There's been lots of draft chatter these past few days, but that's not all that's going on around the Major Leagues. Here are some more notes from around MLB…
- The Red Sox optioned Daniel Bard to Triple-A, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter). Bard has struggled with his command in the rotation and, as Dave Cameron of FanGraphs notes, his velocity is down as well. Bard still figures to go to arbitration for the second time this coming offseason.
- The Royals don’t intend to rush Wil Myers to the Major Leagues despite the top prospect’s minor league successes, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter). The Royals could reduce the chances that Myers qualifies for super two status following the 2014 season by waiting another few weeks to call him up.
- Diamondbacks pitching prospect Trevor Bauer has pitched well enough in the minors to deserve a promotion, but "nothing has been decided" regarding the right-hander's timeline, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports (Twitter links). Bauer and Myers are in similar situations; they probably won't qualify as super twos if their teams keep them in the minors for a few weeks.
If Bailey comes back strong and Aceves continues to pitch well. If Bard goes to arbitration for the 2nd time it may not be versus the Red Sox.
With Bard it is deja vous all over again. He was originally converted to a reliever in the minors because of control issues. The same bug-a-boo is back. I say, swap his place in the rotation with Miller, who has pitched well in relief but started last year. Better yet, keep them both in the relief corps and let Aceves start.
In theory that sounds like a good idea but in the past every time Miller tried his hand at starting, he’d walk a lot of batters. Like an astronomical number-just like Daniel Bard has done.
This is true but Miller has changed his windup to a no-wind up approach in 2012. Apparently it stabilizes his release point, that is, until he begins to over throw. He, Miller, throws some “nasty” pitches from his new windup when he is right.. But as you say, least season, he looked much like Bard “the starter” when he lost his mechanics. . Perhaps, as I have suggested above, Bobby V. might put both Miller and Bard in the relief corps, in late inning roles, and move Aceves into the starting rotation. The return of Dice-K, might create an opportunity for Bobby to get creative with his starters v. relievers. He certainly isn’t comfortable playing a pat hand…
bard needs 2 throw harder and more strikes
Every pitcher would benefit from doing that.
Not harder he needs to locate better.
I’d be a little surprised if they transition him back to the pen. The strange truth is the Sox bullpen has been doing it’s job well lately. Aceves has mostly settled down after a poor start, Atchison has been putting up a career year, Albers has been solid, Padilla has settled into his role, Morales has been decent, and Hill and Miller have been fine in limited roles. Add to that we still have Melancon stuck in AAA limbo pitching lights out.
Putting Bard back in the pen won’t really solve anything for the Sox this season. I’m still convinced his issue is confidence. Hopefully he can regain that in AAA.
I’d be fine with their ‘pen if Aceves wasn’t the closer (and not because of today, I’ve been saying this since the first time they used him there).
Any reason Melancon is still at Pawtucket? I saw two PawSox games recently, and Melancon looked like Mariano Rivera, Jr. Whatever confidence he lost early on seems corrected.
It was painful to watch Bard start in Toronto… ugh….
Really? I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I didn’t like watching him continuously peg our guys. I don’t care if Huch didn’t intentionally hit Youk… it meant the same thing in my head.
#FreeTrevorBauer
Bard…saying he was horrible in Toronto is not enough. It was not painful to watch so much as painful for the Blue Jays hitters who were likely scared of facing this guy who might hit them in the head with an errant pitch.
Never was a problem for Nolan Ryan.. he threw behind hitter’s heads.. At hitter’s heads.. Etc.. On purpose…
Ah, yes! Nolan Ryan had some ridiculously high walk totals, especially early in his career with the Mets. I seem to recall him being a three true outcomes pitcher for a good long while.
It was more than that.. He used it later on, once he figured out he could get away with it without getting tossed occasionally as a tactic..
Dwight Evans for instance quit playing in games after getting 1 tossed behind his head, then another hitting his helmet in the late 70’s.. think how many AB’s his bat might have helped in games played vs Ryan as an example ov the next 10+ seasons Evans played in the league. Evans was one of the leagues better hitters over that time and Ryan realized it.. Knowing he could get away.. He intimidated and hit him in the upper shoulders/helmet area..Where he was trying and did what he wanted.. Got him to not play vs him but a handful of games the next decade.
Now it would never happen again of course, but the point is that Ryan used his wildness as an excuse later on when his control was much better than advertised.. Early on it was brutal of course, but not like it was bad or anything later.. He just flat out threw at people’s heads when he wanted to hit someone and intimidate.
I always remember that Ventura/Ryan fight/exchange and was wanting to see Ryan get pummeled after he drilled Ventura, but Ryan got him instead.. Shame nobody ever did just charge the mound and pummel him during his career, nor has called him out since for how he acted on the mound.
i haves scouted wil myers on very many occasions,,, great talents and great personalities
Why people are surprised by the velocity being down is beyond me… People expected a reliever turned starter to keep the velocity initially through 85-100 pitches? Should have expected 95 instead of 98-100…
why do you think people are surprised? the article explicitly address that, and notes that bard’s drop in velocity is ~250% larger than that of the other converted starters
It really almost seems like an intentional thing too, like he thinks he’ll be able to control it better at that velocity. His one decent start a couple times ago he was sitting 94 and touching 95 regularly, so it’s there.
Everyone did expect 95; he’s consistently sitting 90-92.
joba’d
Cant wait for Bauer, Go Dbacks!
No doubt Trevor Bauer’s got the talent to hack it in the big leagues – I think he could be the next Greg Maddux.
The question is, where does Bauer fit into the D-Backs’ rotation? Hudson and Kennedy are fixtures, no doubt, Miley’s putting up a ROTY-caliber season, and Saunders and Cahill are having fine years as well. Demoting any one of them to the bullpen or AAA would be a bad move on the part of the Snakes’ management.
Also, I can’t believe how good the D-Backs’ rotation is gonna be in the next couple years, provided Bauer and Tyler Skaggs pan out as planned.