Team news

[SI] D-backs Players at Risk of Losing 40-Man Roster Spot - Zach Davies, Starting Pitcher, Reno Aces. Davies is currently on a rehab assignment with the Reno Aces after recovering from a back injury. Davies’ struggles this year are well-documented. Those struggles have continued in Triple-A where over two games, 7.1 innings as of Sunday, the 20th, he has given up 15 hits, 10 runs, four walks, and struck out just four. The team is in the thick of a playoff race and cannot afford any more blow-up starts from their starting pitchers. There is a chance that the team moves on from Davies if he can’t improve his starts while in Reno.

[AZ Central] In prospect Tommy Troy, DBacks hope pattern of draft success continues - For Hazen, the focus on hitters traces back to his experience in Boston, where he worked with assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye, who oversees the Diamondbacks drafts. “We spend a lot of time trying to find athletes that can hit,” Hazen said. “We spend a lot of our conversations around it. It’s been a big ever since Boston. We always knew we had to spend a lot of time in the draft finding hitters. They go faster than the pitchers. You find fewer of them as you move deeper in the draft than you do the pitchers.”

[MLB Trade Rumors] Diamondbacks Sign Ryan Thompson To Minor League Deal - The 31-year-old Thompson posted an unsightly 6.11 ERA this season but did so in a small sample of just 17 2/3 innings. He’s notched a 3.26 ERA in a comparable slate of Triple-A innings this year, punching out 30.4% of his minor league opponents against a 13.9% walk rate that could obviously stand to come down a ways. Thompson had been on the injured list with a minor elbow issue but received a clean MRI prior to his DFA. He’s headed directly to the active roster in Reno.

[Arizona Sports] Diamondbacks option reliever Peter Strzelecki to Triple-A Reno - The Arizona Diamondbacks optioned reliever Peter Strzelecki to Triple-A Reno following Saturday’s doubleheader in San Diego. Strzelecki joined the club Saturday as doubleheaders allow for teams to add an additional 27th man to their rosters. He went 1.1 innings pitched, one hit allowed and walked two batters but did not allow a run.

[SI] Diamondbacks and Rangers Series Preview - Their biggest lead in the division was 6.5 games on June 23rd but now it's a much slimmer 2.5 games over the Astros and 3.0 games over the Mariners. Texas started the month of August red hot, going on an eight game winning streak and were 12-2 in their first 14 games this month. They've since cooled, losing four in a row, including suffering a three games sweep at home at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers.

And, elsewhere...

[Reuters] Storm Hilary slams Southwest US with heavy rain - Some 400 flights in and out of airports across the Southwest were canceled or delayed on Monday morning, including 100 landing at and taking off from San Diego International Airport, according to Flightaware.com. California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for much of Southern California while President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to move personnel and supplies into the region. It crossed the border on Sunday afternoon, hitting San Diego County with its first tropical storm ever recorded and becoming the first to pelt Los Angeles County since 1939.

[ESPN] Twins' Dallas Keuchel has perfect game broken up in 7th inning - Dallas Keuchel carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before allowing a double to Pittsburgh's Bryan Reynolds, and Edouard Julien drove in a pair of runs for the Minnesota Twins in a 2-0 win against the Pirates on Sunday. Keuchel, the 35-year-old, soft-tossing left-hander, didn't allow a baserunner until Reynolds' drive with one out in the seventh evaded outfielder Matt Wallner and deflected off the wall for the first hit. Signed to a minor league contract in June, Keuchel was making his third start in the majors this season.

The Decline (2020)

Rating: B-

Dir: Patrice Laliberté
Star: Guillaume Laurin, Marie-Evelyne Lessard, Réal Bossé, Marc Beaupré
a.k.a. Jusqu’au déclin

It’s fitting this film about survivalists originally came out on Netflix in March 2020, just when the apocalypse for which their ilk are preparing, seemed to be sweeping across the globe. Though this was clearly made before COVID, and the closest it gets to predicting it is a brief mention of “a really intense H1N1 outbreak” as a possible source of societal collapse. That it took me so long to watch it is unsurprising. Film is an escape for me from normal life, rather than a reflection of it. And “escape” is the keyword for the characters here too, both in their intentions, and what they eventually need to do.

Antoine (Laurin) and his family are survivalists, to the point where they get their adorable moppet in on the bug-out culture. He gets an invitation from a well-respected YouTuber Alain (Bossé), to a weekend seminar at his compound, way out in the middle of nowhere, and enthusiastically goes along. Hand over his phone? Sure! Wear a blindfold on the journey? Not a problem! Can’t blame Alain for being careful, and it has to be said, the rest of the attendees seem genial enough, such as ex-military Rachel (Lessard), though David (Beaupré) seems to have a little bit of a hair-trigger. The days are filled with training sessions, and the nights with chat. Until an improvised explosives session goes horribly wrong, and the group have to handle the resulting corpse.

Read more