Roundup: Jake Lamb Activated; Other Things Happened Too, Probably

Guys — Jake Lamb is back. Jordan Pacheco was designated for assignment on Saturday, with Lamb taking his spot and getting pinched into the game late that night. He struck out while playing for Yasmany Tomas in that game, which was won by a home run from new catcher Welington Castillo. Lamb then got the start yesterday, striking out in his second at bat back and going 0-fer. Look, when you fire the bat through the zone like Lamb, it might take a little to get going. And anyway, the fly ball he hit in the 4th inning came off the bat at 94 mph and traveled 338 feet.

Don’t be an a##&@!@. You know it was awesome.

Wanna say thank you to everyone for all the support over the past month. Felt great being out there and getting the W! Back at it tomorrow!

— Jake Lamb (@JakeLamb18) June 7, 2015

Abbreviated roundup today, because sometimes life does that kind of thing to you, like when I finally wrote about Vidal Nuño last Wednesday. But you won’t catch me complaining. We got an epic and epically unexpected trade last week that fixes a bunch of things. We’ve got a new option at catcher who may not be the cat’s ass (you know it’s special if the cat licks it so much), but he might be able to play without sucking the life force out of any pitcher under 30. We’ve got baseball. Yeah, there’s no Randy Johnson, no Pedro Martinez. But barring outright dominance by a great young team, the best kind of baseball is a great young team that sometimes puts it all together, always brings it, and does so many different things. If you don’t love watching Nick Ahmed‘s footwork when he charges every god damn ball just because he can, I don’t want to know you.

We put off recording The Pool Shot this weekend so we could try something fun: recording while watching the MLB draft. All you have to do to be there in spirit is click on this bad boy: @thepoolshot and string some words together in a tweet. I know you can do it. If you do, I’ll be right, and we’ll be friends. If you don’t, I wasn’t talking to you. Feel free to mangle the English language like Eddie.

@ryanpmorrison @OutfieldGrass24 Sound like a good PLANSBY. see what I did there? — ashorething (@EdwardFShore) June 7, 2015

Links:

• A thing that happened is that Jeff Sullivan wrote at FanGraphs that the Mariners trading for Mark Trumbo was a thing that happened. Not a big thing, mind you. But a thing. Of several points that are good points: we don’t really know whether the Tomas/Lamb situation is what threw Trumbo overboard; it’s not necessarily about distance from Jarrod Saltalamacchia. I resent the D-backs for making me resent them for designating Pacheco for assignment, kind of like when you tell a younger sibling not to hold their juice like that on the carpet and then they do and they fucking drop it because of course they did.
• Dominic Leone came to the D-backs in a trade last week, and then basically stained his pants pitching against the Mets on Thursday. Nick Piecoro didn’t actually say that, but this is the bullet where I link to Piecoro’s piece about Leone and his first appearance.
• A puddle on the mound was a thing that happened, reported Piecoro. I need more analogies for how strikes lost to crappy catcher framing can end up mattering more than you might think. Is this that, or would I need Dave Stewart to trip over it or something?
• Piecoro’s draft profiles were really good, which is kind of a shame for you, because I’m posting this like 30 minutes before the draft and you won’t read them because of THIS LINK.
• Feel like finding out what it would be like to have coffee with a D-backs celebrity? Dave Stewart got that chance when he got to meet Steve Berthiaume.
• How about a graphic that shows you that Paul Goldschmidt is a badass? I guess I could link that here, there really aren’t any rules and I have to go. Thanks, David Golebiewski.
• Most important thing: Jim McLennan is getting the campaign going to make A.J. Pollock an All Star. I was feeling that kind of responsibility too, and was flirting with a call to action in this space today before Lamb was activated and it looked like I’m writing about him somewhere else. Just vote. And if you need help pushing your feckless friends, send them to McLennan’s piece.

PEACE.