Though the Rockies continued their hot start by improving to 16-12 last night, the mood was dampened by the departure of right-hander Tyler Chatwood with elbow tightness, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. It may not be too serious, as manager Walt Weiss wasn’t sure if an MRI would be utilized, but as Saunders points out, Chatwood missed nearly a month last season with elbow tightness. He also had bone chips removed from the elbow last October. Colorado has already seen its rotation hampered by injuries to Jhoulys Chacin and Brett Anderson, and losing Chatwood for any amount of time would be yet another blow. Here’s more from baseball’s Western divisions…
- Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller has penned a must-read piece on the tale of Rockies reliever Chris Martin and his journey from working at an appliance store to Colorado’s bullpen. Martin’s career appeared to be done after shoulder surgery in his sophomore season of junior college, but time healed his shoulder, stocking washers and dryers strengthened it, and a game of catch with a friend led to a tryout for the American Association’s AirHogs. His AirHogs manager, former big leaguer Pete Incaviglia, placed a call to the Red Sox about getting scouts to see Martin as soon as possible. This synopsis doesn’t do the story justice, and Miller’s article is well worth the read.
- The Astros, who typically employ a starter-reliever piggyback system for their minor league clubs, will adopt a six-man rotation at the Triple-A level for the time being, writes MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. GM Jeff Luhnow spoke with McTaggart about the team’s unconventional development methods in the minors, noting that eventually the Triple-A club will go back to the usual tandem system employed at other levels.
- In his latest “Fangraphs on FOX” article, Dave Cameron examines the Angels’ offensive production to date and notes that their record isn’t really indicative of the talent on the team. The Halos also stack up very favorably in wOBA differential, leading Cameron to believe that there’s 90-win potential in Anaheim this year. Cameron acknowledges the team’s biggest flaw — its bullpen — but notes that relievers are the easiest commodity to acquire on the trade market each summer.
The Rockies started off hot last year too and bombed at the end. I don’t think their fans should get too excited again.
My biggest concern about the Angels is their starting pitching depth, something Cameron ignores completely. Of Angels AAA starters, none project as MLB starters and only one, Jarrett Grube, has a AAA ERA under 4.50. The Angels are one injury away from exposing their real biggest flaw.
Cameron didn’t mention it because it’s not relevant to the topic.
Every major league team is one injury away in their starting rotation. And then it’s more of a matter of the rest of the rotation stepping it up at the big level. That’s what we’ve mostly seen from the A’s, Braves, and Rangers.
Every team has pitchers they can tap into at AAA. But then they have to perform at the Big League level, few of which will. The Jose Fernandez’s of the world are few and far between.
The Angels can be a very dangerous team if they fix their bullpen, which they’ve already begun doing by putting Joe Smith as closer. If not for Frieri, the Angels bullpen would be ranked much higher and they’d be about 16-10 right now.
The Angels also have Jose Alvarez and Matt Shoemaker as spot starters.
I agree. I do think shoemaker can be a solid arm but after that we have nothing. Hopefully if our SP gets hurt its one at a time and not two down during the same month. We would be screwed. Hopefully no ones gets hurt though. As for A’s and rangers they have guys that stepped up because those guys had the potential. All we have is shoemaker with potential lol. As for braves they signed guys through free agency and the guys that stepped up were also high potential pitchers. Huge differnce because halos have zero sp depth.
The A’s and Rangers are lucky they’re getting the performances they’re getting from the pitchers in place of the starters they lost. It could’ve easily gone the other way. Every player has potential. Those pitchers stepped up because they stepped up. Plain and simple. Every team faces the possibility of their season falling apart because of injuries to their SP, even the A’s and Rangers.