Rangers Sign Manny Delcarmen
The Rangers signed reliever Manny Delcarmen to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A, tweets Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Delcarmen is represented by Jim Masteralexis, as noted in MLBTR's agency database.
Delcarmen, 29, asked for his release from the Mariners' Triple-A club yesterday. He posted a 5.14 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, and 0.6 HR/9 in 28 innings for the Rainiers. The signing adds low-risk depth for the Rangers' bullpen, which ranks ninth in the American League with a 4.12 ERA.
Delcarmen's best overall season was 2008, when he tallied 74 1/3 strong innings out of Boston's pen with a fastball averaging over 95 miles per hour. Though he declined in subsequent seasons, the Sox were still able to ship Delcarmen and cash to the Rockies at the August deadline last year for pitching prospect Chris Balcom-Miller.
D’Backs Seek Relief Help
Kevin Towers built a dominant bullpen in San Diego and he’d like to do the same in Arizona. The D’Backs GM is looking to upgrade his bullpen by acquiring a shutdown seventh inning arm to complement David Hernandez and J.J. Putz, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
Heath Bell, Mike Adams and Luke Gregerson are dominant in San Diego and Towers likes the idea of creating a similar trio in Arizona, where Putz and Hernandez have been tremendous so far. Those two, plus lesser-known pickups like Rule 5 pick Joe Paterson, have helped the D’Backs lower their bullpen ERA from 5.74 in 2010 to 3.26 this year (a transformation I examined in detail last month).
The D’Backs like their offense and are confident that their rotation will keep them in games, so they’re focusing on the ‘pen. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes wrote this week that Towers "should be proactive in adding reinforcements" because Putz has to be used carefully and Hernandez has walked 5.7 batters per nine innings.
Rockies Claim Josh Roenicke
The Rockies announced that they claimed right-hander Josh Roenicke from the Blue Jays and optioned him to Triple-A (Twitter link). They also confirmed that they claimed infielder Ryan Rohlinger from the Giants and optioned him to Triple-A.
The son of longtime big leaguer Gary Roenicke and the nephew of Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, Josh has appeared in parts of three big league seasons. The 28-year-old has a 5.60 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 5.3 BB/9 in 53 total innings for the Reds and Blue Jays. Acquired in the 2009 Scott Rolen trade, he had a 6.04 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9 in 22 1/3 innings of relief for the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate in 2011.
Before the 2010 season, Baseball America ranked Roenicke seventh among Blue Jays prospects. The publication praised his mid-90s fastball and suggested he could become a big league closer.
Rockies Claim Ryan Rohlinger
The Rockies claimed infielder Ryan Rohlinger off of waivers from the Giants, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter). The Giants designated Rohlinger and Henry Sosa for assignment last week to create 40-man roster space for Brandon Crawford and Chris Stewart.
Rohlinger, 27, appeared in one game with the Giants this year, but he has spent most of his season at Triple-A Fresno, where he has a .174/.294/.331 line with more walks (19) than strikeouts (14) in 144 plate appearances as a shortstop and third baseman. He has a .267/.350/.435 line as a minor leaguer since the Giants drafted him five years ago.
Even after making the claim, the Rockies have room on their 40-man roster.
New York Notes: Cashman, Reyes, Wright
On this date in 1925, Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp sat out after being hit in the head during batting practice. His replacement, a 21-year-old named Lou Gehrig, picked up three hits that day on his way to playing 2,130 consecutive games. Here's the latest out of New York…
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman has more cash at his disposal than any other general manager, but he recognizes the importance of the draft. "Our business is baseball, and that's the most important access to talent,” he told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “If you want to be championship-caliber, there's a lot of different avenues, but one you can not skip is the amateur pipeline. That's the foundation of eventual champions."
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says the Mets should keep Jose Reyes and David Wright long-term, not just one or the other. Team officials tell Rosenthal that, under certain circumstances, they could afford both infielders.
- Reyes has returned from the Dominican Republic and is off of the bereavement list, Anthony DiComo writes at MLB.com (the shortstop returned home after the death of his grandmother).
Daisuke Matsuzaka To Have Tommy John Surgery
THURSDAY, 12:24pm: Matsuzaka will have the operation, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). Dr. Yocum will operate, probably next week.
WEDNESDAY, 11:18pm: At this point, there is no final decision regarding treatment for Matsuzaka, who will meet with Red Sox officials tomorrow, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com.
9:50pm: Daisuke Matsuzaka has elected to have Tommy John surgery and will likely inform the Red Sox of his decision Friday morning, according to Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com. Earlier tonight, Yahoo's Tim Brown reported that Dr. Lewis Yocum found a significant tear in the right-hander's elbow and that Matsuzaka was leaning toward ligament replacement surgery (Twitter link). Nikkan Sports first reported that Matsuzaka would undergo Tommy John surgery.
The 30-year-old struggled through eight appearances this year before going on the disabled list. He has a 5.30 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 5.5 BB/9 through 37 1/3 innings in 2011. On May 18th, the Red Sox announced that Matsuzaka had experienced elbow tightness in his previous start and could have a sprained ulnar collateral ligament, and strain to his common flexor mass.
It cost the Red Sox $103MM to acquire Matsuzaka before the 2007 season. He's under contract for 2011 and 2012 and will earn a $10MM salary each year before hitting free agency. Recovery from Tommy John surgery typically takes a year or more, which could mean Matsuzaka returns with three or four months remaining on his original six-year contract.
Jays Look Forward To Drafting Early & Often
Thanks to the departures of former players like Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, John Buck and, yes, Miguel Olivo, the Blue Jays will be picking early and often this Monday when the MLB draft takes place. No one’s ever accused baseball’s draft pick compensation system of being simple, but the Blue Jays’ amateur scouting director isn’t about to complain about selecting seven of the first 78 players in a talented, top-heavy draft.
“To me it’s an advantage,” Andrew Tinnish told MLBTR. “I think the more picks you have up high, if you scout well and sign the players, you’ve got a better chance of getting more quality big leaguers.”
Some would argue that successful drafts correlate better with dollars spent than number of picks, and if that's the case, the Blue Jays may be in an especially enviable position. If last year is any indication, ownership will provide the Jays with the finances to pursue ‘tough signs’ like high schoolers with college commitments, two sport stars or players with over-slot bonus demands.
In 2010, the first full year under GM Alex Anthopoulos, the Blue Jays spent $11.6MM on bonuses – the third highest amount in draft history, according to Baseball America. When the signing deadline approaches in mid-August, the Blue Jays will again be prepared to sign top players, as long as their asking prices match up with Toronto’s assessment of their potential.
“The way we look at it is we place a value on the player and if we select a player and our value matches what he’s willing to sign for, then we feel like we’re going to be able to be successful and sign a handful of players,” Tinnish said, pointing out that the Blue Jays signed all of their top selections last year. “We’re fortunate in the sense that we have a supportive ownership group that understands that we place value on players in specific areas.”
Last year Tinnish selected Deck McGuire, Aaron Sanchez, Noah Syndergaard and Asher Wojciechowski – a quartet of right-handed pitchers – with his first picks as an MLB scouting director. The Blue Jays say they expect to select the top players available again instead of drafting based on positional need.
“When you draft a player – whether it’s a high school player or a college player – they’re further from what they’re ultimately going to be than in most sports,” Tinnish said. “This isn’t the NBA; this isn’t the NFL where you can draft a player out of college and they can have an immediate impact on your franchise.”
Blue Jays scouts are meeting this week to rank hundreds of players they’ve watched over the course of the last year-plus and they hope to wrap up the discussions with some time to spare. Tinnish says he’s more comfortable running the draft as a second-year scouting director, but that doesn’t make balancing reports, stats and video any easier.
"You’re trying to weigh what six, seven, sometimes maybe even eight or nine people saw on different days," Tinnish said. "You’re looking at performance, you’re looking at health, you’re looking at makeup and ultimately it’s our job as scouting directors to in the end make a call on who goes ahead of whom."
The Blue Jays select 21st, 35th, 46th, 53rd and 57th on Monday, then twice more before the end of the second round. Though Tinnish sees it as a “top-heavy” draft with many impact prospects available early on, that doesn’t mean the ones the Blue Jays end up with will be close to Major League-ready.
“I’m realistic and I understand that it takes time,” he said. “Am I excited about players? Absolutely, I’m very excited about players that we took in last year’s draft, but I also understand that this is a long process that takes time and hopefully they do end up making a difference for us some day.”
Draft Notes: Stilson, Rays, Astros, Nationals, Bundy
This year’s draft is deep, particularly in terms of power pitchers. Here are the details on some draft-eligible players and the teams that are eyeing them…
- Texas A&M righty Josh Stilson received a second opinion on his injured shoulder from Dr. James Andrews, who believes surgery can be avoided with a six-week rehab program according to Baseball America's Jim Callis. Stilson, a projected first round pick, suffered a SLAP tear in his throwing shoulder and will miss the rest of the season.
- ESPN's Jerry Crasnick wrote about Rocco Baldelli's front office job with the Rays, which involves evaluating amateur position players for the draft.
- Astros assistant GM and scouting director Bobby Heck told MLB.com's Brian McTaggart that he has been impressed with the crop of power arms in this year's draft.
- Odds are the Astros will take a pitcher with the 11th overall pick, according to Stephen Goff of the Houston Astros Examiner (Twitter links). High school pitcher Archie Bradley told Goff that "the Astros have been in pretty good contact" with him.
- High school right-hander Dylan Bundy is a fitness freak who is mature beyond his years, as Nick Piecoro shows at the Arizona Republic. Bundy's pre-season goals? "To hit 100 mph, have a zero ERA and not walk anybody." His fastball touched 100 and he posted a 0.25 ERA with a 158K/5BB ratio.
- MLB.com's Bill Ladson hears that the Nationals, who select sixth overall, are looking at Bundy, Danny Hultzen, Bubba Starling, Jed Bradley, Trevor Bauer and Alex Meyer.
- The Royals entered the season with the best farm system in the game, yet GM Dayton Moore told MLB.com's Dick Kaegel that there are many areas in which the organization's prospect depth can improve.
- The Rays have 12 of the first 89 selections this year and executive VP of baseball operations Andrew Friedman says those selections boost the team's odds of finding elite talent. "The more arrows you have, the more likely you are to hit the bulls-eye," Friedman told Bill Chastain of MLB.com.
- The Padres, who have five of the first 58 picks in the draft, are looking forward to their selections with equal enthusiasm, according to MLB.com's Corey Brock. GM Jed Hoyer says the Padres need to get their picks right.
- The Red Sox, Hoyer's former team, also have extra picks, something that GM Theo Epstein is looking forward to. “I think it energizes the scouting staff the whole year because they know going in and seeing players, there’s a much better chance you can actually get a guy," he told Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com.
- The Twins will look to add pitching early on, according to MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger.
- Mets executives Paul DePodesta and Sandy Alderson agree with the consensus that the draft is deep in pitching, according to MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.
Marlins Confident In System, Could Seek Depth
The Marlins' farm system ranked 29th in baseball before the season, according to Baseball America and ESPN, partly since former top prospects like Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison have graduated to the Major Leagues. Yet Marlins president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest told Juan C. Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun Sentinel that his system isn’t as bare as it seems and that the Marlins have players they could move in summer trades.
“We have pieces,” Beinfest said. “Some of them we may not want to move, but I can’t remember a situation where we haven’t been able to make a trade because of inventory. There are definitely situations where we haven’t wanted to move that inventory."
Beinfest insists that the Marlins have pitching depth despite injuries to Alex Sanabia and Sean West. They expect John Buck (.658 OPS) and Hanley Ramirez (.615 OPS) to hit better, so Beinfest says he doesn’t see glaring holes on the Marlins, who are atop the NL Wild Card standings with a 31-23 record.
“We like what we see,” he said. “We think we have the right people. An injury can change things as we get closer to the deadline. You always want to enhance. Maybe depth is an issue.”
Olney On Pineda, Twins, Athletics
Mariners rookie Michael Pineda is a big reason that Seattle is in the middle of the AL West race, but ESPN.com's Buster Olney looks ahead to a dilemma the M's could face later in the summer. Here are the details and Olney's notes from around the Major Leagues…
- The 22-year-old Pineda has thrown 70 1/3 innings this year and has never thrown as many as 140 frames in any pro season. If Seattle limits Pineda's innings total this year, they'll either have to shut him down early or limit him to 25 innings or so per month from here on.
- Some rival executives wonder when the 17-37 Twins will give up on the season and start considering trades. More aggressive general managers than Bill Smith (think Kenny Williams) might already have started making changes, but the Twins have typically been conservative at the trade deadline. Jason Kubel (who may be headed for the DL), Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young are among the players the Twins could consider moving.
- The A's have lost ten consecutive games against New York (dating back to 2010) and Olney says "Oakland's best young players have to get over the emotional hurdle of playing the Yankees."