Around the Horn: April7, 2011

(1) Lastings Milledge released by the White Sox. Will he ever reach his potential?

(2) Edinson Volquez struggling to find the strike zone – again.

(3) Logan Morrison has a bright future, but what is his value this season?

(4) Michael Bourn tweaks groin. Does that mean he’ll stop running?

(5) Yunel Escobar has head injury. Hopefully it’s minor after his hot start.

(6) Vlad Guerrero – he can still hit despite his slow start.

By Ray Flowers

Will it Ever End?

The Pirates are at it again, and that isn’t a good thing. For a proud franchise, one that has won nine pennants and five world championships in it’s illustrious history, there is no end in sight to the continual failures of the organization.

Next Year.

That’s the refrain the fans are fed year after year by the front office.

And year after year the refrain is repeated yet again.

For a group of fans that haven’t witnessed their team post a .500 record since Barry Bonds left the club after the 1992 season, their frustration must be at an all-time high. Why do I say that? Well beyond their unbelievable run of futility, the Pirates made a couple of moves in past day or so that has the team, once again, looking to the future. This time the players are voicing their displeasure at the moves.

“It’s not our job to understand the big plan, I guess,” first baseman Adam LaRoche said.

Here is what shortstop Jack Wilson had to say. “We know that they’re looking to the future, which doesn’t say much about 2009. We’re five games out, and we lost two or three of our everyday players…I’ve been here nine years. I’ve seen two or three of these trades every year and still haven’t had a winning season.”

Management, of course, has a different take.

“The upside that we’re gaining is something we can’t pass up,” manager John Russell said.

What moves are we talking about?

The Pirates sent OF Nyjer Morgan, RP Sean Burnett and jack of all trades Eric Hinske out of town in a couple of moves, and in return they netted the talented but enigmatic Lastings Milledge and the talented but unproductive Joel Hanrahan. It really can’t be argued that the club received the more talented players in these deals, but the questions are a plenty.

(1) Can a guy who was banished to the minors a year after hitting 14 home runs while stealing 24 bases be a difference maker? What if that guy was terribly ineffective at the dish this season (.167 in 24 at-bats) prior to his demotion? What if that guy continues to live his life as if no one else matters but himself? Milledge has 20/20 talent, but he has proven thus far to have a .20 cent head.

(2) Does the club really need a 95 mph throwing reliever who failed miserably as a closer this season for the Nationals (five saves, five blown saves)? You can’t teach 95, and Hanrahan does have 128 Ks in his last 117 innings so he certainly has talent, but he is far from a finished product with a career walk rate of 5.04 per nine innings

Beyond these two moves, which again seemed to net the club the more talented options, the question becomes one that the organization must answer to the fans – do they intend to make money or produce a winning squad? Remember, this is a team that let its best player, Jason Bay, go last year in a late season deal and then followed that move up by trading their new “best” player to the Braves when they moved Nate McLouth this season. What kind of message does a club send to it’s fan base when it trades away its number three and four hitters for a couple of prospects, a decidedly average starting pitcher (Charlie Morton), a pitcher no one has heard of in Bryan Morris, a failed reliever in Craig Hansen and a failed outfielder in Brandon Moss? Oh yeah, the club also got third baseman Andy LaRoche but I almost forgot him because he is hitting a whopping .278 with a massive three home runs and a staggeringly mediocre .750 OPS this season.

Look, I’m not a Pirates fan at all, but I can sympathize with the fans of a club that have to pay money to watch an ownership group that continues to say “wait til next year.” My question is, will they ever reach the point of “next year” or is this a conundrum in the same vein as the fact that we think we can never travel the speed of light as Albert Einstein posited many years ago (why is light speed travel not possible you ask? For those of you that care click on the link to Speed of Light and scroll down to “The Ultimate Speed of Light” for a brief description). For the Pirates sake I truly hope next year really is next year, though I still wonder if the Pirates have assembled enough talent to even return to the level of respectability and a .500 record. One can hope, and the eternal optimist in us all surely hasn’t given up on that.

By Ray Flowers

Windy City Baseball

I ended up discussing a bunch of White Sox player’s in today’s piece (and even a Cubs’ one). Don’t worry if you aren’t a fan of Chicago baseball though as I also made sure to touch on some non-Windy City events as well.

Jose Contreras was sent to the minors after looking pitiful in six starts this season during which time he went 0-5 with a 8.19 ERA and a 1.89 WHIP. He also struck out no one (5.16 K/9) while walking everyone (4.85 BB/9). The only shock here is that he wasn’t removed from the rotation sooner. If you bought in to his hot spring, well, you should have listened to your truly who told you this would happen. By the way, the other washed up returning starting pitcher for club, Bartolo Colon, has been serviceable for those of you in AL-only leagues going 2-3 with a 4.88 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. Of course, his K/BB is awful 1.92, and his average fastball is just 89 mph (92.5 for his career). I would be worried about the bottom falling out there as well.

Bobby Jenks sent a message to the Rangers’ Ian Kinsler on Sunday when he fired a fastball behind Kinsler. “You don’t want to see anyone getting hurt. My intentions were not to hurt the guy, like I said before, but I was protecting my guys as well.” The White Sox apparently are tired of their hitters being hit as they have been plunked 16 times this season, the fifth highest total in the majors (they have been hit by a pitch 331 times since the start of 2004 while their pitchers have only hit 270 batters). I love Jenks for standing up for his guys, but really, what does it serve to say what he did to the press? The only thing he will likely be serving is a suspension being that he admitted to throwing at Kinsler. That brings up another point – since when did throwing at a guy deserve a suspension? If that was the case back when the game was played by men, how many times would Bob Gibson have been suspended? He may never have pitched a single complete game (he amazingly threw 255 in 528 starts) if today’s rules were in effect when his menacing presence was terrorizing hitters in the 1960′s and 70′s.

Watch out for the Angels who are just half a game behind the Rangers in the AL West. The club sits about in the middle of the back in the pitching categories, but they are about to get all kinds of healthy with John Lackey and Ervin Santana likely to join the club by the end of the week. Playing .533 ball without your two best starters is certainly something. If you add into that mix two of the top-20 starting pitchers in the American League, well, you’ll have to feel pretty good about things if you cheer along with the Rally Monkey and the Angels.

Derrek Lee’s neck injury isn’t career threatening. That was the report out of the Chicago Tribune. Look, any injury to someone’s neck is extremely serious, but was the club really so concerned about Lee and his bulging disc that they thought he might have to hang up his spikes? If so, they sure did a good job of making it sound like he was merely missing a few days to rest things. He should avoid the DL and be back by mid-week according to the latest reports.

Lastings Milledge suffered a broken finger at Triple-A, an injury that will obviously remove the possibility of returning to the bigs in May, not that he deserved to be considered for a promotion anyway. Milledge is hitting only .253 in 79 at-bats as he had failed to go deep once while knocking in only four runners. Lastings did steal six bags but with an OPS of .594 it was clear that he clearly hadn’t taken the demotion as a chance to prove everyone in Washington wrong. Now it looks like a return before the end of June seems unlikely.

J.R. Towles has been sent back to the minors as the Astros are ready to activate Humberto Quintero. Towles hit only .182 with the club this year, but he was only given 11 at-bats behind Ivan Rodriguez. At some point, don’t the ‘Stros need to move this guy? Towles was hitting .344 in Triple-A this year, is just 25 years old, and owns a .302 average and .866 OPS in more than 1,100 minor-league ABs. Certainly someone can find a backup job for a bat like that behind the dish can’t they?

By Ray Flowers

Tuesday Digest

Did you catch the Nick Swisher pitching outing on Monday? It was a classic. Besides working a scoreless inning in the Yankees debacle (they lost 15-5), he was the only one of the five Yankees who threw a pitch and didn’t allow a run, Swisher also went deep at the plate. As a result, he currently leads the Yankees in batting average (.450), home runs (three), RBI (10) and ERA (0.00). Asked about his outing on the mound in which he threw “fastballs” ranging from 71-80 mph, Swisher had this to say. “I felt that I wanted to go out there and get three outs. I had fun with it. I mean, when am I ever going to have the chance to do that again? Probably never.” The best part of the whole deal? After striking out Gabe Kapler, Swisher asked to keep the ball. Whatever you think of the guy, there isn’t a “looser” guy in the game. Gotta love that attitude.

At the other end of the spectrum as far as personality goes is Lastings Milledge. I was going to do a big expose on the meat head, but Ted Carlson beat me to it with Gut Punch . I’m not giving up on Milledge yet, and it might be a great time to try and get him on the cheap from his undoubtedly frustrated current owner.

Melvin Mora appears likely to be headed to the DL due to continued issues with his hamstring. If that is the case, Ty Wigginton will become the immediate third baseman and must be owned in all fantasy formats. Ty has averaged 23 home runs the past three seasons despite only picking up an average of 459 AB a season, and only needs a spot in the everyday lineup to be a valuable fantasy option. Don’t forget he is also eligible at third base and the outfield giving him even more value. As for Mora, he shouldn’t be out long-term, but if Wigginton impresses, Mora may not so easily recapture his daily spot in the lineup. Ah who am I kidding, when he is healthy he will be out there.

The White Sox are down to Brian Anderson in centerfield now that DeWayne Wise has been placed on the DL due to the shoulder injury he suffered which will keep him out 6-8 weeks. Think they wished they had held on to Nick Swisher now? As for Anderson, well, the Sox clearly have to upgrade the position if they are serious about contending in 2009, and by that we don’t mean calling up Jerry Owens, which they did, or signing Scott Podsednik, which they did. In 603 career ABs, Anderson has gone deep 18 times with 62 RBI while he has also stolen 12 bags. While that sounds like decent production for a centerfielder, the rest of his line is embarrassing for a guy who thinks he deserves a shot at a full season of at-bats: .221/.278/.376. Speaking of Podsednik, he should be worth a look in AL-only leagues as he is clearly a better option than Owens with his ability to get on base (.337 to .321) and steals bags (40 as recently as 2006 for the White Sox).

Milton Bradley already on the shelf for 3-5. What a shock.

Cody Ross is just 2-for-22 this season (.091). He has struck out five times without a walk, a terribly slow start for a guy who hit 22 bombs with 73 RBI last season in 461 AB. Look for him to rebound, though we probably saw the upside he has to offer last year.

Rickie Weeks is a man. He took an Edinson Volquez up and in fastball off his chin and said he is fine. Week’s wasn’t in the lineup on Tuesday, the team chose to give him a day off after he has played every game so far, but he should be back for the team’s next game. He is off to a solid start hitting .276/.364/.448 with four RBI, seven runs and a steal in seven games.