MLB Player News

Mariners starting pitcher James Paxton (lat) is expected to begin a rehab assignment with short-season Class A Everett Thursday, according to the Everett Herald. 

"I'm looking forward to seeing James come back," Everett manager Dave Valle said. "I'm excited for him because it's been a tough road for him to get back healthy again.

"The plan is for him to go three innings (Thursday) and hopefully he'll come out, put some good work in, and get ready to get back to the big leagues. We're just looking for him to come out of it with no problems. He's coming off that injury and (the Mariners) want to make sure he's building up his stamina and pitch count."

If all goes well Thursday, then Paxton will move his rehab assignment to Triple-A Tacoma.

Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman is ready to perform during the second half, according to the Baltimore Sun. 

Gausman has had a difficult first half. He's performed well over seven starts in the majors, but has found himself alternating between the majors and minors multiple times. That could change during the second half. Gausman is already slated to start Sunday's game against Oakland, but the club has been mum on his status following that start. Manager Buck Showalter has made comments about having six possible rotation members, but has also indicated Gausman's talent.

Showalter did seem to indicate Gausman would get an extended look soon. "He'll get an opportunity after the break, and we'll see where it takes us," he said. "I'll tell you what, there's five other [starters] here who have a better track record right now. He knows he's gonna earn it."

Gausman has posted a 3.29 ERA over 38 1/3 innings in the majors this season. 

The White Sox have announced their post-break rotation for the series against the Astros, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The club will open with Jose Quintana on Friday. That move had already been announced, and shouldn't come as a surprise. Hector Noesi will pick up Saturday's start, while John Danks is slotted for Sunday.

The team waited to plan out the rotation behind Quintana in order to see whether Chris Sale pitched in the All-Star Game. In order to give him some extra rest, the club will push his first start to next week. 

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale allowed a run in one inning of work during the All-Star Game. 

Sale performed well at the start of the inning, quickly getting two outs. He then stumbled a bit. After hitting Chase Utley with a pitch, Sale gave up a run-scoring double to Jonathan Lucroy. He composed himself after that at-bat, inducing a silly looking swing from Carlos Gomez for a strikeout to end the inning. The National League was able to tie the game 3-3 against Sale. 

Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish tossed a perfect inning of work during the All-Star Game Tuesday.

Darvish's skills were on full display. He struck out Yasiel Puig for the first out, and then managed to get Troy Tulowitzki to lineout to left. During the Tulowitzki at-bat, Darvish threw an eephus clocked at 56 mph on the Target Field radar gun. He was able to get another lineout to end the inning. 

Rays pitcher Jake Odorizzi could be a second half stud.

Odorizzi has emerged as a solid starter over the first half of the season, but there's still some room for improvement. His .321 BABIP suggests he may be experiencing poor luck on balls in play. It should be noted, though, that Odorizzi doesn't have a large sample to work with, so it's possible this is his natural BABIP. 

Still, that seems hard to believe. Odorizzi is primarily a fly ball pitcher, and those types of players tend to post lower BABIPs since fly balls turn into outs more often. All the other tools seem to be there, and Odorizzi could emerge as a second half star if things break right. 

Going back to spring training, Dallas Keuchel didn't appear to be a must-start option for the Astros' rotation, much less for a Fantasy one. Yet, by late May, Keuchel had become a popular starter in standard mixed leagues. Just as quickly as the lefty gained Fantasy notoriety, he threatened to become an afterthought with a four-game slide to end the first half.

In each of those four starts, Keuchel had allowed at least four earned runs and more than a hit per inning, and he netted four or fewer strikeouts.  As Keuchel's ERA has climbed from 2.38 to 3.20, owners for the most part haven't dropped him, but he's now benched in roughly 40 percent of the leagues he had been starting in a month ago.

Much of Keuchel's success has been chalked up to his sinker, which has enabled him to pile up grounders on 63 percent of hit balls and limit opponents to six home runs in 115 1/3 innings. During his recent slump, Keuchel has seen his ground ball rate shrink slightly, but that hasn't really been the source of his troubles.

It's Keuchel's slider that has betrayed him, and it was a large part of his surprising success for much of the season. It's been Keuchel's best swing-and-miss pitch and has helped him to raise his whiff rate from last season's 9.9 percent to 10.9 percent. His whiff and strikeout rates have fallen dramatically over these last four starts, and during the same period, Keuchel has lost some of the vertical movement on his slider -- nearly an inch, according to the PitchFX data on BrooksBaseball.net.

For Keuchel's two most recent starts, he had been dealing with swelling in his left wrist, and his worst start came just over a week after he sustained the injury. Keuchel improved slightly in his final outing before the break, lasting 6 2/3 innings with modest increases in his swinging strike (from three to seven) and strikeout (from one to three) totals.

Given that Keuchel's struggles began before he sustained his wrist injury, health is clearly not the only culprit, but getting rest over the break can only help. His problems stem from location rather than velocity, so perhaps with better health and some mechanical adjustments, he can return to his earlier form. Owners should consider benching Keuchel for Saturday's start at the White Sox, but they certainly shouldn't drop him. He should also be considered a buy-low target who has a chance to bolster your rotation over the coming weeks.

I don't know how many different ways I can say it: Jake Odorizzi is really good, much better than his year-to-date numbers would have you believe.

I understand his 5-8 record keeps him buried on the sortable stats page, but I had hoped his 3-1 record in his last five starts would turn the tide in his favor. It has, but not fast enough for my liking.

As always, it goes well beyond the record. His ERA and WHIP (as well as his win-loss record) were skewed by a disastrous start to the season. In his last 13 starts, he has a 2.95 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Granted, the innings haven't always been so consistent during that stretch, but you can't discount those numbers too much, especially the strikeout rate. If you limited his season to just the last two-thirds, he'd rank third in that category, behind Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish.

I'm thinking I could find a roster spot for him in just about any league, and I'm not the only one who feels that way. Al Melchior named him one of five pitchers due for increased value in the second half.

The Twins adjusted their rotation for the first series after the All-Star break and will throw Kyle Gibson, Phil Hughes and Kevin Correia against the Rays, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The team previously listed Correia ahead of Hughes in the rotation.

Mariners pitcher Taijuan Walker will start Thursday for Triple-A Tacoma, reports MLB.com. Walker threw five innings for Tacoma on Saturday, allowing one run on four hits with one walk and one strikeout.

If he pitches well against Reno on Thursday, Walker could rejoin the Mariners' rotation and face the Mets on July 22.