Two weeks from now, the regular season will be underway. In the meantime, here are some links, including injury updates on a trio of pitchers…
- "We are pretty comfortable with the team that we have right now," said Nationals GM Mike Rizzo to reporters (including MLB.com's Bill Ladson). "If something comes up to improve ourselves, we'll certainly investigate it. We are not selling anybody or shopping anybody or making a lot of phone calls, because we are comfortable where we are at."
- The Blue Jays have five roster spots up for grabs – left field, fifth starter, utility infielder, two bullpen spots – but there are clear frontrunners for each job according to MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm. The team doesn't want to delay any official moves, but they also want to make sure everyone gets enough playing time to audition for jobs.
- Royals closer Joakim Soria will undergo Tommy John surgery on April 3rd, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reports (Twitter links).
- Chris Carpenter is out indefinitely with a nerve issue, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told reporters, including MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch (Twitter link). Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests Carpenter will likely miss two months or more (Twitterlink).
- Joba Chamberlain dislocated his right ankle and lost a life-threatening amount of blood yesterday, Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News reports. The injury will end Chamberlain's season and could threaten his career.
- One scout says Mark Reynolds isn't appealing, especially given his $7.5MM salary, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com tweets. The Orioles are shopping Reynolds and teammate Kevin Gregg.
- Padres owner John Moores could earn a substantial profit when he sells his team, partly because bidders who fail to purchase the Dodgers may view Padres as consolation prize, Jon Paul Morosi writes at FOX Sports.
- Former All-Star reliever Chad Cordero tells Jonathan Hacohen of MLB Reports that he's getting the itch to play again and will attempt to come back to the Major Leagues in 2013. The 30-year-old reliever took time off to deal with the death of his infant daughter, but he's not ready to give up on baseball yet.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
Even as a Red Sox fan, I hope Joba recovers well, that sounded painful.
Bad break for the Cardinals. But I think Lynn will fit in fine at his role. You can’t replace Carpenter for 2 months.
Editing my original post…not going there.
Cards survived without Wainwright, they can survive without Carpenter
Surviving is a big word… the organization won’t dissapear, of course, but without Pujols, LaRussa and Duncan and with Carpenter gone for two months (plus not knowing in what kind of shape is Wainwright going to be)… I don’t see good postseason opportunities for the Cards this year.
I’ll say we still have a good shot. I’d also say that our chances just took a 10-15 percent drop in likeliness however
IIRC, nobody gave the Cards a chance at the post season last year, either. Coming into the season, it was Reds and Brewers, with the Cardinals hoping to be a close third.
Last year’s Cardinals were a team that failed to improve significantly from what they already had, and nobody gave a buck for Lance Berkman’s comeback to pan out that way. This year’s team has lost key organizational pieces, both on and off the field.
But also remember that Tony LaRussa had to pull a lot of rabbits out of his hat to get his team to leading the NL in runs, which they probably should not have come close to doing, and may not come close in 2012. Losing Pujols, and then Berkman coming down to Earth may be enough to make things tougher alone. Beltran isn’t enough to bring them back to the WS. The party has to end sometime, but the Cards will likely find another way.
Tony La Russa had some at bats last year? News to me…
WOW bad day for baseball?
Holy crap, Joba. I got queazy just reading about it. My condolences to him, his family, and yankee fans. Here’s hope to a full recovery!
If Reynolds really is being shopped around….I’d like to see the Indians take a run at him. The contract isn’t appealing to the Indians either….but a right handed bat should be!
Unless Reynolds has a change of, I dunno, approach maybe, he’ll be more valuable to a team like the Orioles that are struggling to score runs than he would be to a better team. The Orioles are desperate for power right now, and Reynolds provides that in bunches. They are forced to overlook his average (at best) defense, low average, and historic strikeout totals because he provides the team with needed power and a high walk rate.
I don’t see the team picking up his 2013 option. Maybe the Rule 5 guy can slip over there next year, or maybe they play Betemit there for a year while they find someone else because the most highly rated 3B prospect in the system hasn’t had a professional at bat yet and is projected to start the year in A ball. At this point, the 3B of the future for the team is currently their starting shortstop.
I think that currently the best comparison for Reynolds is Adam Dunn, but Dunn at least brings 100+ walks to the table every year. Reynolds has only shown to be a good **hitter** one year. The strikeouts are one thing, and I am in the church of “a K is better than a GIDP”, but his contact rate is so low that he can’t help but be a low average hitter. If he can’t hit .260, he just isn’t a good enough player in other phases of his game (save for HR ability) to justify being a regular on a good team. He’s plenty good enough to be the regular 3B for the O’s in 2012, though.
*sigh*
If I’m looking just at stats and nothing else, Reynolds always reminded me a little bit of Tony Batista.
I don’t remember Batista walking (ever), but I can see your point on most other fronts. It was hard to quit him as well, because for those few seasons he was our best power hitter like Reynolds is now.
YES!! I hope Chad can come back and play a lil longer! Favorite Nat of all time!
Regarding Joba: that sounds scary. I hope he recovers well and gets back to the game asap.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea for any team with some pop to acquire Reynolds and put him in the #7 hole. He may K a lot, but he also walks and can hit it out at any moment, which makes a recipe for some good cookies for the 5-6 hitters.
reynolds reminds me of Butch Hobson who used to be the 3b for Boston decades ago and had 2-3 good seasons.. Monster power, rotten glove. Boston had Ted Williams work with him to cut down his swing and bring his K rate down the spring of ’79 and yeah.. he cut them down by 40%, like 122 the year before to 78 and 162 the season before that (led league) even.
The problem? Hobson just couldn’t swing really any other way. Sure, he managed to hit nearly 30HR the year Williams “fixed” his swing, but it was the last decent year he ever had and he was washed up and out of the game just 3 years later at the age of 31.
If they try to mess with Reynolds swing to cut it down? You just might not like the total end result is the point.
Reynolds did cut his K’s down to 196, which is 29 below his career average and 34 below his career high. Still is a ridiculously high amount though.
Whoever actually does acquire Reynolds should probably make him a full time DH.
the one he reminds me of actually, dave kingman, just with a little better obp.
Oh yeah.. Kong was the master of K’s. Was just comparing reynolds to Hobson since both take/took huge swings, all or nothing and have/had cast iron gloves at 3b.
I remember “Kong” well. That guy hit some moonshots never, ever saw anyone hit. When he was with the Cubbies, he used to hit ’em into the streets beyond LF with regularity and a strange footnote about him? He was a HARD throwing pitcher at USC and would have been drafted as such anyway. He did have a problem though..1 guess?? he was VERY wild… LOL
Royals dropped the ball not dealing Soria (captain hindsight of course). Something that was once worth a lot is now gone.
Not really. He was worth a lot to Royals fans, and I’m glad I got to see him pitch instead of trading him. It was nice having a lights out closer for a couple of years, something we haven’t had since Jeff Montgomery. If he never returns to form that would be unfortunate, but was still worth keeping IMO.
Soria is sort of like how we all held onto our baseball cards when they were worth something and now we’ve each got 20,000 pieces of cardboard.
Red Sox The best team in The 2012 season. Lets go Red Sox!!!!!!
Totally irrelevant to everything, but false.
My sympathies to Joba. I don’t like him as a baseball player, but from one human to another I can’t wish that sort of injury on anyone. I hope he heals and is able to return to the Yankees so that we can smack him around the park some more.
I think that Moises Alou also suffered the Kendall-type injury.
Kind of weird that 2 season ending injuries and one more possible one are casually mentioned in a Quick Hits article.
And Berkman probably won’t have the same year. Who knows if Beltran stays healthy?
When you consider all the variables in the NL Central and the fact that the Cards did pull it out last season it’s hard to bet against them even with this bad news.
I agree. Pujols and Fielder leaving that division evens the competition more to begin with. And we’ve seen the Cards pull off some improbable victories in the recent past as well. I never count them out.
Agreed—the last time I remember an injury this gruesome was when Jason Kendall, then with the Pittsburgh Pirates, broke his ankle in July 1999 while trying to beat a throw to first (at the time, Kendall was a very speedy catcher). The ankle break broke through the skin.
If you haven’t seen the picture or video—you can look it up, but be warned beforehand that it isn’t pretty at all.
When I heard about all the details—it made me wince in pain. Neither is for the faint of heart; the major difference is that Kendall’s injury happened on the diamond. I really hope that Joba Chamberlain can return to play.