Baseball Chatter 04/13

Jason Kipnis was removed from his third rehab game yesterday at Double-A Akron, after being hit on the left hand by a pitch. Precautionary.

Jose Leclerc pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his first career save and the Rangers’ first save of the season. He struck out out Mike Trout on three pitches with a slider that looks like a changeup and a 95 mph fastball.

The Tigers homered in their first eight games of the season for the first time in franchise history. (No thanks to Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez or Justin Upton.)

Rangers Matt Bush had an injection to relieve shoulder pain yesterday, and now we wait for the doc to tell us what happens next.

Derek Holland:

  • 4-0 with a 1.02 ERA in five starts at Progressive Field
  • 6-1 with a 2.35 ERA in 10 career starts against Cleveland.

Matt Davidson is taking advantage of his playing time at third base, hitting .385 with five RBI in five games. The Sox are hoping that Todd Frazierwill return to the lineup today…

We all feel very confident with his at-bats. Obviously the strength that he has, you’re always hoping that he can put a good swing on a pitch and maybe drive it. Rick Renteria on Davidson

Matt Cain got his first win last night since 2012 beating the Diamondbacks for the 15th time in his career.

Vince Velasquez:

  • The Good News: 17 strikeouts over nine total innings pitched, two starts.
  • The Bad News: Nine earned runs off 10 hits and seven walk

Tim Anderson has six singles, one RBI, no walks leads the team with 10 strikeouts. Anderson meet Storey.

Max Scherzer threw more wild pitches yesterday than he did all of last season, which was two.

Jaime Garcia is currently experiencing the longest losing streak of his career, as he is 0-6 with 7.60 ERA in eight starts since Aug. 23

Texas has scored over 65% of their runs with homers.

Edwin Encarnacion is batting .172 with a .583 OPS, a 35.3 percent strikeout rate, one homer and one RBI. Over the past five season Encarnacion has averaged .272 wit a .912 OPS, and a 15.1% strikeout rate. Worried yet?

The Rockies are hitting .225 on the season so far. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the six runs allowed by San Diego over the three-game series were the second-fewest ever by Padres were the pitchers at Coors Field.

Rockies home series:

  • Runs scored = 18 Opponents = 26
  • Average = .207
  • Average with runners in scoring position = .185
We will get it going. This group is too talented to stay mired in a slump. The story, overall, was we couldn’t get to their pitching, pretty much the whole series Rockies Manager Bud Black

Michael Fulmer pitched Detroit’s seventh quality start in eight games. It took him 75 pitches to get through three innings, but only needed 35 pitches over the next three shutout innings

The Royals entered Wednesday night hitting 6 for 41 with runners in scoring position, the worst in baseball.

Jose Reyes might be benched today, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Once again, he couldn’t hit last night and now has two hits in 37 at bats with an .057 average on the season. Manager Terry Collins has the FBI out looking for the real Jose Reyes.

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Pitchers in line to take the $13.5 million man’s spot in the Phillies rotation.

Nick Pivetta – The 24-year-old had a strong showing in major-league spring training and is one of the likeliest options to replace Buchholz. Pivetta pitched six strong innings in his first start of the season, striking out eight and allowing one earned run on three hits. He split last season between double A and triple A, finishing with a 3.45 ERA in 27 starts with 138 strikeouts in 148.2 innings.
Zach Eflin Eflin returned to triple A on Wednesday night and tossed five scoreless innings. He threw 70 pitches and manager Pete Mackanin said the 23-year-old can be stretched further. It was Eflin’s second minor-league start of the season since undergoing offseason surgery on both knees to heal chronic pain he dealt with since he was 12 years old. Eflin threw 56 pitches on April 6 in a rehabilitation start with high-A Clearwater. His rotation turn falls in line with Buchholz.
Jake Thompson Thompson was shelled on Wednesday night in Scranton, a few hours after the Phillies received the results of Buchholz’ MRI. Thompson, 23, allowed six runs on seven hits in just 2.1 innings. He walked three batters and struck out two. His season ERA is at 28.93 after two starts and he seems to be pitching himself out of contention for Buchholz’ role.
Ben Lively – The 25-year-old is the oldest of the four options but like Pivetta, he has yet to reach the majors. He was the team’s minor-league player of the year last season after finishing the year with a 2.69 ERA in 28 starts between double A and triple A. He struck out five batters in six innings and allowed one run on three hits in his season debut.

Cards manager Mike Matheny has been limiting Randal Grichuk, who is an above-average fielder, to make sure Matt Adams also sees at bats.

So we’re going to continue to get him opportunities, especially when we’re looking to find some offense. We know what his bat can do. He’s in a real good spot, in my opinion. We like where Adams is and he is going to have to just continue to improve so we can put him in the outfield and make that a viable option. Is our offense needing that spark? Even for two at-bats, and then we make a move defensively.Mike Matheny on Matt Adams

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