Kenta Maeda’s early struggles have cost him his rotation spot, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register) that Maeda will be moved to the bullpen when Alex Wood returns from the disabled list. “This is not temporary for Kenta,” Roberts said. “We need him to get back on track, get some momentum. I don’t know what day he’s going to pitch but he’s open to it, and it’s a credit to him as a teammate.” Maeda has a 5.16 ERA over 52 1/3 IP, thanks in large part to problems keeping the ball in the park; Maeda has already surrendered nine homers this season.
Here’s more from around baseball…
- With Adrian Beltre possibly looking at a DL stint, the Rangers will recall Jurickson Profar from Triple-A, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports. Beltre didn’t make his 2017 debut until May 29 due to a lingering calf injury, and collected at least one hit in all seven games he played before suffering an ankle injury on Tuesday. Profar began the season on Texas’ roster but hit just .135/.289/.135 in 46 PA before being demoted to Triple-A.
- Nelson Cruz underwent an MRI on his right calf today and wasn’t in the lineup for the Mariners’ game against the Twins. Seattle manager Scott Servais told MLB.com’s Greg Johns and other reporters that he expects Cruz to be out “maybe a day or two,” so the injury doesn’t seem serious, though Cruz has been bothered by his calf for over a week. The veteran slugger is in the midst of another big season, hitting .299/.383/.563 with 14 homers over 230 PA for the M’s.
- Should Masahiro Tanaka to be removed from the Yankees’ rotation? ESPN.com’s Andrew Marchand believes so, as Tanaka’s struggles (a 6.55 ERA and a whopping 23.3% home run rate) are hurting New York in the AL East race. Since the team says Tanaka is healthy, Marchand figures Tanaka needs some type of breather just to correct whatever flaw has so negatively impacted his performance. Tanaka also has a 5.60 FIP but other ERA indicators (4.19 xFIP, 4.13 SIERA) have a more sympathetic view of his work this year, and since there isn’t any change in his velocity or hard-hit ball rates, it could simply be that Tanaka has just been terribly unlucky allowing homers. Still, that’s a pretty tough problem to have for a pitcher who calls Yankee Stadium home, especially in a season when home runs are up across the league.
Tanaka is pitching like complete garbage. If he’s not injured then I don’t know why. But there’s one thing I do know:
We need to give Adams a Chance!!!
Totally agree, he’s got nothing left to prove in the minors.
Unrelated but do you think Tanaka opts out ?
In all reality I think the Yankees were hoping he would have a great year and opt out.
Who wanna bet, that he feels not treated right when the yanks saying they won’t go after him if he opts out. Maybe that’s why he’s pitching terribly but they have to give him a breather from the rotation, he’s the odd man out why the Yankees aren’t winning when he starts
You think he is pitching poorly on purpose in order to get more money in a new contract? That’s just bizarre thinking. Tanaka may be hurt, he may just be very unlucky with home runs. But your idea is certainly not it.
I’m curious..who do you actually call your team?
“My” team? I play in an adult baseball league and a Sunday casual softball league; is that what you’re asking? I can’t quite imagine you’d care about that.
It may come as a shock to some but not everyone is a shameless homer for whatever their favorite team happens to be.
And not everyone answers when not addressed!
But then again many people do answer when not addressed. Why do you think people are here
Oh yeah…he’s sabotaging his performance because…it will get him more money…? Brilliant.
I agree somewhat, I think if Yanks had there druthers Tanaka would opt out but I don’t think they would have necessarily wanted him to opt out if he put up a similar season as last year. If he has a good second half and opts out I think that’s the ultimate desire. Then go sign Ottani.
billy..totally agree it would greatly benefit this run. If he could even have a mediocre remainder to the season it would be better then this..even a 4 ERA would be better.
Completely agree. Was hoping fir a good year and then let him go. Now that he is the worst starter on the staff, no way he opts out. He would be foolish to.
I don’t think he can opt out anymore honestly. It was a no-brainer before this.
All he does is win
Maybe it’s bc he didn’t get tommy john
Have you thought about that?
Ervin Santana has been pitching years and years with a slightly torn UCL. Adam Wainwright pitched 3 seasons with one. The Yankees and Tanaka have access to the best experts in the field around UCL damage, and if they didn’t think he needed it I trust their judgment. His fastball velocity is the same it’s always been, he’s surrendering a higher BABIP than he ever has and his HR/FB rate has doubled. This suggests he’s missing in the zone. That could be an injury issue, or it could just be some kind of mechanical issue or he’s tipping his pitches. The Yankees have certainly looked at at his elbow this season as they’ve tried to figure out how to fix him.
Or he could have the same problem as Matt Shoemaker is having and teams are laying of the split and forcing them to go to their other pitches and Tanaka’s other pitches are not very good.
The problem with your suggestion may well be they don’t feel Adams has the right amount of innings built up.
you guys are just a bunch of bandwagon fans. He has something called a track record that cannot be ignored. Tanaka has already established himself as one of the better pitchers in the league the past couple of years and to throw him under the bus for a couple of bad starts is just unfair and quite dumb. Have the man do extra practices and talk with coaches but to suggest trading, releasing or giving his spot up to a rookie right now is preposterous.
Sounds like you’re a casual fan tbh. The knowledgeable fans wanted Tanaka to succeed this year. The reason is not because we thought we had a playoff shot with Tanaka doing well, but because we wanted him to opt out and the Yankees to cut ties with him. He’s a ticking time bomb regardless of his irrelevant track record. That bomb has exploded. He will need surgery eventually. Wainwright pitched 3 years before he needed it also…Tanaka is just about at that point.
9 out of 10 starts maeda struggles to even make it past the 5th. Thats not going to make the rotation on a team like the dodgers
And his contract has escalation clauses based on starts/innings.
And he really gets roughed up in the first inning. Has to raise the question of his value as a reliever.
Maeda has been bad since the second half of last season. When he signed that incredibly team-friendly contract it was because Maeda had, as one Dodgers official put it at the time, “the worst medicals I’ve ever seen.” I suspect Maeda is just broken.
I never knew what that meant and I doubt anyone outside of the Dodgers does, so I am not comfortable speculating. What we do know is Maeda was throwing quite a bit harder at the beginning of this season than he did before, the result of the strengthening program the Dodgers had him on this past offseason. After a few games they backed him off on the velocity in order to help him find his command again. They may have tinkered too much with the formula. Either way I really don’t see the bullpen as the place for it to get figured out.
I wouldn’t use broken. His confidence maybe, but physically his stuff is there. Problem is he’s gets to 0-2 and then gets to fine. Like Dave said he seems to shy away from contact. He tries to burry fb, cu, sl down and most of the times it’s not even competitive. It feels like 0-2 consistently turns to 3-2. It not only drives up pitch count, but puts hitters in hitter counts.
He’s always going to be a touch and feel pitcher. We kind of saw him light up the radar guns early in the year. The problem was fb was flat and it got drilled. Since then it seems like there is a major lack of trust in that fb as more than just a show me. The back up slider is fine, the reg slider is fine, the show me cu is fine, even the change up is ok, but it’s the last of trust in that fast ball that allows hitters to eliminate and hunt that back up slider/show me cu.
What worked so well for him last year against RHs was the ability to run the 2 seamer away on the black then hit that slider on the same spot. It was intriguing though to see him start throwing the cutter in, but he seems to stray away. Idk it boils down to confidence. He needs to establish the 2 seamer in on LHs away from RHs and run the cutter in on RHs then his breaking stuff plays. If not they’ll continue eliminating and sitting back up slider and curve. This is a long winded way of saying I think physically he’s fine and he’ll be fine relieving. I just wish he had the confidence.
Generally a sudden velocity jump is a red flag for a torn UCL; the human arm can only take so much.
The underlying numbers are pretty similar to last season, babip is the same, he’s stranding runners at a slightly lesser rate, the home run rate is up.
The fastball velocity is up about a mile an hour, but some of that is because of the new way velocity is being measured this season by MLB. Generally velocity numbers are up about a mile an hour. He is throwing his fastball way less than last season. He’s also throwing a cutter this season, a pitch he didn’t throw at all last season, which is quite odd. Perhaps introducing a new pitch that he can’t command is hurting him? He’s not a hard thrower so it’s possible he doesn’t trust his fastball. He’s throwing more sliders and slightly less curveballs.
There are some interesting issues with his contact rates. Batters aren’t swinging at anything he’s throwing outside the zone, which they were doing last season. So he’s either tipping his pitches or batters are seeing the ball better out of his hand. So he gets behind and has to come in with a 91 MPH FB . And then gives up a lot of loud contact.
I don’t know about generally, but for sure he was put on a strengthening program in the offseason. The Dodgers wanted him to be able to go deeper into games and pitch in a 5-man rotation, so it’s reasonable to consider that his added velocity from there not a UCL tear.
But the velocity isn’t really higher, less than a mile an hour.
Well, it is higher, right across the board, and he was relying more on it.
ocregister.com/2017/05/24/dodgers-notes-kenta-maed…
I have my own theories based on what I’ve read, but feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Just have Kenta pitch against the Cardinals, usually does fine.
Yet another hyped up Japanese played flopping? What a shocker. :p
Player*
What about last year? And if he is so hyped, why did he only get 25 million over so many years?
The contract was so team-friendly because Maeda had bad medicals.
I heard on the radio that Tanaka pitched every 6 days in Japan instead of every 5 days.
Tanaka’s stats are rediculous when he gets an extra day off. 13k’s last time a rainout pushed him back
As does every pitcher in Japan.
That’s the normal Japanese schedule. Teams only play six games a week, they have six-man rotations. The ball is also smaller in Japanese baseball.
Can’t wait for Tanaka to opt out. Let him be someone else’s problem. I hope these teams around the league learn about the Japanese pitchers. They r used to pitching once a week like college pitchers. The MLB needs to revisit the scheduling process. And maybe adopt the same style to keep these pitchers health across the league
Or stop spending money on guys who will almost always fail to adapt to the MLB schedule based on Japanese league stats.
It looks like Girardi is floating the idea of skipping him a day, and pitching Tanaka in Anaheim on Monday. It’s a better idea then serving him up to Buck and the O’s who will look to take his lunch and dinner on Sunday. If the guy’s healthy, and just needs an extra days rest he should be good to go on Monday. I just wonder if the contract situation has gotten into his head, and it’s screwing him up.