Braves RHP Kris Medlen's progression has been easy to project.
The first news over the weekend was that he had a strained forearm. The next word, that he had ligament damage in his elbow. Next, he visited Dr. James Andrews. Now he might seek a second opinion.
Here's how this is going to end: Tommy John surgery. Mark my words.
Give the Braves credit, and give RHP Ervin Santana a couple of million extra dollars, for Atlanta's fast action. The Braves swooped in and signed the free agent away from other key suitors, the Blue Jays and Orioles, for $14 million.
Santana is the greatest beneficiary among the late-signing free agents. Don't you think OF Nelson Cruz today is wishing Jason Heyward had been injured, so the former Ranger would have received more than the $8 million Baltimore is paying him for 2014?
For openers: It's no surprise that LHP David Price will be the Rays' Opening Day starter.
I hope to be back with more baseball later today. I'm also recording tonight's Giants-Rangers game in case I don't watch it live.
* * *
Hockey. I'm in a rut at 65 points. Still in third place, but the teams above me currently are pulling away and the fourth-place team keeps gaining half a point or a point here and there. The worst was when the team in fourth moved ahead of me in penalty minutes. It's just a 3-minute gap now, but I might have to sign someone like Antoine Roussel to get a couple of extra fights in there.
No. 4 is also three goalie wins and 1 1/2 points ahead of me. I outsmarted myself on a Tuesday matchup by not starting newly acquired Tim Thomas. I didn't think, especially coming off the trauma of Monday night's Rich Peverley collapse, that the Stars could win at St. Louis. They and Thomas did win, allowing just two goals in the overtime game.
* * *
Basketball. After losing for the first time since Week 3, 4-3-1 to the second-place team overall, I've fallen behind 5-3 again this week.
I would like to get 100 wins for our regular season, which ends Sunday. I'd need four wins this week to do that. But more than that, I'd prefer not to lose each of the last two weeks going into the playoffs.
It appears that I'll have four players active Thursday, to just two for my opponent. That could help me make up deficits of one 3-pointer and one steal. I wouldn't be in such dire straits if I hadn't neglected to update my lineup Monday -- leaving three active players, including Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire's big game. Looking back, I think I updated my hockey lineup that day and assumed that I'd also made my basketball changes. Let's not do that again.
Showing posts with label Ervin Santana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ervin Santana. Show all posts
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Pirates hitting, but will they join trend toward more steals?
I started this post late Friday night, figuring I could finish it Saturday morning. Well, it's now early Sunday morning. I'll just update what I wrote for the most part.
The Pirates again jumped on an opposing pitcher early Saturday, then held off the Rays to win 10-5. Pittsburgh scored six runs, four earned, against LHP Matt Moore in the first inning, even without CF Andrew McCutchen. C Russell Martin hit a three-run home run, his third this spring, against RHP Grant Balfour, who's supposed to be Tampa Bay's closer this season. The Bucs' final run came against another veteran reliever, RHP Joel Peralta.
Let me summarize some of the rest of the baseball news.
-- Free-agent RHP Ervin Santana reportedly is close to signing with the Blue Jays, but there also are indications that the Orioles could sign him to complete (?) an almost total overhaul of their rotation. One report said he had agreed to a 1-year, $14-million contract with Toronto, which would make Santana less expensive than Phillies RHP A.J. Burnett.
-- Cardinals 2B/3B Matt Carpenter signed a six-year contract for a minimum of $52 million, with an option for 2020. That's truly a contract with vision.
-- Diamondbacks RHP prospect Archie Bradley is 2-0 and hasn't allowed an earned run this spring. He pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings Saturday in a 5-2 victory over the Angels.
-- The Mariners hammered the Giants 18-3. SS Brad Miller hit his second homer of the spring. OF Michael Saunders also homered and drove in three runs.
-- White Sox LHP Jose Quintana left Saturday's game after facing just two batters. Diamondbacks OF Gerardo Parra hit a line drive off Quintana's lower left leg. He's expected to be held out of baseball activities at least for Sunday.
-- Mariners 2B Robinson Cano missed his third consecutive day Saturday because of root canal surgery.
-- Giants OFs Hunter Pence and Michael Morse are listed as day to day and are expected to miss Sunday's split-squad games because of injuries to Pence's left elbow and one of Morse's calf muscles.
-- Nationals RHP Doug Fister said he isn't concerned about the elbow inflammation that caused him to be scratched from starting Friday. Royals RHP Luke Hochevar might not have been concerned at first, either, but now he'll undergo Tommy John surgery and miss this season.
-- For openers: RHP James Shields will start for the Royals on Opening Day.
* * *
I made a crack a couple of days ago about how Oakland OF prospect Billy Burns could be the next John Cangelosi -- that is, a guy from 20-plus years ago who stole quite a few bases but couldn't do much else for a major league team.
I've also been doing some statistical studies, which show that scoring and power are down in the majors.
What I wasn't thinking was how those two pieces of information are interconnected.
Perhaps it took a feature I saw on how Reds OF Billy Hamilton has been bunting to try to get on base more often so he could use his speed to steal bases.
And I went back even farther, more than 50 years to 1962, to recall how Maury Wills revolutionized the running game with the Dodgers. That influence remained strong for most of the next 30 years, until steroids and power hitters began to take over the game.
Let's talk 2014 -- or definitely later in this decade, if the trends continue. With fewer baseballs flying out of parks and fewer runs being scored, teams will be looking to manufacture runs, as they did during the pitching-dominated '60s.
One way to manufacture runs is by stealing bases. So we can expect to see more steals. Hamilton seems ready this season if he can hit at all. Speedsters such as Burns and Delino DeShields Jr. would arrive later in the teens, if at all.
Will they and other base-stealers have increased value. As an aggregate, no. In Rotisserie (R) League scoring, there still are a finite number of points and dollars of value. More stolen bases mean less value for each steal. If teams do go toward Hamilton/Burns/DeShields-type players, we could see an influx of even more of them, as we did with players such as Vince Coleman, Willie Wilson and Rickey Henderson 30-40 years ago.
There will be more 50-base stealers. Each one of them will have less relative value from base-stealing than Jacoby Ellsbury did with his major league-high 52 bags last year.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't go after such players. If there are, let's say, eight 50-stolen-base guys in the majors, you'll want one of them and not the ninth-best base stealer. What you won't want would be a bunch of high-power, zero-steals players.
* * *
Hockey. I had just two players active Friday night. The Texas Puckin Penguins lost half a point by dropping into a tie for second in power play points. On Saturday, my team dropped another half a point, to third place, in PPP, and lost half a point in wins. I'm down to 66. The fourth-place team added 1 1/2 points on its own, leaving my margin over that owner to 12 1/2 points.
The good news is that my players now have accumulated fewer games than the two teams ahead of me. I should be able to have more players in my lineup than they do during the last few weeks of the season. I doubt that would help me to move up even to second place.
* * *
Basketball. Team Fresh Prints managed to increase its lead to 6-2 after Thursday's games. Gerald Green would have been practically a one-man wrecking crew -- with 44 points and high totals in the two categories I needed most, 3-pointers and steals -- if his 55% field goal shooting hadn't been the worst of any of my players for the night. On Friday, my opponent had several more players in action than I did, and I fell behind in steals to lead just 5-3. I thought I had posted Friday's lineup after the Thursday game, but apparently not. I just noticed three active players on my bench, highlighted (or lowlighted, in this case) by Jose Calderon's 19 points.
I set my lineups for the final two days of this week. After Saturday, I'll waive two players who will be on the court that night, and grab two free agents so I'll have a full active roster of 10 on Sunday. I'm not going to tell you whom I'll add. Wouldn't want to jinx it or tip off anybody.
Saturday's games came and went, and my lead still is 5-3. I will have a full complement of 10 players Sunday, after re-signing free agents Jared Sullinger and Jodie Meeks to replace Boris Diaw and Marco Belinelli.
The Pirates again jumped on an opposing pitcher early Saturday, then held off the Rays to win 10-5. Pittsburgh scored six runs, four earned, against LHP Matt Moore in the first inning, even without CF Andrew McCutchen. C Russell Martin hit a three-run home run, his third this spring, against RHP Grant Balfour, who's supposed to be Tampa Bay's closer this season. The Bucs' final run came against another veteran reliever, RHP Joel Peralta.
Let me summarize some of the rest of the baseball news.
-- Free-agent RHP Ervin Santana reportedly is close to signing with the Blue Jays, but there also are indications that the Orioles could sign him to complete (?) an almost total overhaul of their rotation. One report said he had agreed to a 1-year, $14-million contract with Toronto, which would make Santana less expensive than Phillies RHP A.J. Burnett.
-- Cardinals 2B/3B Matt Carpenter signed a six-year contract for a minimum of $52 million, with an option for 2020. That's truly a contract with vision.
-- Diamondbacks RHP prospect Archie Bradley is 2-0 and hasn't allowed an earned run this spring. He pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings Saturday in a 5-2 victory over the Angels.
-- The Mariners hammered the Giants 18-3. SS Brad Miller hit his second homer of the spring. OF Michael Saunders also homered and drove in three runs.
-- White Sox LHP Jose Quintana left Saturday's game after facing just two batters. Diamondbacks OF Gerardo Parra hit a line drive off Quintana's lower left leg. He's expected to be held out of baseball activities at least for Sunday.
-- Mariners 2B Robinson Cano missed his third consecutive day Saturday because of root canal surgery.
-- Giants OFs Hunter Pence and Michael Morse are listed as day to day and are expected to miss Sunday's split-squad games because of injuries to Pence's left elbow and one of Morse's calf muscles.
-- Nationals RHP Doug Fister said he isn't concerned about the elbow inflammation that caused him to be scratched from starting Friday. Royals RHP Luke Hochevar might not have been concerned at first, either, but now he'll undergo Tommy John surgery and miss this season.
-- For openers: RHP James Shields will start for the Royals on Opening Day.
* * *
I made a crack a couple of days ago about how Oakland OF prospect Billy Burns could be the next John Cangelosi -- that is, a guy from 20-plus years ago who stole quite a few bases but couldn't do much else for a major league team.
I've also been doing some statistical studies, which show that scoring and power are down in the majors.
What I wasn't thinking was how those two pieces of information are interconnected.
Perhaps it took a feature I saw on how Reds OF Billy Hamilton has been bunting to try to get on base more often so he could use his speed to steal bases.
And I went back even farther, more than 50 years to 1962, to recall how Maury Wills revolutionized the running game with the Dodgers. That influence remained strong for most of the next 30 years, until steroids and power hitters began to take over the game.
Let's talk 2014 -- or definitely later in this decade, if the trends continue. With fewer baseballs flying out of parks and fewer runs being scored, teams will be looking to manufacture runs, as they did during the pitching-dominated '60s.
One way to manufacture runs is by stealing bases. So we can expect to see more steals. Hamilton seems ready this season if he can hit at all. Speedsters such as Burns and Delino DeShields Jr. would arrive later in the teens, if at all.
Will they and other base-stealers have increased value. As an aggregate, no. In Rotisserie (R) League scoring, there still are a finite number of points and dollars of value. More stolen bases mean less value for each steal. If teams do go toward Hamilton/Burns/DeShields-type players, we could see an influx of even more of them, as we did with players such as Vince Coleman, Willie Wilson and Rickey Henderson 30-40 years ago.
There will be more 50-base stealers. Each one of them will have less relative value from base-stealing than Jacoby Ellsbury did with his major league-high 52 bags last year.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't go after such players. If there are, let's say, eight 50-stolen-base guys in the majors, you'll want one of them and not the ninth-best base stealer. What you won't want would be a bunch of high-power, zero-steals players.
* * *
Hockey. I had just two players active Friday night. The Texas Puckin Penguins lost half a point by dropping into a tie for second in power play points. On Saturday, my team dropped another half a point, to third place, in PPP, and lost half a point in wins. I'm down to 66. The fourth-place team added 1 1/2 points on its own, leaving my margin over that owner to 12 1/2 points.
The good news is that my players now have accumulated fewer games than the two teams ahead of me. I should be able to have more players in my lineup than they do during the last few weeks of the season. I doubt that would help me to move up even to second place.
* * *
Basketball. Team Fresh Prints managed to increase its lead to 6-2 after Thursday's games. Gerald Green would have been practically a one-man wrecking crew -- with 44 points and high totals in the two categories I needed most, 3-pointers and steals -- if his 55% field goal shooting hadn't been the worst of any of my players for the night. On Friday, my opponent had several more players in action than I did, and I fell behind in steals to lead just 5-3. I thought I had posted Friday's lineup after the Thursday game, but apparently not. I just noticed three active players on my bench, highlighted (or lowlighted, in this case) by Jose Calderon's 19 points.
I set my lineups for the final two days of this week. After Saturday, I'll waive two players who will be on the court that night, and grab two free agents so I'll have a full active roster of 10 on Sunday. I'm not going to tell you whom I'll add. Wouldn't want to jinx it or tip off anybody.
Saturday's games came and went, and my lead still is 5-3. I will have a full complement of 10 players Sunday, after re-signing free agents Jared Sullinger and Jodie Meeks to replace Boris Diaw and Marco Belinelli.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Peace of mind could help Chapman's performance
There's some baseball news today. Not necessarily real meaty stuff for fantasy purposes, but there could be some clues to mental states that could affect performance.
The Reds and LHP Aroldis Chapman agreed to avoid arbitration by splitting the difference between their requested salary figures with a $5-million contract for this season. The amicable settlement could do a lot more for the closer's pitching than the extra $400,000 he'll receive.
Some day the Drew brothers could become a case study for young athletes who've been told how good they are and had their butts kissed for so long that they believe they're better than they are and somehow above the fray of petty matters such as living a life. Of course, nobody ever listens to such cautionary tales.
Since J.D. Drew turned down a contract offer as a No. 1 overall draft pick and signed as the next year's No. 1, he and SS Stephen Drew have had a litany of issues in negotiations, scads of games missed because of injuries, travels from team to team and potentially shorter careers than expected. (For the purposes of this discussion, Tim Drew doesn't count because he was never very highly regarded or effective.)
On the other hand, the Drews and their agents got their money up front, so perhaps the brothers don't care that they had to go to work only for a few years.
The latest Stephen Drew news is that he still hasn't signed. MLB.com pointed out that the primary unsigned free agents such as Drew, OF Nelson Cruz, DH Kendrys Morales and RHPs Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana haven't signed because they would cost the team signing them a draft pick. The baseball draft is hardly an exact science, so second-round, supplementary and even first-round picks aren't a given. But all five players in this paragraph are flawed in their own ways.
1B Yuniesky Betancourt is off the free-agent market. He has signed a guaranteed one-year contract to play in Japan. That sounds like a definite winner, doesn't it? It's not as if he'll face a steady diet of off-speed pitches that he can't hit over there. Or will he?
* * *
Basketball. My lead is down to 6-2 this week. I'm now behind in rebounds and assists. I could have as many as eight players in the lineup Wednesday to seven for my opponent. He appears to have a lot of rebounders in the lineup. Ricky Rubio should be able to help me in assists, and I hope that rebounder Joakim Noah has recovered from the illness that caused him to miss his last game.
* * *
Hockey. Lost half a point in both power-play points and goalie wins. My only goalie in action Tuesday was Tim Thomas. His former team, the Bruins, roughed him up for six goals, dropping me even farther into last place in GAA and save percentage. For the record, Thomas didn't win either. It's a good thing I didn't use Jonas Gustavsson; he gave up five goals and lost.
The Reds and LHP Aroldis Chapman agreed to avoid arbitration by splitting the difference between their requested salary figures with a $5-million contract for this season. The amicable settlement could do a lot more for the closer's pitching than the extra $400,000 he'll receive.
Some day the Drew brothers could become a case study for young athletes who've been told how good they are and had their butts kissed for so long that they believe they're better than they are and somehow above the fray of petty matters such as living a life. Of course, nobody ever listens to such cautionary tales.
Since J.D. Drew turned down a contract offer as a No. 1 overall draft pick and signed as the next year's No. 1, he and SS Stephen Drew have had a litany of issues in negotiations, scads of games missed because of injuries, travels from team to team and potentially shorter careers than expected. (For the purposes of this discussion, Tim Drew doesn't count because he was never very highly regarded or effective.)
On the other hand, the Drews and their agents got their money up front, so perhaps the brothers don't care that they had to go to work only for a few years.
The latest Stephen Drew news is that he still hasn't signed. MLB.com pointed out that the primary unsigned free agents such as Drew, OF Nelson Cruz, DH Kendrys Morales and RHPs Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana haven't signed because they would cost the team signing them a draft pick. The baseball draft is hardly an exact science, so second-round, supplementary and even first-round picks aren't a given. But all five players in this paragraph are flawed in their own ways.
1B Yuniesky Betancourt is off the free-agent market. He has signed a guaranteed one-year contract to play in Japan. That sounds like a definite winner, doesn't it? It's not as if he'll face a steady diet of off-speed pitches that he can't hit over there. Or will he?
* * *
Basketball. My lead is down to 6-2 this week. I'm now behind in rebounds and assists. I could have as many as eight players in the lineup Wednesday to seven for my opponent. He appears to have a lot of rebounders in the lineup. Ricky Rubio should be able to help me in assists, and I hope that rebounder Joakim Noah has recovered from the illness that caused him to miss his last game.
* * *
Hockey. Lost half a point in both power-play points and goalie wins. My only goalie in action Tuesday was Tim Thomas. His former team, the Bruins, roughed him up for six goals, dropping me even farther into last place in GAA and save percentage. For the record, Thomas didn't win either. It's a good thing I didn't use Jonas Gustavsson; he gave up five goals and lost.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Rakuten reportedly is posting Tanaka; let the bidding begin
Finished wrapping the last present. Waiting for everyone else to get up to open presents. Funny how much later you could sleep in when the youngest person in the house is 15 as opposed to, say, 7.
Christmas is probably just another Wednesday in Japan, but it's a big day for Japanese ballplayers here in North America.
The big news is a report that the Rakuten Golden Eagles have agreed to post RHP Masahiro Tanaka. He'll draw the new, discounted maximum posting fee from a number of major league teams.
You'll see the list of the usual big-spending teams, primarily the Yankees and Dodgers, along with the Diamondbacks and most of the American League West -- Angels, Mariners, Rangers -- as the leading candidates to sign Tanaka. He's listed as 25 years old, and I think I short-changed him on his 2013 ERA in an earlier post. It was 1.27, not 1.37.
Also, in an earlier post I indicated that the AL West as a group seems to be downplaying mobility in their outfield defense. That could make it even more desirable for them to sign one of the best pitching prospects from the Eastern Hemisphere before their opponents do. Actually, I'd expect a number of teams to put up the relatively cheap posting fee -- less than 40% of what the Rangers paid for the right to negotiate exclusively with Yu Darvish. What would it hurt for an aspiring team of limited means such as the Pirates or Royals -- or the D-backs, for that matter -- to make a splash by coming hard in the open competition for Tanaka's services. They wouldn't have to pay the fee or the contract amount with Tanaka until he signs.
And when the other available pitching is headed by RHPs Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ervin Santana and Bronson Arroyo, Tanaka will come at a higher premium than Darvish's 6 years and $60 million.
Tanaka isn't the only Japanese player in the spotlight. Over there on the edge of the stage is infielder Munenori Kawasaki, who re-signed with the Blue Jays. Kawasaki made a name for himself with his oddball, flaky antics captured on social-media video than with his .229 batting average. Seems like a good guy to have around a clubhouse, though.
Merry Christmas/happy holidays. Like Munenori-san, I know how to cover my bases.
Christmas is probably just another Wednesday in Japan, but it's a big day for Japanese ballplayers here in North America.
The big news is a report that the Rakuten Golden Eagles have agreed to post RHP Masahiro Tanaka. He'll draw the new, discounted maximum posting fee from a number of major league teams.
You'll see the list of the usual big-spending teams, primarily the Yankees and Dodgers, along with the Diamondbacks and most of the American League West -- Angels, Mariners, Rangers -- as the leading candidates to sign Tanaka. He's listed as 25 years old, and I think I short-changed him on his 2013 ERA in an earlier post. It was 1.27, not 1.37.
Also, in an earlier post I indicated that the AL West as a group seems to be downplaying mobility in their outfield defense. That could make it even more desirable for them to sign one of the best pitching prospects from the Eastern Hemisphere before their opponents do. Actually, I'd expect a number of teams to put up the relatively cheap posting fee -- less than 40% of what the Rangers paid for the right to negotiate exclusively with Yu Darvish. What would it hurt for an aspiring team of limited means such as the Pirates or Royals -- or the D-backs, for that matter -- to make a splash by coming hard in the open competition for Tanaka's services. They wouldn't have to pay the fee or the contract amount with Tanaka until he signs.
And when the other available pitching is headed by RHPs Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ervin Santana and Bronson Arroyo, Tanaka will come at a higher premium than Darvish's 6 years and $60 million.
Tanaka isn't the only Japanese player in the spotlight. Over there on the edge of the stage is infielder Munenori Kawasaki, who re-signed with the Blue Jays. Kawasaki made a name for himself with his oddball, flaky antics captured on social-media video than with his .229 batting average. Seems like a good guy to have around a clubhouse, though.
Merry Christmas/happy holidays. Like Munenori-san, I know how to cover my bases.
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