Morning Mound Visit: A’s to visit Portland as relocation option

Shayna Rubin | The Mercury News: After visiting Las Vegas, the Oakland A’s are scheduled to visit Portland on a “fact-finding mission” as they explore the city as a relocation option. The Portland Diamond Project, an organization dedicated to bringing a MLB franchise to Portland has been in talks with the A’s.

In related news, here’s A’s President Dave Kaval tweeting from a Las Vegas Golden Knights game while the A’s were playing.

Patrick Dubuque and Craig Goldstein | Baseball Prospectus $: There have been five no-hitters already this season and league-wide batting average threatens to be the lowest ever. Pitchers are clearly at an advantage and part of the reason why is that teams are able to deploy them in situations where there’s little drawback if they throw max effort with every pitch. The editors at Baseball Prospectus suggest limitations on roster churn that will reign in overpowered pitchers.

Ben Clemens | FanGraphs: Last week, Ben Clemens examined slider data to see what makes for a good slide piece focusing on velocity, movement, and location. This week, he’s looking at velocity differential and overall run.

Quick Hits

In his first professional game at first base, James McCann made the best play I’ve seen by a first baseman all year.

Jarred Kelenic hit his second major league home run.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit two home runs against the Rays, but it wasn’t enough to stop Tampa Bay from winning their 11th game in a row.