TBNL: Team USA dominates, Verlander climbs the rankings, Kendall George runs wild

Today’s TBNL features some dominance by Team USA, some impressive achievements, a handful of unfortunate stories, and some contentious decisions facing Asian baseball.

Left-handers Carson Bolemon and Jared Grindlinger combined to throw a no-hitter for Team USA at the U-18 World Cup. It marked the fourth no-hitter in 18U National Team history and the first in a World Cup since 1995.

Bolemon — from Simpsonville, South Carolina, and a Wake Forest commit — worked the first five innings, striking out 11 Chinese Taipei hitters. Grindlinger — from Huntington Beach, California, and a TCU commit — got the final six outs of the seven-inning game, striking out two.

Argyle, Texas native and Texas Longhorns commit (and potential first-overall pick in next summer’s draft) Grady Emerson paced the offense with a single, two walks, a hit-by-pitch, and scoring twice in the 4-0 win.

The US squad defeated Panama 9-0 to open the tournament. They’ll put their 2-0 record up against fellow undefeated Germany next.

12 countries are competing in this year’s tournament in Okinawa, Japan.

Oliver Drake pitched for five teams during the 2018 season (11 games with the Brewers, 4 with the Indians, 8 with the Angels, 2 with the Blue Jays, and 19 with the Twins). The run established an MLB record for appearing with the most teams in one season.

Mike Baumann matched it last season (17 games with the Orioles, 18 with the Mariners, 1 with the Giants, 10 with the Angels, and 10 with the Marlins).

Now José Ureña has done it, too. Ureña pitched in one game with the Mets, 6 with the Blue Jays, 2 with the Dodgers, 4 with the Twins, and made his debut with the Angels on Saturday. Over 41.0 IP this season, he’s posted a 4.39 ERA with 26 Ks and 13 walks allowed.

Justin Verlander’s first season with the Giants has been rough, to put it nicely. The veteran right-hander has an ERA nearly a full run higher than his career average and didn’t win a decision until late July. Still, the year hasn’t been a total loss for the future Hall of Famer.

Verlander has climbed past two legends to eighth on the all-time strikeouts list this season, passing Walter Johnson earlier in the year and surpassing Gaylord Perry on Saturday in St. Louis. Verlander struck out six Cardinals over six scoreless innings, giving him 3,536 Ks for his career.

Don Sutton is the next pitcher ahead of Verlander, with 3,574.

Verlander has suggested he wants to pitch at least one more season, which could put Tom Seaver (3,640) and Bert Blyleven (3,701) in reach, too.

“It’s not how fast you are, it’s how you use your speed.” — Rickey Henderson (and my senior quote in high school)

Stolen bases remain one of the game’s more exciting (and sometimes game-changing) plays. Only four MLB players since 1950 have totaled 100+ steals in a single season: Henderson (1980, 1982, 1983), Lou Brock (1974), Vince Coleman (1985, 1986, 1987), and Maury Wills (1962).

Jose Reyes’s 78 steals in 2007 are the most by any player in a season this century.

Since 2000, in the minor leagues, just three players have topped the century mark: Billy Hamilton (2011, 2012), Delino DeShields Jr. (2012), and Chandler Simpson (2024).

Add Kendall George to that list.

The 20-year-old outfielder was the Dodgers’ first-round pick (36th overall) in the 2023 Draft. He’s spent the season with High-A Great Lakes, where he’s hit .295/.409/.370 over 514 PA. George has also now stolen 101 bases on the year (he’s been caught 24 times), with three games remaining in the season.

George has been running wild in the season’s second half. He’s stolen 15 bases in his last five games. The 34 steals he had in August would have beaten the MLB record for a single month (Henderson stole 33 in July 1983). George stole 61 bases between July and August, which alone would put him ahead of most other minor leaguers this season.

The Atlanta Braves released minor league reliever Jacob Gomez this week, after the 23-year-old left-hander was arrested for shoplifting $60 in football cards from Walmart.

Over two minor league seasons (mostly with Class-A Augusta), Gomez has a 2.37 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 64.2 IP. He was signed as an undrafted free agent after a four-year career at Old Dominion.

Angels minor league outfielder Rio Foster was a passenger in a serious car accident early Friday morning, according to a release from the team. He remains hospitalized and in critical condition.

Foster was one of four in a car that reportedly “failed to negotiate a roundabout while going at a high speed, before colliding with a fence and telephone pole”. Two of the passengers were ejected from the vehicle. The driver is being investigated for DUI.

A 16th-round pick in the 2023 Draft, Foster has spent the season with High-A Tri-City, where he’s hit .267/.407/.439 in 378 PA.

The Dust Devils canceled their game on Friday.

A year ago, the KIA Tigers were working towards winning the KBO Championship. Now, the club is sputtering to the finish of a season that has contained struggles all around. The Tigers have fallen to eighth in the 10-team league. Manager Beom-ho Lee has already started looking ahead to next season, reportedly conducting “high-intensity training camps” with his players before each home game, focusing on defense and hitting.

Lee spent 19 seasons playing in the KBO (plus one in the NPB), nine of them with the Tigers. Known for his glove at third base, Lee was among the best hitters the league has seen, finishing his career with 347 doubles, 343 home runs, and a .270/.364/.481 line.

Among the concerns Lee is looking to address is first base, according to a report from Korea’s The Chosun Daily. Lee specifically noted the Tigers’ failure to bring in a foreign player who would “satisfactorily” fit their need. Patrick Wisdom is second in the KBO with 31 home runs, but has struggled to hit .239/.329/.538 in 435 PA with 119 strikeouts.

One change Lee has already started to implement is shifting third baseman Seon-woo Oh to first base (Wisdom shifted to third). The 28-year-old has enjoyed a breakout season offensively, thanks to his first real chance at playing daily following an injury to Do-yeong Kim. Oh is batting .272/.330/.450 through 403 PA (more than he’d received in the previous five seasons combined) with 16 doubles, 16 home runs, and 50 RBI. Oh’s weakness is his glove, which has limited where Lee can play him regularly.

Despite the apparent plans from the on-field management to have a better-prepared team next season, a report on Reddit suggests that KIA could scale back the level of support (i.e., financial support) it provides the team. Specifically, the team could face losing shortstop Chan-ho Park (no relation to the former Dodgers pitcher of the same name) this winter. Park is hitting .280/.358/.339 in 515 PA this year with 24 stolen bases.

If KIA is looking at some financial restraints being implemented, one has to wonder if they’ll relax their stance on the posting system. Historically speaking, KIA has been among the more reluctant clubs in the league to post players to the major leagues. The aforementioned Do-yeong Kim is among the players most often mentioned when speculating on which KBO players might make the jump to MLB.

Kim has missed most of this season, but last year, in just his third year in the league, he was the KBO Most Valuable Player after batting .347/.420/.647 with 29 doubles, 10 triples, 38 home runs, 109 RBI, and 40 steals. Kim won’t turn 22 for another few weeks. Even coming off an injury, he would surely draw some interest from MLB teams looking to improve the left side of their infield.

Meanwhile, the KBO announced that it set a new single-season attendance record this week. 10,901,173 fans have attended a KBO game through Friday, breaking last year’s mark of 10,887,705. There are still three weeks remaining in the regular season.

The announcement, made almost two weeks ago, that next spring’s World Baseball Classic would be streamed exclusively on Netflix in Japan, has not been received well. There is an understandable — and entirely predictable — outrage among fans.

Corporations that have agreed to sponsorship deals are also expressing their concern.

Dip Corporation (DIP; a Japanese company “providing online HR and recruitment services” according to their website) is among the main sponsors of the Tokyo pool-play games. Shohei Ohtani is among their brand ambassadors.

DIP has publicly expressed its concerns with Netflix maintaining the exclusive broadcast rights for the games, rather than having them available on traditional Japanese television as in years past. The 2023 WBC tournament set viewership records when Japan won its third title in the event (it was treated as a national holiday when the Finals took place to allow people to watch). Japan’s population has topped 124 million, but there are reportedly only about 10 million Netflix subscribers. It’s unclear how much DIP is paying to sponsor the games, but limiting them to a Netflix audience will only hurt how much exposure their advertisement efforts will receive.