The Red Sox swung a trade today to acquire Alejandro De Aza from the division-rival Orioles after Baltimore had designated him for assignment, and manager John Farrell explained to Joe Castiglione on the Red Sox Pregame Radio Show the thinking that went into the move. Via WEEI’s Rob Bradford, Farrell explained: “…with Daniel Nava being down, De Aza has been in that role a little bit in Baltimore where he has come off the bench. He’s been a little bit of a platoon player. I’m not saying De Aza is going to come in here and platoon in left with Hanley. But at the same time we’ve got a veteran, a guy who can run, a guy that can play all three outfield positions.” It remains to be seen whether or not De Aza will be a long-term piece for the Sox, but the fact that they surrendered a prospect of any kind of note — righty Joe Gunkel was the team’s No. 26 prospect this offseason, per Baseball America — seems to suggest they’re not looking at him as a mere short-term play.
Elsewhere in the AL East…
- Masahiro Tanaka made a dominant return to the Yankees today, holding the Mariners to a run on three hits and no walks with nine strikeouts in seven innings. As George A. King III of the New York Post wrote last night, however, Tanaka will have a difficult time eliminating the specter of a possible injury that hangs around his head. King writes that the Yankees will have to hope that Tanaka can outperform the struggling CC Sabathia and inconsistent Nathan Eovaldi, because the team’s need for a starter in the event of a Tanaka injury is significant. King spoke to an NL scout who said that Tanaka looked like a No. 3 starter earlier this year, though clearly, the results from this afternoon’s start are highly encouraging for the Yankees.
- Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star chronicles the unlikely journeys taken by right-hander Bo Schultz and first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello to the Majors. Colabello’s story has received its share of fanfare — and rightfully so, as the longtime independent league star is an admirable picture of perseverance — but Schultz’s tale may be even more improbable. Schultz attended Northwestern University to study journalism, but he made the baseball team as a walk-on outfielder. Schultz received little playing time and quit after his freshman year, but he returned his junior year when there was a need for pitchers and his teammates recalled Schultz’s strong arm. Schultz went undrafted but signed a minor league deal with the A’s, who converted him to a submarine delivery that never panned out. A brief stint with the D-Backs didn’t take, and he’s now trying for the second time to stick in the bigs, this time with Toronto. This brief synopsis leaves out a good bit of detail, so those who are interested will want to check out the piece in its entirety.
- Despite frequently being forced to trade away top-tier pitching due to financial constraints, the Rays continually boast one of baseball’s best pitching staffs, writes Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. Brown looks at the manner in which each member of Tampa’s core group of starters was acquired, noting that the club is adept at identifying replacements, but that the culture of the clubhouse is important in maintaining that excellence as well. Chris Archer spoke to Brown about all that he learned from David Price and James Shields before their trades, adding that he and Alex Cobb are among the pitchers who now try to mentor and pass that wisdom onto younger arms.
Let’s be honest. Holding the M’s to 3 hits and 9 SO’s isn’t some great feat.
For a guy surrounded in a veil of uncertainty, after this being the first start coming off of a DL stint, it’s a definitely worthy of pride. His 2-Seemer was nasty today, in fact his stuff was working rather well as a whole, and his Fastball velocity was higher today than it had been early on(I think he touched 97 once and hit 95 a few times, sitting largely around 91-93). It may not have been a great team he did so against, but denying it to be a respectable feat isn’t fair.
I certainly don’t wish him ill but he threw 13.1 innings, over 2 starts, of 1 run 14 K ball before going down to injury.
That’s fair, but I think that’s what made today all the more special. All of us Yankee fans were just hoping he’d make it through the game healthy and give us at least a sliver of silver lining after the up and down he’s been for us health wise, let alone 9Ks, increased velocity,working the zone better than he had pre-DL stint, and the sudden dominance of a new pitch. It could have been against the worst team in the league, and it’d still be worthy of some recognition.
I hope he does fine too, I’m just a bit skeptical that the elbow will hold up over the long haul. I know that treatment program has worked occasionally in the past but not always.
If there’s a single NYY fan that tells you they aren’t skeptical or worried about it, they’d be lying through their teeth. But, considering there’s nothing to be done but to trust the advised experts, you just have to hope that they can get something out of him while he’s healthy and the treatment holds up for awhile. When the first game back from a DL scare turns out like this, you’ll gladly take it.
That team really misses Ichiro, or that type of player who was slash and run. The stadium in itself is just still terrible for power hitters, even with fences brought in. I’d love to see that type of people brought in, even though Jack Z tried with Jackson, who was on the downside of his career.
Have doubts Trumbo will help, he’s a low OBP guy as it is and huge OF to cover, it’ll have to be 1b for him in Seattle. Long way to hit them out. Really hope he looks for slash-n-run types this off season and speed, which is what that stadium plays up to.
Yes.. I am a fan of the M’s and watch them “late night” on east coast.
Darvish>Tanaka….
Based off what?
I assumed he meant UCL health.
Height I guess?
Well De Aza could do it.
He might fit in well with Boston.
I wish him well.
That NL scout must not have paid attention to Tanaka after his first two starts, though he would have looked like a terrible number three in those games. Since then he has pitched 20.1 innings 2 ERs 8 hits 2 BB and 23 Ks. As long as he is healthy, I wouldn’t be too concerned about his ability to outperform CC and Eovaldi.
Threw well with the help of some really biased calls in the Yankees favor. He had so many balls called strikes clearly outside of the zone today.
The Mariners had a TON of pitches going their way the first 2 games, so I guess it balanced out yesterday.
A lot of umpires these days are having pretty awful outings. It seriously needs to be fixed. I know in game one of the Red Sox doubleheader, the strike three calls on Rusney twice, and Napoli once were both terrible (one of Rusney’s calls was 4 inches off the plate). It is certainly a problem that needs to be fixed.
It’s funny you mention that, because I thought Porcello was the benefactor of some questionable strike calls that avoided a few walks in the second game of the double header. Yet, the Sox won game 1, and Twins win game 2, so I guess the results didn’t change. I think umps do a fairly solid job considering the difficultly of their tasks but some consistency would be nice. The k zone seems to shift depending on the umpire and I’ve seen one too many calls made that were greatly influenced by framing.
I’ve got to believe DeAza will be a keeper for the Sox. #26 prospect for the Sox Gunkel is more than just a throw in. He’s definitely not the calibre of ERod and DeAza isn’t the calibre of Andrew Miller but Gunkel has made some nice progress this season. I would say Daniel will be DFA when he comes off the DL. and DeAza will get some playing time platooning with Hanley who will probably also be platooning with Ortiz.
Sounds like the umpiring crew heard it from more than just the M’s manager Tuesday night–then several players were pretty disgruntled.
The umps have a tough job. Most fans, players, coaches I think just want them to be consistent. MLB should probably eliminate the Ball/ Strike box on TV unless they come up with an automated strike zone box to replace the umps making that call for balls and strikes.
I have to agree with you about the strike zone on TV. I doubt the umps are all of sudden worse than they have been in the past, but now us fans at home have a box that pops up and tells us that the umps missed the call because of a few inches either way.
Something tells me this is the closing phase of the Miller for Rodriguez deal from last year. Being neither team was going to re-sign Miller for 2015 and Rodriguez worked out, which he has, the O’s would get a an additional prospect and pay most of the salary on a dump off like De Aza. The Sox will probably keep him until one of their injured returns.
“King spoke to an NL scout who said that Tanaka looked like a No. 3 starter earlier this year”
Well OK then. Panic button pushed!