ALL-STAR LEBRON HAS ELECTIONS ON BRAIN
Versatile player was to go overseas until Friars stepped up
LeBron James is going to Georgia this weekend for more than the NBA All-Star Game.
He’s thinking about upcoming elections as well.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ star, one of the organizers of the More Than A Vote organization that aims to stop Black voter suppression and which played a major role in the outcome of the 2020 elections by encouraging voter turnout, will narrate an ad that will be aired for the first time during Sunday’s AllStar Game in Atlanta — in which he vows that the efforts will continue.
“Look what we made happen, what our voices made possible,” James says in the 51-second spot. “And now, look what they’re trying to do to silence us, using every trick in the book and attacking democracy itself. Because they saw what we’re capable of, and they fear it.”
With the All-Star Game being relocated to Atlanta because of the pandemic — the original plan was for it to be played in Indianapolis last month — it provided James and the More Than A Vote group the perfect backdrop to detail some of their plans going forward.
The organization’s 2021 platform, announced Friday morning, comes just days after House Democrats sent a bill to the Senate that potentially represents the largest
overhaul of the U.S. election law in at least a generation. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which charts such things, said state lawmakers across the country have filed more than 200 bills in 43 states that would limit ballot access in future elections.
And earlier this week in Georgia, state lawmakers voted for legislation requiring identification to vote by mail that would also allow counties to cancel early inperson
voting on Sundays — the “souls to the polls” events when many Black voters cast ballots after church.
“The question after the 2020 election was, ‘Will that momentum sustain itself? Will athletes stay engaged?’ And we’re saying, ‘Yes, absolutely, and here’s how,’ ” said More Than A Vote’s Michael Tyler, who was deputy communications director during Sen. Cory Booker’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination said.
“We’ve already been engaged to some degree in Georgia, which is Ground Zero for this wave of voter suppression efforts,” Tyler said.
More Than A Vote is calling its latest plan the “Protect Our Power campaign,” which it said “will fight against this new wave of voter suppression efforts sweeping the country aimed at rolling back the gains Black voters made in last year’s general election.”
Griffin agrees to buyout Blake Griffin’s
time in Detroit is over, another significant step in a rebuilding process that has the Pistons at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
The veteran forward and the Pistons agreed to a contract buyout.
Griffin has averaged 12.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists in the 20 games he’s played this season.
If healthy, Griffin can offer size, versatility and veteran leadership to a contender. The league rumor mill has him ending up with the New Jersey Nets.
Booker out
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker won’t play in the NBA All-Star Game because of a mild sprain in his left knee, opening up space for Utah’s Mike Conley to make his first All-Star appearance.
Cut loose by the Rays in late November, Brian O'Grady had collected just 47 big-league at-bats over a two-year window. It took him four seasons to even reach Triple-A Louisville. Whatever he was able to build on over a breakthrough campaign in 2019 happened largely under cover at Tampa Bay's alternate site.
Yet there the Padres were in early December, offering the 28-year-old O'Grady a guaranteed bigleague deal for $650,000, essentially matching at least one international offer to fit him into what turned out to be yet another offseason palooza for General Manager A.J. Preller.
Guess O'Grady drives a hard bargain.
“Just with the current state of baseball, it was tough to take a non-roster invite or something like that over those opportunities,” O'Grady said Friday afternoon. “With only a few hours left before I had to tell one of the international teams yes or no, the Padres came back and basically matched it.
“I was obviously very happy about that, to stay (in the United States) and to be on a team like this. In the coming weeks, they got Blake (Snell) and Yu (Darvish) and all these guys. I was just really excited. They were the first team involved and ended up pushing the offer at the end to get me here.”
They did so because O'Grady, a natural center fielder, can play all three outfield spots and has experience at first and third base. That's useful with pitchers expected to hit — and be pinch-hit for — again in the NL in 2021, and especially so on a team becoming known for moving players between positions.
The Padres were especially intrigued by the gains O'Grady had made at the plate in 2019 after Reds roving instructor Barry Larkin and hitting coordinator Milt Thompson made a suggestion before a game in 2018. Essentially his toe-tap was replaced by a small leg kick to unlock his athleticism, while his approach was tweaked to better anticipate fastballs out over the plate.
O'Grady had already pushed his batting line from .185/.313/.347 in 2017 to .280/ .358/.512 in 2018. The next year it jumped to .280/.359/ .550 as he mashed a careerhigh 28 homers in 112 games. Better yet, his OPS against left-handed pitching jumped from .799 in 2018 to .980 in 2019.
“I (made the change) right before a game (in 2018). I played that night and it clicked,” O'Grady said. “And I kind of took off from there. I think at the time I was 0-for-19 in Double-A. It was make or break time. I needed to do something or I might have been done. That happened and I hit really well and then 2019 was the full year of that (adjustment) and I took off from there.”
What’s left
The Padres are down two left-handers in the bullpen, one for the entire season and one at the start.
It was learned Thursday that Jose Castillo will undergo Tommy John surgery, ending his bid to make the bullpen he hasn't pitched in since 2018 because of various injuries. And Matt Strahm, the Padres' most effective lefthander over the past three seasons, is out early while rehabilitating from October patellar tendon surgery.
That leaves just three lefties in an eight- or nineman bullpen. If the Padres choose to go the route of having Adrian Morejon serve as a sixth starter early in the season, Drew Pomeranz and Tim Hill would be the only lefty relievers.
This would certainly seem to open a spot for Ryan Weathers, the team's second-ranked pitching prospect. The left-hander, who turned 21 in December, made his major league debut with 11⁄3 scoreless innings during the National League Division series and has impressed the Padres with his work through the offseason and so far in camp. He is being stretched out as a starter, which is his future role, but there was always a thought he would continue to work out of the bullpen early in his career.
However, the composition of the Padres bullpen means they don't have to strictly rely on match-ups based on handedness.
Three of their righthanders were more effective against left-handed batters last season than against righties. In 2019, two others were better against lefthanded batters with another pair essentially the same against either side.
Notable
RHP Trevor Bauer, the Dodgers' prized free agent acquisition, is starting today against the Padres.
Manager Jayce Tingler said he doesn't believe that will give his team much insight into the pitcher they expect to see a handful of times this season. Said Tingler: “You may see the window the ball is coming out. But usually this early in spring … most of those guys are working to get a feel for their fastball. They going to play around with it. They may work a few secondary pitches in. But these guys are pretty good not giving away too much how they're going to attack come mid-June or July.”
• Pomeranz and RHP Emilio Pagan both made their spring debuts Friday night. Pomeranz struck out two while walking one and allowing a hit in a scoreless frame. Pagán also struck out two but allowed three runs on four hits. RHP
Keone Kela will make his first appearances on Saturday and RHP Austin Adams will debut Sunday. Tingler said “everybody that's healthy” will have pitched before the team's off day on Monday.
• 3B Manny Machado was in the starting lineup Friday after not playing the past two days. It was essentially the “A” team going against the Giants at Peoria Stadium. That means the majority of the regulars will be off today when the team plays at the Dodgers' spring training complex and then be back in the lineup Sunday at home (Peoria) against the Royals.