Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at South Side Sox

Written by:  Jim Margalus

Orlando Hudson hasn’t officially signed with the White Sox yet, but the picture on his official Twitter account and website shows him wearing a Photoshopped White Sox hat, so I guess we can start talking about it.

(That’s a testament to Hudson’s people. Jesse Crain signed with the White Sox 1 1/2 years ago, and his links page still points to Twins sites.)

Hudson’s been a second baseman his entire career, which has thrown a number of people for a loop. Jon Heyman thought the move was intended to “light a fire” under Gordon Beckham, while Phil Rogers tossed out the idea of a wackadoo reverse platoon at second.

Thankfully, Beckham — hitting .250/.306/.461 in May — will not be disturbed by the Hudson acquisition, whenever it happens. Robin Ventura said Hudson will be involved in the “mix” at third, which probably means he’ll get as much playing time as his talent allows.

Hudson has never played third in the majors, but it’s not stopping the Sox, nor should it be considered weird — at least if you’ve followed the Sox closely enough.

The Blue Jays raised Hudson as a third baseman, and he logged 242 games at third in Toronto’s farm system before they moved him to second. Given his minor-league experience, it means that even though he’s never played third in a major-league game, he has still logged way more time than several players the White Sox have assigned to that position over the past seven seasons.

Ever since Joe Crede’s back gave out, the Sox have thrown a lot of players at third base in the hopes of getting some measure of adequacy. Some played the position their entire professional lives, while others had heard of it. Churning through Baseball-Reference.com, here’s the list of White Sox starters and primary backups, listed in chronological order with the amount of third-base experience they brought to the job, majors and minors:

Pablo Ozuna: 0 MLB, 10 MiLB
Josh Fields: 0 MLB, 361 MiLB
Juan Uribe: 27 MLB, 1 MiLB
Wilson Betemit: 237 MLB, 198 MiLB
Gordon Beckham: 0 MLB, 8 MiLB
Mark Teahen: 363 MLB, 352 MiLB
Omar Vizquel: 20 MLB, 0 MiLB
Brent Morel: 21 MLB, 140 MiLB
Brent Lillibridge: 5 MLB, 0 MiLB
Eduardo Escobar: 0 MLB, 0 MiLB

That’s a funny-looking list for a number of reasons. The weirdest thing about it is that the three guys with the most experience at third also happened to be the three worst. By far.

It also means that Hudson fits right in with the White Sox’s plans. He’s never played third in the majors? He’s not alone. His arm strength is suspect? Well, he has company there, too.

Hudson could be a disaster at third. His arm strength is suboptimal for the position, and it’s been a long time since he’s he’s had to read the ball off the bat from the left side, not to mention cutoffs, bunts and such. The Sox should be prepared for this fate, although the league-minimum obligation shouldn’t be much of an anchor.

Still, nobody should knock it until Robin Ventura tries it. Given the assortment of guys the Sox have played at third over the last seven years, there’s no rhyme or reason to who thrives and who fails.

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at The Nats Blog

Written by: Erin Flynn

When I walked out of the umpires’ tunnel and onto the field to watch batting practice as a part of the Washington Nationals’ annual Blogger Night, I was in awe. I felt that way partly because of the enormity of the stands towering over me, and partly because being on the field in the ballpark I love, feet away from my favorite baseball players is probably the coolest experience I have ever had in my 18 years of life.

However, more than my being star-struck, that feeling of awe accompanied a sense of surprise. I have been on or around the field during baseball practice for both my high school and college teams. While the balls during BP yesterday were certainly being hit harder and farther than I ever witnessed at one of those practices, the dynamic between the players was almost entirely the same. They were just a bunch of guys hanging out on a baseball field, laughing, talking, and spitting seeds just like any other team. I think so often people give so much focus to the insane talent that these players have, that in our heads they become larger than life, and we forget that they are actually real people. Certainly you can like a player for the simple fact that he is talented and nothing more, but during this opportunity to get an inside look into this team, I found that there are a lot more reasons to be a Nationals fan than what initially meets the eye.

If you are reading this blog, it more than likely means that you are a fan of the Nationals. You might listen to the games on the radio, watch them on TV, or even occasionally drive down to D.C. to attend one in person. You know the players’ names, their positions, their batting averages. But the knowledge level of the average fan stops around there. Bob Carpenter can read you all the stats in the world during his broadcast of a game, but it’s what you don’t see on TV that really makes this team great.

What you don’t see in that broadcast is the sincerity in Gio Gonzalez’s eyes when he says he can’t bear to ever turn away a kid asking for an autograph. So because of his big heart, he has to wear headphones while he is warming up to pitch so he can focus.

What you don’t see is the usually stony-faced Adam LaRoche giving his cell phone number to a triple amputee from a group of Wounded Warriors. You don’t see him saying “call me any time” after showing the soldiers around the clubhouse and hanging out with them while they hit in the batting cages. You don’t see the level of respect that Nationals Senior Director of Community Relations Israel Negron clearly has for LaRoche when he says, “Adam saw [the soldiers] right away as real people,” and not as damaged goods.

You can read about what a “cocky jerk” Bryce Harper is, but what you probably don’t know is that the people who interact with Harper daily couldn’t disagree more with the general perceptions of him. Shaking his head, Negron said: “I’ve seen what other people write about him and honestly, I’m curious about who they’re talking about…Bryce is incredibly humble.”

You can hear about how first baseman Tyler Moore is being made to play in the outfield when he has hardly any experience in that position. But, what you don’t know is that even though at first he felt like he “was playing in the dang Grand Canyon” out there, he practices reading the ball in the outfield literally every day so that he can make his teammates and the fans proud.

So many of the great things about this team that give it so much character go completely unnoticed. So many people only see how they act on the field, when how they act off the field is really where you can fall in love with them.

Seeing the team up close yesterday and interacting with the people who know them made these players mean more to me than they ever have before. I’ll cheer for them in a new way now, knowing that they are regular guys, good guys, who happen to get to play baseball in front of thousands of people for a living.

I’m so thankful that I was able to see all those usually unseen things yesterday, and that I am now able to tell people about them. Because this really is a special team, on the field and off.

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at Mets Today

Written by: Joe Janish

Although Ike Davis stroked a double in Sunday afternoon’s game in Toronto, he has struggled mightily all season, and can’t seem to break out of his slump. As a result, there is buzz that Ike could be sent down to the minors to work out his issues. Is that the best plan?
Per Adam Rubin of ESPN-NY:

“There is nothing etched in stone,” Collins said with respect to minors consideration for Davis. “We will never, never say something is not going to happen. What we’re trying to do is make sure is we wring the rag dry. And that’s why, coming into this road trip, we said, ‘Look, here’s some pretty good opportunities.’ This is a pretty good hitting park. Pittsburgh is a pretty good hitting park. We’ve got right-handers, right-handers, right-handers coming up. Let’s just see if we can get him going.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Davis said Sunday morning. “I’m going to play here until something happens. … I really can’t answer questions about that until something happens. I’m not sent down yet, so I don’t know what to tell you.

“I feel fine. I’ve hit some balls hard, just never found a hole.

As Rubin points out earlier in that article, two other slugging first basemen have been demoted recently: Gaby Sanchez of the Marlins and Toronto’s Adam Lind. So, if Davis is sent down as well, it’s not unprecedented, and shouldn’t be shocking. Looking at the bigger picture, sending Ike to the minors might be a good thing for the Mets over the short-term, considering the way Mike Baxter and Scott Hairston have been swinging the bat lately. With Ike in the minors, the Mets can move Lucas Duda to 1B and give both Baxter and Hairston at-bats while they’re hot. Such a move would also improve the Mets’ outfield defense.
For the long term, sending Ike down might be exactly what he needs to get out of his funk and back on track to being the Mets first baseman of the present and future. There are a few elements at play here. First and foremost, Ike missed nearly an entire season of baseball, and it’s difficult for a hitter to get back in the groove after so much time away. It’s particularly difficult for a hitter who has a long stride, big swing, and lots of moving parts — as Ike does. Timing is everything for Ike, and his is way off — and has been since the beginning of spring training.

The longer Ike struggles, the deeper he digs into a hole, and the harder it is to emerge from it. After a while, a slumping hitter starts taking his thoughts to the field, and may not be as focused on defense. Further, he starts questioning his ability, and without confidence it’s impossible to hit big-league pitching. Finally, there is knowing that you’re hurting your team, and you start to press. We saw this on Sunday afternoon with Ike’s aggressiveness on the bases. It was great that he was hustling and able to stretch a single into a double, and then took third on a wild pitch. But when he went rushing home on the second wild pitch, that was Ike making a decision based on wanting to make a contribution to the team, rather than on smart baseball.

Right now, Ike’s issue is physical: he needs to find his timing. However, it’s being compounded and extended by the mental and emotional strain that comes with continued struggle over length of time. It probably best to be in somewhere in Upstate New York (or Florida), away from the daily stress of the media and the feeling of burdening his teammates, working out his issues. Away from it all, he can focus on getting his swing right, and nothing else.
Here’s my feeling: if Ike doesn’t break out with a few good at-bats and solid line drives in Pittsburgh, then he’ll be demoted. And that will be the right decision. After playing the Pirates, the Mets return to Flushing, where Ike is hitting .065. It makes no sense to put him into the Citi Field environment while he’s slumping badly. Get him down somewhere else — even if it’s Port St. Lucie — to get himself straight. My bet is he’ll return to MLB mashing within a few weeks.

What do you think? Should the Mets demote Ike Davis to the minors to work things out?

Why or why not? And if they do, how should the lineup be reconfigured as a result?

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at C70 At The Bat

Technically, they didn’t leave anything in San Francisco, or at least not that we know of yet. They were still in the city yesterday when they had that kind of flop. I just wanted to see if Matt Sebek was looking for punny titles that weren’t in the Post-Dispatch. After a game like yesterday’s, you got to look for fun where you can, because you weren’t  necessarily going to find it on the field or in anything related to the squad. Save for Matt Holliday being the Hero of the piece with a home run and three RBI, there wasn’t much to take out of their matchup with the Giants.

The Cards were able to jump on Matt Cain early and came back after the Giants took the lead, but Adam Wainwright and, more significantly, the defense behind him couldn’t keep San Francisco from coming back and winning the game. Wainwright hung in there, but he didn’t have the command that we are used to seeing out of the almost-Cy Young winner. Still, being that San Francisco doesn’t have much in the way of offense (walking Buster Posey every time is almost a legitimate strategy), Wainwright was able to limit the damage early, until the defense betrayed him (and the wild pitch he threw didn’t help matters either, putting another runner in scoring position for Brandon Crawford, who drove them both in).

What little damage done off of him has been via the long ball, but again, it’s been minimal. Carlos Beltran has the best numbers off of him, but there’s no guarantee he’ll even play (though, with the other injuries, he probably better).

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at Talking Chop

Written by: gondeee

Watching last night’s game, fans of the Atlanta Braves were hopeful that Mike Minor was past the issues that had plagued him the last three starts … and then the fourth inning
happened. And then the fifth inning happened. Minor had allowed only one baserunner through those first three innings — a two-out walk in the second — the rest of the time he was free to wind up and deliver, and deliver he did, very effectively.

Then the fourth inning happened, and an Omar Infante Single began the unraveling. He hit the next batter, gave up a double, walked a guy — something was different about this Mike Minor than the one I had been watching the first three innings.

In those early innings he was putting the ball exactly where Brian McCann wanted it, hitting the catcher’s mitt with routine precision. In the fourth and fifth innings, he was all over the
place. He was unable to command his pitches with any sort of consistency, and the Marlins batters made him pay.

That prompted me to look up some splits this morning, specifically Minors splits with runners on and with the bases empty, and lo and behold the difference is frightening:

Minor in 2012 with bases empty: .226/.282/.339 … .621 OPS
Minor in 2012 with runners on: .422/..461/.766 … 1.226 OPS

This leads me to believe that Minor’s mechanics out of the stretch, when runners are on base, are out of whack somehow. This is further supported by his numbers last year, which show just the opposite:

Minor in 2011 with bases empty: .345/.399/.554 … .952 OPS
Minor in 2011 with runners on: .222/.291/.316 … .608 OPS

Last year he was at his best when the situation was the most difficult, but 2010 was a different story, though still not as bad as this year:

Minor in 2010 with bases empty: .278/.320/.433 … .753 OPS
Minor in 2010 with runners on: .361/.395/.653 … 1.048 OPS

For whatever reason this makes me think of Chipper Jones, and how he has to work at two different swings — his left-handed swing and his right-handed swing. You’ll often hear him
comment that he’s going great from one side, but can’t get it straitened out from the other side. Minor might be one of those pitchers who has two distinct enough pitching styles –
one from the wind-up, the other out of the stretch — where sometimes one is working and the other is not. This certainly seems to be the case.

Whether this is truly a mechanical flaw or not, or simply some crazy factor of luck, or even a mental approach that is not always there in certain situations, we can only speculate. But the
data seems to indicate that Minor currently has a flaw in his mechanics out of the stretch.

The question for the Braves is whether that can be fixed in the Majors, or whether a minor league assignment would be in order so he can work on this particular issue. As JunkStats pointed out last night, Minor is the first pitcher in the Majors since Kenny Rogers in 2008 to allow 6+ runs in four consecutive starts. Since 1978, only two Braves have had more than five starts in a season with 6+ earned runs allowed, Minor already has five starts with 6+ runs allowed this year. So you can see, this kind of poor performance is a rare thing for a Braves starting pitcher.

With Jair Jurrjens performing even worse in triple-A, he doesn’t seem to be an option to replace Minor in the rotation. Julio Teheran has done well so far this season, much like he
did last year, but do the Braves have the confidence to promote him again? Kris Medlen or Livan Hernandez could start, but how would losing one of them from the bullpen effect the
bullpen?

The Braves need to do something, because even a good offense can’t cover up for Minor’s problems every game. Atlanta can’t keep hoping that Minor figures it out; the games up here
are too important, and the National League East is too tight of a race for any more time to be spent waiting for Minor to figure out his problems. I say demote him, and fill in his rotation
spot with either Teheran, Medlen, or Livan. What say you?

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at BlueBird Banter

Written by:  Woodman663

The MLB First-Year Player Draft is a yearly event that plays a big role in determining the future success of many of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball. In early June (June 4th this year), commissioner Bud Selig will host the event, which spans three days, announcing the teams that get to select one of the available players to negotiate a contract with. The Houston Astros get to pick first because of their terrible performance in 2011, while the Blue Jays first pick at number seventeen. The Blue Jays will also have the 22nd pick as compensation for not coming to terms with last year’s first round pick Tyler Beede. The Jays have also been awarded compensation for losing Jose Molina, Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, in the form of the 50th, 58th and 60th picks. That 60th pick will be the last pick made on day one of the draft, and the Jays will have made the most selections, tied with St.Louis, with five first-rounders. AL East rivals the Yankees, Rays and Orioles will have picked only once, while the Red Sox get three selections on the first day. From the second round onwards the Jays will simply have one pick per round.

The importance of this event, now less than three weeks away, is easily explained: most of MLB’s players have come through the draft, only those players from Latin America and Asia signed as international free agents have not been picked in a draft. And now that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has put a limit on international spending in Latin America, the importance of the draft might be even greater than it has been. Toronto Blue Jays’ General Manager, Alex Anthopoulos, has made the draft a priority from the start of his tenure. He has smartly acquired draft picks through free agent compensation, expanded the club’s scouting department and spent good amounts of money to sign draft picks with high bonus demands. In this first preview we’ll look at what the Jays’ strategy has been in the past two drafts, and how the new rules will affect that strategy.

New Rules

While the amount of money a team can spend on the draft is now limited, the amount allocated to clubs’ bonus pools is not that far off what they spent last year. The Jays can still
spend an amount near what they spent last year without getting hit by a penalty, like the loss of future first-round picks. One problem is that picks beyond the third round that fail to sign will be lost completely, and the bonus pool will shrink accordingly. So a team can not use the money they save by failing to sign a draft pick on other draft picks, making it more risky to pick players with high bonus demands.

The Blue Jays’ Strategy

High Upside Position Players

The Blue Jays know that it takes a lot to win in the toughest division in baseball. GM Alex Anthopoulos has therefore made it an organizational strategy to look for players who could become stars. The downside to that type of player is that they have a bigger chance to never even reach the Majors, because their projected development is based on speculation. But if they do fulfill their potential, these players are exactly what is needed to compete with the very best. So, the kind of position players the Blue Jays will select in a draft are players who can play an important defensive position competently while also having the potential to become a good hitter. Although he was drafted before AA took over, Jake Marisnick would be a great example. Adeiny Hechavarria, also, and although he wasn’t drafted, he was signed as an international free agent by Anthopoulos. The Jays’ GM will be hoping that Jacob Anderson, a 2011 draftee, can follow in Marisnick’s footsteps to become a top prospect quickly.

Big, Strong, Projectable Pitchers

While we shouldn’t assume that Pat Tabler has had anything to do with who the Jays have selected in their drafts, it is remarkable how many Tabler-approved pitchers the Jays have selected. Not only have the Jays selected mostly tall pitchers, they’ve also made it a priority to select those who could still add some muscle to their frame and possibly improve their velocity even further. Alex Anthopoulos has also said that the Jays’ scouts don’t simply look at velocity, but look at the velocity a pitcher can throw strikes at. The Jays’ scouting department has already uncovered multiple gems that were underrated coming into the 2010 draft in Justin Nicolino and Noah Syndergaard. They’ll be hoping that fellow surprise picks Joe Musgrove and Jeremy Gabryszwski can have the same success.

Players who are injured in the year of the draft

Sam Dyson, John Stilson and Mark Biggs are all examples of players who saw their stock drop due to injury. The Jays gambled on their health and signed them anyway. Of course, a team will control a drafted player for a long time, so it makes sense to look beyond current injuries to the player’s long-term chances of success. However, especially with pitchers, the chance of recurring injuries should not be overlooked. With the new rules in place, the Jays may look for less risky picks, especially in the case of injurEd High schoolers, who will probably not want lower their demands and go to college to prove they’re healthy.

Players who have a down year in the year of the draft

This category is somewhat similar to the last one. These are players who were not injured, but dropped in the eyes of scouts for other reasons. The Jays have gambled on the idea that these players would return to previous form, whereas other teams shied away from them because most scouts seem to be largely focused on recent performance. Kevin Comer, Christian Lopes, Matt Dean and Andrew Suarez (did not sign) are examples of this kind of player that was highly rated at the start of the season but dropped as the draft approached. Like the injured players, I do expect more of these guys to go to college because their demands will be based on their previous reputation, while teams will be
hesitant to gamble on a comeback year.

Best player, regardless of position

You might have heard this before, but it’s worth repeating: the Jays will not draft for need. Is there a lack of second basemen in the system? Yes, quite probably there is. But the Jays know that their picks will take a long time to develop, and by 2016 or so the organizational picture could look very different from now. Additionally, Alex Anthopoulos is one of the most prolific GMs on the trade market, and he’ll trade excess pitchers for position players if he has to. He already turned Shaun Marcum into Brett Lawrie, and Zach Stewart plus others into Colby Rasmus. He’ll probably do things like that again.

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at Twinkie Town

Written by: Steve Adams

Quick show of hands: Who had Scott Diamond as the Twins leader for WAR among pitchers through the season’s first six weeks? Easy enough to predict, right?

In what’s been a brutal season thus far, Diamond has provided us with at least s fleeting breath of fresh air. Whether or not you’re a believer in his ability to maintain success at the Major League level, it looks like the Twins can at the very least break even on the trade they made with the Braves to retain Diamond. That’s a lot better than a lot of people thought at the time of the deal.

The Twins sent Billy Bullock to Atlanta to retain Diamond. Bullock, the Twins second-rounder in 2009, was widely considered to be the organization’s top power arm prospect. The trade was frustrating on a number of levels. Then-GM Bill Smith had cited a desire for power arms
when he traded J.J. Hardy for Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobsen, and then flipped the system’s best one for a finesse lefty. The Twins could have kept Diamond for nothing by just giving him a roster spot for the entirety of the 2011 season, but optioned him to Triple-A in favor of guys like Jeff Manship. Manship pitched 3.1 innings before being sent down.

All of that was frustrating. But, just over a year later, it doesn’t seem to matter. Bullock has been largely terrible for the Braves’ top minor league affiliates. In 69.1 innings of work, he’s 53 batters (including 19 in 19.2 this season) and also hit 10 men. Combined with his hits, he’s allowed 35 percent of the batters he’s faced to reach base. The 14+ K/9 he showed the Twins in Double-A has dropped to 10.6 overall, and just 7.3 thus far in 2012.

All told, the 14 brilliant innings Diamond has turned in so far this year may end up being more impressive than anything Bullock does if he can’t corral the walks. I’m not rooting against the guy, but it’d be difficult to stomach if Bullock had developed (or does develop) into Craig Kimbrel 2.0.

Meanwhile, as much as we’d all just like to put the Johan Santana trade to bed, Deolis Guerra doesn’t want to let us. He’s struck out 25 hitters through 23.2 innings while walking only five between Double-A and Triple-A. Guerra’s 1.14 ERA is likely a mirage, but he had an under-the-radar 3.72 FIP at Double-A in 2011. He’s continued to strike batters out at a prolific rate while limiting the free passes since the beginning of 2011. There’s hope yet that he could become a Major League contributor, perhaps even a high-leverage arm to pitch late in games for this team. While that’s not much compensation for an elite starting pitcher, as fans Twins fans we know it only takes one desperate general manager to overpay for 25
innings of that bullpen arm he so desperately feels he needs. Maybe someday everything will balance out, and the Twins will get a team’s No. 3 prospect in exchange for a few months of Guerra

I’d imagine at some point this season, we see Guerra in a Twins uniform. Who knows? He may even come in and take the ball from Diamond in the eighth inning following another solid performance, and for a really brief moment, relieve some frustration by providing a bright spot in an otherwise maddening season. It’s not much to hang your hat on, but when the season’s gone as it has so far, I’ll take all of the positives, silver linings, and small victories I can get.

Continue reading »]]> This article comes from our friends at True Grinch

Written by: James

Angel fans are mad. More than anything we are frustrated. Nothing is more deflating to a sports fan than to see their favorite team thumped in a big game against a bitter rival. Watching the two losses to the Texas Rangers over the weekend was torture. Worse yet – it was a slow torture.

This is ugly. The worst case scenario is here staring us all in the face. Enthusiasm has turned to rage. Hope has turned to fear. Angel fans are fighting mad. They are pointing fingers and they want some heads to roll. They’re lighting up the phone lines for radio call-in shows, and burning up message boards on the internet like a wild fire.

And… I love it.

Even though it’s hard to listen to the ranting of Angel fans and just as hard to read what they have to say – I’m glad it’s happening. It’s good to see that Angel fans care because the alternative is apathy and that’s a death sentence to a franchise.

More than ever, Angel fans are emotionally invested in their team and it wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t say such things.

That being said – this can’t go on. It has to stop. If the Angels don’t start showing signs of life soon; especially Albert Pujols – the fall out will be severe. Attendance is already down; that despite the reported uptick in pre-season sales.

Face it – So. Cal fans are fickle. They have way too many options for their entertainment dollar and if the Angels continue to struggle – all the good will created from 2002 through 2009 will be a distant memory.

Okay – so here we are. You want answers, right? Well, so do I. We can devote this post to placing blame and suggesting solutions – but if I did that, I’d be like a lot of other blogs and I’m not going to do that.

I will give you some of my thoughts on Albert Pujols and you can file these comments under “Everything you hear isn’t true…”

People keep saying that the Angels should be winning games regardless of Albert’s struggles. Really? Well consider this – in his career he has hit .370 with a 1.184 OPS when his team wins. When his team loses? He has hit .269 with a .822 OPS. The difference is significant. Teams go as Albert goes or at least that how it appears to me.

New league; new pitchers – does it make a difference? I couldn’t find any statistics to analyze for this scenario, but I did find something interesting. The more Albert sees a pitcher in a game, the better he hits. When he faces a starter for the first time his BA is .312 and with each AB, that statistic goes up. Second time: .321; third time: .360; fourth time (or more): .362.

I’d say there is a correlation; wouldn’t you? If he hits a pitcher better the more time she sees him in a single game, I would think the same would be true over the course of a season.

People (and I believe Albert himself) say he’s not a pull hitter. Really? For his career, he has hit .468 when his hits have been pulled to left field; .321 when they’ve gone up the middle and .304 to the opposite field. Consider this – 213 of his 446 career homeruns have been to left field. He has hit 93 to left center, 71 to center, 40 to right field and 29 to right center.

What does it all mean? Heck, if I know. I guess my point is that everyone has an answer, but some of those observations are based on who they think Albert is and not necessarily who he really is.

Confused? Yeah, me too. That’s baseball for you. Just consider it all food for thought as you sit there licking your wounds from the weekend. That’s what I’m doing.

It’s a new week and there are new opportunities. Keep the faith folks – this has to turn around soon.

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at The Nats Blog

Written by: Joe Drugan

The story line of Monday’s Washington Nationals game should have been totally about Bryce Harper’s first MLB home run, an absolute bomb to straight away center. The man trotted the bases so quickly the team couldn’t even coordinate a celebration for him, but he sure did get a standing ovation and a curtain call. However, some other big events came up throughout the game.

Yet another injury plagues the Nats as the freshly called up Sandy Leon went down with a high ankle sprain on a play at the plate with Chase Headley in the fourth inning. In his MLB debut, Leon was sent to the disabled list immediately afterwards according to manager Davey Johnson in his press conference. It’s yet another blow to the team’s growing DL, and the Nats are way down the depth chart at the catching position. It may be time for GM Mike Rizzo to make a roster move to get some help there.

After falling behind 5-4 in an uncharacteristically high scoring game for both the Nats and the Padres, Ian Desmond hit a two-RBI double high off the right field wall to put the team ahead 6-5. The self-proclaimed Goon Squad, the Nats bench, lit it up for two home runs in the eighth inning from Chad Tracy and Xavier Nady, making it 8-5. And after Henry Rodriguez loaded the bases with just one out in the ninth, Sean Burnett came in for the save with a 1-2-3 double play to end the game. It was yet another not-for-the-faint-of-heart game, but they earned the Curly W and first-place status once again.

Some Thoughts:

- It’s time for the Henry Rodriguez as a closer experiment to end. He’s been inconsistent lately and has been nearly unable to throw strikes with any consistency. He’s walked five batters in the last inning of work. When he does, Joey Votto hits a walk-off grand slam. Just saying. Whether it’s a closer-by-committee or someone else gets the chance until Drew Storen or Brad Lidge return, it’s time to look at new options. We’ll look at those  options in a post later today.

- Craig Stammen has been absolutely outstanding this season. He still sports a 1.29 ERA and a 2.13 FIP. He’s struck out 23 batters in in 21 innings and walked just four. It is amazing, but when Stammen enters the game, it’s a relaxed feelings. Maybe he should give Henry some notes.

- Ross Detwiler had his first kind of rough start of the season on Monday. He went five innings, giving up four earned runs. I brought his season ERA up to a still-incredible 2.75 and a comparable 2.98 FIP. It was a fine outing by most standards, but the Nats starters have raised the bar quite a lot this season. There are more than 20 teams out there that probably would have killed to have an outing like that from Detwiler, so in my mind, let’s just move on to the next one.

Continue reading »]]> This article is courtesy of our friends at Red Reporter

Written by: Ken

Now that’s a walk-off

The Reds, or more correctly Joey Votto, salvaged the Nationals series in coming back in dramatic fashion yesterday. With the win, Cincinnati pulled to within 2 1/2 games of St. Louis, who just got swept by Atlanta. Joel tweets that Votto’s walk-off salami was just the 5th in team history since ’48, after Ed Bailey, Frank Robinson, Don Pavletich, & Adam Dunn. According to Elias, Votto is the first player in MLB history with 3 HRs, one of which as a walk-off grand slam. Ray Knight may wish to reconsider his vote for the starting First baseman for the National League All-Stars. You can vote here, Ray.

The Reds have entered a 20 games in 20 days stretch

After leaving Milwaukee Thursday, the Reds enjoyed their last off day until May 31. The twenty-game stretch isn’t against a bunch of creampuffs, either. The Reds will now do battle with the Braves, who sit at the top of the NL East with the team that just left Cincinnati. The Gotham squads, both of which are above .500, are on deck. Said BP: “It’s either gonna make us or it’s gonna break us.” That might be a tad dramatic, but the Reds don’t want to enter Memorial Day looking up at a seven-game Cardinal lead, either.

Johnny Cueto continues to mock his peripherals and opposing lineups

It’s tricky to tell when a pitcher is different enough from his peers that we shouldn’t expect a regression to his FIP, SIERA, or whatever your DIPS-based metric of choice is. I sure want to believe in Johnny, and Fay’s article about his excellent start against the Brewers lends support. Says Hanigan: “When we need pitches, he knows that. He’s going to battle. You can see his reaction. He’s not happy when he wastes pitches. He doesn’t waste too many. Besides that, he attacks you. He comes at you. He changes speeds. He hits corners. If he feels like he can, he’ll pump it by you. He does different things. We’re in good tempo, good rhythm. Certain guys we’re more careful with. Certain guys we go right after. It’s been fun.”

Mike Leake has not outperformed anything, unfortunately

He’s still the presumptive starter for the first game against the Mets on Wednesday, though Dusty doesn’t exactly offer resounding support for Lil’ Mike: “We haven’t covered that yet. I’d like to think so. … As of right now, the answer is yes.” Baker rightly added that pitching in spacious Citi Park might help Leake out.

Daugherty wonders if Scott Rolen is done

It’s not an unfair question. I was optimistic that Rolen’s offseason shoulder surgery would give him that one final good year. At Goodyear, he slugged well over .500. And even with a low average he’s still hit for some power during the regular season. But now that he’s on the disabled list, Doc lays it out in no uncertain terms: “You wonder what the Reds were thinking. Either they left Goodyear entirely fooling themselves. Or they’ve made a very big miscalculation. Either way, a run-challenged team is now without a power plant at third base, normally a power position. And Rolen’s crucial leadership skills can’t be flexed in the training room. It wasn’t a good gamble, and not just in hindsight.”

With Rolen out, Todd Frazier figures to see some starts at the hot corner

But Dusty isn’t handing the job over to him. “That depends on Frazier. It could be (Miguel) Cairo. I’ve got an idea what guys’ strengths and weaknesses are. … We’ll see. It’s up to Frazier.”

Mike Costanzo will likely not see any starts at third, but it’s impossible not to like his story

The 28 year-old made his ML debut yesterday, hitting a sacrifice fly in the Reds win. Costanzo was considered a legitimate prospect several years ago, but his development floundered to the point where Baltimore asked him to pitch in 2010. Astutely recognizing Baltimore’s questionable player evaluation skills, Costanzo went the independent route and eventually landed with the Reds. “I love baseball. Definitely being 28 and in Triple-A the last five years, going to indy ball and doing all of that stuff, it makes you wonder sometimes. Never did I want to stop playing.” Like I said, it’s impossible not to like this guy.

A wire-to-wire marathon

At Cincinnati’s Flying Pig marathon a week ago, a team of five runners decked out in Reds singlets (and one with Sabo-inspired rec specs) ran the 26.2 mile course in 3 hours, 4 minutes (7:02/mile pace). An impressive time, especially considering they were tethered together. In fact, the quintet set the world record for such a feat. But if you asked me they missed a golden sponsorship opportunity, because nothing promotes cardiovascular health quite like Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

The Hardball Times addresses the state of the NL Central

Is 2012 the “great leap year” for Jay Bruce: “We’ve seen stretches like this from him before, so it’s much too early to proclaim him the superstar he was supposed to be, but the signs are good…. Most importantly, he seems willing to go the other way, and this isn’t just announcers talking. Spray charts agree that something has changed. If he keeps it up, life will be very good for Reds fans for the next several years.”

The Diamondbacks shed a new skin for a recent promotion

It looked like a graffitied cast, but the Ryan Roberts tattoo sleeve giveaway was apparently a success for Arizona. It’s kinda funny how much tattoos can be reviled or revered in sports.

Braun’s precedent leads to another suspension reversal

Though derided by the media, MLB and the Union has taken the reversal of Ryan Braun’s suspension very seriously. Recently MLB dropped its 100-game suspension of Colorado Rockies catcher Eliezer Alfonzo due to the same procedural issues that Braun successfully petitioned. Alfonzo has already served about half of the suspension he received last year. What’s particularly interesting is that the reversal was made without a hearing – in other words, the league and the union decided after Braun’s case that Alfonzo should benefit from whatever arguments and circumstances that helped Braun. Which makes publishing Braun’s decision (something the arbitrator, league, and/or union have resisted) all the more important. Fight the power, Eliezer.