Frustration All Around

I’m upset. I just watched the umpires in the Giants/Dodgers series blow, and I’m not kidding you, the fifth clear cut call at first base, ALL of which have gone in favor of the Dodgers. Sure, I’m a Giants fan, but at the same time I’m fair and will admit when the Giants get a “break.” I’m here to tell you t that they didn’t get a one in this three game series.

How pathetic is the situation in Baltimore? The Orioles continue to run Jason Berken out there despite the fact that he has been flat out atrocious. Berken lost his start on Wednesday to drop to 2-10 on the year with seven loses in his last 10 appearances. Given that his ERA is 6.63 and his WHIP 1.69, you mean to tell me that the Orioles don’t have a better option? Pathetic.

Michael Crabtree sign the damn contract the Niners have given you already. You weren’t drafted third overall, you aren’t going to get paid like you were drafted third overall, and you had best get your name on a contract before you end up imploding your rookie season completely. Whew. I feel better now that I typed that.

Remember back when Kelvim Escobar was going to help the Angels starting rotation after battling back from shoulder woes? Well that didn’t go so well as he made just one start before having to go back on the DL. Then the club switched tactics and decided it would use Escobar out of the pen. Now the club has decided that nothing can be done to help Escobar overcome that shoulder injury, and therefore KE will likely not return to Anaheim in 2009. Too bad, because when that dude is right he is flat out filthy.

Did you catch the fact that before busting out for six hits last night that Adrian Gonzalez was hitting .199 over 151 at-bats? How is that even possible for a man with that much skill?

Injury #104 for the Mets this season. Working his way back from surgery on his hip, Carlos Delgado is now suffering from a strained right oblique muscle. This setback will likely keep him out of action for about two weeks. At this point, a return in September may only be a 75-25 bet for the slugging first sacker. What was injury #103? Well it wasn’t really an injury, it was actually an illness that has taken a hold of David Wright. Apparently he was pretty darn sick. Honestly, if the Mets didn’t have bad luck, as the saying goes, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.

Jonathan Papelbon will not be available to pitch on Wednesday after recording seven outs the past two days. Papelbon has a wonderful 2.17 ERA and 28 saves in 31 chances, but he is also working on a 4-year low in K/9 (9.79) and a 4-year low in BB/9 (3.62). I’m just saying.

The A’s Cliff Pennington, starting at shortstop now that the club has sent Orlando Cabrera to the Twins, is hitting .326 in 46 at-bats with the club. Don’t expect that to continue given that his current batting average is a mere .063 points better than his minor league mark. You want further proof? His minor league SLG is .358, merely .032 points above his current batting average. Still, he is a fine AL-only option up the middle since he is nearly certain to be in the lineup everyday for the A’s.

John Lewis, a fellow SABR member, put together a rather interesting list of “where are they now” for the Pirates. In his note he mentioned that there are three, THREE, members of the Pirates July 24th, 2008 25-man roster that are still with the club: Ryan Doumit, Paul Maholm and Zack Duke. So in little over one year’s time, the Pirates have moved 88 percent of their 25-man roster. I have no idea if that is a record or not, but I have to believe it is. Here is a list of what happened to the other 22 players.

LF Jason Bay – traded to Boston 2008
CF Nate McLouth – traded to Atlanta 2009
RF Xavier Nady – traded to Yankees 2008
OF Jason Michaels – free agency 2008
1B Adam LaRoche – traded to Boston 2009
2B Freddy Sanchez – traded to Giants 2009
3B Jose Bautista – traded to Toronto 2008
SS Jack Wilson – traded to Seattle 2009
1B-3B Doug Mientkiewicz – free agency 2008
2B-SS Luis Rivas – free agency 2008
INF Chris Gomez – free agency 2008
C Raul Chavez – free agency 2008
P John Van Benschoten – free agency 2008
P Franquelis Osoria – free agency 2008
P Damaso Marte – traded to Yankees 2008
P John Grabow – traded to Cubs 2009
P Sean Burnett – traded to Washington 2009
P Ian Snell – traded to Seattle 2009
P T.J. Beam – waivers to Toronto 2009
P Denny Bautista – to Triple-A Indianapolis
P Yoslan Herrera – to Double-A Altoona
P Tyler Yates – on Disabled List

By Ray Flowers

Is Something in the Water?

I’m feeling like an AL-only report will be a good thing today, so I’ll spend most of my time discussing the Junior Circuit. Don’t worry if you are a fan of the NL, I’ll be sure to toss a couple of little diddy’s in there for you as well – don’t want anyone to call me an “ageist” or anything.

Alex Casilla has been sent back to Triple-A after the Twins activated Nick Punto. Casilla is hitting just .180 this season in 111 at-bats and hit just .222 in his most recent call-up (6-for-27). For a guy who hit .281 last season, the club didn’t show a lot of patience with Casilla this year.

Kelvim Escobar has made yet another recovery from arm issues, and after strong work in the minors he had a decent first start allowing two runs over five innings (he struck out five, though he did walk four). However, the team has reversed course with Escobar and will remove him from the starting rotation and add him to the bullpen because they claim he doesn’t have the stamina needed to be a starting pitcher at this point after he experienced some soreness in his shoulder after that lone start. “I went to see a doctor, and I didn’t have good range of motion, up and back,” Escobar said. “It doesn’t look like I can throw 80, 90 pitches. But I’m confident I can still help the team in the bullpen.” He will be held out of action for about a week at which time he will be worked into the bullpen mix. Escobar can be flat out dominating when he is on, so using him an inning every other day or so will certainly give the Angels a weapon out of the pen, something they can certainly use given that they are still without Scot Shields (knee) and Jose Arredondo who was sent back to the minors to work on his game. For those of you looking for some help in AL-only league, Matt Palmer will return to his role as a starting pitcher, a role that saw him go 5-0 with a 3.95 this season. Don’t go crazy to get Palmer though, he has a poor 1.59 K/BB mark this season, and his K/9 mark is also nothing more than average at 5.48 per nine.

Gavin Floyd has finally returned to being an effective hurler after some awful work to start the season. On Thursday Floyd tossed eight innings and allowed just one run to score. That’s five straight quality starts in a row for those of you keeping track at home.

I picked up Mike MacDougal off waivers this past weekend when it was announced that Joel Hanrahan was once again removed from the closers role. I was therefore very pleased to see Mike work three scoreless innings in back-to-back outings on Tuesday or Wednesday. However, he didn’t pick up a save in either outing because the game situation didn’t warrant it. Alas, the Nationals needed a “closer” on Thursday and they were forced to go with Joe Beimel because they didn’t want to run MacDougal out there yet again. Such is the way the breaks go sometimes.

David Ortiz hit an opposite field home run in his first at-bat on Thursday night off of CC Sabathia. That gives Ortiz three home runs in his last five games. Is he finally awaking from his early season slumber?

I spoke about Willy Taveras and his struggles at the plate yesterday in A Day in the Life. Just to update things, Taveras had another 0-for-outing on Thursday and he has now gone 0-for-20 in the month of June. There is no truth to the rumor that this run of futility will lead Dusty Baker to insert Willy T. into the cleanup role.

Jim Thome is finally hitting. Over the past four games Thome has gone deep three times with seven RBI to boost his numbers to 12 home runs and 39 RBI through 163 at-bats this season. Sure he is hitting only .258, but given that he is on pace to hit roughly 31 home runs while knocking in about 100 runs you cannot be too upset, especially since he hit just .245 last season. Are some of you shocked by his turnaround? If you are, you shouldn’t be. Thome is one of the most consistent home run hitting, RBI producers in big league history. Yes, I just wrote that line, and I can fully support the position with the following data points. (1) Thome has hit at least 30 home runs in the last 12-seasons that he has come to the plate at least 425 times. (2) Thome has knocked in at least 85 runs in each of the last 12-seasons that he has come to the plate at least 425 times. The only time in the past 13 years that Thome didn’t reach those plateaus was 2005 when he was limited to just 193 at-bats due to injury.

By Ray Flowers

Injuries and Diagnosis

Tuesday has been yet another day of injury reports, sprinkled with a bit of info about player performance. In what follows, my analysis will fall along those lines as well.

Jose Contreras has hurled 15 scoreless innings at Triple-A since he was sent down to work on things. Just goes to show you how large the gap is between the majors and the minors cause I really don’t think he has turned back the clock 10 years in a mere two weeks.

Mike Fontenot is 1-for-29 of late to drop his average down to .204. So much for him building on a 2008 that included a .304 average, nine home runs and 40 RBI in just 243 ABs. In fact, Fontenot has been out-produced by lightweight Ryan Theriot who has gone deep as many times as Fontenot, five, while producing one more RBI (18) while hitting .294. That’s why they play the game folks, and the bottom line is that even when you have all your ducks in a row, it doesn’t always work out like you would expect it to (Theriot entered the year with seven home runs in 1,264 at-bats).

Vladimir Guerrero is hopeful of returning from his injured pectoral muscle soon, perhaps as early as next Monday. When he returns he will likely be limited to the DH spot, that is if his rehab work goes well this weekend. As for the team’s pitching staff who recently got back John Lackey and Ervin Santana, there is potentially more good news on the way as Kelvim Escobar(shoulder) is nearing his first rehab appearance of the year next week. He hopes to be able to throw upwards of 60 pitches in the outing. He is hoping to return as a starter, but even if the club eventually decides to slot him as a reliever, his return would not only provide an emotional lift to the club, his right arm could also present favorable returns if he can return to unleashing the filthy stuff that has been his calling card.

Noah Lowry will have another surgery, this one ending his 2009 season. Apparently he will have a rib removed in the same type of procedure that Jeremy Bonderman underwent last season (thoracic outlet syndrome). According to Lowry’s agent this condition has essentially gone undiagnosed for about two years, and this procedure should finally fix what ails the lefty hurler after years of failed attempts including other medical procedures. I wish him all the luck in the world, but it remains to be seen if we will ever see him on the field in the majors ever again, the same situation that may have befallen A’s third baseman Eric Chavez who might have to end his career because of a herniated disc in his back as there is concern that any further baseball related damage could hinder his quality off life moving forward.

Carlos Quentin missed a third straight game because of his heel injury on Tuesday. With Brian Anderson back off the DL, could Quentin be headed to it soon?

Joakim Soria threw on Tuesday for the first time since hitting the DL on May 7th. Obviously that means he will not be ready to go when eligible on Saturday as he only threw off of flat ground. Reports are positive and this news still means that he will likely be back by next week, but continue to look for Juan Cruz to be the man they turn to in the ninth inning for the rest of the week. Speaking of Cruz, his 13 to 10 K/BB ratio is awful and well below his normal 1.99 K/BB rate. Why? The main reason is that his K-rate has plummeted from over 12 per nine the past two years to 6.27 this season. He is still throwing as hard as ever (94.1 mph is his average fastball speed), so expect his K-rate to rise no matter what role he fills moving forward.

I said it on the podcast his morning, and I’m feeling even more secure in the statement I made. Joey Votto’s dizziness continues on without an explanation, and it’s looking more and more like a DL stint is coming. He might avoid it, he last played on May 16th, but even if he doesn’t end up on the DL it looks like this week is pretty much shot, not to mention it remains to be seen how he will fair once he returns because it’s not like you can hit a baseball when you are even slightly dizzy.