Saturday night links, as Joey Votto, Adam Dunn, and Paul Konerko belt their 32nd home runs…
- Nick Johnson's 2011 option is very unlikely to be exercised, as Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News writes. Heading into the season, controlling Johnson for $5.5MM in 2011 looked reasonable for the Yankees. But a disappointing, injury-plagued season for the 31-year-old means that money could be better spent elsewhere.
- Joe Girardi and Doug Melvin told Chad Jennings of The Journal News and MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, respectively, that they're not expecting their clubs to make any trades.
- Chone Figgins, the subject of a few trade rumors this summer, tells Doug Miller of MLB.com, "I don't want to go anywhere. I chose to come here, because I like the direction and I like the guys that are here."
- The Mariners have shut down pitching prospect Michael Pineda for the year, writes Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. Pineda is fine physically and will compete for a spot in the rotation next spring, according to Jack Zduriencik.
- Cody Ross told Jim Bowden on Fox Sports Radio (Twitter link) that he was "shocked" the Marlins moved him.
- Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer conducts a Q&A with Drew Pomeranz, the Indians' fifth overall pick in this year's draft.
if nick johnson’s option gets picked up… im blowing something up.
its not 2012 yet
ironically my birthday is 12/21… 😛 we’re doomed.
You know, seriously…Why is it neccessary to shut pitchers down? It doesn’t make any sense.
Mitch Williams made a great point last night…”Theres no need for pitch count or innings limit, because as we saw with Strasburg, you can blow your arm out on one pitch” whether it’s your 1st of the season, or your 3,000. I just don’t think shutting down pitchers, limiting innings, pitch counts on 6’7 290 pound aces who have no injury history and are 30 years old, is ridiclous. Pitchers way back when had no pitch limits and some never had any injuries.
Its to do with conditioning. Pineda was injured last year and isn’t used to the innings load on his arm. Its perfectly logical to shut him down. A pitcher throwing while fatigued from a long season that he isn’t used to is a recipe for disaster. Mechanics and all sorts of things start breaking down and the odds for an injury go through the roof.
I wasn’t talking about Pineda in particular.
The reason they do is because like what’s happened with Dusty Baker in his past and Strasburg. They don’t want him to get hurt in a meaningless season when next year he very well should make the rotation. It’s always better to be careful with young pitchers.
What does SS have to do with it? he was hardly pushed. Because the Nats weren’t winning they shouldn’t have let him pitch? Young pitchers have to be turned loose sometime.
As for Baker, guys were getting injured before he came along. What Giants or Reds pitchers have Dusty destroyed? Maybe Prior & Wood were just fragile & destined to break down no matter what.
Still no reason for Dusty to have done the things he did with them
although precautions and being pro active can at times seem useless, especially when pitchers who were treated golden end up being injured any way. You’re right, some pitchers are destined for tj surgery regardless of innings and pitch count.
However the list of tj victims would be that much longer with out precautions.
Disagree. Seems the list keeps growing with all the precautions.
Well, if you say it can happen on any pitch then wouldn’t shutting a pitcher down limit the risk of injury? Throwing no pitches at all greatly reduces the risk of injury.
Having pitched in high school, I definitely felt fatigue and was more vulnerable to injury if they had me throw more pitches than I could handle. (This is when you start to throw below your arm slot) Now, these ML guys are conditioned a lot better than I was so they can handle more than I could. However, we are all humans and we all have our limits.
Take Stephen Strasburg for example: He only pitched a little over 55 innings in the minors and was sent straight to the bigs. Can you imagine the amount of physical and mental stress he put upon himself because he wanted to strike every guy out?
Maybe some guys can handle it and maybe some guys were meant to go on the DL no matter what you do. However, precautions aren’t meant to be an automatic safeguard — they are mean’t to protect a pitcher’s arm for the long haul.
Chone, that’s good that you like it in Seattle, it just that you can’t field, you can’t hit , you got in fights with the manager and players, and you complained when you were batting 9th in the lineup. You need to change your ways or you will be gone.
Good job of managment to shut down Pindea now. Would have liked to seen him in September, but it’s better to be safe and ready him for next year. Good Move.
He is actually having one of the better 2nd half’s in Baseball this season.
Yeah he is, but he is still a complete hack on the field (UZR is -9.1, 3rd worst among the 18 2bmen that qualifiy.)
And he’s batting .209 in the last 2 weeks so he’s starting to cool off.
Plus if you look at the whole thing with batting Figgins 2nd, you aren’t really suppose to put your second leadoff man 2nd, but 9th. A 2nd hitter is supose to be ike how Nick Markakis is, now alot of power or speed but great contact skills and gap power (I know he around the lead in doubles). Figgins isn’t that.
Right. I’m not saying he isn’t a bust or that they shouldn’t get rid of him, I was just pointing that out.
And I don’t disagree with you either. I just think it’s going to be hard to get rid of him and plus, he could have a comeback season next year, you never know. But he is in the conversation for worst free agent signings of the past winter. I really expected a lot more out of him, especially with the season he had in ’09.
“worst free agent signing of the past winter”
Jason Bay says hi
Cashman’s moves this off-season have been horrible but I only give him a pass on Granderson since it LOOKED like it should/would work while Johnson/Vazquez are simply cases of “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”.
Johnson can’t stay healthy and Vazquez can’t take NY. They are who they are.
nick johnson will be a pirate next year
Nick should REFUND the Yankees for paying him to be on the DL for nothing. The only DH that winds up on the DL for most of the Season. What a waste of money 🙂
Him and Vasquez were such a waste…what was Cashman thinking exactly ?
Nick Johnson was predictable, he has had fluke injuries his entire career and this year has been no different the only strange thing is that Cashman had no backup plan “B” in place, other than Thames in place until they got Berkman, unless they just figured had the playoff spot wrapped up without him anyway.. Which they do..
I don’t think Vazquez’ demise has anything to do with an inability to handle NY. Plain and simple, he has lost velocity on his FB. he went from throwing between 93-90 mph on a regular basis to about 90-86 mph. His change up usually sat around mid to low 80’s and not their isn’t enough to distinguish one from the other so that elimnates 2 pitches down to 1. His control on his offspeed stuff hasn’t been there and he’s lost confidence in throwing pitches for strikes and instead is hoping to trick guys into hitting pitches that “look” loike strikes but aren’t. I think the idea that Vazquez 1st stop in NY was a failure because of his 2nd half injury was a fair conclusion. keep in mind that in 04 he had a good 1st half and then went sounth in the 2nd. Cashman gambled that this time would be different. Didn’t turn out that way but then again no GM battle a 1.000. We did get a very good lefty replacement for Coke in Boone Logan. I think the trade has to be looked at in terms of what did we give up based on what we got. Melky Cabrera has regressed and hasn’t distinguished himself as more than a 4th OF. Mike Dunn has had a great year at AAA but has struggled at the mlb level. Arodys Vizcaino has had a great year at low A ball. The only real way this deal ends up being a total failure is if Vizcaino becomes a real impactful mlb pitcher.Cashman has egg on his face for Johnson but at least he was only a cash buy. Randy Wynn was a waste. Marcus Thames has had a great year so far and his deadline pickups have been a draw as Berkman hasn’t done much but Wood has been very solid. If either Thames, Logan, Berkman, Vazquez or Wood play a major role in helping the Yanks make the playoffs and win #28 then all is forgiven, right?
pardon the typos.