Baseball Chatter 03/14

David Price told Red Sox reporters that he’s not 100 percent certain exactly what the injury he’s facing is, but in fairly strange fashion, noted that he’d have opted for surgery if he were 22 or 23 years old

It feels good. It’s been getting better every day, Kind of surprised that it’s responded the way that it has. If you asked me a week ago, I’d have said I felt OK. And I feel really good right now. Today is the best it’s felt. Just everyday activities. I don’t feel anything in there right now. So that’s coming after two straight days of throwing baseballs into the net so it’s responded really well. They said if I was 22 or 23 they’d have told me to go have surgery. I’ve gone through this. This is something I feel like happens every spring training. It’s those first four to five weeks of spring training that I feel like I go through this every single year, and this year was just a little bit worse. You know, my arm got a little bit more stiff, and that’s why we took the precautionary actions that we took. That was the right thing to do.David Price

Anthony DeSclafani will start the season on the disabled list with a sprained UCL. There was no timetable given, but Generally, 3-6 months of conservative therapy with rest, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and local physical therapy for ROM are necessary for recovery.

Hyun Soo Kim puts any of the bad memories he could have about spring training behind him. Kim singled to drive in the Orioles’ sixth run, bringing his average to .270 with five RBIs in the Grapefruit League so far. Last year Kim struggled mightily in spring.

Clay Buchholz made six postseason starts for the Sox. Only eight pitchers have more. This means nothing by the way.

Tyler Saladino hit his third home run of the spring. In 319 plate appearances last season, he hit eight and ranked sixth among Sox in wins above replacement (1.8).

Saladino will play second base while Moncada gets some at-bats at Class AAA. If and when Moncada arrives, Saladino can play pretty much anywhere else.

Who will replace Jason Kipnis at second base? The Indians could move Jose Ramirez from third to second base and play Giovanny Urshela at third.

Two comparisons to the Ian Desmond injury:

  • Kevin Kiermaier had surgery last season to repair a broken metacarpal and he missed seven weeks.
  • Russell Westbrook had a slight fracture of the bone in 2014 and surgery kept him out about a month.

JaCoby Jones might be the future owner of the center field position, but Tigers manager Brad Ausmus noted last week that in a perfect world he’s headed to Toledo because there’s still some work to be done.

Alex Bregman got his first at-bat of the World Baseball Classic when he pinch hit for Nolan Arenado and struck out. Before Bregman had finally surfaced on Sunday, earlier Astros manager A.J. Hinch expressed displeasure over the playing time afforded to his third baseman.

Bregman hasn’t gotten to play yet, You can imagine how I feel about that. It’s part of being a bench player on that type of team. He’s missed some valuable repetitions.A.J. Hinch

Jorge Bonifacio has caught the eye of manager Ned Yost, hitting a home run in the eighth inning to break the tie and helped the Royals beat the Colorado Rockies 4-2.

Bonifacio is batting .455, with three doubles, two home runs and six RBIs this spring. Last year at Class AAA Omaha, Bonifacio hit 19 homers with 22 doubles and 86 RBIs in 134 games.

He’s a kid that has progressed well. Is he a guy who could play in the big leagues right now? Absolutely. He just needs opportunity. It’s nice to have guys like that that we feel if something happened, we’re well-covered.Ned Yost on Jorge Bonifacio

The A’s are counting on Ryon Healy to be a huge part of the heart of their order. Over 269 at-bats in 2016, he hit .305 with 13 home runs and 37 RBIs. Healy will serve as the primary DH, while backing up Plouffe at third and Yonder Alonso at first.

In his first 1,690 professional at-bats, Stephen Piscotty homered once every 36.7 at-bats. That soared to once every 26.5 last season. An everyday player, Piscotty hit .295 with a .480 slugging percentage in the first half. Piscotty admitted that he was fatigued in the second half and his average wilted to .247 with a .740 OPS.

The Cardinals’ starting pitchers have a 2.17 earned run average this spring over the first 18 exhibition games..

Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson will make their spring debuts in a minor-league game today in Clearwater. There is a good chance Donaldson makes the opening day lineup but there’s more healing to be done for Travis and opening day will be cutting it close.

He’s got to get moving quick to do that because he needs some work, He’s cutting it close. It’s kind of hit or miss. Some days he feels better than others but he’s moving in the right direction. Most injured guys we start them out in the minor leagues at DH, see how it is the next day and go from there.We really can’t look at timetables.

Jung Ho Kang was placed on the restricted list by the Pirates while he is delayed in South Korea by visa issues related to a recent DUI arrest.

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