We touched on injuries earlier this evening, but two significant situations have popped up since — both regarding rehabbing Athletics pitchers. First, righty A.J. Griffin was forced out early from his simulated game with shoulder soreness, as John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group reports. Griffin’s injury was to his elbow, of course, and the club is hopeful that the shoulder pain only constitutes a minor setback. More troublingly, fellow Tommy John patient Jarrod Parker left his Triple-A rehab start in a scene that left observers seriously concerned about his arm, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Parker, who is said to have been overcome by pain after throwing a very wild pitch, walked off with assistance while clutching his surgically repaired right elbow — which is now on its third UCL. The Athletics’ summer trade plans are virtually impossible to gauge anyway, but the inability of either of those pitchers to return to the rotation would certainly have an impact. Lefty Scott Kazmir has been talked about quite a bit as a possible trade candidate, though moving him could prove tough if the team is in contention and does not have replacements lined up.
- Another new arm issue cropped up for the Rays, too, who have placed lefty Drew Smyly on the 15-day DL with shoulder soreness, per Roger Mooney of the Tampa Tribune (Twitter link). Smyly, the key piece in last summer’s David Price trade, had already missed time early this year with a shoulder issue, which enhances the level of concern.
- Injured Orioles shortstop Everth Cabrera, who has struggled for Baltimore, is no longer capable of being optioned without consent as he has reached five years of service, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun notes (Twitter link). With J.J. Hardy returning to action, Cabrera may not have an active roster spot when he returns, and his new service time status could well complicate the club’s decisionmaking.
- The Red Sox have hired away Carl Willis from the Indians to become their new pitching coach, Jim Massie of the Columbus Dispatch reports (h/t to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe). Willis had been the Triple-A pitching coach for Cleveland. He’ll be tasked with getting better production out of a starting staff that has struggled in the first five weeks of the season.
- Prized White Sox lefty Carlos Rodon is expected to receive only a spot start tomorrow, Doug Padilla of ESPNChicago.com reports. Manager Robin Ventura did leave some room open for Rodon to earn another start, however, saying: “the way it sits right now, he would still be back in the bullpen and getting us some innings there.” Regardless of how things progress in the near term, it seems that Chicago’s plan is to use Rodon in the pen to manage his innings, perhaps with the hope of having him as a starter down the stretch — assuming, at least, that the club can stay in the postseason picture.
Boy, the injury to Parker sounds really ominous; the ball ended up between third base and home, and he’s a right-handed pitcher. Anybody ever watch the pitch that broke Dave Dravecky’s arm? I feel bad for Parker. This doesn’t sound great.
I agree, I feel awful for the guy, very cringe-inducing situation there.
Feeling pretty bad for Parker right now. This one sounds rough. Stay strong bud.
Next “big” step for the RS is to fire the hitting coach.
Lol same thing I thought.
The issue has been RISP more so than anything. Chili Davis is a good hitting coach, so I wouldn’t give up on him too prematurely. Eventually, they will start to hit with RISP (the numbers they have now are too low to sustain) and make their offence look much better.
Well, been a bit sarcastic but the team looks kind of broken. Or maybe it’s a competition which is worse this game, pitching or offense. The last one quite winning the race in the last games with the “extatic” shutdown last night. No surprise as you can see: Napoli (1.61) is followed by Nava (1.36) and next is Craig (1.46). For some reason, I spare Swihart. Anyway, it is still plenty of time to turn things around even I have the feeling sometimes Farrell is completely lost somewhere in the outer space.
Nava and Craig shouldn’t be starting, and I hope they realize that soon. I don’t think Victorino should be starting either. They should call up Castillo to play RF, and hope Napoli gets it going with the bat. If his woes continue, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hanley move to first for the future. It would be better for his health, and at least he won’t be able to run into walls often.
And who’s going to play LF if Ramirez moves to first?
JBJ
The problem with the teams that want and reward players to drive up pitch counts by going “deep in the count” and hitting foul balls, is that it’s a cherry picking thing. Anyone can hit foul balls. They run up their OBP, the games take longer and longer, and when they have to hit with the RISP in critical games and big game situations, they are not skilled enough to do it (nor can they perform situational hitting). I’ve watched the Indians – among others – do that for at least 10 years.
And the antidote to driving the opposing starting pitchers out when they hit 100-110 pitchers – lock down bullpens such as the Royals, Orioles and Yankees. In fact, in the case of the Royals and Orioles, their best pitchers are in the bullpen. Why in heavens name would a team want to tire out the starting pitcher so they can face the better relief pitchers?
I think RISP is the most underrated, and under-evaluated, stat in the game for hitters 3-6.
You can have whoever you want pitch for the White Sox. If the coaching staff stays the same then they are likely looking at another 90-100 loss season. White Sox management had to tell the manager to be more ‘hands on’. If you have to tell a manager that then there are bigger issues IMO. Just lack of fire and inability to execute can be blamed on a player, If only one has that issue. However if the whole team seems like they do not want to be there to play, that falls on the coaching staff.
All season, and the past few seasons, the Sox have made the same mistakes and miscues over and over again. Lack of execution with runners in scoring position. Lack of even average fielding at times, lack of knowing your opposing hitters (ie not placing your fielders properly) or pitchers (i.e.making every pitcher seem like Cy Young award winner), and just lack of fire in total. A change is needed somewhere. This roster was well overturned but yet the same mistakes keep occurring and you can only blame the players so much.