Braden Halladay, eldest son of Roy, chosen by Blue Jays in 2019 MLB Draft

Embed from Getty Images

Halladay surrounded by sons Braden (L) and Ryan (R) in 2014

The late Roy Halladay is justifiably beloved by the Philadelphia Phillies fan base. The big right-hander, who died tragically at the young age of just 40 while piloting his private plane in November 2017, was chosen as one of the 2018 Phillies Wall of Fame honorees after going 55-29 over parts of four seasons with the club.

‘Doc’ registered a 3.25 ERA and 1.119 WHIP mark across 103 starts with the Phillies, allowing 649 hits over 702.2 innings with a 633/137 K:BB. He also tossed a Perfect Game in a Phillies uniform, as well as one of only two postseason no-hitters in Major League Baseball history. Halladay was the 2010 NL Cy Young Award winner, finished as the runner-up for the honors the following year, and was an NL All-Star in each of those two seasons.

But as beloved as Halladay is in Philadelphia, he is at least as popular north of the border in the city of Toronto. There, Halladay pitched for parts of a dozen seasons in the uniform of the Toronto Blue Jays. He went 148-76 in Toronto and was a six-time American League All-Star. He captured the 2003 AL Cy Young Award while with Toronto, and finished among the top five in voting four more times.

Now, Halladay and his family will enjoy another tie to the Blue Jays organization, at least temporarily. Braden Halladay, the 18-year-old eldest son of Roy and his wife, Brandy, was selected today by Toronto with their 32nd round pick as the 957th overall player chosen in the MLB Amateur Draft.

Toronto Blue Jays

✔@BlueJays

On Day 3 of the 2019 #MLBDraft, we’ve selected RHP Braden Halladay in the 32nd round.

Congratulations, @BradenHalladay! pic.twitter.com/64abT3vkeb

7,273

5:08 PM - Jun 5, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,530 people are talking about this

Ankle injury to Bryce Harper appears minor; x-rays come back negative

Harper was drilled in ankle during Friday's game

Fans all across Phillies Nation are breathing a massive sigh of relief this morning. Per numerous reports, all x-rays on Bryce Harper’s right ankle have come back negative.

The 26-year-old superstar is officially being listed as day-to-day. However, Harper will miss Saturday’s game in Clearwater against the Houston Astros. His scheduled participation in Sunday’s game against the New York Yankees also has to be considered questionable at this point.

Harper was injured when he was drilled by a 96 mph fastball from Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Trent Thornton with two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning at Spectrum Field in Clearwater.

Harper would ideally like to get between 40-50 plate appearances during Grapefruit League action in order to be fully ready to open the regular season. However, that is going to now become nearly impossible.

To date, Harper has accumulated just nine plate appearances over parts of four games. Still looking for his first hit in a Phillies uniform, he is 0-5 with three walks and the hit-by-pitch, two runs scored, and a stolen base to this point.

Originally scheduled to play in all three games this weekend, there is now the very real chance that Friday will be the only one in which he participates.

The Phillies are scheduled to cross the state of Florida for a pair of games on Monday and Tuesday against the Cardinals and Astros. That was a trip that Harper was not likely to make prior to this incident. He is still unlikely to travel with the team for those games.

Bottom line, we may not see Harper play again until Wednesday afternoon back in Clearwater against the Detroit Tigers. If that proves true it would mean he will see no more than six more games. Even if he is able to play in all of those and averages three plate appearances in each, he would end spring training with roughly 30 plate appearances in game action.

Baseball Hall of Fame ready to welcome Roy Halladay

Embed from Getty Images

Halladay appears to be cruising towards baseball immortality

At some point just after 6:00PM EST on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 the world will learn the names of any individuals elected for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The MLB Network will broadcast the announcement “live” with a simulcast at MLB.com also available.

Based on the latest tracking of the publicly announced Baseball Writers Association of America votes, three players appear to be shoo-ins for election.

One of those, former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, has been named on 100% of the public ballots to this point.

Since no one – not Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb – has ever been elected unanimously the odds against that holding up are great. But Rivera will be elected, that much is sure.

Also faring well on the public ballots is the greatest Designated Hitter in baseball history, Edgar Martinez. After falling just a bit short of the required 75% of the voters a year ago, it appears as if Martinez will get in now in this, his final year on the writers’ ballot.

The third man who appears to be easing into the Hall of Fame is someone near and dear to fans in Phillies Nation. That would be former Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays ace starting pitcher Roy Halladay.

‘Doc’ currently has been named on more than 92% (199) of the 210 ballots made public to Ryan Thibodaux’s (Twitter: @NotMrTibbs) “Tracker Team”, which has become perhaps the most respected compiler of such information.

Halladay was tragically killed in a crash while piloting his private plane over the Gulf of Mexico on November 7, 2017. Just months earlier he had been asked about the possibility of this honor. Matt Breen of Philly.com tweeted out the response of the big right-hander earlier today:

Blue Jays play spoiler in walkoff win over Orioles

Richard Urena mobbed after walkoff pushes Jays past O's

The season has long been over for the Toronto Blue Jays, as far as their own contending status. But for a second straight night the Jays played the role of spoiler perfectly.

On Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, the host Blue Jays rallied against Baltimore closer Zach Britton. Toronto scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning to walkoff the Orioles by a 3-2 score.

It marked the second straight night that Toronto registered a one-run victory over Baltimore. the loss also extended Baltimore’s recent untimely swoon to six consecutive defeats. As a result, the O’s are now 4.5 games out in the race for the final American League Wildcard playoff berth.

Just as importantly, there are five teams now sitting between Baltimore and Minnesota. The Twins currently hold possession of that final postseason slot.

Tim Beckham‘s 21st home run of the season, a solo shot, had put Baltimore in front by 2-1 in the top of the 8th inning. That blast somewhat spoiled an impressive outing by Jays’ starting pitcher Joe Biagini. The righty allowed just two runs on six hits across eight innings.

Biagini had been matched by O’s starter Dylan Bundy, who lasted just six frames, but struck out eight and surrendered just one run on five hits.

MLB Wildcard: losing teams still have legitimate shot

It’s the weekend after the 2017 MLB All-Star Game break. Teams are finally back in action after a four-day layoff for the start of the traditional “second half” of play.

A look at the Major League Baseball standings through games of Friday night, July 14 reveals that 17 teams are either in a playoff position, or are within a handful of games of a postseason berth.

In fact, there are currently at least a half-dozen teams with losing records who must be considered to still have a legitimate shot.

In the National League, at least for now, the list includes just one team. That would be the defending world champion Chicago Cubs.

The Cubbies have struggled along with a serious case of World Series hangover this year. After building and blowing an 8-0 lead on the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, they managed to pull out a narrow 9-8 victory.

That win left the North Siders with a record of 44-45 on the season. The Cubs sit 5.5 games in back of the surprising Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central Division race. However, they are just four back in the loss column.

In the NL Wildcard race, the Cubs are a more distant 6.5 games behind the Colorado Rockies, who currently control the second wildcard berth. However, the Rockies are in a bit of a free-fall, having lost 14 of their last 19 games.

Blue Jays in last place, but still a contending team

Gibbons (leaning on dugout rail) has Jays contending again

In each of the last two seasons, the Toronto Blue Jays have played deep into October. The Jays lost in the ALCS both years, defeated in five games a year ago, and in six games by the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

After three consecutive winning campaigns, Toronto is currently struggling along in last place in the AL East Division standings. The Jays 35-36 record has them tied for that distinction with the Baltimore Orioles, five games behind the division-leading New York Yankees.

Despite that last place standing nearly three full months into the season, the Blue Jays are far from out of things. They are just two games off the pace in an extremely crowded race for an AL Wildcard playoff berth.

There are a number of reasons that manager John Gibbons and his team should feel confident. First of all is that recent track record of success. This is a mostly veteran team that knows how to win. If they can stay reasonably healthy, that experience should pay off over the second half of the season.

Toronto has been playing much better in recent weeks. The team fell to a season-worst 11 games below the .500 mark in late April. As recently as May 20 they were still eight games below that break-even mark.

Since that point, the Blue Jays have gone 17-10. The club entered play on Thursday afternoon having won three of their last four games.

Phillies Gain Little in Signing Michael Saunders

The Philadelphia Phillies are reportedly in agreement with free agent outfielder Michael Saunders on a contract for 2017. The deal is rumored to be for one year, with an option that may be the player’s to exercise.

There have been rumors all off-season that the Fightin’ Phils were looking to add another bat to their lineup. Just last week, club president Andy MacPhail publicly confirmed those rumors, which I explored here.

Word of a possible Saunders deal with the Phillies first broke across Twitter in the early afternoon from insider Jon Morosi.

Later in the day, information began leaking that the deal was for $9 million guaranteed in 2017. The second year option option at $11 could escalate to as much as $13 million.

If the Phillies do indeed complete this signing, what exactly will the club be gaining? In my opinion, very little of significance. In fact, a legitimate argument can be made as to whether signing Saunders improves their talent at all.

No Way, Jose

The Philadelphia Phillies’ rebuilding program continues to move along at a reasonable pace. After finally resolving to commit to that rebuild, the club has spent the past two years jettisoning aging, expensive players.

The Phils bottomed out in the standings in 2015. That year, the club finished with the worst record in all of baseball. In this past 2016 season they improved by seven games, and escaped the cellar of the National League East for the first time since 2013.

It is expected that the Phillies will continue to move up as the 2017 season unfolds. Not necessarily to a playoff contending level yet, but certainly to make a push for the .500 mark.

The Phillies have added bullpen and rotation depth during the offseason. The rotation was bolstered by re-signing Jeremy Hellickson and by trading for Clay Buchholz. The pen was fortified with additions such as Joaquin Benoit, Pat Neshek and Sean Burnett.

But the only meaningful change on the offensive side of the Phillies roster was the trade of longtime underachiever Darin Ruf for veteran outfielder Howie Kendrick.

Blue Jays 2016 POY: Josh Donaldson

The Toronto Blue Jays finished in a tie for second place with the Baltimore Orioles this season in the American League East Division. The club put together an 89-73 record, just four games behind the division-winning Boston Red Sox.

The Jays then topped the O’s in dramatic fashion in the AL Wild Card Game, winning on a walk-off three-run home run by Edwin Encarnacion in the bottom of the 11th inning at Rogers Centre.

Toronto then swept past the Texas Rangers in the NLDS before losing a five-game American League Championship Series to the Cleveland Indians.

Blue Jays Statistical Leaders

Encarnacion, the club’s DH, was an AL All-Star and one of their offensive leaders. He bashed 42 homers and 34 doubles to go along with 127 RBI, 99 runs scored, and a .529 slugging percentage.

The high-powered Jays offense had four other players each hit 20 or more homers: Troy Tulowitzki (24), Michael Saunders (24), Jose Bautista (22), and Russell Martin(20).

Second baseman Devon Travis led the club with a .300 batting average, smacking 28 doubles and knocking in 50 runs.

On the mound, starters J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, and Marco Estrada all had outstanding seasons. Trade acquisition Francisco Liriano also produced solidly after arriving on August 1 from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Closer Roberto Osuna paces the bullpen.

Donaldson Is the Jays’ 2016 Top Player

But the Blue Jays’ top player this season was their third baseman, Josh Donaldson. He hit for a .284/.404/.549 slash line with 37 homers, 32 doubles, 99 RBI, and 122 runs scored. He recorded a .953 OPS while producing 7.4 WAR.

Braves Sign R.A. Dickey

The Atlanta Braves made a move today to add a veteran starting pitcher to what is a mostly young rotation, signing knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to a one-year deal.

Dickey was the 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner while with the New York Mets. That year he went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA and 1.053 WHIP. He led the NL in strikeouts, innings pitched, starts, complete games, and shutouts that year. He was also an NL All-Star for the only time.

It was an outlier season for Dickey, who has mostly been a .500-type innings eater over the rest of his 14-year big league career.

He had a streak of five consecutive years with at least 208.2 innings end this past season when he tossed 169.2 with the Toronto Blue Jays in his fourth season north of the border.

Seattle Mariners: All-Time 25-Man Roster

I will be doing a handful of MLB organizational "All-Time 25-Man Roster" pieces for the "Call to the Pen" site with Fansided this off-season. This is part of that series.

The Seattle Mariners arrived in the Pacific Northwest for the 1977 season as an MLB expansion team.

The franchise joined the American League that year along with the Toronto Blue Jays, with Seattle assigned to the AL West Division.

It took the M’s until the 1991 season to experience their first winning campaign, and then until 1995 to win their first American League West Division crown.

Featuring players such as future Baseball Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson, and possible future Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez, they became regular contenders for the first time in those mid-1990’s.

The best team in franchise history, which won an American League record 116 games in 2001, developed a few years later when another future Hall of Famer, Ichiro Suzuki, arrived from Japan to begin the 21st century.

Putting together an all-time roster in a 25-man format for the Mariners was not as difficult as it might be for some big league clubs with a longer history. My toughest choice turned out to be deciding upon a 10th pitcher.

However, there certainly were some decisions that I made where other fans may have gone in a different direction. 

I would love to read your comments as to any players who I might have missed, all-time great Mariners players who you feel should be recognized here.

The following are my choices for the Mariners all-time 25-man roster, along with a brief explanation of the reasoning based on the statistics.

NEXT: The Roster

Blue Jays Could Beat Up Trevor Bauer in ALCS Game Three

As the American League Championship Series moves north of the border into Canada on Monday night, the host Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in desperate straits.

The Blue Jays trail the visiting Cleveland Indians by two games to one in the best-of-seven series, and simply cannot afford to fall into a 3-0 hole.

There have been 35 postseason series in Major League Baseball history that started with one team running out to a 3-0 lead.

Only the 2004 Boston Red Sox have won, rallying from that 0-3 deficit to take four straight from the arch-rival New York Yankees, a springboard to the BoSox ending their “Curse of the Bambino” by eventually winning the World Series.

Grant Brisbee with SB Nation did a nice breakdown of this situation when the Baltimore Orioles fell behind the Kansas City Royals by 3-0 in the 2014 ALCS, and when the Chicago Cubs fell behind the New York Mets 3-0 in last year’s NLCS.

If the Jays are to save their season and get into this series, they are going to need a big effort in front of the frenzied fans at Rogers Centre.

Fortunately for the Blue Jays, they may have just the antidote to their ills in Cleveland starting pitcher Trevor Bauer.

The 25-year-old right-hander is now in his third full big league season

MLB Prediction: 2016 American League Championship Series

The American League Championship Series kicks off on Friday night with the AL Central champion Cleveland Indians hosting the AL Wildcard Toronto Blue Jays.

Terry Francona's Tribe went 94-67 in winning their division by eight games over the Detroit Tigers.

Manager John Gibbons guided the Jays to a tie with the Baltimore Orioles for 2nd place in the AL East at 89-73, four games behind the Boston Red Sox.

The Jays then defeated the O's in dramatic fashion in the AL Wildcard Game on a three-run walk-off home run by Edwin Encarnacion in the bottom of the 11th inning.

That victory bought Toronto a date with the AL West champion Texas Rangers in the ALDS, and the Blue Jays swept Texas in three straight games by 10-1, 5-3, and 7-6 scores.

Meanwhile, the Indians faced off with the Bosox in their ALDS. Cleveland also swept, taking their three games by scores of 5-4, 6-0, and 4-3.

The two clubs met seven times during the regular season, with Cleveland coming out on top in four of the seven games.

Four of the seven were one-run games, and six were close finals. However, the Jays did spank the Tribe by a 17-1 score on July 3rd.

AL Wildcard: Why the (Blue Jays / Orioles) Will Win

The Major League Baseball postseason gets underway on Tuesday night as the Toronto Blue Jays play host to the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Wild Card Game.

These American League East Division rivals met 19 times during the regular season, with the Jays taking the series by a narrow 10-9, outscoring the O's by 97-81, or basically by an average 5-4 margin.

Toronto won six of the 10 matchups held up in Canada. However, the Orioles won the final two games at Rogers Centre last Wednesday and Thursday by 3-2 and 4-0 scores.

The numbers show that this AL Wild Card Game is basically an even matchup, with the Jays slightly favored due to the home field advantage based on the overall outcomes of games held there between the two teams this season. But it's definitely close.

There are reasons to like each of the teams to come out of this AL Wild Card Game victorious, moving on to face the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas in one of the American League Division Series beginning on Thursday afternoon at 4:30pm EDT.

Tigers and Mariners Fight From Behind in AL Wildcard Race

We have reached the final weekend of the Major League Baseball regular season schedule, and there are still two playoff berths undecided in the American League with four teams involved.

In fact, there is a possibility that at least one of those AL Wild Card berths will not even be decided this weekend.

Because the Detroit Tigers, who sit a game back in the loss column, were rained out on Thursday against the Minnesota Twins, that game may need to be made up on Monday if it is necessary.

As play begins on Friday night, the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays are tied for control of the two spots with identical 87-72 records.

Sitting that game back in the loss column are the Tigers with a record of 85-73. And then lurking just behind them are the Seattle Mariners with their 85-74 mark.