How baseball’s quarter-billion-dollar underdog keeps winning – Yahoo Sports

And, in 45 games since Kershaw went to the disabled list, Turner has a .326 batting average, 1.017 OPS, 13 home runs and 39 RBIs.

Anyway, if you’ve ever wondered what a quarter-billion-dollar underdog looks like, the Dodgers think they could be your huckleberry.

A WEEK BEHIND:

Yasiel Puig in 14 games for Oklahoma City: .396 batting average, .448 on-base percentage, seven extra-base hits (including four home runs), five walks, five strikeouts, one party bus.

And here’s the completely unrelated, unfair and gratuitous comparison: Josh Reddick in 18 games as a Dodger: .149 batting average, .208 on-base percentage, one extra-base hit (not a home run), five walks, 12 strikeouts, one room-service mishap.

Said one scout who saw a handful of Puig’s Triple-A games: “He’s hitting the ball hard. I mean, the infielders are backing up.”

A WEEK AHEAD:

Two fun series this weekend.

The first, Cleveland Indians at Texas Rangers. This may surprise you, but the Indians rake. They’ve been outscored by only the Boston Red Sox, which they’ve managed with a total of nine hits – all of them over two weeks in late April and early May – by Michael Brantley, who has endured shoulder and biceps surgeries since November. The Indians get on base, they steal bases, they hit enough home runs (Mike Napoli 29, Carlos Santana 27, Jason Kipnis 20), Jose Ramirez does crazy things in the ninth inning, Tyler Naquin is a top-five Rookie of the Year guy, and Francisco Lindor is their best player.

The matchups:

Thursday: Josh Tomlin vs. Cole Hamels
Friday: Corey Kluber vs. A.J. Griffin
Saturday: Carlos Carrasco vs. Martin Perez
Sunday: Danny Salazar vs. Derek Holland

The other, Chicago Cubs at Dodgers. The Cubs are who we thought they’d be, while the Dodgers are who we thought they’d be if they had to use, like, 140 players. Julio Urias’ past three starts: 15 innings, 16 hits, two earned runs, 12 strikeouts, two walks. He’s getting there. He’s also thrown 102 innings, majors and minors, which doesn’t sound like a lot, except he turned 20 two weeks ago. And these things make some baseball folks nervous.

The matchups (attempting to nail down Dodgers starters is a fool’s errand, but anyway):

Friday: Mike Montgomery vs. Bud Norris
Saturday: Jason Hammel vs. Anyone’s guess
Sunday: Jon Lester vs. Maeda

SAW IT COMING:

Tim Tebow, the erstwhile quarterback, has invited teams to watch him hit and throw and catch and stuff in L.A. on Tuesday, some 12 years after he gave up the sport to become a football player. He was a good football player, if not quite a good NFL player, which left him with time on his hands and, ultimately, a bat in them.

However many teams show up – 10, 15, 20, all of them – it seems most will attend the showcase/tryout out of curiosity and duty, because what’s there to lose? An hour for a scout who would’ve been in the area anyway? You go, you watch, you take notes, because what’s the worst that could happen? Nobody’s going to be running deep outs.

Unsurprising is the number of current professional players who believe this is a farce, an embarrassment to the game, and an insult to the grown men already toiling in the minor leagues for their opportunities.

To which we would suggest: If a 29-year-old man who hasn’t played baseball in a dozen seasons can take your job, either by name or game, then chances are your career was a wee bit wobbly to begin with. And if an organization is so cruel as to release a deserving player simply to sell tickets on the back of the great Tebow, then that player almost certainly is good enough to warrant signing with another organization anyway.

How many former first-rounders hang around for years based on the fact they were very good players … in high school? Plenty. The minor leagues aren’t always a merit-based system. Sometimes they’re a reputation-based system, a signing bonus-based system, a there’s-just-something-about-him-based system.

You know who that rarely applies to? The really good players. They seem to get all the breaks.

Now, let’s just see what all this Tim Tebow stuff is about.

DIDN’T SEE IT COMING:

The AL Cy Young Award is wide open, unless you actually have a responsibility to vote for it, then you might describe it as a mess.

ERA:

1. Michael Fulmer: 2.58
2. Danny Duffy: 2.66
3. Cole Hamels: 2.80
4. Jose Quintana: 2.84
5. Aaron Sanchez: 2.99

WHIP:

1. Duffy: 1.01
2. Chris Sale: 1.03
3. Justin Verlander: 1.03
4. Rick Porcello: 1.04
5. Marco Estrada: 1.04

Fangraphs WAR:

1. Corey Kluber: 4.4
2. Masahiro Tanaka: 4.2
3. Quintana: 4.1
4. Sale: 4.1
5. Verlander: 3.7

Strikeouts:

1. Chris Archer: 186
2. Verlander: 181
3. David Price: 179
4. Kluber: 171
5. Sale: 165

Strikeouts-to-walks:

1. Josh Tomlin: 5.61
2. Tanaka: 5.07
3. Duffy: 5.07
4. Porcello: 4.89
5. Price: 4.59

Innings:

1. Price: 177.2
2. Verlander: 173.1
3. Kluber: 169.2
4. Sale: 168.2
5. Porcello: 165

Wins (for the older crowd):

1. J.A. Happ: 17
2. Porcello: 17
3. Sale: 15
4. Chris Tillman: 15
5. Hisashi Iwakuma: 14

And, then, Zach Britton.