Twists and Turns

August 11th, 2009 | by Ray Flowers |

Today is one of those days. It’s 95 degrees outside, I’ve been talking football while writing about the NHL and the NBA all day, and now it’s time to get back to my bread and butter – major league baseball. In what follows you can peruse a few of my thoughts on this fine Tuesday.

Over his last seven starts Edwin Jackson has thrown an average of 114 pitches an appearance and that includes two outing in his last three times on the hill when he only made it through four innings. That’s right, over his last three starts Jackson has averaged 112 pitches a game despite only throwing an average of 5.1 innings per start. His ERA has gone up from 2.49 to 2.79 in that stretch of seven games and though has lost only one outing, but I’m a bit worried about those pitch counts given that he is on pace to blow past his previous career-high of 183.1 innings from last season (he currently has 151.2 IP under his belt).

I gave my take on the Alex Rios to Blue Jays deal in the Daily Dose from Tuesday. I’m glad the team has sent Rios out of town. Now if they could also find a taker for Vernon Wells then maybe they would have enough money to sign impending free agents Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas. Oh, and I love when GM J.P. Ricciardi said he is not under pressure from management to move money because a team without Rios and Wells would certainly be much better than one with Scutaro and Barajas. What a joke.

The Giants will activate Nate Schierholtz from the DL tonight and with his return the team might have to curtail the playing time of 12 year vet Randy Winn. “Whether I’m in there or not, I want to win and that’s it.” Winn said as he would love to end his stretch of playoff-less baseball (he has never appeared in the “second season” in his career). Normally the Giants would just continue to run Winn out there since he is the consummate professional, but honestly, with Eugenio Velez being so hot, yes Eugenio Velez, there isn’t likely to be a spot in the daily lineup for Winn with Nate S. back in the mix. Just how hot has Velez been? Since begin recalled from the minors he is hitting .417 with 11 RBI and 13 runs in just 14 games. Moreover, dating back to August of last year Velez is batting .330 over 221 at-bats, and don’t even lie to me and say you were aware of that fact.

I’ve watched Jonathan Sanchez very closely for a few years, and I’m just not one bit convinced that he will ever figure “it” out. The stuff if top flight but he key simply cannot repeat his mechanics often enough to throw strikes. They Giants need him today, especially because of the injury to Randy Johnson, but I wouldn’t be at all unhappy if the Giants moved Sanchez this offseason if they could get a bat. I’m already bald and don’t have much hair to pull out when Sanchez is throwing ball after ball.

I thought that Matt Wieters was going to reinvent the game of baseball in his image? Well the rook is hitting .263 with three home runs an a .683 OPS in his 179 at-bat season so far. Huh, that’s roughly the production the Orioles were receiving from, well what do you know, deposed starter and current Ray Greg Zaun who is hitting .242 with four home runs and a .719 OPS in 178 ABs.

Jordan Zimmerman will almost certainly undergo TJ surgery on his elbow. It’s amazing how many guys need to undergo the procedure these days. Think of it this way – if this was 1960 all of these guys who simply be out of baseball either because (a) their arm was so sore that they couldn’t pitch or (b) they would be getting lit up since their pitches would have no oomph to them. Still, I wonder why so many guys in the old days could throw 300+ innings year after year without an issue and nowadays if a guy throws 200-innings in a season a parade is held.

By Ray Flowers

Tags: Alex Rios, Edwin Jackson, Eugenio Velez, Greg Zaun, Jonathan Sanchez, Jordan Zimmerman, Matt Wieters, Nate Schierholtz, randy winn