Around the Horn: Jan.29, 2010

Which baseball players are in the news as we head toward the weekend? Glad you asked.

(1) Mike Wuertz re-signs with A’s. (2) Jermaine Dye turns down Cubs. (3) Orlando Hudson still negotiating with the Nationals – still. (4) Orlando Cabrera likely to sign with Reds or Rockies. (5) Justin Verlander talking 5-years with Tigers. (6) Eric Byrnes signs with Mariners. (7) Dustin McGowan’s shoulder doing well. (8) Johnny Damon still homeless.

By Ray Flowers

Around the Horn: Jan.28, 2010

I’ll take a look around the world of baseball in 300 seconds. (1) Fernando Tatis to return to Mets. (2) Johnny Damon no longer in Yankees plans with signing of Randy Winn? (3) Eric Byrnes will not return to Bay Area and Giants. (4) Jim Edmonds signs with Brewers at 40 years of age. (5) Pedro Martinez and Phillies still negotiating. (6) Orlando Hudson still talking to Nationals.

By Ray Flowers

MLK Special

I know, I know, it’s Martin Luther King day which is a holiday, and I’ve already been castigated at the Baseball Guys’ Twitter Page for being so stupid as to work on the holiday. Still, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to get a few thoughts on the page before taking the afternoon off prior to attending the San Jose Sharks game with the Calgary Flames tonight.

* Eric Byrnes wants to return to the Bay Area in 2010. Injuries have ruined his play the past two years, and he is owed $11 million in 2010. However, whoever picks him up at this point is only on the hook for the veteran minimum as the D’backs will have to foot the bill for the rest. Byrnes grew up in the Bay Area and was a Giants fan as a kid, so this would be a great story. The Giants could certainly use a solid depth outfielder with energy, and if healthy, Byrnes is just that type of guy. Will the cheap ass Giants pay the major league minimum for the guy? Hard to cry poor when the cost is that low.

* Johnny Damon continues to float in the sea of free agency with no land in sight. Apparently no one wants a guy who can hit .280 with 20 homers and 90 runs scored. Oh yeah, his agent is Scott Boras so the fact that he is asking for $197 million might have something to do with the fact that he has been cast adrift.

* Kevin Kouzmanoff will play third base most of the time this season for his new club – the Athletics. The club is looking at Eric Chavez, if healthy, to fill a utility role playing third, first, possibly some outfield, and even some shortstop. I’m not kidding, shortstop. It was his position growing up, but an aging player with a bad back – does it make sense to move him over there at this point? To read more about the Chavez situation click on Susan Slusser’s piece.

* The Nationals are a mess. Make a decision will you! They still aren’t certain what they are going to do with Cristian Guzman and Ian Desmond. Most assumed that Guzman would move to second with the younger and more athletic Desmond taking over at short. However, the Nats continue to be tied to Orlando Hudson which would almost certainly leave Guzman at short and Desmond at Triple-A to start the year.

Even more of a concern to me is that the club seems uncertain with what they are going to do in the ninth inning. Despite signing Matt Capps, there are still words coming out of Washington that even though he will get the first shot at the closers role that he is far from a lock to hold down the role. “I’d probably start with Capps and go from there,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “There are times you’re facing a ball club such as the Phillies, where they’ve got a strong left-handed lineup, that it might be Sean Burnett or Eddie Guardado, and then maybe you give it to Capps or Brian Bruney or whoever’s freshest.” Seriously Mr. Riggleman? If you go with Burnett or Guardado for any length of time your tenure as the manager in Washington will be short. Stick Capps in the ninth, use Bruney in the 8th, and save Burnett/Guardado for matchup work in the seventh and eighth. That’s a recipe for success.

* Jim Thome still can’t find a home. Odd how no AL team wants a DH who will hit 25 homers with a .365 OBP.

By Ray Flowers

Around the Horn: Jan. 15, 2010

In my look around baseball today I’ll discuss a myriad of topics that are in the news. (1) Who will Johnny Damon signs with? (2) Matt Kemp/Chad Billingsley agree to deals with Dodgers. (3) Adam LaRoche officially signs with D’backs at the expense of Eric Byrnes. (4) Orlando Hudson still teamless. (5) Ben Sheets and Derrick Turnbow try to convince teams they are worth signing. (6) Does Carlos Delgado have anything left? (7) Indians catching situation.

By Ray Flowers

Down the Stretch

Heading into the weekend of the regular season I thought I would take a quick look around the league and throw out there some interesting tidbits of knowledge, factoids if you will, that would be interesting to read. At least that is the plan.

Jeremy Bonderman was suspended for three games for intentionally throwing at the Twin’s Delmon Young. This is hardly a surprise given the current landscape of the game. However, what was surprising is that the Twins’Jose Mijares, the man who escalated the confrontation between the teams by throwing behind Adam Everett, was only fined. “I don’t know how the person who starts it doesn’t get some sort of penalty too,” Tigers’ GM Dave Dombrowski said. “I’ve expressed that to people in the commissioner’s office.” (1) This is totally ridiculous. If Bonderman is suspended, so must be Mijares. (2) Can you imagine how many times that Bob Gibson would have been sidelined by suspension if he had pitched today? Face it. The game is filled to the brim with wussy’s of all kinds. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Sometimes guys get hit, that’s the game, and if some moron like Mijares does something inflammatory than the “baseball code” dictates a retaliation. Bonderman did that, and he did it properly by throwing his pitch off of Young’s knee and not at his noggin’. Hell, the Twins even understood what was going on. “Trust me, Delmon wasn’t at all upset with the Tigers,” Denard Span said Thursday. “He knew what was going to happen, and he was angry at our teammate.” So, what good does this suspension do? Exactly – it does nothing. Once again baseball screwed something up. What a shock.

Eric Byrnes and Chris Young both had four hits on Friday. Byrnes went deep twice and had five RBI while Young had four runs scored. Too bad it took six months for the D’backs to get a game like this from both of these guys. Too little too late guys, but still a nice outing for those that took a chance on having either one active. At least Young is hitting .287 with six homers over his last 26 games.

You know the Twins new ballpark, scheduled to be ready to go for the start of next season, is an outdoor stadium right? Yes, they are going with an outdoor stadium in Minnesota. I’m no weather man, but that cannot be a good thing can it? It certainly isn’t if you ask Mike Cameron. “Why in the world would they build an outdoor stadium? That will be the worst new park in the league. They’re going to get no players there.” Too bad the Twins didn’t consult Mr. Cameron because I can’t think there are many players who are going to disagree with that sentiment.

Adam Dunn says that he uses a 34.5 inch, 34 ounce bat most of the year, but inexplicably, when others are moving to lighter bats as their bodies grow weary, he goes to a heavier 35 ounce bat late in the year. “Don’t ask me why…It just feels better going up.” Dunn needs to hit two homers this weekend for 40, a total he has reached exactly in each of the past four seasons. Hopefully that bigger stick ‘o lumber will help.

Anyone out there realize that David Ortiz is, rather remarkably, just two homers and three RBIs away from a 30-100 season? If he is able to reach both marks this weekend it will mark the sixth time in six seasons with the Red Sox that he will be part of that club. For a guy who had one homer run and 18 RBI in his first 46 games, that’s more than a quarter of the season folks, that’s a pretty impressive effort

I was watching Jake Peavy’s start against the Tigers on Friday and I had a thought – how does anyone hit him, ever? When you can rush it up there 92-93 with that much movement on your fastball, I just don’t see how anyone squares it up. Add in 2-3 mph that he has when healthy, and count me as one of those people who is shocked when anyone hits a line drive off him.

By Ray Flowers

The Wednesday Blahs

Wednesday is kind of a blah day. What happened last weekend is nothing but a memory now, and the plans for the coming weekend are still coming into focus. Of course in the world of baseball there is never a break until the season is completed, so I certainly have a lot of things to keep me occupied until I get the chance to get my groove on this weekend.

What’s the deal with Ronnie Belliard? He has hit .319 since joining the Dodgers (47 ABs), and he has hit .321 over his last 50 appearances. That’s pretty phenomenal production for a guy who hit just .184 over his first 51 games.

Eric Byrnes said that he will be playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic this offseason. “I miss playing baseball,” he said. “The past two years, getting 200 (at-bats), that’s not cutting it. If I can make up for some lost at-bats and get down there and play in a real competitive league, it will be beneficial.” Nicknamed “Captain America” by the faithful in the Dominican, this will be the fifth season he has played there. I wish him all the luck in the world because baseball is a better game when Byrnes and his child-like enthusiasm are flying all over the field.

Don’t worry Fausto Carmona owners, the Indians will leave him in the rotation for the rest of the season (Carmona is 3-11 with a 6.58 ERA, a 1.81 WHIP and a 5.57 BBB.9 mark). And to think, there was actually a chance that the Indians could have gone with a pitcher who could have actually given them a chance to win the game. At least they are loyal.

Bartolo Colon was released by the White Sox on Wednesday, and this could signal the end of the road for the one-time ace. Colon averaged 17 victories a year from 1998-2005, but since 2006 he has only been able to stay healthy long enough to make 48 appearances on his way to earning 14 victories. All told, Colon has won 153 games with a 4.10 ERA in a solid major league career, though we are all left to wonder just how well he could have done if he just dropped some weight and took better care of that body of his.

How good has this Josh Johnson kid been? On Wednesday he held the Cardinals to just one run over six innings to improve his record to 15-4 while dropping his ERA to a terrific 3.01. This was the sixth straight outing in which he didn’t go seven innings, but given that only once in that time he has allowed more than three earned runs, he has still given the Marlins a chance to win every time he has taken the hill. He is now 5.2 innings from his first 200-inning season as well.

Hiroki Kuroda continues to pitch well, something the Dodgers desperately need from a starting rotation that includes an injured Clayton Kershaw (out another week after hurting his non-pitching shoulder running into a wall during batting practice) and a struggling Chad Billingsley (an ERA of six in his last four appearances which has led to the team skipping his next turn in the rotation). Kuroda held the Pirates to but one run over six innings on Wednesday, the tenth straight start in which he has allowed three or fewer earned runs. Moreover, over his last three starts, he has an ERA of 2.84.

The Red Sox-Angels game just got underway. Glancing at the starting lineup every single one of the top-8 batters in the Angels’ lineup were hitting at least .287 and Juan Rivera was the only batter below .297 in that group. Do you think the players on the club make fun of Mike Napoli and his .269 average?

The Giants face the Rockies tonight with Matt Cain on the hill, and with a victory the Giants would move to within 1.5 games of the Rocks. Let’s hope it happens so that we can have a wild finish for the NL Wild Card.

Who is your AL home run leader since June 5th? I could give you 45 guesses and I bet you still wouldn’t come up with the right answer so I’m just going to tell you – it’s David Ortiz who has hit 23 homers in that time to lead the Junior Circuit. His last home run, on Tuesday night against the Angels, was his 270th as a DH, the all-time record (passing Frank Thomas).

By Ray Flowers

The Webb Conundrum

Brandon Webb, when healthy, is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Period. Alas, his wonky shoulder limited him to a mere four innings this season leaving the D’backs with one whopper of a decision to make in regards to the future of their organization: should they pick up the $8.5 million option on his contract, do they try to renegotiate the deal at a lower rate, or do they simply let him walk away? Before I get to what their decision appears to be, let me give some background on the situation.

(1) From 2005-2008 Webb tossed at least 220 innings each season. Webb was the only pitcher in baseball who tossed 220-innings in each season from ’05-’08 and he was one of only four who reached the 200-inning level in 5-straight years from 2004-08 (and he threw 208 innings in 2004 following up a 180.2 inning rookie season).

(2) Webb improved his victory total each season from 2004: seven, 14, 16, 18 and 22. From 2005-08 he was one of only six hurlers who won at least 14 games each season, and his total of 70 victories in that time were the most in baseball (Roy Oswalt and Johan Santana were second with 66).

(3) Webb posted an ERA below 3.60 in each season from 2004-08, a feat only two other hurlers could match (Oswalt and Santana again).

(4) Webb racked up at least 164 strikeouts in each of his six big league seasons. Only one other hurler was able to produce at least 160 Ks each year from 2003-08, and it was accomplished by the best lefty in baseball; Johan Santana.

(5) To wrap up this little review, here are the rakings of Webb in a variety of categories for the 2005-08 seasons.

927 IP, the best mark in baseball
70 wins, the best mark in baseball
3.23 ERA, the sixth best mark in baseball
727 strikeouts, the eighth best mark in baseball
10.98 base runners per nine, the 9th best mark in baseball.

Clearly, Webb was one of the most consistently excellent hurlers in the game, though he wasn’t always valued as highly as he should have been in the fantasy game.

Flash forward to 2009. Here is what we know.

Webb was unable to agree to a long-term contract with the D’backs after it was learned that tests on his shoulder showed some irregularities (the club was unable to secure insurance for the deal because of the state of his shoulder). Webb then went out, appeared in one game, had multiple setbacks in his recovery, and eventually was forced to go under the knife. Reports are that the procedure went well, there was less damage than feared, and that his recovery is on track. Given all that what are the D’backs going to do with Webb (officially they have five days after the end of the World Series to determine if they will pick up the $8.5 million option on his current deal)?

Currently the D’backs have a couple of big ticket items in the rotation in Dan Haren ($7.5 million this season) and Dough Davis ($8.75 million this season) and with dead weight like Eric Byrnes ($11 million next season), they are likely getting a bit nervous about their payroll given that across the street Coyotes of the NHL are in dire financial straights (Davis will be a free agent at the end of the year, so they will save a little there if they let him go). With those concerns, paying over $8 million to a guy coming off a season of four innings doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense – these aren’t the Yankees – so it may not happen. In fact, Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote that he believed that the club will try to sign Webb to 1-year, incentive laden deal instead of simply giving him $8.5 million for 2010.

Time will tell if that ends up being the right call or not, but if it was my money I’d tell Webb to sign on the dotted line with an incentive laden deal, probably one with a second year added on for some security in case he returned to full health, and let er’ rip (this may actually be Arizona’s thinking). But hey, I just write about this stuff and don’t sign anyone’s checks, though judging from the way that some sports teams run their organizations maybe that shouldn’t be the case. I will work for food and a roof over my head too, so if any organization out there needs a hand, just let me know.

By Ray Flowers

Wednesday Baseball

Today I’m going to look around the landscape of baseball and point out a few of the more interesting tidbits as the clock winds down on this Wednesday.

Eric Byrnes went 1-for-4 on Wednesday to “raise” his average to .152. He did steal two bags and appears to be running very well after a lost 2008 because of hamstring issues.

D’backs, please start scoring some runs for Dan Haren. In his four starts this year the club has scored a total of three runs. As a result, instead of being the early favorite for the NL Cy Young, Haren is 1-3 despite a 1.38 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP.

Brandon Phillips is hitting .143 on the young season thanks to an 0-for-21 slump. As a result he has been dropped to sixth in the order. Miscast as a cleanup hitter, Phillips would likely be better served hitting second or fifth, but the Reds really don’t have a better option at the moment than Phillips. Dating back to August first last year, Phillips is hitting a miniscule .183 over 191 ABs. That isn’t a slump, it’s a trend. Oddly his struggles this year have come despite the fact that he has more walks (nine) than strikeouts (seven). You can blame his inordinately low BABIP mark of .147. When things normalize, the average should return to at least the .260 level.

CC Sabathia had another rough outing on Wednesday as he allowed six earned runs in 6.2 innings against the Athletics who entered the game hitting an AL worst .237 with the second worst OBP in the league at .309 (only the Mariners were worse at .305). Just like last season when he started slowly, Sabathia has had a very difficult time throwing strikes as he has struck out just 12 batters while walking 14 leading to a K/BB mark of 0.86 through four starts. Considering he owns a career mark of 2.63 and has posted a mark of at least 3.91 in each of the past three seasons, one has to figure things will turn around quickly. Still, his slow start cannot be leading to too many smiles in the Yankees’ front office or with those people who took Sabathia as their fantasy ace in 2009.

Jose Valverde has struggled a bit to start the year, and now he is dealing with a bruised right ankle and a strained calf muscle that he suffered on Tuesday night. At this point there isn’t necessarily a substantial worry that he will end up on the DL, but that is the LaTroy Hawkins train warming up in the station to take over in case Valverde cannot go. Here is my advise – you had better think long and hard about adding Hawkins in anything other than an NL-only league. Sure LaTroy posted solid numbers last year with a 3.92 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP over 62 innings, including some great work with the Astros (0.43 ERA, 0,73 WHIP, 25 K in 21 IP), but come on now we are talking about LaTroy Hawkins here. Dude has 77 saves and 47 blown saves in his career, and he hasn’t been given even 10 saves chances since the 2005 season when we has six saves and nine blown chances. For whatever reason, and it makes no sense, the man simply cannot come through in the ninth inning. It’s as simple as that. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it will be any different, even if Valverde ends up on the disabled list.

Barry Zito was 3-0 with a 3.21 ERA last year when Pablo Sandoval was behind the plate. On Wednesday Sandoval caught his first games of the year, with Zito on the hill, and he went seven shutout innings though it was against the Padres. The Giants aren’t ready to say it, but we might be getting awfully close to Pablo serving as the personal catcher for Zito, and that would be music to Sandoval’s owner’s ears if he doesn’t qualify as a catcher in your league at the moment (this was his first game behind the dish this season).