A few notes from around the majors:
- Both the Marlins and Pirates have made changes to their outfield alignments this offseason, and the Rockies should follow suit, opines Jim Bowden of ESPN.com. Specifically, the club ought to flip center fielder Charlie Blackmon – who has spent most of his career manning the middle – and left fielder David Dahl, Bowden argues. Blackmon, 30, has been a plus defender in left (three Defensive Runs Saved, 3.2 Ultimate Zone Rating), albeit over only 574 innings, but a negative in center across a 3,126-inning sample size (minus-15 DRS, minus-27.1 UZR). Dahl, meanwhile, drew near-neutral grades (minus-1 DRS, 0.4 UZR) in a combined 481 innings at all three outfield positions in 2016, his rookie campaign. At the time of Dahl’s July promotion to the majors, Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser noted that the 22-year-old possesses “superb defensive skills” and should be the Rockies’ long-term answer in center.
- When Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom underwent season-ending elbow surgery in September, the expectation was that he’d be ready for spring training. That remains the case, fortunately, as deGrom told Kevin Kernan of the New York Post he hasn’t “had any of the pain that was there” since having his ulnar nerve repositioned. The surgery, therefore, has been a success to this point, declared deGrom, who explained the issues that caused him to undergo the procedure. “It started with some tingling in my fingers,’’ said deGrom, whose last start of 2016 came Sept. 1. “Then it turned into a sharp pain. I don’t know if it’s because it was getting aggravated more, but that’s what was happening.”
- After a 15 1/3-inning cup of coffee in the majors last season, right-handed reliever Jandel Gustave has a strong chance to make the Astros out of camp this year, writes Jake Kaplan of Baseball America (subscription required and recommended). Manager A.J. Hinch is bullish on the hard-throwing Gustave, who racked up 16 strikeouts against four walks and yielded six earned runs on 13 hits last year with Houston. “I think he’s right in the mix to make our bullpen, both by improvements that he’s made in the last couple of seasons but also the first impression in the big leagues,” Hinch said of the 24-year-old. “He has an elite fastball and a developing breaking ball.”
DeGrom is not so happy with his manager, “TC” who overused the Mets’ phenom over the past few years. If he didn’t understand the repercussions of tingling in the fingers, how much of a dope does “TC” have to be when he marches a pitcher with sharp pain back onto the mound?
This guy leads the ML in pitchers going on the DL and has jeopardized more young careers than the next 4 managers.
It is time for the dope to retire.
Citation needed
Yeah, gonna need a source on that one buddy. Otherwise you get filed in the troll cabinet.
Doesn’t “TC” mean “troll cabinet?” 😉
“Mikeyank55” – You are precisely the type of person who gives Yankee’s fans a bad name.
P.S. Please don’t ever comment on this site again, loser.
Just another jealous Yankees fan. Overused is what Betances is- and an injury will be coming very soon.
Definitely agree with the jealous part, they’re still trying to comprehend the fact they don’t own the city anymore.
In June of 2015 the Mets were going to a six man rotation and they decided agains’t it. After that they had to over use their young pitching. I think Alderson is to blame for most of the arm problems. Harvey got hammered for sounding off with Boras about an innings limit. Now they are paying for it, both Harvey and De Grom were overused. Last year they did the same thing to Syndergaard. If they all come back healthy they have a good chance of winning in the playoffs. If not, it will be due to miss management.
I wouldn’t say Syndergaard was overused, but it’s fair to expect some degree of injury problems with him this year. Theoretically, they can withstand that as long as the other starters are up to par.
Harvey’s injury had nothing to do with throwing the baseball too much or too little.
deGrom’s injury could’ve happened to any pitcher in the game. If he was “overused”, then he would’ve pitched the entire rest of the season.
Maybe not, but Boras was saying he was overused, he doesn’t say that about all his pitchers. Do you remember when the Mets were talking about using a 6 man rotation in June, 20`15 and then they scarped the idea.
The Mets should try a 6 man rotation this season, at least for awhile. Thor, Jake, Harvey, Matz, Lugo, and Gsellman. That way, Lugo and Gsellman get MLB starting time, and they all get more time to rest between starts. There were too many starter injuries last season.
I agree, some of their pitchers are coming off injuries and a guy like Wheeler will have an innings limit. They have the arms to do it.
I really hope they consider a 6man rotation. Harvey grumbled about it awhile back, but they need to be careful about wasting innings if they want to make a deep playoff run. They are one of the few clubs that have 6-7 legit starters, so they aren’t sacrificing at least 1 game per week due to a fringe guy going 5 mediocre innings.