Apparently the Mariners were exactly what the Yankees needed to cure what ailed them.
Three good starts in a row. Kennedy was sent down to find himself and Rasner looked very good. The Yanks will skip the 5 started this week and then call up either Kei Igawa or Steven White.
Jim, is there any indication Igawa has gotten himself on track? The bats are coming around, but I’m a little concerned Girardi is going to keep this team too tight.
I don’t think so, but Steven White is a 26 year old prospect with no major league experience and Kei is actually getting paid real money. So while I would pull up the kid that has better stuff, it is possible that braintrust will mis-fire and pull Kei back up. He does have a good K-BB ration, but he has pitched at least two bad games in AAA this year. White has been good in all but one start and is averaging close to 6 IP per start.
When you get a chance, check out Trenton. We have three prospects of to great starts: Chase Wright, Daniel McCutchen & Jason Jones.
McCutchen’s stats are really impressive so far. Jones’ SO/W ratio isn’t very good but that ERA indicates they either have very good fielding or he gets out of some jams on his own. Good to see some young prospects.
The Red Sox have been putting enough pieces together so far, but the rash of injuries, the minor, annoying ones that keep people from their best for long periods, are worrying me over the long term. They won it all last year largely on the strength of staying healthy - not one position regular spent a day on the DL - but they look like they’re going to have to depend on depth this year. Fortunately, they *do * have the depth they need, and fortunately, it’s just about done being cold and rainy in Boston and the minor muscle strains may be done too. We hope.
And that’s without discussing the flu epidemic they had a week ago, or Moss’ appendectormy today.
Now what is this “National League” thing some of you are referring to? We never hear a word about them here.
“26 year old” and “prospect” are not terms that go together well.
White might make a contribution - he keeps the ball down, and groundball pitchers are always worth a shot - but I’d say Mr. White needs to make his mark in MLB right now.
He was drafted from college and has showed steady if slow progress every year.
I agree prospect should be less than 25 years old, but he has been showing the type of progress that at least makes a major league career look like a legit possibility for him. I might be abusing the word prospect for him, but it seems to be fitting in this case. I thought he might start contributing this year or next.
Jim
In an age when “star” just means “in the lineup fairly often”, “prospect” is about the least impressive name available to give a player who has actually made the bigs, isn’t it?
Nah, we still have utility players, 4A players, wash-ups, trash-bin specials and mop-up pitchers.
Prospect still indicates the potential to be either an everyday player, starting pitcher or late inning reliever.
Normally they are still 25 or under. I know I was pushing the term in this case, but that is why I listed his age and gave his link.
Jim
Somehow my wondrous Nats are at 14-18, despite having the third-worst offense, and the fifth-worst pitching/defense, in the NL. (Measured in runs scored/allowed per game.) With 125/157 runs scored/allowed, their Pythagorean puts them at 12.4 - 19.6.
A good deal of the reason for this seems to be Matt Chico, the Nats’ fifth starter, who’s about as good an argument for a four-man rotation as you could come up with. The Nats’ 1-4 starters all have ERAs in the 3’s, but Chico’s is 6.87 at the moment.
Given that the Nats’ starters average about 5-1/2 innings per start anyway, you’d think they could go that long every fourth day, drop Chico from the rotation, and see a real improvement.
All good things…and all that. Last night saw the end to the Dodgers’ winning streak, stopped at 8. We’re still 4 games behind Arizona, but things are looking good. We have turned a weak spot at third into a wealth of talent, with Nomar serving as the veteran and DeWitt as the rookie. La Roche is trade-bait now. Andruw Jones is a bust as a hitter so far, which some expected. But the rest of the bats have come alive, and we’re looking for a hot May.
Go, Blue!
Well, today the Daily News is reporting that it will be Kei Igawa that will get the call up. The term ‘getting a return on their investment’ were tossed around.
I am very happy with how Rasner pitch and the way the hitters hit this weekend. Rasner was not just sharp, but he threw quick and was very efficient getting through the line up. The only reason he did not start the seventh was to give the bullpen a little work before the off day.
So, the Cards took 2 of 3 from the Cubs. Both teams were acting like this was a huge series. The Cards play 4 in Colorado, then three in Milwaukee this week. If they can come out of this week in first place, maybe it will be time to start thinking of them as a real contender in the NL Central.
Best thing about Sunday’s game (for me): I’ve been worried that Molina hasn’t been throwing out baserunners at his normal outlandish pace. I was wondering if he was hiding some arm trouble. Then, he goes and throws out Ryan Theriot from his knees in the fifth last night. So, maybe his arm is OK after all.
Dewitt is off to a decent enough start, but the Laroche is the Dodgers best option both for right now, and the future. Not starting Laroche everyday when he returns is the kind of mistake that the Dodgers can’t afford to make if they are going to beat out the Dbacks.
Both the Dbacks and the A’s look like they’ve come back down to earth.
On a better note, I get to go to my first game this year on Friday!
Royals have rain-swept the Indians, which washes away some of the bad taste from the series loss to the Rangers. We still can’t hit anything, but if our pitching can be consistent, that won’t hurt so badly. Hopefully, Meche’s great game is the start of a return to his 2007 form, and Banny’s meltdown against the Rangers is an aberration and not proof of inconsistency. I guess another month will tell us mor clearly what we’ve got.
What makes you say this? LaRoche has yet to prove himself in any kind of way at the Major League level. I’m not saying he isn’t talented, but I’m not sure “best option” is the right assessment. Having DeWitt at third with Nomar and Russell Martin backing him up seems like a much better option, especially if we can trade LaRoche somewhere (not in our division) where he gets a chance to play every day. The outfield, I think, is covered despite Andruw Jones’ no-show to this point. I’m not quite sure where the holes are at this point, particularly if we can get Schmidt (healthy) back in the rotation.
I will wait until the All-Star break to make any hard core predictions about the remainder of the season, but I’m not particularly concerned at the moment.
Tigers cut Jacque Jones. They have 10 days to trade or release him. They brought up a minor leaguer. Now they are going to put Sheffield back in the field. He got hurt in the outfield last year, but convinced management he will be able to get deeper into the games if he plays outfield.
I’ll simply claim some lame form of allegiance to the most-storied and currently worst team in baseball, folks, I give you the Cincinnati Reds, with much-improved pitching comes the disappearance of the offense. Go figure.
I’m off to kill myself now, but I’ll check this thread at the end of the month to see if we’ve hit the 20 games back mark by then.
Like Asimovian, i’m puzzled about your certainty on this issue.
Admittedly, i don’t follow the Dodgers, and there may be something about LaRoche that screams “future superstar” or that suggests that he’s a whole heap better than DeWitt, but it’s certainly not in the numbers.
Here are their career numbers with the bat:
Name G AB H HR BB SO OBP SLG AVG
LaRoche 35 93 21 1 20 24 .365 .312 .226
DeWitt 26 75 22 0 10 10 .384 .400 .293
The first thing to notice is how small these sample sizes are. Neither guy has more than 100 at-bats.
Second, even if we do read anything into the numbers, i’d certainly be just as happy having DeWitt on my team as LaRoche, perhaps more so. And DeWitt is two years younger than LaRoche.
Their defense probably hasn’t been tested enough to really give a sense of how good they are, but their defensive numbers aren’t that far apart, with LaRoche having a slight edge.
You might be right that LaRoche is the better long-term prospect, but i’d be interested to hear why you think so.