Believe it or not, Rays left-hander Matt Moore has never started a game at Tropicana Field. The 22-year-old left-hander will take the mound at home against the Twins tonight for his first Tampa Bay start. Here are today's AL East links…
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post suggests the Yankees should use Eduardo Nunez as their primary left fielder while Brett Gardner's on the disabled list. Nunez could be part of the Yankees' future, while veterans like Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez won't be, Sherman argues.
- It's too early to bet against Boston manager Bobby Valentine, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes. Some rival executives say Red Sox president Larry Lucchino tried to regain power by hiring Valentine, according to Rosenthal.
- Ben Badler of Baseball America introduces readers to right-hander Drew Hutchison, who will make his MLB debut for the Blue Jays tomorrow. The 21-year-old could use some more minor league seasoning, but he's quite polished for his age and could fit in as a back-of-the-rotation starter not unlike Henderson Alvarez. The Blue Jays decided to rely on internal starting pitching options this offseason instead of completing trades or free agent signings.
Nunez should be in the outfield.I cringe every time a ball is hit to him in the infield .It does not matter which position he plays in the infield . And I don’t want to hear that he is just a kid. He is 24 AND has had enough time to work out his fielding problems at either position by now.
He proved my point Thursday. Cano catches that ball. He cost Hughes 4 unearned runs and caused him to throw at least 15 additional pitches in the first inning.
or if anything a DH that can’t hit
but don’t listen to me. I’m the guy who thought a pudge was a kind of dog.
The pitcher needs to pick up his teammate and get the outs. That’s why they are a TEAM.
they should have traded him to the braves when they had the chance even if it meant getting little in return. i dont understand why the yankee brass is so into this guy. i feel the same way, i cringe everytime the ball is hit his way. he ruined hughes good game, not that it will matter once pettitte comes up and pineda gets back from the DL. both hughes and garcia will be sent to the pen or traded. now that phelps kid i believe should be the 5th starter until pineda returns. he has showin he could be really good
Even if he had left and signed with Philadelphia last year anyway, I can’t believe he was the guy that held up the Cliff Lee trade.
wasn’t that david adams? not david phelps?
Originally they wanted David Adams, but they found out he was hurt, so they asked for Nunez, and the Yankees said no.
When Bobby gets canned, Lucchino should follow him out the door.
Why is Rosenthal asking rival executives what Lucchino’s intentions were? As if they have any idea.
GM’s do talk alot with each other. doesnt mean their not friends. as much as i dont like the sox, i hate to see bobby V destroy the redsox. and thats what he is going to do. and it will make the yankee/sox rivalry not so fun to watch anymore. hopefully their front office gets rid of him once they realize it. should never have let francona go.
Not particularly glowing reviews of Alvarez and Hutchison. I would have thought that Alvarez projects a little better than a 3-4. He has 95 mph sinking fastball that he commands, a very good change up that he commands, and a developing slider. Oh, and he has made 13 MLB starts by the age of 22.
Yeah, seriously. Alvarezcould be a great 2.
You need two plus pitches and an average third pitch along with average command to project as a number two starter. Kyle Drabek fits that profile. Hutchison only has one plus pitch but can be an unconventional number two with plus command and makeup. Romero and Cecil were other prospects who projected as number three starters.
Edit – By the way, number three starter is a good projection. Few prospects get projected as number one starter by Baseball America
He has 95 mph sinking fastball that he commands, a very good change up that he commands, and a developing slider.
Not that commenter Jon Stark or myself are credible sources or anything, but Alvarez does have 2 plus pitches that he commands very well, and a 3rd pitch (slider) that projects to be above average, but not quite a plus pitch.
With a little more experience, and a little more polish, he could be a very good #2 next year.
Makes sense about Alvarez…I was referencing (implicitly) Hutchison. However, BA was conservative with projecting Alvarez. Believe they had him as a number four but upgraded him to a number three after last season.
Not sure if it was because of his lack of pedigree (or pedigree as an infielder) or if he received the dubious “sometimes plus” pitch evaluation. Reading your evaluation (which looks credible), he seems to have the “stuff” to be a number two starter.
By the way, based on Baseball America’s ranking system, both Alvarez and Hutchison are C+ prospects which happens to be a good grade.
Ahh gotcha. Yeah Hutchison’s ceiling is more of a #3 like you suggest. Apparently he’s got great command and control, but not enough swing and miss stuff.
I am getting a sense that AA intends to use the C+ pitching prospects (number 3 SP) as 6th and 7th starters and then trade them after using a season or two of their optional assignments. It seems the rotation will only have starters who were B prospects (number 2 SP) or higher.
I haven’t heard anything about his slider projecting to be above average. Just because he’s young you can’t assume that his currently below average slider will become above average
If Drabek can keep up his current level of performance… he’s gonna to be scary.
He’s outright fantastic right now…
and he hasn’t even smashed anything yet.
According to Baseball America, Drabek has shown in the past the ability to use his curve as an out pitch against both lefties and righties. At one time, they believed he had shot at being a frontline starter if he does this consistently.
Redsox and Reds should trade managers and general managers ,also the Reds need to find a thirdbasemen,where did you go Krivsky,
The Jays have been developing fairly solid pitching at a very good clip…
With the exception of Cecil and Mills, there haven’t been too many “duds”.
thats because they didnt have any pitching prospects outside of romero during the jpr days
Mills was never good enough to even be considered a dud.
Welcome to the Anthopoulos era.
I wonder how many players have signed a five year extension with a team and started a playoff game for them, yet home crowd hasn’t even seen him on a mound.