Wednesday round up

Just a few bits and pieces this morning for your perusal:

Here is every single active Canadian ball player in MLB.

Somehow Dalton Pompey is listed as active...and Freddie Freeman is semi-Canadian.

Bye bye Beltre

Adrian Beltre, everyone’s favourite angry 3B has decided to retire. Whilst he had the misfortune to play for the Rangers there is no denying just how great Beltre was:

Here’s the complete list of full-time third basemen with 3,000+ hits and 400+ HR: Adrian Beltre and err...thats it.

From age 30-39 Beltre hit .303/.353/.502 with 235 HR, 1585 hits, for a 54.4 WAR!!

His spray chart is gold. Pure, unrefined gold:

He had a lot of fun playing baseball and his friendship with Felix Hernandez was always hilarious:

Some big blockbuster trades are predicted to be incoming. They include :

• The Astros landing J T Realmuto
• Colorado getting Jose Abreu
• Sonny Gray returning to the A’s
• Corey Kluber joining the Yankees
• Noah Sydergaard joining the Padres
• Cardinals acquire Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke

Quite how many of them end up being realistic remains to be seen but some of the arguments have validity. While Syndergaard going to the Padres seems illogical, its still preferable to staying at the Mets. Or joining the Marlins.

And to end, a question that needs asking. What was the best year for the designated hitter?Apparently its 1995.

Its the 49th birthday today of the legendary Ken Griffey Jr. One of my favourite players and owner of the prettiest swing ever:

And if you have a spare 11 minutes, make yourself a cuppa, pop your feet up, sit back and enjoy his greatest moments: