Around the Horn: April12, 2010

What is the deal with the massive amount of injuries to all-star caliber players in the opening month of the season? Here is a list of the players I’ll touch on today.

C: Miguel Montero

1B: Lance Berkman, Derrek Lee

2B: Mark Ellis, Aaron Hill, Ian Kinsler, Brian Roberts

3B: Ryan Zimmerman, Chipper Jones

SS: Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins

OF: Jacoby Ellsbury, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Gonzalez

SP: Cliff Lee, Scott Kazmir, Chris Young

RP: Joe Nathan, Brad Lidge

Also —

(1) Jack Cust accepts minor league deal. Does he have any value?

(2) Nelson Cruz bashing. Already has five homers leading to 38 HR, 85 RBI and 20 SB in his last 134 games.

(3) And Prince Fielder who wants at least $180 million, maybe more than $200, to sign long-term.

By Ray Flowers

Opening Day – 2010

With Opening Day 2010 finally upon us, I’ll hit nine quick stories that caught my fancy.

(1) Albert Pujols makes MVP statement.

(2) Jason Heyward hits HR, makes history.

(3) Johan Santana cruises in first start.

(4) Carlos Gonzalez four hits for Rockies.

(5) Carlos Gomez four hits (incl. HR) and a steal.

(6) Garrett Jones blasts two homers.

(7) Shaun Marcum takes no-hitter into 7^th inning.

(8) Jason Frasor blows first save for Blue Jays.

(9) Mark Buehrle tosses 7 scoreless against Indians.

By Ray Flowers

Walking the Line

Want to learn how to ingratiate yourself to your fan base? If you do, then I suggest you follow the lead of the Cubs’ Milton Bradley who, amazingly, offered this little diddy to the press. “All I’m saying is I just pray the game is nine innings, so I can be out there the least amount of time as possible and go home,” he said. Apparently, he isn’t feeling the love from the Cubs faithful. “I’m talking about when I go to eat at a restaurant, I have to listen to the waiters bad-mouthing me at another table, sitting in a restaurant…” Well Milton, try keeping your mouth shut and hit better than .255 while you are making $10 million a year and people might cut you a break. Memo to Cubs’ fans – don’t boo Bradley, boo your idiotic front office that gave him $30 million.

Carlos Gonzalez returned from his losing battle with a steak knife to play on Thursday. Unfortunately he then went out and suffered a bruised thumb in the game and is now being called day-to-day like the rest of us. Honestly, I injured my left pinkie while typing this piece so I’m hour-to-hour.

Adam Jones continues to be sidelined with a back injury. He is supposed to return by the weekend, though with his recent struggles (.222 in his last 21 games) the team should give him all the time he needs to make sure he is healthy.

Jake Peavy will make another minor league start for Triple-A Charlotte on Saturday. If his ankle, and elbow, are fine after that appearance, he will likely be activated with his next start being for the Pale Sox next week.

Mike Sheets offered his take on his top-10 catchers for 2010 in his most recent posting. I can’t disagree with his top-3, those guys are money, but his list got me to thinking about just how thin the catchers’ pool has gotten of late. Just look at the names that Sheets listed 4-10.

Mike Napoli – A 30 percent strikeout rate is awful, limiting his AVG upside (his current .289 mark is a mirage).

Jorge Posada – Thirty-eight years old, he is hitting .277 with 17 homers but he has been limited to just 478 ABs the past two years.

Ryan Doumit – Hitting .225 this season, Doumit does have 23 homer sand 95 RBI his last 613 ABs while his average in that time is .290. If he could just stay healthy.

Bengie Molina – Figures to stay in SF and hold off Buster Posey for at least one more year and he has hit at least 15 homers with 57 RBI in each of the past five seasons.

Geovany Soto – Continues to worsen, if that is possible. After hitting .278 in May that number has slide each of the past three months: .257, .222 and .150.

Russell Martin – Is hitting just .257 with four home runs after hitting at least .280 with 10 in each of his first three seasons.

Matt Wieters – Jesus, I mean Wieters, is hitting .263 with a .677 OPS in his first 224 ABs. The upside is undeniable, but at the same time Wieters has been out-produced this season by Omir Santos who has hit .264-6-32 with a .693 OPS in 235 ABs. Ruminate on that for a while.

If you miss out on the top-3 you might as well wait a long while before taking the plunge as there will likely be a whole lot of mediocrity out there.

Michael Vick returns to NFL action later tonight. Count me as someone who could care less. I don’t wish people ill, but at the same time I wouldn’t be at all disappointed if Vick were to struggle monumentally for the rest of his career.

By Ray Flowers

Rangers and Rockies

The Rockies and the Rangers are in my thoughts today as each team has made a series of decisions on Tuesday that could have some rather serious ramifications for fantasy squads across the land as players are going on the DL, others are being recalled and still others being sent to the bench.

Chris Davis is back with the Rangers after the club placed Andruw Jones on the DL with a strained hammy. Davis went down to the minors to work on his stroke and apparently a mechanical change has made all the difference in the world as he has gone on to his .327 with a .939 OPS through 44 games at Triple-A (he was also hitting .353 over his last 10 games). Still, don’t go crazy here. Davis hit all of .202 with an insanely pathetic 44.2 K-rate in 258 at-bats with the Rangers earlier this season. He has talent and can certainly sock the long ball with aplomb, but you have to understand the strike zone and what your skills are within that zone, and Davis clearly hasn’t been able to do that with the big league club this season.

It appears that the Rangers are serious about playing Davis every day the rest of the way to see what they have for next season, and as a result the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting that the club has informed Hank Blalock that he will be nothing more than a spot starter and a pinch hitter the rest of the way. Blalock has socked 23 long balls and has been healthy for most of the year (404 at-bats), but he is hitting just .238 this season with an OBP of only .274 which includes truly putrid marks of .199 and .213 in 36 games since the All-Star break. Mr. Blalock is likely upset, but with production like that it’s a shock that the Rangers didn’t do something sooner. A name to keep a close eye on is Julio Borbon who figures to see a lot of time against right-handed pitching the rest of the way. Can’t blame the club for wanting to keep his hot bat in the lineup. After all, he is hitting .432 with 10 runs and eight steals in 13 games. It remains to be seen how long he can manage to be even remotely this effective – he has no pop and little strike zone control (10 K, three BB) – but for now he is looking like a fantastic pickup up in deep mixed leagues.

With the Rockies suddenly a bit thin in the outfield with injures to Carlos Gonzalez (he apparently needs lessons on how to handle a steak knife) and Dexter Fowler (on the DL with a bruised knee), the club called up Matt Murton to lend a hand. I’ve always really liked Murton’s approach at the plate and this season at Triple-A he has been tearing it up to the tune of a .321-10-71 line in a mere 327 ABs. In a minor league career of about 1,800 at-bats, Murton has his .309 with a .383 OBP, and though he lacks ideal power for a corner outfielder (only 42 homers in the minors), the man can hit. In fact, in a career in the bigs that spans 945 at-bats, Murton has hit .287 with a .353 OBP, 29 home runs and 112 RBI to go along with 134 runs. To give that some real meaning we are talking about a guy who has hit roughly .290 with 15 home runs, 60 RBI and 70 runs per 500 at-bats. Not great numbers, but there should be a spot on someone’s roster for a bat like that, don’t you think?

Oh, and don’t forget about Eric Young Jr. who was also called up to lend a hand in the outfield. All Young has done at Triple-A this season is hit .299 with a .387 OBP and 118 runs in just 119 games. Blessed with elite speed, Young has also swiped 58 bases and his call to Colorado makes him a must add in NL-only leagues – immediately.

By Ray Flowers

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday

I was glancing at the box scores of some of the “early” games from Thursday and thought I would point out a few of the players that stood out to me for one reason or another. After that, I’ll touch on the worst starting rotation in baseball that can’t get enough of what they are doing so they will be adding a sixth guy into the mix for even more fun.

The Neftali Feliz watch is up to 13 – that is the number of strikeouts he has racked up in 6.2 innings of work this season. Put it this way, Feliz has gotten outs via the strikeout 65% of the time. He also hasn’t walked a single batter on the year.

Just when you were starting to panic a bit that an injury to Dexter Fowler’s knee, combined with the recent hot hitting of Carlos Gonzalez (16-for-38, .421 the past three weeks) might lead to reduction in playing time for Fowler – stop worrying. Fowler had a monster game on Thursday going 4-for-5 with three doubles leading to three runs scored. Lo and behold Fowler is now hitting .271 overall, the highest his average has been since May 25th, as he has hit a scintillating .455 in nine games in August during which time he has scored 10 runs. He still has a lot of room for growth at the dish, but the youngster seems to be grabbing his second wind right now and that is great news for those who have held on to the youngster.

Garret Jones meet regression. Jones blasted an amazing 10 home runs in his first 19 games this season as everyone scrambled to add the next Babe Ruth to their roster. Well, that pace predictably slowed as Jones has gone deep just two times in his last 17 games, but even worse, his average has plummeted. On Thursday Jones was 0-for-4 with the “golden sombrero, aka four strikeouts, to drop his average to a still sold .288. However, it has been a rough ride in August as he is hitting just .239 on the month. All good things come to an end, and it looks like that time is now for Mr. Jones.

I know it’s a total mirage, akin to my ever being able to convince a beautiful woman to keep me around, but did you get a load out of the series that Kevin Kouzmanoff had against the Brewers? The man went 11-for-13, something you probably couldn’t do in your local softball league, as his season long average went up a full .018 points to a respectable .264.

Cliff Lee has won six straight starts and is now 3-0 with a 1.12 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP in three appearances with the Phillies. In those three starts he has also thrown 24 out of 27 innings. You think the Phils are happy with their trade deadline acquisition?

You will be forgiven if you don’t know who Mike Rivera is. Who is he? He is the Brewers’ backup backstop who rarely plays given that he plays behind iron man Jason Kendall. This season has been another disappointing campaign at the dish for Kendall who is hitting just .232 with a sickly .318 OBP and 29 RBI in his 332 ABs this season. As for Rivera, he is hitting just a bit better at .239, but after a two home run, five RBI effort on Thursday he now has one more homer than Kendall (one) and just 18 RBI less despite 265 fewer at-bats. Yeah, pretty striking isn’t it?

I touched on my concern over how pathetic the Orioles rotation is at this point yesterday in Frustration All Around (how upset does that mascot look by the way?). Now comes word that the Orioles will go with a 6-man rotation for the rest of the year, and we all know how successful that has been through the years. Who are those arms? Are you sitting down? Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, Jeremy Guthrie, David Hernandez and Brad Bergesen. One day we might say we knew them when, but for 2009 that looks like an awfully spotty group of major league hurlers.

By Ray Flowers