We already covered some injury updates tonight, but there’s another one of note. Yovani Gallardo’s struggles worsened tonight for the Orioles, and after the game skipper Buck Showalter said that he’s dealing with shoulder soreness, as Ghiroli reports (links to Twitter). The righty was already showing a two mile per hour decline in his average fastball, but said the issue arose only before and during tonight’s start. He lasted only two innings and 45 pitches today, surrendering four earned runs on five hits and a walk. The veteran says he’s never before experienced this kind of discomfort and that it got worse as the game progressed. Gallardo is expected to return to Baltimore for further evaluation. You’ll recall that Gallardo’s original agreement with the O’s was modified after shoulder questions cropped up in his physical.
Here are a few more notes to round out the evening:
- On the heels of Jake Arrieta’s second no-hitter for the Cubs, Patrick Mooney of CSNChicago.com takes a look back at the deal that brought the star righty to Chicago along with reliever Pedro Strop in the summer of 2013. With Baltimore looking to bolster its rotation for a playoff push, the Cubs parted with half a season of Scott Feldman to acquire two controllable pitchers who have paid out handsomely since the swap. “We had scouted Jake extensively,” said Cubs GM Jed Hoyer. “We had done a lot of makeup work on him. We did the same thing on Strop. At that time, we just needed to get power arms onto our team.” Of course, as Hoyer acknowledges, the club didn’t expect anything like what Arrieta has delivered; as he puts it, “what [Arrieta’s] done is obviously exceptional.”
- While he’s shelved on the DL with a broken leg, Dodgers’ outfielder Andre Ethier has officially achieved ten-and-five status, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times notes on Twitter. The veteran therefore obtains full no-trade rights, which was all but inevitable when the club elected not to deal him entering the season. Ethier is owed $20MM for one more campaign after this one, including a $2.5MM buyout on a club option for 2018.
- First baseman Chris Carter is off to a nice start with the Brewers, as Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes. After another productive evening, Carter owns a .259/.328/.593 slash with four long balls over his first 64 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from his awful start to the 2015 season, and Carter attributes it in large part to his offseason effort to change his approach. “I’m just hitting more balls the other way,” Carter explained. “My homers this year have been to center, right-center. That’s something that I didn’t do that much last year until the end of the year. It’s something I worked on in the offseason, hitting balls where they’re pitched instead of trying to pull them.” Thus far, at least, Milwaukee’s $2.5MM investment has been well worth it.
The Brewers piece should actually be attributed to Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Jake says more about the awful development of O’s pitchers than anything else. Can the cubs get Gausman and Bundy too?
Rick Adair ruined him changing his delivery while taking away his cut fastball.
The problem I have with the Arrieta/Feldman deal is that it is used as an example of why a team shouldn’t trade prospects for vets at the deadline. One, that trade is an extreme outlier. Most prospect for vets deals do not give you a Cy Young winner and a talented set up man. Secondly, Arrieta was not good with the O’s. I don’t know whether it was the fault of Baltimore or Arrieta or both, but it just wasn’t working out. Anyone that says they saw anything more in his future than maybe a 5th starter/long man for the Cubs is just lying. The average prospects for vets deal will usually help both clubs equally. Of course their are outliers in both directions, but they are just that….outliers.
There was a quote from theo or jed where they said they saw the absolute best case scenario as a middle of the rotation starter. Even they didn’t expect this
Middle of the road starter is much better then a maybe number 5.
thank you very much for that pearl of wisdom
Baltimore was changing Arrieta’s mechanics and not only was Jake uncomfortable with it, but felt that it was hurting, not helping. Upon arrival to Chicago, the first thing Jake asked was if he can go back and pitch the way he wanted to.
I hate the term, but it’s a classic “change of scenery” thing.
And then we had all those people complaining a month or so ago about Baltimore’s horrible and unfair medical screening process. It seems to have saved them a few dollars this time around!
That gallardo signing was terrible from the minute they signed him. I don’t know why anyone would give up a first round pick for him, especially a fairly high one like the Orioles did
Because Baltimore is a joke
Hard hitting insight right there ^