By Ray Flowers
Another day, another series of injuries to report in the world of baseball. Also, I want to spend a moment detailing the failures of one of the hottest waiver-wire pick ups in the game. Am I surprised that he has struggled mightily? Hardly. Oh, and I have to give a shout out to the Sharks before I close this entry down as well.
How bad is Emilio Bonifacio? He is just 3-for-35 (.086) to drop his season long average to .270, and he hasn’t plated a run since April 11th (12 games). Seems like I warned people about this didn’t I? Oh yeah I did back on April 8th when everyone was going ga-ga over his hot start in an Impact Report. Here are a few direct quotes from that piece.
(1) “…Bonifacio simply must do a better job of making contact if he ever hopes to reach his ceiling as a hitter.” Emilio has 19 K in 74 at-bats, that’s a strikeout in more than 25% of his at bats, and also has resulted in a contact rate of 74%, well below the major league average of 80%.
(2) “Bonifacio needs to continue to work on his plate discipline and control of the strike zone. At this point he is clearly operating at below major league average levels in this respect.” With 19 K and four walks, Emilio’s BB/K mark is a pitiful 0.21 (ML average is 0.50).
(3) “…it might even be advisable to move him because, as we have long preached… take advantage of the weak if you can, it’s survival of the fittest in fantasy baseball.” As you saw above, the time to move Emilio has clearly vanished as his production has dwindled to the point of irrelevance. Hopefully you listened.
Carlos Delgado is out of the Mets’ lineup on Monday after he aggravated his hip sliding into third base on a triple. You think that he somehow innately knew he would be injured if he was asked to slide into third base so that is why he has hit only 18 triples in his career of over 2,000 games? Nah, me neither.
Carlos Gomez will leave the team on Tuesday to witness the birth of his first child. Perhaps while he is away he can ask the doctor for a hitting transplant as he is batting just .195 this season.
Josh Hamilton has a rib injury that has been bothering him for a few days. He had a cortisone shot on Sunday, and it usually takes a few days down time to return after one of those. People just assumed that Hamilton would hit another 30+ home runs with 120+ RBI, but the fact is that it just isn’t that easy no matter how immensely talented one is. So far this year, Hamilton is hitting just .242 with a .660 OPS in 19 games.
Just how much rope will Oliver Perez be given? The club said he will make his next start against the Phillies, but that may be it if he lays another egg. Through four starts he owns a 9.31 ERA, a 1.97 WHIP and a ghastly, maybe atrocious, possibly abysmal, let’s just say pathetic total of 6.98 walks per nine innings. For a pitcher with as much raw stuff as this guy, the fact that he simply cannot throw the ball over the plate to see what would happen is just shocking. His BABIP (.354) is way too high (.296 career) and his LOB-rate is amazingly low (54.6% vs. his career 73.3% mark), but it’s still all about base runners. If you have seen Perez pitch this year there is no way you would believe that once upon a time he posted a 2.98 ERA with a 1.15 WHIP and 239 K (good for a 10.97 K/9 mark). Look it up though, he actually did that all of that in 2004.
I can’t sign off without mentioning the Sharks. They are mere hours away from their biggest game of the year. They trail the Ducks three games to two, and will need to win the next two games to avoid an ignominious end to a season that started with such promise. They simply must win tonight. If they do, anything can happen in a Game 7.
