Links for Tuesday, as the Rangers announce that Josh Hamilton will miss six to eight weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his right shoulder…
- The other MVP from last year, Joey Votto, continues to adjust and improve his game, as Dave Cameron points out at FanGraphs. Votto appears to be chasing fewer pitches outside of the strike zone.
- Trackman, a Danish technology company, is using 3D Doppler radar ball flight measurement to scout pitchers and pitches with hard data, as Tom Verducci reports at SI.com.
- Doug Davis can opt out of his minor league deal with the Cubs on May 30th, according to Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (on Twitter).
- The Red Sox are, of course, unlikely to trade Daisuke Matsuzaka, despite his awful start yesterday. However, they are considering skipping his next start, according to the Boston Herald.
- Yahoo's Tim Brown examines the Indians' hot start and says it provides us with the "opportunity to discover what is right in an organization that has been forced into hard decisions" since they took a 3-1 lead over the Red Sox in the 2007 ALCS.
I swear, I love Hamilton to death. He’s a great player and a great inspiration to a lot of people who want to play baseball…but he absolutely has to learn to quit playing with the reckless abandon that he likes to play with. That’s a fine trait to have, and he’s a hell of a competitor…but he’s too important to the team to keep crashing into outfield walls, sliding headfirst into bases, etc. That’s fine if you’re Aaron Rowand, but not Josh Hamilton. Moving to LF or DH won’t matter if he doesn’t tone it down a little
Having that said, good luck with the recovery and rehab. Hope he can get back soon. In the meantime, at least we have Murphy and Moreland to fill in for him w/ Young/Napoli/Davis ready to slide over to first
Ken Griffey Jr. says hi.
Touche. He needs to be the example for other guys to look to and learn from
agreed.. He also just ruined all my fantasy teams.
That’s why I passed on him twice, I had a feeling he’d either get hurt/relapse.
Losing an MVP is always a huge blow, but honestly the Rangers are the one team that probably won’t miss a beat having him out. That lineup is absolutely stacked, and when freaking David Murphy is your backup plan, thats a good situation to be in. However, if Nelson Cruz misses his usual 40 games during the same stretch, then they may be in trouble
What do you know, someone noticed the Indians had a good start? It only took eight straight wins.
i have a friend who doesn’t watch baseball but still loves the Indians and will point out when they go on winning streaks. (when the Marlins won in the 90s, he gave up rooting for most professional sports). So, I happen to know they’re hot!
more seriously, the MLB network has spent some time on the Indians to start the season, but more time dissecting the bad starts by Boston & Tampa Bay. it’s frustrating — I’m a Philly fan, so there’s no shortage of reports on them, but I really like baseball as a whole and some teams just seem so foreign. At least MLB network covers teams aside from Boston & NYY, unlike ESPN, but they still appeal to the masses a bit too much. If the Indians are still winning in May & June they might have plenty to say, especially since none of their network experts picked the Indians to do anything.
Anyway, just saw this randomly and thought I’d let you know you aren’t alone! Even some non-Indians fans are noticing!!
How do you know that Moreland can play LF?
He played predominately RF in the minors, but I’m sure he could make the adjustment if they needed him to. Cruz is just as good in left as he is in right though, so they’d probably just slide him over if they wanted to put Moreland in the OF. I’m sure he’s the 4th OF now. He actually has a cannon for an arm too
The article on Trackman is amazing.
lol, of course the red sox aren’t looking to trade dice-k. can you imagine theo in trade talks? “if you think his pitching is bad, wait ’til you see his contract!”
On Matsuzaka,
Yes, Francona is going to sit him down, one start at a time, until he can find someone who can be productive on the mound in the 5th rotation slot. In the event, Doubront, or someone else steps up to capitalize on Dice-K’s misery, he, Matsuzaka, will, at best be used as a mop up man or long reliever for the remainder of the season, as Tim Wakefield is not capable of performing either role effectively. BTW, Wakefield should retire as his pitch, the “knuckler”, is too erratic now to be relied upon to get outs. He simply cannot control his out pitch any longer, with his bad back and slowly increasing middle-aged girth.
Ill take Wake over Dice K any day of the week. Better yet, sign Pedro back up!