Baseball Chatter 05/18

Kyle Hendricks pitched his second consecutive quality start. His changeup is only a few miles an hour slower than his fastball.

Edwin Encarnacion is hitting .108 with runners in scoring position

Charlie Blackmon is batting .319 with 30 RBI in the first 40 games. The only other leadoff hitter in the last 10 seasons to have 30 RBIs in his team’s first 40 games was Ian Kinsler in 2009. Blackmon crushes every other leadoff batter in the majors with 51 hits, nine homers, 30 RBI.

Ervin Santana pitches against German Marquez today, who is just the fifth pitcher to throw at least six no-hit innings at Coors. He showed nice command of his fastball and randomly tossed in some off speed pitches just to keep hitters on their toes. He is off to the best start of his career, going at least six innings and allowing one or zero runs in seven of his eight starts. Opponents are hitting .129 He’s 2-1 with a 6.31 ERA, 24 strikeouts and eight walks in four career starts vs. Colorado.

Tyler Chatwood has given up nine homers in eight starts after giving up only 15 in 27 starts last season when he was 8-1 with a 1.69 ERA in 13 road starts.

Carlos Gonzalez ranked 973rd of 982 major-league hitters in wins above replacement yesterday

Jose Bautista flips a bat, Barely. And all hell breaks loose…Quit crying, if you don’t like it dont look.

Baseball players have been flipping bats forever, get used to it.

Jason Vargas surrendered six earned runs in four innings, including five with two outs during a disastrous fourth inning. He gave up five hits and walked two, throwing 49 pitches to get through 10 hitters

Yasiel Puig hit four homers in the first 12-games with 10 RBI, nine walks and seven strikeouts. In 27 games since, he is batting .208 with three home runs, six walks, and 23 more strikeouts. He can’t hit lefties once again, hitting.159 against them, and he is only 8 for 34 with runners in scoring position.

Masahiro Tanaka allowed 25 hits over the past three starts, 15 innings. Tanaka said he was not only looking to correct the mechanical issue in the bullpen session, but find out what led to it.

I think it was adrenaline, There are no excuses, it happened and we need to correct it.Tanaka

Stephen Vogt is tied for the most errors and the most stolen bases allowed by a catcher, and 20 of 22 runners have been successful in challenging his arm. The 20 steals is the most allowed by any American League catcher. Melvin said his catcher is being a little hard on himself. He’s thrown out two men in the last three weeks

Clint Hurdle benched Andrew McCutchen last season for hitting .241. He’s now hitting .206, and on pace to strikeout 121 times. He has been somewhat unlucky with a .215 batting average on balls in play, but how unlucky can he be?

Gerrit Cole turned in his eighth straight quality start, allowing three hits over seven innings. He took the mound yesterday with a 2.08 ERA over his last six starts. He can’t get any run support though, as the Pirates scored a combined total of five runs over his last five starts.

Andrew Cashner doesn’t get much run support either, with a combined six runs scored over six starts starts this season. They doubled that in the first three innings last night.

Delino DeShields matched his career high with four hits in a game.

Andrew Benintendi is hitless in his last 26 at-bats.

 Injury Updates

Freddie Freeman was hit right above his wrist by a pitch and tests were inconclusive. He will have a CAT scan and MRI this morning.

Freeman entered yesterday:

  • Leading the National League in home runs, 14
  • Second in on-base percentage, .457
  • Third in slugging percentage, .754
  • Fifth in walks, 26
  • Sixth in batting average, .343

Trevor Story took batting practice in the indoor cages yesterday. He will be eligible to come off the disabled list Saturday at Cincinnati, but he’s likely to be sent out on a minor-league rehab assignment.

Kenta Maeda will be eligible to return but the dodgers will hold off on putting him back in rotation

Dave Roberts said Maeda will rejoin the rotation some time during next week’s series against the St. Louis Cardinals but not until after Clayton Kershaw makes his next start on Tuesday.

Team News

The Red Sox improved to 3-17 when trailing after seven innings

St. Louis was 19-0 when leading after seven innings entering yesterday. They are now 19-1.

White Sox starters are 0-8 with an ERA of 6.36 over the last 11 games.

The Indians have lost six of their last 11, They are 8-10 at home and their starting pitchers have allowed 23 earned runs, 34 hits and 10 walks in their last 29 1/3 innings.

Texas Rangers have won eight games in a row and the Mets have lost seven in a row.

Rangers starting pitchers lead the major leagues with a 3.38 ERA.

The Phillies:

  • Have lost 14 of their last 17 games
  • 14-23 record ties the franchise’s worst 37-game start since 2000.
  • The schedule has not been kind, but these Phillies were supposed to show a hint of improvement.
  • Their starting rotation has a 4.90 ERA, one of the worst marks in baseball.
  • Starting Pitchers have failed to pitch six innings in 22 of 37 games.
  • Zach Eflin allowed the first three Rangers he faced reach base on two singles and a walk. He limited the damage to one run, but threw 30 pitches to record three outs, a sign that nothing would be simple for the righthander.

The Tigers have three options regarding J.D. Martinez:

  • Try to sign him to a long-term contract at $20 plus million a year
  • Trade him before the July 31 deadline in return for youngsters.
  • Play out the season, hope Martinez’s production helps them reach the postseason, and then let him go to the highest bidder. This is really the only choice they have if they are close to contending – can’t trade their best hitter

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