Sunday, March 21, 2010

Romero, Willis continue strong pitching

Blue Jays LHP Ricky Romero became the first pitcher to record three wins this spring, with a pitching line of 552225 in a 13-3 victory over the Orioles. Baltimore CF Adam Jones hit a home run against Romero, who has a 1.93 spring ERA. Orioles RHP Jeremy Guthrie continued to struggle. He gave up two home runs to Toronto OF Travis Snider and one of the two homers C John Buck hit. Buck’s other tater was against RHP Frank Mata. Jays OF/3B Jose Bautista cooled off, with an 0-for-4 game dropping his average to .524.
In the Dodgers’ 7-3 win over the Cubs, LF Manny Ramirez hit his first homer, a two-run blast against RHP Ryan Dempster.
Tigers LHP Dontrelle Willis continued his comeback with a line of 300012 in their 5-4 victory over the Astros. OF Brennan Boesch drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning against journeyman RHP Gary Majewski. Don’t get too excited about Boesch. He led the Double-A Eastern League in home runs last season, but he’ll be 25 in April.
OF Jonny Gomes, who had to sweat out most of the off-season before the Reds re-signed the free agent, hit his third homer. The shot against LHP Jeremy Sowers provided the only runs in Cincinnati’s 6-2 loss to the Indians. File this away: Indians C prospect Jesus Montero played left field in the game as the Tribe look for a position to get his bat into the lineup.
The Twins scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning on 3B prospect Luke Hughes’ double against their former teammate, RHP Brian Bass. That gave Minnesota a 5-4 victory over the Pirates. Pittsburgh OF/2B Delwyn Young slugged his fourth homer – against RHP Clay Condrey, whose chances to play a significant role in the Twinkies’ bullpen took a hit from a line of 133300 that inflated Condrey’s ERA to 10.80.
The Mets continued to hit with more power than they showed at just about any time last season. LF Jason Bay homered against Marlins LHP Renyel Pinto, and RF Jeff Francoeur connected against RHP Ricky Nolasco as New York won 5-2. LHP Hisanori Takahashi – not Ken Takahashi, who pitched some for the Mets last year – earned an extended save with a line of 2 1/3 20011. Don’t count on a lot from this Takahashi, who will be 35 (at least) when the season begins.
Rangers LF Josh Hamilton homered for the second consecutive day. His third of the spring was against Brewers LHP Manny Parra, who struggled to a line of 565505. With Texas RHP Tommy Hunter unable to go, RHP Guillermo Moscoso filled in as the starter, with a line of 2 1/3 32204. The Rangers’ pitching star was LHP Matt Harrison, with eight strikeouts in four innings. In Texas’ 6-4 victory, its pitchers struck out 16 Milwaukee batters. Included were three each by 2B Rickie Weeks and RF Corey Hart.
Rays 1B Carlos Pena hit a solo homer, his first this spring, but that wasn’t enough as the Yankees defeated Tampa Bay 6-4.
Sample Scouting Report:
Ricky Romero, LHP, Blue Jays
Ht.: 6-0 Wt.: 210 T: L Age: 25 Inj. Risk: 10 Alt. Pos.: SP
{2010} Romero can strike out major league batters, but his success comes mostly from retiring them on ground balls. He has had a very good exhibition season, in part because of a cut fastball he worked on during the off-season. There’s cause for concern that he might not be able to do as well as he did last season. Romero, whose best minor league ERA was 4.42, slumped to 6-6 with a 5.54 ERA during the second half of his rookie major league season. He might not be able to reach higher expectations this season because he could be making nearly half of his starts against the superior competition of the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays in the American League East. Don’t confuse him with Davis Romero, another recent Toronto left-handed pitching prospect. Born: Nov. 6, 1984, Los Angeles, Calif. 2009: Blue Jays, 178 IP, 13 W, 4.30 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 0 S, 141 SO.
Projection
IP: 180 W: 11 ERA: 4.15 WHIP: 1.40 S: 0 SO: 138 Value: $2

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