David Dahl is waiting for the results of an MRI he had Friday. Well, we are still waiting for the results, I doubt he is. This is probably not a good sign because if all was good under the hood, the media would have been told about it. Maybe I am wrong, just take much caution on draft day as the best case scenario, according to Dahl himself, is that he will miss the first two weeks of the season.
An MRI yesterday showed Martin Prado to have a grade 1 strain in his right hamstring, which means he will miss the start of the season. The Marlins take a huge hit defensively, as Prado was tied for the fewest errors among National League third basemen last season and his .972 fielding percentage ranked third.
Brett Lawrie is available and could be a fit, but he is not fully healthy either, so Derek Dietrich and Miguel Rojas will likely share time at third for now. Yefri Perez stole four bases in six attempts and had two hits in three at-bats in 12 games for the Marlins last season. He could be called up to the majors at some point early in the season if the need arises.
The Athletics sent Franklin Barreto to Triple-A on Friday, but it wasn’t based on a crappy spring. Barreto hit .481 in 16 Cactus League games with one homerun and five RBI. Plus he showed excellent base running skill even though he didn’t steal any bases.
I’m sure he wanted to be here a little bit longer, but he needs to get everyday at-bats and starts and so forth. Like I told him, ‘I don’t know what I would tell you that would suggest I need to send you down. But just go do your thing. Based on what I have to go on, it already looks like he’s big league ready, But, like school, you want to make sure you get all the grades and pass your classes and move on to the next level.
Michael Kopech could come up to the bigs as a reliever in his first seasons before unleashing him into the rotation, similar to the path of Chris Sale.
Alex Cobb is drawing “potential interest” from the Cubs, Dodgers, and other teams as a trade This will be his first full season back after undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2015.
Zack Greinke’s fastball topped at 91.9 mph, and averaged 90.6 was a couple of ticks above what he’s averaged in his past two starts. Greinke threw five innings against the Netherlands yesterday and gave up one run on five hits
A.J. Pollock has not played in any games since tweaking his groin last weekend. Manager Torey Lovullo says he will play DH in a minor league game in the next couple of days ‘if everything checks out right’
Did we mention Eddie Butler being 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA this spring? If the role as the Cubbies fifth starter is based on Spring numbers, Butler takes it hands down.
.
Royals manager Ned Yost claims to see ‘no separation between Nathan Karns, Travis Wood and Chris Young, the three pitchers currently competing for the job as fifth starter. Although he also said he wouldn’t tell us if he did.
Miguel Sano came to camp at 271 pounds but he distributes it well across his 6-foot-4 frame. He is back to playing third base following last year’s failed experiment in right field, and has only made one error in 12 defensive chances this spring.
Robert Gsellman, Zack Wheeler and Seth Lugo are all making a good case for the fifth spot in the Mets rotation so far this spring.
Jarrett Parker leads the way in the Giants left field competition
And you, know, what I like is that he’s been playing well on defense, too, He’s getting good jumps on the ball. He looks very focused out there, and he’s throwing out some good at-bats. His discipline has improved so much, Even though he’s shortened up, he’s not sacrificing power. It’s maturing as a hitter, and he’s doing that. Coming into this spring, he knew what was at stake and he’s doing the job.
The 27-year-old Phils Rookie, Brock Stassi, leads all of baseball in spring-training RBIs and ranks second in home runs. He is the team’s top hitter among players with at least 30 at-bats. Stassi would provide the Phillies a left-handed option to come off the bench as a pinch-hitter, a reserve first baseman to give Joseph a break, and an extra outfielder.
Andrew McCutchen rarely even attempted to steal bases last season, and was caught more times than he was successful when he did. He admitted that his slump at the plate wore him down mentally.
The mental side of that was big, That came with it, with not hitting. Not being on base as much as I am. The times I was on base, I didn’t want to ruin it. Like I said, that’s the mental side of it. I got on? Awesome. Okay, let’s steal this base. Ah … I haven’t been over here for a while. It’s been a couple of games. Last thing I need is to get a bad jump and get thrown out.So I was thinking about all the negatives as opposed to thinking about being able to use my speed to get to the next bag. A lot of times I would just say, ‘Ah, I’ll just take it easy because I just want to give [Gregory] Polanco that hole, or I want him to take a swing, I want him to hit, and there’s two outs, I don’t want to be thrown out for the third out. So I’ll just hang out.’ I would say stuff like that. I’m a guy who has a .400 on base percentage. I’m a guy who gets on base. So when I get that opportunity I’ll take that next bag. I was barely at .300 last year, so that takes a toll on myself. It takes a toll on the mental side. A lot of times it becomes a little harder. I’m just not getting on base enough to run.Andrew McCutchen
McCutchen was benched at the end of July, and when he came back he did hit more like his old self. He was able to finish the season strong, hitting .287 with an on base percentage of .373 in September and October.
I got with some trainers and said, ‘This is what I need to do: I need to get stronger, I need to get quicker,’ A lot of stuff that I needed this off-season was a lot of explosive workouts to get myself back to where I know I can be on the base paths and my breaks in the outfield—just working on my first two steps, because that’s the difference between safe or out, the difference between making a play in the outfield or missing one.Andrew McCutchen
In five games this spring, he has hit .308/.286/.462 with one stolen base and no homers. In the World Baseball Classic, he hit .134/.231/.385 in 13 at bats. Both are too small samples so the question still remains, will the real Andrew McCutchen please stand up?
Share this Post