The Athletics had somewhat of a scare yesterday when Scott Kazmir left his start in the third inning and underwent an MRI due to shoulder soreness, but MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets that the injury isn’t serious. Kazmir’s MRI revealed no structural damage, and the left-hander is expected to miss only one start before rejoining the Oakland rotation. It’s good news for the A’s on multiple fronts, as a healthy Kazmir will either be a key to a theoretical turnaround of their season or a highly desirable trade chip come July.
Some more news from the game’s Western divisions…
- News on Coco Crisp, however, isn’t as encouraging for the Athletics, writes Joe Stiglich of CSN Bay Area. Doctors have recommended that Crisp receive an epidural injection to attempt to alleviate the chronic pain in his neck. The center fielder will be shut down from baseball activities for the next month or so, according to manager Bob Melvin. That, as Stiglich notes, would mean that Crisp would likely be out past the All-Star break, as he wouldn’t resume baseball activities until late June or early July.
- The D-Backs are planning to promote Jarrod Saltalamacchia from Triple-A Reno tomorrow, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com (via Twitter). Saltalamacchia signed a minor league pact with Arizona after being surprisingly designated for assignment and subsequently released by the struggling Marlins. Saltlamacchia has struggled some at Triple-A after a notable absence from playing in games — he was on paternity leave prior to his DFA, then waited 10 days before being released and another couple of days before signing — but he does have a pair of homers in nine games with Reno. The Diamondbacks will need to add Saltalamacchia to the 40-man roster before he can join the big league club.
- The addition of Kirk Nieuwenhuis doesn’t figure to be the only trade the Angels will make in the coming months, as GM Jerry Dipoto told reporters, including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times, that the search for offense will continue for the next few months. “We’ll be looking for the remainder of the trade season,” said Dipoto, whose team surprisingly ranks 26th in runs scored, 29th in OPS and 26th in wRC+. Dipoto specifically states that he’s not interested in trading the pitching depth he worked long and hard to acquire — presumably referring to Andrew Heaney, Nick Tropeano and Sean Newcomb. He also doesn’t sound like a GM ready to act rashly. “Quite frankly, you try to fix something now, you cost yourself pitching depth, and many different things that could happen along the way would tell you that was the wrong way to go,” he adds.
Maybe you shouldn’t have given away Josh Hamilton for free if you needed offense so badly?
Because hes been hitting so well the last couple years.
Yeah, he actually has been hitting well. Better than anyone else they will find.
Agreed there is a difference between poor and not up to expectations he was still above averave
.263/.331/.414 with 30% strikeout rate is not exactly a game changing line
Not game changing but above average is key in this league
In terms of bang for the buck yeah Hamilton wasn’t doing great. But in his time with the Angels he had a 110 OPS+ so he was clearly an above average hitter. Not great, but let’s not re-write history. The Angels probably would have been better off trying to rehab Hamilton than give him away.
Im sure his 1.2 WAR is the difference maker. Howie Kendrick was much bigger loss than Hamilton.
And what exactly were they supposed to get for him?
You put him in left field and play him. You don’t pay him to play on a rival and then trade for Kirk.
That wasn’t in the cards. He messed up. He’s had too many chances and the Angels weren’t going to put up with it. He had already sent video to the Rangers of him taking swings during his recovery from surgery, which was a clear indication he didn’t want to be with the Angels anymore any way. His press conference showed his true colors. He has no accountability. The trade was inevitable. It’s what needed to happen. Good riddance.
With this type of compassion, I can’t see why he wanted to leave..
I would say trading the man to the place he wanted to go is a measure of compassion. He was a terrible signing from the jump; to echo Ryan W Krol, good riddance.
And he thanked the Angels for doing it.
Exactly how many chances has he had with the Angels?
Where did you get that info on sending in a video? That’s tampering and I can assure you it didn’t happen. There was no contact with him before the trade. The Angels had abandoned him well before this anyways. Your owner has some sort of an attraction with paying players to go elsewhere after signing them to horrible contracts. Funniest was when he acquired a horrible contract to then pay for him to play for the Yankees. How that guy ever made enough money to own a MLB team still astounds me.
Would love to see Kazmir plugged into Pittsburgh’s rotation come July with Cole, Burnett, Liriano and Morton. Pending on health, of course.
“Surprisingly” is a pet peeve. Don’t tell me to be surprised.
I’m sadly assuming that you’re serious, but “surprisingly” doesn’t even come close to suggesting he was telling you to be surprised. It means he was surprised. Now you can rid yourself of that weird pet peeve.
I don’t think that the writer who uses the word “surprisingly” is saying that only he was surprised. He is saying that in an objective sense the news came out of the blue for everyone. Of course, this is his assessment of things. All of the words he uses reflect his assessment of things.
I can see legitimate uses for the word “surprisingly.” If everyone was expecting a player to be resigned because he was loved by the fans and then a trade was announced, part of the news to be reported would be that this was a surprise move.
I don’t share the pet peeve. But I can sorta, kinda see where N8 is coming from. The writer is saying that most who heard the news were surprised when they heard it and there is indeed a small suggestion there that he should be surprised too. I sometimes feel that way when someone on television gives a weather report. Sometimes they say “thank the heavens that snow passed us by!” and I’m thinking “I WANTED it to snow, don’t speak for me!”
Rob
Yeah most writing guides will tell you not to do this, or lean on adverbs in general. Let words speak for themselves.
An epidural injection for his neck??? That is code for, “I have no clue what is wrong with Coco Crisp, so let’s just deaden the pain and hope for the best.” Coco, go get a second opinion! What a horrible decision!
More like time to retire coco
Coco hurt should mean more playing time for Billy Burns. We will finally find out if the lad is a Mookie Betts or an Anthony Gose.
Coco shouldn’t affect Billy Burns’ playing time… Coco was moved to LF and Burns is playing CF, where he’s a way better option than Sam Fuld so he’s basically a full time player (as FT as it gets in Oakland) for the rest of the season.
The angels do need to make some trades to get that offense going, to me ben revere would be a perfect fit for them, not sure who else maybe adam lind
Got a good chuckle here! Tragic: a natural disaster causing great loss of life, OR somebody using the word “surprisingly!”