to catch up on stories you may have missed from the last week. Hopefully, this weekly column helps steer you out of the tunnel vision that can come with the grind of micromanaging your fantasy baseball team(s).
It happened again. Last week, Major League Baseball announced it was investigating someone new for gambling violations. This time the culprit is not a player, but an umpire. This weekend, the Dodgers’ roster of All-Stars was dealt a couple of big blows, including losing pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and shortstop Mookie Betts to injury. Looking ahead, MLB is getting set to play a regular season game at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Pat Hoberg Facing Discipline
On Friday, MLB announced that it was disciplining umpire Pat Hoberg for violating the league’s gambling rules. MLB first began looking into the 37-year-old umpire during Spring Training and removed him from games during the investigation. Hoberg is appealing the decisions and will continue being held out of games this season until that process concludes. Hoberg has a reputation for being one of the league's more accurate umpires and was perfect in his judgment of every ball and strike thrown in Game 2 of the 2022 World Series.
Per @UmpScorecards the final regular season rankings show Quinn Wolcott with the highest Overall Accuracy (min. 20 games) with an all-time record high of 95.97%. Pat Hoberg was #2, Jansen Visconti #3, Alan Porter #4 & Ryan Wills #5. CB Bucknor was last. @MLB @MLBUA pic.twitter.com/j4Dy8pbzbA
— Umpire Scorecards Analysis (@UmpAnalysis) October 3, 2023
Due to the ongoing nature of the appeal, neither side is at liberty to divulge anything. MLB said that they did not find evidence of wrongdoing in games worked by Hoberg, even if what they discovered was a punishable offense in their eyes. The penalty for betting on baseball games not involving the bettor is one year. For placing a bet with an illegal bookmaker (or an online book while in a jurisdiction where doing so is unlawful), the punishment is left up to the Commissioner.
Fantasy Impact: This is an umpire we’re talking about, so none. As we have seen a few times this season, baseball news sometimes runs parallel to fantasy instead of intersecting and affecting it.
Dodgers Down
On Saturday afternoon, Yoshinobu Yamamoto took the hill for his 14th start as a Los Angeles Dodger. He was supposed to have started on Thursday, June 13, but the team opted to give their prized free agent acquisition some extra rest as he was experiencing some soreness. Unfortunately, Yamamoto was pulled after two innings due to triceps tightness. A day later he was placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained right rotator cuff.
As if losing their ace in the making wasn’t enough, Mookie Betts took a 97 MPH fastball off the hand during Sunday’s rubber match against the Royals. Betts went down clutching his left hand and was immediately met on the field by a trainer and manager Dave Roberts. After the game it was determined that there was a fracture in the hand but surgery would not be necessary.
TAKE MY HAND MOOKIE BETTS. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BE OKAY pic.twitter.com/KP5eIY8DcD
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) June 16, 2024
Fantasy impact: On the positive side, Roberts has come out and said that both Yamamoto and Betts are expected back this season. Fantasy managers already envisioning their endgame should explore trades for either player as they would provide a substantial late-season push once healthy again.
In the meantime, Yamamoto’s injury leaves a gap in the rotation, placing even greater importance on the return of Bobby Miller this week. Relievers J.P. Feyereisen and Michael Petersen were called up this weekend, though neither figure to be significant fantasy contributors given their roles.
The loss of Betts robs the Dodgers of their leadoff hitter and starting shortstop. One of Shohei Ohtani or Freddie Freeman will have to move up to the top slot in the order, perhaps opening the door for Teoscar Hernandez to move to the three-hole. Miguel Rojas and Enrique Hernandez will take over in the field, and the recently demoted Miguel Vargas will rejoin Los Angeles to add depth.
MLB At Rickwood Field
On June 20, the Giants and Cardinals will participate in “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.” The three-day event includes a minor league game, a celebrity softball game, and the first regular-season MLB game at Rickwood Field, the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons. The event coincides with Juneteenth and is intended to celebrate and honor the history of the Negro Leagues.
Rickwood was built in 1910 and is now America’s oldest professional ballpark. The Black Barons, who at various points rostered eventual Hall of Famers Mule Suttles, Willie Wells, Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays, played there from 1925 to 1960. Thereafter, the park was used as a minor league venue until the late 1980s, and since 2018, it has been the home field for Miles College.
“That love of the game not only helped change the game but it helped change this country for the better.”
Ahead of @MLB at Rickwood Field, we traveled down to Birmingham to learn more about the history of the Negro Leagues and the impact of baseball on the community: pic.twitter.com/mqyhDwn2xN
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 13, 2024
Fantasy impact: With MLB’s recent in-season ventures into different venues and locales, I’ve gotten in the habit of trying to find park dimensions in case there is anything out of the ordinary that might come into play. That doesn’t seem to be the case at Rickwood. Measurements from a year ago say the centerfield wall measured 393 feet from home, and it was 321 feet down the left field line and 332 down the right. Part of MLB’s $5 million refurbishment of the field was moving the outfield wall back 10 feet, making its dimensions nothing unusual.
The game is the first in a three-game series between the Giants and Cardinals. Playing in Birmingham on Thursday gives both teams four games to start the week but leaves them just two to play next weekend, as Friday will be for travel to St. Louis. Be aware if your league makes semiweekly lineup changes.
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