Not even one no-hitter, perfect game or near-perfect game in the majors today? How unusual. These news items will have to do in the meantime…
- Ben Goessling of MASNSports.com looks at who the Nationals could acquire to solve their ongoing problems in right field. Goessling notes, of course, that Washington might not stay in the NL East race long enough that they'll need to make a trade deadline deal.
- Walt Jocketty tells John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer that Aroldis Chapman will not be called up as a reliever to help the Reds' beleaguered bullpen.
- Royals prospect Danny Duffy is back at K.C.'s extended spring training camp, reports The Kansas City Star's Bob Dutton and Terez A. Paylor. The 21-year-old left-hander appeared to have abruptly retired back in March.
- Left-handed Pirates prospect Donald Veal will undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow, tweets Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Veal, who came to Pittsburgh from the Cubs in the 2008 Rule 5 draft, posted a 7.19 ERA in 19 appearances for the Bucs last season.
- The Giants sent John Bowker down to Triple-A Fresno today, a move that Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea.com says (via Twitter) is the first step in bringing Pat Burrell up to the major league roster. Urban says the club is still figuring out another move in order to get Burrell on the 40-man roster, but tweeted that Mark DeRosa might be moved to the 60-day DL. Burrell signed a minor league deal with San Francisco last week and has made just 19 plate appearances for Fresno thus far, but has an 1.064 OPS in that short span.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America has a rundown of the week's minor league transactions. One of the notable names on the move is veteran Scott Elarton, who was released by the White Sox after signing a minor league deal with the club last March.
If Burrell plays first base, where oh where would Sabean be comfortable seeing Posey play?
Burrell shouldn’t be playing all too often for that to matter. He’ll spell Posey (if Posey plays 1st) every now and again to keep him fresh.
I was just joking about the ridiculousness of not playing Posey at catcher.
Don’t put it past Botchy to stick Burrell in the OF as a starter, since he is a veteran and a “gamer”.
botchy is dumb enough to put burrell on the field. and when he does you’ll hopefully see molina come off the bench. but who knows what botchy and sabean are thinking.
Nationals need a RF? How about Jeff Francoeur or Gary Matthews Jr?
they need one who doesn’t suck, so that leaves frenchy and matthews out.
i think if burrell hits like he’s doing here in fresno you’ll see molina coming off the bench, posey behind the dish, burrell in left, and huff at 1st. giants have the fewest errors in the national league but that will change.
That’s just it. He WON’T hit like he has in Fresno. This is a career .253 hitter we’re talking about who has never hit higher than .282 in 11 seasons. Burrell is being called up to do what young John Bowker couldn’t: pinch hit. Whether or not this experiment works, only time will tell. My money’s on “NOT.” At the end of the day, this was just another Brian Sabean move to bring in an aging veteran.
simmer down there guy. i said if, key word IF, he hit like he is in fresno you would see molina come off the bench.
Dammit that really sucks about Veal. I was hoping that he would be able to get back into being a starter again after spending all of last year in the bullpen. Hopefully he can rebound next year and come up to the majors at some point in the year.