In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Keith Law blasted the North Carolina State coaching staff's decision to let Carlos Rodon throw 134 pitches in a start on Friday night. Rodon is expected to be one of the top picks in June's amateur draft, yet Law felt the southpaw's promising future was being risked by a coaching staff desperate to reach the NCAA tournament.
Here's some news from around the Majors…
- If Alfonso Soriano doesn't retire at season's end, he'd like to play through 2016, preferably as a member of the Yankees, ESPN's Buster Olney reports (Insider-only link). If he has a tough season this year, however, Soriano will retire. The veteran outfielder is in last year of his contract and has previously discussed retiring after 2014, as Soriano's health will also factor into his decision.
- Bobby Abreu is hitting .500 in Triple-A and is "the best hitter Las Vegas has got by far," a talent evaluator tells Mike Puma of the New York Post. Since Abreu can opt out of his minor league deal on April 30, the Mets will have to make a decision soon, and they could free up a roster spot by moving one of Ike Davis or Lucas Duda.
- The Brewers have a dozen players making the Major League minimum salary (or slightly above), and this influx of cheap, young talent helps the smaller-market club afford the six $10MM+ salaries on the payroll, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes.
- Scheduling and tougher PED testing/penalities are two factors for increased injuries this season, according to the New York Post's Joel Sherman. Travel during both the regular season and Spring Training has become more arduous at a time when players' bodies might not be recovering as quickly due to a lack of performance enhancers.
- Baseball America's Matt Eddy recaps the week's minor league transactions.
Edward Creech contributed to this post.
Boston could bring out of retirement the 75YO 35y retired Rico petrocelli and have as good of a 3b as WMB. They need to quit making excuses and just bring up cecchini and bite the bullet, cut ties with WMB and make some kind of a trade with him before he loses every bit of trade value he will ever have.
I think Ceaser Puello and Erick Cambell are both better than Abreu
Since Abreu can opt out of his minor league deal on April 30, the Mets will have to make a decision soon, and they could free up a roster spot by moving one of
Ike Davis or Lucas Duda.
Come again?
Boy, if I were Davis or Duda, I would be upset if this were to happen.
Either that or I would consider hanging it up for good, especially to be replaced by Bobby Abreu. That would make no sense to me.
Its more or less one of them have to go at some point, Abreu will just be the deadline for them to finally trade one of the two. Its not that he is replacing them, its that hes forcing the Mets to finally swallow their pride and trade Davis or Duda.
I guess, but still didn’t Davis hit a walk off the other week?
You can’t judge a player based on 1 hit.
Dan Johnson says hi.
PS – I agree with your point.
They should sell Ike to Japan or something. I don’t see a fit anywhere for him. Including Pittsburgh and Milwaukee
He can platoon with Gaby Sanchez in Pittsburg, can fill in for Tex in NY. Platoon with Mark Reynolds in Mil. He can platoon with Delmon Young at DH in Bal.
I’d rather see the Pirates get Duda. The Pirates don’t want Ike’s contract. Its bad enough the are stuck with Tabata’s.
When the Mets want Thornburg…there is no fit
Reynolds is doing fine as the (almost) everyday 1B. Brewers really don’t need a platoon partner unless he’s a clear upgrade. Davis isn’t. Davis isn’t even that much of an upgrade over Ishikawa in Pittsburgh.
So putting together information from the rash of recent articles on pitching injuries, here’s what we know: Pitching injuries occur while pitching. Probably.
Soriano probably wants to maintain that outside shot at 500. He needs 93 more to get there, and has 69 since the start of ’12.
It’s a good thing the jays, and yankees only lost minor pieces jose reyes, david robertson and teix.
North Carolina state is worried about winning a championship. Not having Carlos Rondon drafted as #1 pick overall. Is that a surprise? While 134 pitches might be high, it is nothing alarming that guarantees he will get injured or break his arm. They have all the right to pitch him as they like
Is there any good scientific evidence that steroids make one heal faster?
your muscles recover faster. you could work out 7 days a week if you wanted to but your ligaments/tendons can’t take that abuse. funny how they were blaming the drugs on the injuries a couple of seasons ago.
Do you have any sources?
Even if Bobby Abreu can still hit Major League pitching, there’s no room for him on the field. He’s better off as a DH in the AL.