Minor Moves & All Star Notes

We'll see how much Mother Nature likes baseball and how good the DC grounds crew is - it's storming in Washington now, but the skies are supposed to clear up by seven, with gametime at eight. If nature refuses to cooperate, the MLB does have a Plan B to play the game tomorrow night, though as of now, the game should go on.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon... (photo Bob Nightengale/USA Today Sports)

Notes:

• INF Alfredo Reyes was assigned to Indy from Altoona. Looks like a depth move with Chris Bostick rehabbing and Mad Max in Pittsburgh. The 24-year-old started the year at Bradenton, then moved up to Altoona, where he's hit just .235.
• RHP Luis Escobar, 22, has been promoted to Altoona. His Bradenton line was 7-6/3.98; the Colombian prospect has great swing 'n' miss stuff, but still needs work on his control.
• Rule 5 pick Nick Burdi made his first appearance since May, 2017, when he had Tommy John surgery, and struck out the side on 13 pitches in a perfect inning for the Bradenton Marauders.
• MLB.com ran a post giving out one fact for each AS performer. Felipe Vazquez's was duly noted as "Pittsburgh's closer has an average fastball velocity of 97.3 mph this season, ranking third among left-handers behind only Chapman and Jose Alvarado. And Chapman is the only lefty who's thrown more pitches 100-plus mph than Vazquez's 17. They also observed that Gerrit Cole six 10+ K games this year equalled the number he had as a Pirate from 2013-17.
• Some ol' Bucco pitchers on tonight' roster: Gerrit Cole & Charlie Morton of the Astros and JA Happ of the Jays made the team.
• Bryce Harper won the AS Home Run Derby, 19-18, over Kyle Schwarber with a fast and furious finish. 
• Chris Sale and Max Scherzer will start the MLB All-Star Game for the second year in a row. It's the second time in All-Star Game history that the same pitchers started consecutive years, joining Red Ruffing and Paul Derringer in 1939-40 per ESPN Stats & Info.