Scott Oberg is looking to overcome another hurdle

Oberg: ‘It’s just another hurdle to overcome’ | MLB.com

Scott Oberg posted an image of his locker on Instagram and the caption quoted a portion of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” It left a few fans speculating what it might mean until he later edited it to add the line “I will be back.”

Oberg is battling with blood clots, again. In 2019 his impressive season was cut short for the very same reason. I know that I was very sad to learn that he will not be seeing a mound in 2020. I’m also very glad he cleared up what seemed like an ominous Instagram post.

“I’ve always enjoyed that poem,” Oberg said Sunday morning from his home. “It spoke to me on another level. We all take different paths. As big leaguers, we take different paths than the rest of the baseball people. Some of it is a little bit more luck than others. Then there’s the journey that I’m on, personally.

After having the blood clots dissolved and a few follow ups in Denver, he is now back at his home in New Jersey where he will continue to work with a team of doctors to try and resolve this issue. We don’t know exactly when Oberg might return or what his treatment will be, but it’s optimistic to know that he is planning on returning to baseball.

Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland embraces changeup — and thrives | The Denver Post ($)

After struggling in 2019, Kyle Freeland is finding success early in 2020. After four starts, Freeland has a 2.45 ERA and has found success using the changeup. He is using that pitch 32.5% of the time and it’s working. He wasn’t originally comfortable with that pitch, but is finding it is now a useful pitch.

In 2019 when he really struggled to fool batters he was primarily using his fast-ball, cutter and slider. The league had adjusted to him as a pitcher and it really took it’s toll last year. He was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque and didn’t fare well there, either. It’s during that time when he really felt that his changeup wasn’t going to be successful. He felt like every time he threw it, it was getting “whacked.” But after some development, he is now comfortable using the changeup.

If Kyle and the rest of the starting rotation can continue to find success and produce quality starts, I think we can see more success from the team as a whole.

How will the 2020 trade deadline be different? Let us count the ways | The Athletic ($)

With a shortened season, the trade deadline was moved back. The deadline, now August 31st, is quickly approaching. This year is very different, though. Here are the few ways that Ken Rosenthal points out.

• Scouting
• Pressure on front offices
• Money
• Team Control
• Testing
• Opt-outs
• Contingencies in trades

And those are just a few of the ways. Scouts aren’t on the road checking out other players. Owners kept saying that money was a big issue when they were trying to even start this season and in a pandemic you have to keep in mind the health and safety of all of the players. There were players that chose to opt-out of the season and still can, at any point. The list is long and really points out that any trades that might happen this season will be just like the rest of 2020: strange and unpredictable.

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After a troublesome start against the Diamondbacks last week, it was great to see Jon Gray finding success yesterday. He had seven strikeouts.

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