Talk About Struggles

I’m sitting here watching the Rays and the Red Sox go at it, so I thought, what the heck, I would sprinkle in a little Bo Sox news in today’s piece. For those of you who dislike the Red Sox since the seem to dominate everything baseball in the national media, that is when they aren’t talking about the Yankees, I’ll also touch on a handful of guys that have been or could be relied upon in league specific scenarios the rest of the season.

Anyone see that Clint Barmes is 2-for-40 of late? I’ve been one of the lucky ones who took a chance on him when there was likely no one else left to fill a middle infield role late on draft day, but this most recent run of ineffectiveness is what happens when you own a career BB/K mark of 0.27 (it’s 0.25 this year).

Truly shocking news of the day: Erik Bedard’s season my be over. He will have an MRI on his shoulder on Friday to attempt to discern what is causing him trouble when he tries to throw. Seattle Times beat writer Geoff Baker offered his view – “if I was a betting man, which I’m not, I’d say the odds are better than even that he’s thrown his final pitch of 2009. We’ll see.” Like I said, I’m just shocked (notice the panic on my face. OK, you can’t see my face, but if you could all you would see would be a look of reservation as I would expect nothing less from Bedard).

Chad Gaudin continues to define the “boom-or-bust” attitude that many of us are forced to rely on in the fantasy game. With 105 Ks in 105.1 innings everyone can see the potential, and if often seduces us like the power of the Dark Side pulled in Darth Vader. Over the past two outings we have seen the depths of what can happen with this hurler as he has allowed 13 runs in five innings on the hill, though don’t worry, his ERA has only gone up only 0.56 runs to 5.13 as four of those runs were unearned. Still, who does this guy think he is, Oliver Perez?

Esteban German was recalled by the Rangers on Wednesday, and that should excite those of you in AL-only leagues. It’s unclear how much playing time he will pick up, but with Ian Kinsler on the DL, German might get a chance to post a few at-bats, at least in the short-term. German, who owns a .277 career batting average in major league action (nearly 950 ABs), was hitting .322 with 62 runs, 58 RBI and 33 steals in 101 games at Triple-A. In fact, look at how great he has been in his last two stops in Triple-A (this year and 2005): .317-9-126-165-76 in 862 ABs. He might be one of those AAAA players, but his speed and ability to produce in the average category should net him a shot to contribute in AL-only leagues.

Daisuke Matsuzaka blasted the Red Sox in an interview with a Japanese writer in which he basically blamed the Red Sox for all his struggles, and world hunger I believe (OK, maybe not). Given the rash of negative press he received for basically blaming the Red Sox for his struggles (his basic contention was that the club didn’t allow him to train as he had in Japan which resulted in injury and ineffectiveness), he backpedaled on Wednesday saying amongst other things that “It was not my intention to make the meeting public or to criticize the Red Sox.” So what are we to make of this statement? “If I’m forced to continue to train in this environment, I may no longer be able to pitch like I did in Japan,” Matsuzaka said. “”The only reason why I managed to win games during the first and second years (in the U.S.) was because I used the savings of the shoulder I built up in Japan.” Was he misquoted? I got no problem at all with someone calling anyone out be it a coach, player or organization, but be h-o-n-e-s-t about what you said. This comes off as extremely week Dice-K, and I hardly think it will help to mollify those who felt offended at his comments from July 28th.

B.J. Ryan suffered the same fate as he did when he was a Blue Jay. He failed to perform and was released, this time by the Cubs. Apparently his injuries have robbed him of about five mph off his fastball, he usually works in the 86 mph range at this point, and he just doesn’t possess the type of stuff/control that would allow him to be successful at that level. I wish him luck, but unless some rest makes the difference, we may never see him in the big leagues again.

By Ray Flowers

Thursday's AL Beat

Normally I just ramble on about whatever baseball topics catch my fancy. I’m not really changing that up today, I’m merely going to throw one topic out there that I’ll have to follow to somewhat focus my ramblings – I’m only going to discuss happenings in the American League.

The Blue Jays used eight pitchers in a nine inning game for the first time in team history on Thursday as they emerged victorious 8-7 over the Phillies. If you quickly glance at the scorecard you’ll see that recent called up Jeremy Accardo picked up the save. Huh? With Scott Downs on the DL with a sprained big toe the thought was that the team would turn to Jason Frasor to shut the door in the ninth, so why did Accardo pick up the save? Frasor did enter the game late, but it was in the bottom of the eighth inning. Frasor then proceeded to blow the save though he allowed only one hit while recording an out. The club then turned to B.J. Ryan to start the ninth inning, and he picked up a walk and a strikeout before he too was removed for Accardo who recorded two outs to pick up his first save of the season in his first big league appearance of the year. Despite all this craziness if I had to grab Blue Jays’ reliever at this point I would line them up as Frasor, Ryan and Accardo as I think today was the exception and not the rule. Oh yeah, I also should mention that despite the blown save, Frasor picked up his fifth victory of the year once again proving just how ineffective it is to judge a pitcher by his record (he is now 5-0). Frasor now has more victories than Javier Vazquez who has only four victories despite posting a 3.41 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 112 Ks in 92.1 innings this season for the Braves.

Gavin Floyd was screwed on Thursday as the White Sox’ bullpen betrayed him. Floyd left the game with a 5-1 lead after seven innings before a collection of arms conspired to help the cross town Cubs to emerge with a 6-5 victory. In the outing Floyd only struck out two batters but he allowed just seven base runners in his seven innings to lower his ERA to 4.65 and his WHIP to 1.36. Those numbers still don’t match his totals from last season (3.84 and 1.26), but given his poor start to the year they are rather remarkable. Floyd has now hurled 6-straight “quality starts” for the Sox even though he has only two victories to show for it despite a 1.62 ERA in that time. I don’t think he will be able to get his numbers down to the point that they will rival what he did last season, but as of now he is pitching better than the likes of Zack Greinke and Johan Santana, and that is certainly saying something.

Magglio Ordonez has been benched by Jim Leyland in Detroit for his continued struggles at the dish. Mags is hitting .273 with only two home runs and 22 RBI putting him on pace to roughly hit six bombs with 60 RBI this season. For a guy who has averaged 24 home runs and 115 RBI the past three seasons, that is a shocking fall. His BB/K rate is still strong at 0.76, the same as his career numbers, and his BABIP mark is also right on his career mark of .320 at .315. So why the struggles? (1) He isn’t hitting the ball hard with a 15.2 LD-rate, and that is a precipitous fall from his career 20 percent mark. (2) His swing has been bereft of power as his current Isolated Power mark of .069 is roughly one third his career .202 mark. For those of you who read Isolated Power and think it’s a foreign language, the measure basically outlines a player’ ability to produce extra base hits. If you want to read more about it, click on the following link to Isolated Power, A Review. The bottom line is that it appears, even when he makes contact, that he is hitting with a wiffle ball bat.

John Smoltz got the thumbs up after his strong minor league start on Wednesday night in which he permitted a single run in four innings of work at Triple-A Pawtucket (without a doubt one of the best names in minor league baseball). As a result of his diligent work coming back from his shoulder surgery, Smoltz will finally be seen on a major league diamond for the first time this season on June 25th against the Nationals. For now the team plans to go with a 6-man rotation, but we’ll see how long that lasts. For more on Smoltz, give One Up, One Down a read.

By Ray Flowers

You Gotta Love It

I love it. Baseball is here, and finally there are box scores that matter. Speaking of that, is there anything better in the morning that eating a bowl of oatmeal while reading the box scores from the previous night? I love technology, but something about that newspaper in my fingers at the table brings me back to my childhood, and I love it.

Chad Billingsley struck out 11 Giants on Monday. First off, that doesn’t really surprise me much considering that the Giants are a less than stellar offense. Secondly, it is proof that Chad has just about revived as an ace. The only reason I personally didn’t have him in my top-10 starters this year was because of the concern over how much his broken leg would set him back this off-season. Through two starts this year it hasn’t bothered him at all as he is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA.

Brad Hawpe tweaked his hammy on Monday, and as of this writing it’s not known how severe the injury is. It is being called day to day. For those of you who grabbed Dexter Fowler perhaps Hawpe missing a week’s worth of games would allow Fowler to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with. I know that would personally please me.

Randy Johnson looked strong this spring, and though it’s only two starts, things aren’t going well with his new team now that the games count. RJ has 12 K in just 8.2 innings clearly showing his stuff is still strong, but its obvious that his location has been off as his ERA after two outings is 11.42 thanks to the fact that he has already walked six batters. I wouldn’t discount him just yet, but at the same time it might be wise to park him on your bench until he shows something on the hill for the Giants.

Evan Longoria has been great so far leading to the AL Player of the Week honors thanks to a .481 batting average and five home runs. That kid can flat out rake.

So is the world of an AL-only owner. Jed Lowrie will be placed on the DL with a wrist injury that dates back to last year. Lowrie hit .343 with 16 RBI in 25 games this spring, and with Julio Lugo on the DL to start the year because of an injured knee, the hope was that Lowrie could burst on to the scene as a fantasy force in 2009. He didn’t. Lowrie was just 1-for-18 with eight strikeouts before being shut down, so it’s not like the Sox will be missing much at the dish. As for Lugo, he will likely only have to be out the likes of Nick Green and Gil Vazquez for the starting role once he is healthy which should hopefully be by the end of April. Don’t overlook Lugo if he is on waivers in a mixed league and you need some help at the middle infield spot. Lugo averaged 32 steals each season from 2005-07, and provided his knee is sound he should do some running when he returns.

Despite reports of a potential injury, a declining fastball, and poor performance on the hill (21.60 ERA, 4.20 WHIP in two appearances), B.J. Ryan will remain the Jays’ closer according to manager Cito Gaston. Pitching coach Brad Arnsberg had the following to say. “I know he’s got a heart the size of Texas. I know he’s busting his [rear] to thrill all the fans in Toronto — make everybody turn their backs on the B.J. Ryan saga.” Look, I’m not saying Ryan is a bad guy, he might be a saint, but the facts are the facts and they show that Ryan just isn’t the clubs best option to be pitching the ninth inning. I wish Ryan all the luck in the world, but as soon as the team starts losing, they started hot at 5-2, look for the club to make a move if Ryan doesn’t show drastic improvement.