Links from around MLB before the season’s final weekend of interleague play begins…
- The Royals announced that right-hander Felipe Paulino has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The 28-year-old will seek a second opinion on his elbow, and could choose to undergo Tommy John surgery. Paulino has a 1.67 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 37 2/3 innings this year.
- Executives from other teams and a few MLB owners are paying attention to the Blue Jays' 2010 draft class, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports writes. The Blue Jays chose upside over certainty under then-scouting director Andrew Tinnish and the results are promising so far.
- Giants GM Brian Sabean said he doesn’t expect to trade for starting pitching help, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes (Twitter links).
- The Giants haven’t started extension talks with Melky Cabrera and the team doesn’t consider Andre Ethier’s five-year, $85MM deal a comparable contract, Sabean said.
Maybe Youkilis will have to change dugouts tonight. I just want something to happen sooner rather than later so we can move on and focus on the fact that we’re playing well again.
As a Braves fan, I hope they don’t go after Youkilis. His strikeout to walk ratio is down, he’s been hurt, and his power numbers have decreased every year since 2008.
He’d be better than Fransisco, but that’s not saying much. I’d prefer if they just cut Fransisco, brought up Constanza, and then had Prado backup Chipper and played Constanza in left as necessary.
Youk’s peripherals certainly show that he’s done, but hopefully some team will take a flyer on him based on his 2007-2011 campaigns. I’d be content with a bad contract swap or a salary dump while getting a low-tier prospect or AAAA player at this point.
he’s 33 years old and you think 40 games can show he’s done?
Yes. The peripherals I’m citing (K%, BB%, GB%) stabilize between 150 and 200 PAs. He has 161.
it’s weird to me that you could write those words with confidence
G’s seem prudent to distance themselves from any Rowandian contract figures at this point. Even the Melkman’s last two years don’t necessarily portend 5 full-value years. If they can get him for 3-4 years, by all means, give him $12 mil a year I say.
Well, Melky is just 27, three years younger than Ethier, as I’m sure his agent will point out, so a 5-year deal would hardly put him at the end of his career. I agree with you, that being said, that long contracts can put a franchise in a bind. More often it’s injury that sours the deal than just non-performance (Rowand, Zito). Melky’s had an All-Star year so far, so it will be a tough contract negotiation.
I’m glad Giants and Youk were separated by a comma in the headline.
Very unfortunate bit of news about Paulino there. In the 7 starts he made this season, he definitely looked impressive and I can remember two times where he gave the Yankees fits through the mixing of his offspeed pitches and a live fastball. Wish him a speedy recovery. He’s still 28 and a very undervalued arm that the Royals were fortunate to pick up from the pitching needy Astros.
With Chipper Jones already committed to this being his last season in the Majors, I think Youkilis would be a good fit for the Braves. He can play first and third in a pinch and gives them a lot of versatility when you take into account that they also have Martin Prado. I think Simmons will lock up SS for them for a while. He’s all over the field and involved in a lot of plays. From the small sample size, I like his arm and glove.
Youkilis isn’t the same player he was in 2007, 2008. His best years are certainly behind him and I don’t think he should be considered even an option as the everyday 3B next year for the Braves.
His most useful skills, walking and not striking out that much, have collapsed. He seems to have aged very quickly.
It would be too expensive for the Giants to trade for a starting pitcher. Probably 2 or 3 top prospects for a 1/2 to 1 1/2 year rentals. Cabrera should wait to the end of the year. If he continues to hit like this, he will get more money.
Giants don’t like spending on offense, generally, so I foresee Melky signing elsewhere as a free agent during the off-season.
Thats a big blow to the Royals, he had been our best SP throwing 98, and really getting it done. Now the Royals have lost Daniel Duffy, Paulino, to Tommy John surgery out of the rotation. Plus they lost their closer Soria to his second TJ, and reliever Blake Wood has had it as well.
I expect Jake Odorizzi to get called up to replace Vinny Mazzaro in the rotation very soon, and Luis Mendoza will hold down the other spot.
People will start clamoring for a trade, but the smartest thing the Royals can do is stand pat and use their AAA depth. The loss of prospects and the money spent to acquire an impact SP just isn’t worth what would cost in the long run. That;s money that should be set back for retaining Moustakas and Hosmer and Myers.
The Royals also have top prospect LHP Mike Montgomery at AAA, but he has struggled for the last year. There is no denying his immense talent though, and he is going to click fairly soon. The stumble he’s had might prove to be a very good thing for him in the long run developmental wise. They also have Cuban defector Noel Arguelles in AA making his return from TJ. He won’t emerge this season, but next year he will be knocking on the door at full strength and make for the 3rd good prospect to add to the rotation by 2014.
In the short run, Nathan Adcock, and Ryan Verdugo will be available as #5 options. I look for KC too add a pitcher from the middle inning eater tier of available pitchers. Ryan Dempster has been mentioned.
Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeff Francouer could be available trade chips as well as LH RP Mijares.
” good bench bat for the Braves”
LOL. I doubt he gets moved to any team looking to sit him. He still is a really gifted defensive 1b, average defensive 3b and with enough solid playing time? Would hit as well as many of the 3b in the game the last couple of seasons.
I like Constanza because of his speed, hustle, and defensive ability. He has hit pretty good in his limited time in the big leagues .291/.320/.362 in 150 plate appearances.
The Braves lineup seems much different when he’s in there. They were batting the pitcher 8th and Constanza 9th. Then with Bourn and Prado, they had a lot of speed and contact at the top of the lineup.
It seemed to work.
His BABIP drop is easily explained by his ~50% GB rate. His walks are tanking and his strikeout rates are up. Further, he isn’t hitting fastballs as well as in previous years. His bat is toast but could still provide a solid glove at first.
there are some pretty bad starting 3rd basemen out there though. Pirates and Orioles are 2 teams that come to mind – I imagine he would start ahead of Pedro Alvarez and Wilson Betemit respectively (both of them are bad defensively and not exactly hitting well either).
groundballs generally have above average BABIP results. and a 20% LD rate doesn’t generally get you a below average BABIP
but we don’t need to speculate; we have the numbers. his sOPS on groundballs this year is 23 (100 is average). that’s certainly not all bad luck, but it’s nowhere close to sustainable either
the claim that his bat is toast is utterly unsupportable