A look at a few items out of the AL East as the Blue Jays take on the Orioles in Baltimore..
- The Orioles are still looking for ways to improve defensively and the club has some interest in Brandon Inge, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Inge was let go by Detroit earlier today but made it clear that he wants to continue playing.
- There hasn't been any talk of Will Middlebrooks being promoted in support of the struggling Kevin Youkilis, a Red Sox source told Alex Speier of WEEI.com. So far this year, the veteran is hitting just .204/.267/.296 as Middlebrooks has looked solid for Triple-A Pawtucket.
- Peter Gammons of MLB.com tweets that the lesson to be learned from the Red Sox's Carl Crawford "debacle" is that the club should have had his agent work with the club to help with his adjustment to a new market. Crawford hit just .255/.289/.405 for Boston in 2011 and could now miss three months after undergoing elbow surgery.
- Former pitcher Curt Schilling suffered the same torn anterior labrum in his throwing shoulder as Michael Pineda and believes that he could bounce back better than ever and return in less than a year, writes Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com. Yesterday we learned that the Yankees pitcher is likely going to be sidelined for a full year.
And cue defensive agent retort in 3… 2…
I’d be totally for Inge, that would be a great signing.
I concur. His defense would be a huge improvment at third.
If Presley can get him to find his bat, Inge would be the bargain of the year.
PS I have no idea as to why our infielder’s can’t accurately throw the ball to 1st base these days drama free. Nick Johnson can thankfully still glove there, can’t hit worth a lick right now, but he can scoop with the best of them.
Curt Schilling will do anything these days to make the Red Sox upset. So yes Schilling, say Pineda will be better than ever.
Brandon Inge. Homerun Derby. That is all.
Middlebrooks…Solid…He’s a monster! It’s one thing to be unbiased, but to lie. Middlebrooks is hitting .377 with 29 hits, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs and 27 RBIs. The only thing that’s just solid about him is his fielding.
9 home runs, sorry.
Actually his fielding is generally considered plus (said to be one of the best fielding 3B in the minors). He’s got good power and should hit for a decent average (.275ish with 20-25 HRs wouldn’t be unreasonable), but he has a history of very low walk rates and very high strike out rates. He has improved his BB and K rates a lot to start the season, but it’s way too early to say that he has actuallyfixed anything, and until we can reasonably say that he has I don’t really have a problem with calling his hitting solid.
I’ve just been waiting for this kid to be called up. I wonder with youk’s struggles and not being a favorite of Bobby v. If he’s gonna get moved at the deadline for some pitching or what other area that’ll need it down the line.
I doubt it. I think either Youkilis continues to struggle and they wouldn’t be able to get a fair value for him, or he turns it around and is a big part of the team again, at which point it wouldn’t make sense to trade him.
I think the most likely scenario is Middlebrooks getting a September call-up and then starts next year in Boston (unless Youkilis has an injury that sidelines him for a while, in which case we’d see Middlebrooks sooner). He has been red hot so far this year, but he still struggles a bit with good breaking stuff and goes through stretches where his swing gets long and he can get tied up on the inner part of the plate, so a full season at AAA would probably do him some good.
There are two scenarios where they could fit him in next year; one is not bringing Ortiz back again, and slotting Youkilis in as the DH and part time 1B/3B; the other would be not picking up Youkilis’ option for next year.
Even though I can’t stand schilling, it would be kinda awesome to see him in the Yankees Organization.
Go ahead and have him.
He would be the perfect Senator from Mass. Then they would have (and had) loons from the left and right. :-)
He should go back to Arizona to be Senator, where he’d be considered a liberal.
Yeah but curt your rehab process was a different to his.. If you know what I mean…;)
Im not sure if this is the type of thing mlbtr does but it be cool to see a lis pf pitchers who actually had the same exact injury, as of now i dont think people have a good idea.