On Saturday morning the Angels promoted LHP Michael Roth from AA Arkansas.  Who, you might ask is Michael Roth and why should we care?  A few reasons.  It isn't as if Roth is a special prospect, in fact in terms of projectibility he may be as "run of the mill" as they come.  Roth is an interesting prospect because of the circumstances surrounding the promotion and his past.

Roth led the South Carolina Gamecocks to three consecutive College World Series appearances.  He was one of the more decorated collegiate pitchers around, garnering an All-American selection his junior year and several other league and tournament awards.  You would think given the huge amount of success he's experienced that Roth would be a highly sought after pitcher, however, the Angels were able to scoop up Michael Roth in the 9th round of last season's draft and gave him a bonus below slot level.  

Roth was a senior at South Carolina, so it isn't as if he had a ton of negotiating leverage in his signing, and as far as his "stuff" goes, he has a fastball that sits in the mid to upper 80's, a very good change up and a "get me over" slider/curve.  Clearly, not the makings of an ace.  But what makes Roth particularly interesting is that aside from a few appearances in Rookie Ball in which he was told to take it easy following a strenuous college season, Roth has made all of one start in the minor leagues; last week in AA.  It is rare that a prospect is called up to the major leagues the season after he was drafted.  It is even more rare for that prospect to have made only one start.  Most Angel-prospect enthusiasts didn't even think Roth would be making the jump to AA in his first season as a pro, let alone making it to the Major Leagues.  

Another reason why you're currently reading about Michael Roth, he was also a potential victim of "catfishing", the same scam we heard so much about during the Manti Te'o investigation.  The Outside Corner's own Garrett Wilson covered the story back in January.   Luckily for Roth, he seemed to use his head a bit more than the Notre Dame star football player, and college baseball seems to have a bit let media attention than its gridiron brother.  For more information about Michael Roth check out his scouting report over at Monkeywithahalo.com by yours truly and the aforementioned Garrett Wilson.

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The Chicago Cubs season has taken another step towards disappointment as the team has placed closer Kyuji Fujikawa on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right forearm.

Instead of returning Carlos Marmol to the closer's role, manager Dale Sveum is going to focus on matchups, focusing on using Shawn Camp and James Russell in the ninth. Marmol lost the closer's job after blowing a lead last Saturday against the Braves, his third rough outing of the season. He's been used in a setup role this week, and has performed much better.

Fujikawa has has a rough year during his first season in America. He's allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings, notching two saves but blowing one on Friday, a game the Cubs would later come back to win. The 32-year old Japanese rookie was signed this winter to a two-year, $9.5 million contract.

Going with Russell and Camp in the ninth is a wise move from Sveum (assuming the Cubs even have many leads to protect in the ninth) as opposed to throwing Marmol right back into the fire after just a pair of good outings. Now, if Fujikawa is going to miss an extended period of time and Marmol continues to thrive in middle relief, then maybe it would be prudent to move him back to the fireman role. By the same token, if Fujikawa struggles when he returns and Marmol holds his own, it might be wise to shift Marmol back to the ninth to possibly build his trade value back up going into the trade deadline.

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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fell 5-0 to the Houston Astros on Friday night, and are now sitting at a sterling 2-8 on the season. Only the pathetic Miami Marlins at 1-9 have a worse record this year. Now, the Angels season isn't over - not by a long shot. But it has to be more than a little disappointing for the team and their fans. It's not as if their schedule has been easy by any means, with their first nine games coming against the Reds, Rangers, and A's, but a shutout at the hands of the lowly Astros, at home nonetheless? That's gotta be demoralizing.

PIC OF THE DAY

Padres outfielder Will Venable attempts to make a diving catch as teammate Everth Cabrera looks on. (Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY) 

Game of the Night: Braves 6, Nationals 4 (ten innings). Atlanta improved to 9-1 on the season after defeating their division rival in extra innings, scoring six straight runs over the game's final four innings after trailing 4-0 through six innings. The Braves loaded the bases in the eighth and scored a run after a bases loaded walk from BJ Upton to make the game 4-2. They loaded the bases again in the ninth, and Justin Upton hit a chopper down the third base line that Ryan Zimmerman fielded and threw wild to second base, allowing two runs to score to tie the game at four. In the tenth, Braves backup infielder Ramiro Pena (who came into the game as a pinch hitter in the ninth) hit a two-run homer to give Atlanta the lead. Craig Kimbrel shut the Nationals down in the bottom of the inning, and the Braves dealt the Nationals their first loss of the year at Nationals Park.

In the top of the sixth inning in Kansas City, Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes suffered a potentially-nasty looking leg injury. While stealing second base, Reyes awkwardly slid into the bag, and immediately grabbed his ankle area in pain. 

As trainers came onto the field and began to examine Reyes' left ankle, he began to wince in pain. Upon viewing replays of the play, Reyes ankle gave out as he looked back at Royals catcher Sal Perez and opted to slide into the bag late as opposed to going in standing up. His spikes got caught in the dirt, and his ankle rolled up underneath his body during the slide.

Reyes would be taken off the field in a cart, and hopefully for the Blue Jays, it's just a sprain as opposed to a broken bone. If Reyes' ankle or leg is broken, he'll probably end up missing a good bit of the rest of the season, which would be a shame considering how well he's played for a Toronto team that's largely underachieved so far this season.

UPDATE: Initial reports have the injury as a sprain, with Reyes missing somewhere between one and three months, with an exact diagnosis coming tomorrow.

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On Friday night, the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, and while Adam Jones' three-run error is going to get all of the headlines, the Yankees had a pretty unique play of their own on the defensive side of the field: they turned a triple play in the top of the eighth when the Orioles had a prime opportunity to rally back.

With men on first and second, Manny Machado hit a one-hopper to Robinson Cano at second, who threw to Jayson Nix at second to force out Nick Markakis. Nix then got Alexi Casilla in a rundown between second and third with Kevin Youkilis, who tagged Casilla out and threw over to first, where Lyle Overbay got Machado into a rundown with Cano before he tagged the Oriole out to end the inning, and give the Yankees their first triple play since April 22nd, 2010 against the A's, and the first one they've turned at Yankee Stadium since June 3rd, 1968.

And for the record, you can score that triple play as 4-6-5-6-5-3-4, the first time that line has resulted in a triple play in league history. 

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Following his role in inciting a brawl after getting hit by a pitch by Dodgers ace Zack Greinke on Thursday night, San Diego Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin has been suspended for eight games. Greinke suffered a broken collarbone during the brawl, and will is expected to miss eight weeks.

There was a lot of talk about just how long of a suspension Quentin would get following the incident, and eight games seems to be a happy medium between the usual four to six games that people get for rushing the mound and the double digit suspension that many wanted. Our own Bob Biscigliano put nearly all of the blame on Quentin for the incident, but I really didn't think that the league would go crazy and suspend Quentin for more than ten or so games.

Greinke and Matt Kemp, who reportedly threatened Quentin in the parking lot after the game, weren't suspended, while Dodgers infielder Jerry Hairston Jr got a game after he started a second brawl after the first one had subsided. Both Quentin and Hairston are appealing their suspensions, and it'll be interesting to see if Quentin drops his appeal before the Padres series in Los Angeles begins on Monday.

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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke threw a baseball and it hit San Diego Padres slugger Carlos Quentin on the left arm.

Quentin, after a moment's hesitation, decided to charge Greinke, inciting a bench-clearing brawl. 

The incident ultimately resulted in Greinke breaking his collarbone, four players getting ejected, and an actual "meet you in the parking lot" skirmish, all of which is 99.999999% certain to result in suspension(s).

That's all to say what went down, but in the grand scheme of baseball things, it doesn't do much to reveal who's really to blame for how things unraveled the way they did. Who's really the a-hole in all of this? Is it the pitcher or the hitter? Greinke or Quentin? 

Cleveland Indians starter Carlos Carrasco earned an eight game suspension from the league after throwing at Kevin Youkilis' head on Tuesday. Ironically, that start on Tuesday was Carrasco's first of the season after serving a six game suspension to start the year after throwing at Billy Butler in a 2011 game.

Carrasco probably won't end up serving the suspension right away, because the Indians demoted him to AAA Columbus on Wednesday. A player is allowed to play in the minor leagues with a major league suspension hanging over his head, so Carrasco would be eligible to pitch for Columbus, but would need to serve the suspension before he's able to play in the majors again.

Due to a pair of rainouts this week against the Yankees and an offday on Monday, the Indians can go without a fifth starter until next weekend if they really wanted to. However, I'd expect them to bring someone up (possibly Trevor Bauer, who was a disaster in his one start this year) before then. The team has plenty of options with Carrasco, Bauer, and Corey Kluber in AAA, and Scott Kazmir on the DL still recovering from a strained ribcage muscle, but I think Bauer would eventually end up getting the nod if Kazmir's ribcage isn't healthy.

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Welcome to the first installment of The Outside Corner's Watchability Rankings! We've all seen power ranking in countless other places, but these rankings, while similar, are a bit different. Here, how good a team is matters, but it isn't the end all be all. What we are ranking on here is style and quality of play, interesting storylines, exciting talent, intriguing match-ups in the week to come and our very base need to see dingers and whiffs! This is an evolving process, so please feel free to leave a comment to let us know what factors we might be overlooking.

RANK	TEAM	SCHEDULE	COMMENT
1		@ WAS vs. KC	Atlanta Braves - With great pitching in every game and Justin Upton murdering baseballs, the Bravos are the epitome of appointment watching.
2		@ PIT vs. PHI	Cincinnati Reds - This team has something for everyone. Strong pitching, good hitting and the constant promise of a Shin-Soo Choo making a blooper reel moment in center field.
3		vs. ATL @ MIA	Washington Nationals - Nationals versus Braves this weekend might be the series of the year thus far.
4		@ NYY vs. TB	Baltimore Orioles - Chris Davis still has it switched into God Mode and the YOLOriole magic still seems to be present.
5		vs. MIL @ PIT	St. Louis Cardinals - The breakout campaign continues for Matt Carpenter and now they've added Smash Adams to the mix. More, please! Bonus points this week Kyle Lohse making his return to St. Louis on Friday.

A movie like 42 can be a tricky proposition for a filmmaker. Should the movie tell Jackie Robinson's life story or focus on a particular period of his life, presumably the one that most defines him? 

Writer-director Brian Helgeland wisely opted for the latter in his film, recounting the events surrounding Robinson becoming the first black man to play in the major leagues and alluding to other events in his life (such as being court-martialed while in the Army, a story that warranted its own TV movie) throughout the script. 

Yet Helgeland doesn't just tell Robinson's story here. In fact, some might think he doesn't delve deep enough into the man, choosing instead to depict the circumstances he was placed in.

We do get an idea of what made Robinson special, how he was able to keep a stiff upper lip and reign in his emotions in the face of horrifying racial prejudice and hatred. The movie would be an utter failure otherwise. (Just in case you don't comprehend when Robinson might be viewed as heroic, the camera tilted upward at him and the swelling strings of the musical score lets you know.)  

Much of the credit for that should go to Chadwick Boseman, who portrays Robinson. I had never seen him in anything else before, but after this performance, we'll surely be seeing more of him on the big and small screens. Boseman's Robinson comes across as defiant, stoic, quietly angry and, perhaps most importantly, charismatic.