There is a good chance the Guerrero MLB family will get a little bigger in the future. Vladimir’s son, 15-year old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is considered a better prospect than his dad was at that age.

As you can see from the video below, taken from a workout in the Dominican Republic, the 6-foot 2 inch 220 pound youngster is anything but light-hitting.

Notice the lack of batting gloves.  Dad would be proud. Junior is also using a wooden bat, which makes those home runs he’s hitting all the more sweet. The video is reminding a lot of folks of footage of Bryce Harper at that age, however Harper was using an aluminum bat back when he was hitting his eye-opening bombs.

Scouts are predicting that Vlad The Second could be in the big leagues before his 20th birthday, like Harper was. In the video, he is being watched by scouts from the Yankees, Blue Jays and Angels.

Guerrero Jr. is eligible to sign with a MLB team next summer. Maybe one day the Guerrero’s will challenge Bobby and Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. for the best father-son combo of all-time.

The first example of Puig’s coordination comes form the fifth inning of last night’s Dodgers match up with their SoCal rival Padres. In the fifth inning San Diego third baseman Yangervis Solarte sends a hard hit groundball into the right-center gap off of Keven Correia. Puig, who is playing center, cuts in front of Matt Kemp to field the ball. The 23-year old over runs the play a bit, but than casually fields the ball between his legs and fires it to second, holding the Solarte to a single.

You’re not impressed, you say. Just an example of a baseball player making a slight blunder and than recovering from it with the requisite athletic ability required to make one a highly paid athlete. Well, get a load of this, which happened in the dugout of the same game.

Puig has defeated the helmet, and the poor helmet didn’t even know they were playing. Also note the casual way he responds to his amazing reflexes. You’re not fooling us, Yasiel, we know you are smiling on the inside and possibly singing some sort of celebratory song in Spanish.

Now it’s up to the other National League MVP candidates like Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen and Jonathan Lucroy to offer up a display of their extra-human senses. In 2014,  GIFs are at least as important as RBIs.

In the Dodgers game against Atlanta last night, Puig popped up the first pitch he saw from Mike Minor in the third inning. Matt Kemp was waiting on deck, and when Puig flipped his bat in anger he almost struck his teammate.

Despite Puig tough at-bat (and Kemp’s fancy footwork) the Dodgers won the game 4-2, behind the pitching of the suddenly rejuvenated Dan Haren.

We don’t like to rumormonger here, so we’re just going to chalk the incident to Kemp being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now if it was Andre Ethier — who’s been the odd man out in the Dodgers crowded outfield — flipping his bat at Puig, Kemp or Carl Crawford … then we might have something to talk about.

Whether it’s been his new physique, controversial comments from him, or controversial comments about him, Harper continues to the get the press coverage befitting of the 5.1 WAR player he was during his rookie year in 2012, rather than the .1 WAR he’s become in 2014.

The outfielder certainly gave them something to talk about this weekend. During Saturday night’s Nationals game in Atlanta against their division rival Braves, Harper appeared to use his foot to smudge the Braves logo behind home plate the first three times he came to the plate.

After watching that video, we’re going to have conclude that Harper deliberately joined the fraternity of team logo desecrators that includes such fine names as Terrell Owens.

However, Harper — who was being booed lustily by the Turner Field crowd even before anyone noticed the aggressive addition to his at-bat ritual — denied the provocative move.

“That’s the last thing on my mind when I’m coming to the plate,” Harper said, either oblivious to the evidence otherwise or just not caring. “I have no idea.”

Although Harper did get two hits in Saturday’s game, a 4-1 Nationals win in 11, he also lost track of the outs in the sixth inning and was embarrassingly doubled off of second base on a Wilson Ramos fly ball.

Overall it was a tough series for Harper; he went 2 for 11 with six Ks and the base runner gaffe. And it was a good series for the Braves. Atlanta came in losers of eight straight but were able to take 2 out of 3, pulling them to within 3.5 games of the Nationals in the NL East and two games behind Pittsburgh for the second wild card spot.

Pitcher Alex Wood and right fielder Justin Upton starred in the series for the Braves.

The Braves shouldn’t need much motivation in their pursuit of the Nationals. Like Washington, they’ve been a good team for the past several years who badly needs to validate their status as contenders with a little October success.

Still, Harper’s immature display should further enhance what has become the best rivalry in the National League East.

We regret to inform you that Coco Crisp no longer has an afro. Instead, he has this:

The 34-year old unveiled his new ‘do Friday night against the Minnesota Twins. He also had the big hit in the game, a three-run triple which opened the scoring in the fifth inning of the 6-5 A’s win. In the game, Scott Kazmir picked up his league-leading 13 win. (The lefty also got a lot of help from relievers Ryan Cook, Luke Gregerson and Sean Doolittle.)

The victory extended Oakland lead on the Angels in the American League West to four games.

Coco Crisp is far from the only player on the A’s with interesting hair: Josh Donaldson, Josh Reddick, Derek Norris and newcomer Jonny Gomes all have distinctively coiffed heads.

But Crisp’s hairdo may be the most unique on baseball’s best team. It’s Kid ‘n Play in the front and party in the back. Can we call it a kullet?

Since the A’s won and Crisp, who came back form injury this week, had a big game, we think the kullet might be here to say. What do you think? Do you prefer the new Coco Crisp or the old, classic one:

I’m not named after a cereal. Don’t even ask.

No matter what you think of Coco’s new hairstyle, he still has a long way to go before topping this abomination for sport’s weirdest:

Don’t worry, Argentinian national team and Inter Milan striker Rodrigo Palacio. You’re still the rat (tail) king.

“Hunter Pence puts ketchup on his hot dog” and “Hunter Pence eats pizza with a fork” were two culinary-themed digs that came from the right field bleachers of Citi Field.

“Hunter Pence can’t parallel park,” read another printed attack.

“Hunter Pence likes the Godfather 3″ was the final insult. (For the record, “Godfather 3 doesn’t measure up to he first two, but it’s not that bad. It actually scores a decent 7.6 on IMDb)

As crafty as the digs against Pence were, his response was even better. He kicked off the game’s scoring with a two-run homer in the third against Bartolo Colon. Then he capped off the Giants 9-0 win with a solo home run in the ninth off of Dana Eveland.

Given the final score, it’s safe to say that nothing the Mets did on Sunday was close to as good as their fans’ creative attacks on Pence.

As for Pence, they were his 14th and 15th homers of the year, and they backed Madison Bumgarner’s two-hit, 10-k, 94-pitch gem.

Pence’s good play in 2014 have made him a dark-horse MVP candidate. But there has always been something goofy and mockable about his game; he moves around awkwardly, like he learned baseball from a book rather than from watching other ball players play.

Now if we could only express that more succinctly, maybe we could be among the clever serenaders the next time Pence comes to Queens. (Speaking of clever, the comment section at Deadspin did a really good job coming up with the alternative Hunter Pence signs.)

Then disaster struck.  Facing Jayson Werth to begin the bottom of the seventh Floyd threw a curve ball and immediately knew something wasn’t right

“It was fine until that last pitch,” Floyd said. “I felt a pop. And it wasn’t painful, at least.”

Floyd’s elbow began to swell and it wasn’t long before everybody could see there was something seriously wrong.

(See baseball’s ten most gruesome injuries.)

It turns out that’s what a fractured olecranon looks like. The olecranon is the tip of the bone that sticks out behind the elbow. Fire-balling Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya suffered the same injury in 2010 and hasn’t pitched since.

Floyd will be examined by team doctors today. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he thought his pitcher would be “OK” long-term and added that he didn’t think the injury had anything to do with his Tommy John surgery.  Gonzalez is not a medical doctor, so unless he happened to stay the night at a popular mid-market hotel chain take that with a grain of salt.

What doesn’t seem to be in doubt is that Floyd will miss the rest of the season. It’s been a brutal year for the Braves in terms of starting pitchers, with Kris Medlan and Brandon Beachy both going down in spring training and then being ruled out for 2014 with Tommy John surgery. Despite these significant setbacks the Braves got off to a 17-7 start. However they’ve been 20-28 since then and are now a 1/2 game behind the Washington Nationals in the bunched up National League East.

Although you can’t really blame pitching for the Braves recent problems and, if anything, all of the injuries have displayed Atlanta’s organizational depth at the position. To replace Floyd the team will call up from Triple-A Alex Wood, who performed quite well as a fill-in starter in April. The Braves decision to send the talented young left-hander down to the minors ten days ago in order to keep him stretched out now seems prescient.

As for Floyd, he was understandably feeling down.

“I felt like I was getting better and better, so it’s definitely disappointing,” Floyd said. “Definitely not what I envisioned to happen. I haven’t had any pain since the surgery.

Check out baseball’s ten most gruesome injuries here, if you dare.

On Friday, Price hit Big Papi in the back with a 94 MPH fastball. It was the first time the Rays ace had faced the Sox slugger since Game 2 of the ALDS, in which Ortiz took Price deep twice and spent a good deal of time admiring his second blast.

Later in Friday’s game Red Sox pitcher Brandon Workman retaliated by throwing behind Rays star Evan Longaria. On Tuesday MLB suspended Workman six games but declined to punish Price.

In Friday’s post game press conference Ortiz accused Price of “acting like a little girl.” The All-Stars then patched things up in a phone conversation. However Ortiz hit out at Price again on Tuesday, while blasting the league office for only suspending Workman.

 “I don’t think what they’re doing is fair,” Ortiz said. “I think the rules should be for everybody. We didn’t start this up. I didn’t hit nobody. Workman didn’t hit anybody in the first inning. [Price] did.”

“I’m not going to get hit again,” he continued. “Not by him. He did it on purpose. He punked me, and that’s very disrespectful. I’m a grown-ass man. To come back and do what he did [Friday night], I think it was some punk ass s—.”

The Red Sox and Rays, who are both struggling mightily this year, face off ten more times. Assuming Price is still with the team — and if the Rays don’t get it together the free-agent-to-be is a prime trade candidate — those will be some interesting match ups. We’ve already discussed baseball best teammate fights. Check out the game’s most notorious intrasquad feuds below.

Roger Clemens vs. Mike Piazza

Going into the 2000 World Series, Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens and Mets catcher Mike Piazza had history; Piazza had taken Clemens deep in three straight games and the Rocket responded by hitting Piazza in the head. In the first inning of Game Two of the Fall Classic, Clemens sawed off Piazza’s bat on what was a foul ball. Part of the bat’s barrel skidded toward Clemens, who then angrily threw it at Piazza, who was heading for first base. The two men menacingly walked toward each other and the benches cleared, although no punches were thrown. Clemens later claimed he was tossing the shard to a ball boy, but the video evidence suggests otherwise. As for Piazza, he said that after the World Series, which the Yankees won in five, he took karate lessons to be ready for his next confrontation with Clemens. He ultimately decided against violence because Clemens was “a really big guy.” And a really angry one, too.

Omar Vizquel vs. Jose Mesa
Some things are supposed to remain in the locker room. Omar Vizquel broke that cardinal rule of sports when he wrote in his 2003 autobiography that he blamed former Indians teammate Jose Mesa for blowing the 1997 World Series. The already volatile closer was none-too-pleased and promised he would throw at the shortstop whenever they squared off in the future. “Even my little boy told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I’ll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him,” Mesa explained. Almost true to his word, he would face Vizquel three more times and would hit him twice.

Michael Barrett and A.J. Pierzinski

Catchers Barrett and Pierzinski both had reputations for being difficult characters, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise when they squared off in a 2006 interleague Chicago Derby. It started when Pierzinski, who had tagged up from third on a sacrifice fly and beat the throw home, bowled over his fellow backstop, who was waiting for the ball and blocking the plate. Then A.J. gathered himself and dramatically slapped home. This was too much for Barrett, who slugged Pierzinski in the jaw, knocking him backward and sparking an all-out bench clearing brawl. Piernzinski ended up on top of Barrett, and when the umpires finally cleared the melee he walked off the field raising his arms like a professional wrestler, much to the delight of the Comiskey Park crowd.

Juan Marichal and John Roseboro
Giants pitcher Juan Marichal clubbing Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with his bat is one of the most notorious images in baseball history. The Giants and Dodgers had been bitter rivals, and there had already been bad blood between Marichal and Roseboro before the incident. Earlier in the game, which was in the thick of the 1965 pennant race, Marichal had flattened Dodger shortstop Pee Wee Reese on the base paths. So when he next came to bat Sandy Koufax moved him off the plate with a fastball. When Roseboro buzzed Marichal’s ear with his return throw the ace went nuts. He would eventual strike Roseboro in the side of the head, opening a bloody wound. Giants centerfielder Willie Mays, a good friend of Roseboro’s, rushed in to protect his buddy from his teammate.  Roseboro wasn’t seriously injured, despite all the blood, and he and Marichal would put the battery behind them and became friends. In fact, when Marichal came up short on his first two Hall of Fame ballots Roseboro lobbied on his behalf, telling voters they shouldn’t hold the ugly scene in 1965 against the 243 game winner, who was eventually inducted.

Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb
The feud between Babe Ruth was as philosophical as it was personal. “Anyone can hit a home run if they try,” Cobb sneered in 1920 when asked about Ruth, whose unprecedented home runs totals were taking baseball out of its dead ball period which the speedy Cobb had dominated. “It’s a brute way to approach the game.” Cobb, notoriously racist, would also get on Ruth for his perceived black features. Ruth returned the favor by insulting Cobb whenever his name was mentioned. It all came to a head during a game in 1924 when Cobb, the Tigers player/manager, had one of his pitchers throw at Ruth multiple times. Ruth finally had enough, pointing out to Cobb in center field. It looked for a moment like the two legends would square off mano-a-mano. They didn’t. However later in the inning a hit batsman sparked a 25 minute all-out brawl which had fans spilling onto the field to get in on the action. Ruth and Cobb would never become friends.

The leap in the second inning wasn’t even the only great play de Dekker made; he also threw out Reid Brignac trying to score on a Ben Revere single in the third. Although the game descended into a 11-2 laugher for the Mets, den Decker was protecting Bartolo Colon‘s 1-0 lead both times he flashed his run-saving leather.

It was den Dekker’s first start of the season, replacing the injured Juan Lagares, who has his own highlight real of defensive plays this year.

“I’m just trying to stay ready,” den Dekker said. “Nobody knew that Juan was going to go down. Things happen like that, so I just tried to get in there and have a good game and help the team out.” Check out the video of his exploits below

Here are 15 more great home run robbing catches, in no particular order.

Bo Jackson robs Jack Clark

As we learned from those Nike commercials in the Eighties, Bo Jackson was an ace at anything athletic. As you can see this includes robbing Jack Clark of a home run.

Torii Hunter robs Barry Bonds

It was an All-Star game, so no hard feelings, but American League centerfielder Torii Hunter scaled the wall to take a 2002 Midsummer Classic dinger away  from Barry Bonds. It was the third out of the inning, so on his way to take his position in the outfield Bonds and his giant head grabbed Hunter and took him on a playful ride over his shoulder.

Shane Victorino robs Jason Heyward

Generously listed at 5’9, Shane Victorino is at a disadvantage when confronted with a Major League-sized outfield walls. But they don’t call him a the Flyin’ Hawaiian for nothing, as Jason Heyward learned in 2010.

Ryan Braun robs Cody Ross

The 2011 MVP times a drive off of the bat of Cody Ross perfectly and goes well above the wall at AT&T Park. The suave 360 he does after making the catch and then the supremely smug look on his face could not have pleased the home crowd.

J.B. Shuck robs Jose Bautista

Left field at Angel Stadium is a great place to rob a homer because the fence is only five feet tall. J.B. Shuck is 5’11 and he needed all of that and a bit more to take a round tripper away from slugger Jose Bautista.

Lorenzo Cain robs Trevor Plouffe

Royals center fielder Cain timed this drive by Trevor Plouffe just right and then proves he has no fear of chain-link. While Cain is ecstatic, Plouffe is feeling cheated.

Carlos Gomez robs Joey Votto

Whether he’s robbing home runs or instigating brawls, Gomez might be the most exciting player in baseball today. The Brewers would obviously prefer he stick to stealing homers.

Aaron Hicks robs Carlos Gomez

Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you. Or something like that.

Aaron Hicks robs Donnie Murphy

Hicks has struggled to live up to his prospect status as a hitter, but he certainly has a habit of making spectacular run saving plays in the field.

Kenny Lofton goes superhero

One of Lofton’s nicknames was Spider-man, and you can see why at about the 55 second mark of the video. Loften may have been the most underrated player of his generation, both at the plate in the field

Endy Chavez robs Scott Rolen

Chavez’s amazing grab off of a Scott Rolen home run bid gets extra points because it came during a tied Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS. He would received even more points if the Mets had gone on to win the game.

Gabe Kapler robs Russell Martin

Kapler was best known for his ripped physique. However he proved he was anything but muscle-bound with this leaping grab at Dodger Stadium.

Mike Trout robs everybody

When people say Mike Trout is the best player on the planet they aren’t just referring to his offensive skills. Oddly, he’s never won a Gold Glove and Derek Jeter has five of them.

Robbie Grossman robs Chris Young

If it wasn’t for Robbie Grossman, Chris Young would have had a walk off home run. It was the second straight game of tough luck for Young; the night before he had hit a walk off bid that just missed nicking the foul poll and was only ruled out of play after a long conference between the umpires.

Mike Devereaux robs Joe Carter

The fence at Camden Yards is the perfect height for creating home run robbing highlights. In this one, Mike Devereaux also gets a piece of the face of a fan who got to close to the action, which he feels bad about.

Andruw Jones robs Shawn Green

Despite being somewhat of a portly fellow, Andruw Jones may have been the finest defensive outfielder in baseball history. Shawn Green, and many other frustrated hitters, would probably agree with that assessment.

Curtin Granderson robs Grady Sizemore

Granderson uses his full extension to take a homer away from fellow center fielder Grady Sizemore. We usually just see that kind of smile from Justin Verlander when he’s cozying up to Kate Upton.

Josh Reddick robs Michael Morse twice

It may have just been a grapefruit league game, but how many times do you see a player rob someone of a round tripper twice in one game? Especially a player with a beard like Reddick’s.

Derrick Salberg of Lower Columbia College

Salberg made this amazing flying grab to get the last out and preserve his team’s victory in the first round of the first round of the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges Baseball Championships. A homer would have tied the score.

Hiroshima Toyo Carp’s Masato Akamatsu

Akamatsu uses both his scaling and jumping abilities to take away a dinger. If there’s ever been a better homer saving grab on any continent we haven’t seen it.

Now Damon, for all of his good attributes, did not have much of an arm. But the throw he unleashed on that day had enough juice on it to reach the cutoff man and limit Newhan to a triple. Then, out of nowhere, left fielder Manny Ramirez enters the frame. He dives for the ball, just out of Damon’s hand, catching it while tumbling to the ground. He gets up quickly and fires it to the traditional cutoff man, second baseman Mark Bellhorn. However, the superfluous step allowed Newhan to round third and snag an inside-the-park home run. It was the birth of the phrase “Manny Being Manny” because there was just no other way to describe what Ramirez was thinking.

Ramirez and Damon have joked about the play over the years, including when they both signed with the Tampa Bay Rays before the 2011 season. Yesterday, on the occasion of the ten year anniversary of the 2004 Red Sox team that finally broke Boston’s almost century long World Series curse, Damon finally got to pay Ramirez back.

Just about all the players from the famous squad were back in Fenway for the ceremony. Jason Vartiek, Martinez, “idiot” Kevin Millar, Mike Timlin, Keith Foulke, Orlando Cabrera, Trot Nixon, Gabe Kapler and David Ortiz, who still plays for the club. Curt Schilling, in his first public appearance since his cancer diagnosis, was there as well. But it was Rameriz, who’s had an acrimonious relationship with the Red Sox since he forced a trade to the Dodgers in 2008, who was selected to throw out the first pitch.

That’s when Damon struck, diving in front of the ball with an exaggerated tumble and recreating the hilarious cutoff of a decade earlier.

But it wasn’t just fun and jokes for Ramirez, who recently signed with the Cubs to help coach their Triple-A squad and get the occasional at-bats. The forty-one year old, who was sporting a fauxhawk, also wanted to use the opportunity to apologize for some of his poor behavior during his time on the Red Sox.

“I realize that I behaved bad in Boston,” Ramirez said. “The fans were great. I also played great when I was here, but I realized I behaved bad. I apologize for that. I’m a new man.”

Ramirez, who says he’s found religion and now regularly attends church,apologized specifically to the team’s traveling secretary Jack McCormick, who Ramirez knocked to the ground in 2008 during a dispute over tickets.

“I went and spoke to Jack,” Ramirez said. “I apologized to Jack. I told him, ‘Jack, I want you to forgive me because it was my fault. I behaved bad here with everybody. I want you to forgive me.'”

McCormick, 64 at the time of the incident, accepted the apology and added he had been waiting six years for Ramirez to say those words.

The incident with McCormick, various PED suspensions, and a domestic abuse arrest in 2011 were the downside of “Manny being Manny. But most of it was pretty fun. Check out some of the highlights of Manny Ramirez’s long, strange baseball trip below.