TCS Morning 5: Signs of actual free agency

After the curious departure of their GM, a disappointing 2015 that included a deadline sell-off, the Tigers are somehow still being the Tigers of the past five seasons: they're effing going for it. Jon Heyman reported they reached a deal with right-hander Jordan Zimmermann in the neighborhood of five years and roughly $110 million.

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TCS Morning 10: Not a good season, folks!

 The 2015 White Sox are done for the year. Thank goodness. What an atrocity, what a complete bungling, what an across-the-board disappointment, what a nihilistic disaster. I took in the finale in person because--well, a friend offered me tickets, and I got to spend time with my mother--but mostly to make sure they were dead.

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TCS Morning 10: A worthwhile Frankie Montas disaster

 Well, shoot, that didn't work.

Frankie Montas got his big, compromised chance to start a big league game Wednesday afternoon and for the most part got blow'd up over three disastrous, defensively challenged innings. He had absolutely no favors done for him by management or defense, but ultimately he's the only one who got tuned up for 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, HR in a 7-4 loss.

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TCS Morning 10: Double the ridiculous triumph

My heart is not too cold and frozen over to not enjoy the delicious irony of Jeff Samardzija capping his ultimate opus in fan torture last week, only to turn around and twirl a one-hit shutout in his very next start, during a 12:08pm CT Monday afternoon start that no one got to watch. That's poetry. That's the dramatic sweep worthy of the great cinema epics of 70's auteurs. That's fine villainry, and I am satisfied that I have spent my summer being tormented by a master.

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TCS Morning 10: Not nearly as bad

Life can't stay a ridiculous terror show forever, so the A's held serve and delivered a horrifically garbage performance in response to the White Sox effort Tuesday night. I don't pretend to be deeply invested in A's roster affairs, and can't even guess what brought them to the point of giving recently acquired rookie reliever Cody Martin his second career MLB start. 

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TCS Afternoon 10: It's a little late, guys

A good litmus test of whether a runaway division leader has gone into cruise mode is if they just casually allow themselves to be firebombed for 25 runs over a three-game sweep by a woebegone fourth-place team that averages under four runs per game. Having their ace (Johnny Cueto) shelled and getting beat by a busted prospect restoration project (Erik Johnson) 7-5 was the liveliest and closest effort the Royals managed the entire weekend. 

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