Notables:
-I started writing this long (three hours) before I knew skipper Trey Hillman was fired. I've got some conflicting thoughts here; this is a tad early despite the losses to be let go. I get that this wasn't his first season but his lineup today actually wasn't horrific. Ok, maybe that's not a huge compliment. I talk below about his lineup changes so far this year and who knows how much input he had when it came to personnel and trades (although he probably had a lot). Anyway, here's our first casualty at manager, guesses on who is second?
-The Cardinals potent offense was shut down by Bud Norris, who finished with eight Ks, no walks and gave up only one earned run over eight innings. Norris has a solid fastball but the knock on him has always been to develop his secondary pitches. Apparently they were working for him today.
-Three Tigers – Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya and Eddie Bonine combined to shut out the Yankees. I wonder when the last time the Yankees were blanked two out of three consecutive games?
-C.J. Wilson threw seven innings of one-run ball against Oakland. I've got some stock in him and as I've said before, I'm selling around the All-Star Break. He's only pitched 120 innings the last two years and we haven't seen what happens after the fifth inning when it's 90+ degrees in Arlington.
-No one thought it would be May 13, but finally Zack Greinke is in the win column. He allowed three runs in the third on three singles and a double, so it wasn't like he was hit particularly hard. If Aviles and Callaspo continue their hot starts and remain fixtures in the lineup (rather than Willie Bloomquist and Chris Getz), Greinke should start racking up the wins.
-Mat Latos tossed a gem, throwing a one-hit shutout against the Giants. This is a rookie folks, who pitches in Petco. He'll be limited to around 150 innings this year, so keep that in mind. He'll be at least a top-25 candidate next year and I'm probably underrating him.
-Good Jonathan Sanchez showed up tonight in the same game as Latos, pretty close to no-hit Sanchez. He allowed only one run on three hits over eight innings with only a walk. His problem has always been control and he's had a ton of success (like tonight) when he throws strikes and trusts his stuff.
-I'll throw them both in the same blurb, Johan Santana and Josh Johnson were awesome tonight. Both combined to throw seven innings on each side with a total of 12 strikeouts and one walk. Each gave up a run and didn't factor into the decision. This may be a passing of the torch of the best pitcher in the NL East (ok maybe Hanson has something to say about this, or at least until Strasburg comes…).
Save Chances:
-Alfredo Simon, converted but adventurous. Simon started by getting a ground out, then a hit batsman and a walk put two on. Following a strikeout of Michael Saunders, Josh Wilson was thrown out at third to end the game. The leash has gotten a little longer, especially after Koji Uehara's shaky outing on Wednesday night. I'm still not a fan long-term but for now you can't argue with the results.
-Joakim Soria, converted. He allowed a walk to make things interesting against Travis Hafner and Shin Soo-Choo but retired both without incident.
Other Closer Outings:
-Andrew Bailey took the loss and clearly didn't have his stuff. He allowed a single (then caught stealing), a walk and two more singles for the loss in the bottom of the 12th. Consider this a hiccup, he was warming in the pen for quite some time.
-Neftali Feliz threw 1.2 scoreless innings with two strikeouts and a walk. He was relieved by Frank Francisco who retired all four batters by Ks.
-Brian Wilson threw an inning of work down a run allowing two hits and no runs to lower his ERA to 2.03.
-Leo Nunez picked up the win with a scoreless ninth. His ERA now sits at a 0.59, count me one of the people who passed on him who's now regretting it.
Non-Closer Outings:
-Brandon League gave King Felix owners a nice bout of indigestion after blowing an excellent start by him. While League has been excellent this season, he probably should have been pulled before even facing Luke Scott. After giving up a leadoff homer to Corey Patterson, a wild pitch on strike three and a single put two on with no outs. Tejada grounded into a fielder's choice for an out and a walk loaded the bases bringing the winning run to the plate. There's a good argument (hindsight is 20/20) to bring in David Aardsma here, since he's your closer (and hasn't worked since Saturday). The M's stuck with League which resulted in a game-winning grand slam by Luke Scott. It ended up being a crazy game that featured three home runs by Seattle, who came into the game with a whopping 13 on the season.
-Frank Francisco as noted above, four batters faced, 20 pitches, four strikeouts. If he's on your waiver-wire and you're lacking saves, throw him on your bench.
Lineup-ology:
-Corey Patterson led off again for Baltimore, hit a home run and threw a game-tying runner out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth. More on him below.
Tough Days:
-Cliff Pennington the leadoff hitter for Oakland went 0-for-6 with no walks. Not very Rickey Henderson-like, although I'm sure Cliff's more articulate.
-News came out that Ryan Garko will likely be DFA when Nelson Cruz comes off the DL. I'd guess Hank Blalock will have more fantasy value from here on out.
Injuries:
-Good news for Brad Lidge? No loose bodies or structural damage to his elbow were revealed in an MRI. I'm not completely sold given his health history and the Phillies lack of be honest when giving timetables or a specific diagnosis. For now this is good news though.
-Jeff Mathis had his cast removed, will start ROM exercises and hopes to be back with the team by June.
-Jim Johnson was diagnosed with a small tear in his right elbow. He's out a minimum of 8-to-10 weeks and could still need Tommy John surgery.
-Justin Duchscherer threw a good bullpen session and should be able to make his scheduled start on Saturday. See I'm not all bad news here.
-Sigh of relief. Troy Tulowitzki returned to the lineup on Thursday, the quad problem isn't too bad. However, don't expect him to be running anytime soon.
Stolen Bases:
Caught In the Act:
Home Runs:
-Hunter Pence (5), Luke Scott (6), Corey Patterson (yes, that Corey Patterson, 1), Ichiro Suzuki (1), Mike Sweeney (yes, that Mike Sweeney, 1), Michael Saunders (2), Miguel Cabrera (9), Brennan Boesch (3), Alberto Callaspo (6),
|STAR|Ryan Zimmerman (7,8-I saw Zimmerman in a spring training game in Orlando, he was talking to some Atlanta players and some annoying woman in the crowd kept screaming "Ryan, Ryan" for his autograph. Annoyed, he finally looked back and said "Give me a minute!" He finally came over, signed all autographs down the line and ran away missing my six-year-old. I quickly said "Hey Ryan, got time for one more"? He looked at me, then saw my son holding up a pen and ball and quickly darted back and said, "Oops sorry, didn't see him." The ball is now proudly on display in the Payne memorabilia basement, which just had a Rocky Bleier picture added. I'm a fan as long as Zimmerman isn't playing against the Yanks. :)
Pickups?!?!
-Brennan Boesch, Tigers. I picked up Boesch as soon as he was called up by the Tigers in the AL-Only expert league I'm representing Rotowire in. Needless to say he's paid great dividends. The question is, will he stick when Carlos Guillen returns? He was raking in limited play at Triple-A Toledo with a 1.076 OPS in 58 at-bats before his call-up. The problem is he was striking out over 27 percent of the time there which doesn't bode well for his future in the majors. He's strangely improved his strikeout rate in similar at-bats for the Tigers (14.2 percent) but this could be accounted for other teams not knowing the book on him yet and will eventually find the holes in his swing. He just turned 25 and has not really been on anyone's prospect list (or at least highly touted for that matter). So what to think? I'm not too high on him even though most everyone else is; I think the strikeouts are coming and after his early success teams will start to pay attention to him. He's going to get a shot at playing, probably even after Guillen returns though. If you're looking to score something out of this in a deep league, make a trade or pick up Guillen on your waiver-wire shortly after he returns; I think he'll be back in the lineup before too long.
-Corey Patterson, Orioles. The same "Yes, that Corey Patterson"? I picked him up in one of my Yahoo leagues yesterday, started him and here's his line from today: 2/4, 1 run, 1 HR, 1 RBI, .500 average. Ok, this is me bragging, again. However, let's look at the similar case study of Boesch. People might have forgotten (at least temporarily) the book on Patterson, thus the early two-game, wildly small sample-size success. Teams may be a bit slow to pick up on him, so at least in the short term (deep leagues, to quote ABBA), "Take a chance on me". Again, I'm prefacing this if you're running out borderline fourth OFs in your starting lineup, but I like his prospects over the next few weeks. The Baltimore schedule has been brutal to this point and he was getting on base at a .419 clip at Norfolk before his call-up. You could do worse in deep or AL-Only leagues.