Giants starter Johnny Cueto was hit in the head on a Billy Burns liner on the first pitch of his outing Monday night, according to various reporters, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman. Cueto stayed in the game and pitched three innings, but was checked by team doctors after pitching and will head to the hospital in accordance with team protocol (Twitter links). One would think the Giants would have removed Cueto from the game after the incident if they had considered the issue serious (acknowledging, of course, that pro sports teams have at times underestimated the impact of potential concussions). There would have been no reason for the Giants to keep Cueto in a Spring Training game if they had any indication he was hurt. Still, the situation bears monitoring. Here’s more from around the NL.
- The grievance filed by the Marlins against the Nationals regarding former Marlins GM and manager Dan Jennings was settled in favor of the Nationals, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. The Nationals are paying Jennings $115K to be a special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported yesterday that the Marlins took issue with that salary because they owed Jennings $1.5MM based on his previous contract with them, minus his salary in his new position. The Marlins thought the Nats’ $115K salary was too low given Jennings’ responsibilities, and that they were therefore on the hook for too much of his remaining salary. Via Janes, though, the disagreement has been resolved. “It’s an old grievance, and it has been settled,” says Rizzo.
- Pirates GM Neal Huntington is excited about his organization’s Triple-A rotation, Stephen A. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The Bucs today optioned top prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon to Triple-A Indianapolis and reassigned fellow starters Chad Kuhl, Steven Brault and Trevor Williams. (They also optioned outfielder Harold Ramirez and reassigned catcher Reese McGuire and lefty Kelvin Marte.) Of those starting pitchers, Glasnow and Taillon are the headliners, but Kuhl, Brault and Williams are all prospects in their own right. All could wind up pitching at Indianapolis this year (although perhaps not right away, as Nesbitt notes, since the Bucs might need to preserve a spot there for a depth starter like Kyle Lobstein or Wilfredo Boscan.) “The future is bright,” says Huntington. “You run Taillon, Glasnow, Kuhl, Brault and Williams out in one setting — that’s a very exciting group. … Each one of them brings something that’s very, very intriguing. Now you put that group of five together, it bodes well for our future.” Kuhl is a sinkerballer who pitched well for Double-A Altoona last season. Brault, a lefty, excelled at Class A+ and Double-A after arriving last winter in the trade that sent Travis Snider to Baltimore. And Williams is a recent arrival who the Bucs acquired from the Marlins when pitching guru Jim Benedict headed to Miami.
Kelvin Marte is slept on– People forget that in the Eastern League last season, he held the 5th highest ERA playing for Richmond (SF). I understand that it is AA, however top 5 is nothing to sneeze at. He may never be an ace or even a mid-rotation arm, but he could be a serviceable back-end starter or late inning reliever if he can put together a good start in AAA to get an opportunity.
Not so sure about that. His FIP was nearly a run higher than his ERA, and his K/9 was a minuscule 5.33 K/9. That before even mentioning the fact he is 28 already. I’d say his ceiling is about AAAA player. Or emergency middle relief in case of an injury for a few days..
Lowest era?
What a petty, hypocritical grievance by the Marlins. Perhaps the Cubs should file a grievance for them picking up Edwin Jackson and only paying him the league minimum. Surely a pitcher with his pedigree and worthy of a major-league deal is worth more than a measly $500k.
Or maybe, just maybe, that’s life in the big city when you dump somebody.
What if the Nats were only paying him 15k? It would clearly be circumvention of whatever rule they filed the grievance over. Now I don’t know that the 150k salary is too, but paying the guy 10% of his previous salary doesn’t look all that much better than paying him 1%.
Like how league minimum is 3% of Edwin Jackson’s salary? Except it’s actually worse, because Dan Jennings was being paid to be a GM and now he is a special assistant, and Edwin Jackson is paid to be a pitcher and still is.
As long as the Nats are paying the equivalent of state/federal minimum wage, I see no problem. If the Marlins want to penny-pinch they could have kept Jennings in the organization and gotten value from him, but they decided to make one of the worst moves I’ve ever seen moving a GM to be the manager, replacing the front office behind him and dumping him. They’re just whining that the Nats didn’t bail them out more, which is why they lost.
A legitimate pitching prospect for Travis Snider. You gotta love the Orioles.
The best part is it was actually two decent prospects, as Tarpley put together a pretty decent year too
Oh, and the Pirates got Snider back for free a few months later when the Orioles released him.
25 year old Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton for Jose Hernandez and Bobby Hill. Gotta love the Pirates. The snider debacle will never look 1% as bad as that joke of a trade.
Don’t bring that trade up. That’s almost as hurtful as when that one player for the Braves was safe in 1992. We don’t say his name.
Ive actually saw and met said player at a couple pirate games over the last couple of years. My one buddy and I got to talking to him and he couldnt have been any nicer,. You could tell though he was very upset about being the face of Pirates fans misery for those 20 long years
Are you an Orioles fan banging on the Aram trade that happened 15 years ago?
Just saying those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I would rather have 10 trades like the snider trade than one like Aramis/Lofton. No matter how long ago it was (12.5 not 15) the Arrieta jabs are just. Never liked that trade. But Steven Brault? Give me a break. The guy has a better future as a singer than a pitcher.
That Arrieta trade working for the Orioles? At least it’s this decade.
Yeah way to make a comment about Arrietta after I just said how that one is worth giving heat. My point that obviously went over your small head is that if you are going to mock a team about a trade maybe it should be one that is impactful, not for Brault. That’s why I brought up Arrietta. Which you repeated due to either lack of reading skills or lack of originality. Maybe if they would have gotten more than a bag of balls for Aramis they wouldn’t still be waiting on their first division title in 24 years or their first playoff series victory in 37 years.
Problem with that deal, the Pirates needed to lower salary, every one in the league new it. Put the Pirates behind the 8 ball to start with. On top of that, Lofton was aging and Ramirez had error issues. Had 23 alone with the Bucs the year he was traded. At the time of the trade, no one was highly upset because of the errors. Just like when Bautista was traded, no one cared. Aramis learned to field better and still hit. Bautista learned to somehow hit with power. Then people complained about the trades. If, somehow, Pedro learns to hit for average and power in Baltimore, people will complain that the Pirates should have kept him. Forget the fact that he will be DHing 90% of the time and will not have to try to field a ball. He actually started to hit better the last 2 years but that got lost in all of the fielding issues. If he is not having to worry about his glove I think the hitting will improve more. Too bad the NL does not have a DH.
I have to disagree on all 3 counts.
Many people were upset that Ramirez was traded. The Pirates tried to emphasize all his errors as an excuse, but this was rubbish. It is not uncommon for young players to have fielding issues.
I was upset they traded Bautista, thought they gave up on him too soon. I will concede however that most people didn’t think too much at the time.
And the fan base is generally split on Pedro. A lot of people are upset, but many people fell they had no choice but to get rid of him.
I was going off the local sports talking heads and print media types at the time. Fans here in Pgh tend to parrot the media and not the teams when it comes to the Pirates and Penguins. Steelers are way different, Team can do no wrong. People forget about pre 1970’s when the Stillers stunk….. Anyway. I too was not happy with Ramirez being gone or Bautista. Like I said, littlefield made it well known he had to dump those 2 contracts and that is why they got nothing in return. I agree with the errors and young players. Many fans think ML players should have no errors no matter what the age. Many fans were not real sad when he left but when he started tearing up in Chicago, people changed real quick. I do not think anyone saw Bautista doing what he has done. He hit only 13 HRs in his first full season with the Jays. Went to 54 the year after. Considering he never hit that much even in the minors. Best year he had was 23 in 2005 in Altoona AA. Not many cried when he was traded other than maybe could have gotten something slightly better than a used up catcher. I liked him but never thought he would hit HRs like he has. I hated to see Pedro go because of his bat. He was getting pitched around the last 2 years. Last year especially. If he would have been just a little more better defensively at 1b, they would have kept him at least this year. However, that bad on defense was not worth what he was going to get in arbitration. If they had the DH in the National League, Pedro goes nowhere. He would have gotten better as a hitter if he was not having to think about his glove. Not defending the trades at all. Just was the reality and Littlefield not being near as good at the trade business as Huntington has been. If Huntington or someone similar had been around 10-15 years ago, the Pirates may not have had such horrible deals made.
Now why would you go and mention the dark ages of the Littlefield Era…
Very dark days indeed..
I think Glasnow and Taillon get called up around the end of july
Glasnow will be up for sure. To be honest, prob best to have put him down to start the year and get pitching well @ AAA. Heard that Stewart told one of the local media types during an interview about a week ago that Glasnow was doing great but was trying to pitch at or above the expectations and hype and needed to relax and pitch within himself more. Maybe starting out in the minors for a couple of months may do him well. Can get into a rhythm and when they do bring him up can pitch more relaxed quicker than starting out here feeling he has to impress from the get go. Taillon will be up 2nd since he has missed so much time. May take him till the 2nd half to trust his arm, his body, and his mechanics again full time. Betting they start him out slow in his early starts and treat it like extended spring training and only pitch him 5 innings max so as all can make sure the arm is truly sound again.
I’m just going to make one last comment on the Snider deal. No one in Pittsburgh liked it at the time of the deal. And there are 28 other teams in baseball that were not involved in this deal. If any of them believed either pitcher had a true shot at being a solid pitcher in the majors they would have made the deal. Sometimes you trade for players and they bust and sometimes they boom. This wasn’t a salary dump situation like the Aram deal. Both teams were getting things they felt they needed.
And as it turned out, the Pirates got 2 pitchers for nothing as Snider got released and signed back with Pittsburgh. to finish the year. Like you said, if 28 other teams thought anyone of these 3 were worth trading for, they would have done so. Then again maybe a few of the other 28 made offers on 1, 2, or all 3 of them but did not offer what the O’s or the Bucs wanted to part with their player.
If the other 28 teams thought any of those players were any good then why didn’t they make the deal? You could use that logic on all trades, sorry that doesn’t make sense to me. Instead of giving the Pirates credit for turning crap into 2 LH pitching prospects, you’re saying none of them are any good.
And I’ll say, I did like the Snider trade form the beginning. I never thought he was anything more than a 24th or 25th player on the team, a weak LH bat off the bench who is a good clubhouse guy.
I was responding to TJECK109 saying that if they were any good, why did not someone else trade for them. All I was saying when the 2 sides talked a deal, they worked this out. It always takes 2 to tango in any trade. I liked the deal when the Pirates made it as well. Snider had a strong finish to 2014. Gave the Pirates an extra outfielder with some value at the time. They were able to talk the O’s into giving up not 1 but 2 pitchers. Both were playing in the lower levels at the time. Looked like an average deal. Many fans and media types in Pgh complained as they saw Snider as the must have 4th outfielder. Apparently Baltimore thought he was must have as they gave up 2 lefty pitchers for him. Maybe other teams wanted more for outfielders they had to give. Maybe other teams with extra outfielders did not need lefty pitching in the minors last year. The Pirates did need lefties. I think a good deal for the Pirates was made into a great deal because both pitchers progressed last year and Snider was expendable in Baltimore and Pittsburgh was able to get him back for a LH pinch hitting role for the stretch run. Big win for Pittsburgh.