CarterHud

              The Chicago Cubs have claimed C Rene Rivera off waivers from the New York Mets.

               The Cubs, who are trying to beat out the Cardinals and Brewers for the NL Central lead, have starting catcher Willson Contreras on the DL. Their current starter, recently acquired Alex Avila, needs a backup. The Cubs have been using rookie Victor Caratini as their backup. Rivera is a veteran who is the average backup catcher. Bad hitter, good defensive catcher. In his career, he has thrown out 36% of runners in his career, which is sixth among all active catchers (Molina, Maldonado, Gomes, Hanigan and Barnhart) according to Baseball-Reference.

                Rivera, 34, has a .230 batting average, eight homers and 23 RBIs in 187 Plate Appearances for the Mets this year. In his nine year MLB career for the Mets, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres, Rivera has a .215 batting average, 34 homers and 141 RBIs in 1386 Plate Appearances.

                 The Mets just get rid of their backup catcher and the remaining of his 1.75 million deal. This also opens up a spot for C Kevin Plawecki, who was recalled after the claim. Also, LHP Tommy Milone was recalled from AAA.

             The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired OF Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets in exchange for a player to be named later (PTBNL) or cash.

              I don\’t 100 percent understand this trade from the Dodgers point of view. But, I think he can be a solid 4th outfielder from L.A. Outfielder Chris Taylor is breaking out, with a .310/.379/.549 slash line. But 4th outfielder Enrique Hernandez is struggling, slashing .220/.316/.462. Though Granderson isn\’t hitting for average this year, his 19 homers can help the Dodgers on the bench. His career .814 OPS can help also. Plus, he\’s a rental, so they don\’t give up much.

              Granderson, 36, has a .228 batting average, 19 bombs, 52 RBIs and four steals in 395 Plate Appearances for the Mets this year. In his 14 year MLB career for the Mets, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers, Granderson has a .254 batting average, 312 homers, 853 RBIs and 149 stolen bases in 7408 Plate Appearances.

             The Mets, completely out of the playoff race, are looking to sell all of their rentals. Jay Bruce, Neil Walker, Lucas Duda and Addison Reed all left town. Granderson was useless to them, and the trade means even more playing time for Juan Lagares. They don\’t get much, but it\’s something, which is better than nothing.

          If you\’ve ever been to a Yankees\’ game at Yankee Stadium, you\’ve heard roll call. In the right field bleachers, a bunch of fans called \”bleacher creatures\” chant the names of the Yankees\’ fielders in the top of the first inning. In response, the players point, salute, and do all kind of crazy things to tell the bleachers creatures that they hear them. There are many leaders of the roll call. I was able to talk to one of the leaders, Marc Chalpin. Chalpin told me that even though he leads roll call a lot, it is not his thing. \”Roll call is for everybody,\” he said.

           Of the seven positions (pitchers and catchers aren\’t in roll call), the three outfielders give the most original responses, according to Chaplin. \”The infielders tend to just wave, make it quicker. The outfielders always do custom stuff, like a video game.\” If you don\’t know any of the best custom things, Marc has you covered. \”Johnny Damon was the first guy to have a custom reaction, everybody used to just wave. He would go down to a knee and do a double point. Nick Swisher was famous for his salute. Brett Gardner has a pretty good one. He flexes. Also, Aaron Judge pounds the gavel like a Judge.\”

            Roll call is a very legendary thing, and Chaplin doesn\’t take leading it for granted \”Leading [roll call] is a big honor. Roll call has been around a lot longer than me, and it\’ll be around a lot longer than me, hopefully.\”

       Also, the players like responding to the chants, \”the team cares about it.\” When 3B Todd Frazier made his Yankee Stadium debut in July, Newsday wrote an article on how the players choose their responses. 

       If you want to see a video of Marc leading the roll call, check out the video below made on August 14, 2017.

       A big thanks goes out to Marc for doing this interview. Follow him on Twitter @MarcNYY618.

         The Minnesota Wild have signed center Matt Cullen to a one year, $1 million deal. Also, there is a $700K performance bonus.

           Even though Cullen is 40 years old, he\’s still a solid bottom-6 center. The last two years, he helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win back-to-back Stanley Cups. He can help the Wild in 2017-18. He is a defensive center who puts up about 30 points a season. He\’s a cheap option there, and he has some playoff experience, and is a proven leader, so he can be a mentor to the younger guys on the team. Also, he played three seasons with the Wild from 2010-11 to 2012-13. He knows some of the team, so that\’s a good thing.

           In 72 games for the Penguins last year, Cullen scored 31 points (13 goals and 18 assists) and had a +/- of +4. In his 19 year NHL career for the Penguins, Wild, Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now Anaheim Ducks), Cullen has scored 248 goals and 441 assists for 689 points and a +/- of -29.

           After 12 major league seasons, RHP Jered Weaver has officially called it quits. He last played this year for the San Diego Padres, before going on the 60-day DL. In 2017, he had a 7.44 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and 23 strikeouts in 42.1 innings.

           In 2004, Weaver was drafted 12th overall by the Los Angeles Angels. After a couple minor league seasons, Weaver was called up to the Angels in 2006, when ace Bartolo Colon went to the DL. After that, Weaver was only sent to the minors once, which was when Colon returned. But his season ended up being very good, and he ended up fifth in the AL rookie of the year voting.

           The rest of his career, Weaver was an ace. He was a three time all-star from 2010-12, and finished top-5 in the Cy Young voting all three years. But, he started to decline in the 2015 season. After 2016, Weaver became a free agent. He signed a one year, $3 million deal with the Padres in 2017.

             Weaver, now 34, had a career ERA of 3.63, a WHIP of 1.19 and 1621 strikeouts in 2067.1 innings. Though his career K/9 was just 7.1, his career BB/9 was 2.4. He was never a strikeout pitcher.