The broad health arena appears to offer great potential for competitive advantage to individual MLB organizations. We have heard of medical and dietary advancements for various teams, for example, and there’s surely lots going on that isn’t being discussed fully in public. For the Cardinals, one area of focus is on training, but it’s all happening as part of a broader initiative, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The club is building up a “department of performance” that will combine training, medical, and other related functions under one roof.
Here’s more from the game’s central divisions:
- Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer tells Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star that he’s not looking for changes to break out of his early-season slump. “I know I’ve been through it long enough now to realize you’ve just got to stick with your approach and it will change,” said Hosmer. Of course, the 27-year-old’s offensive malaise ties into a broader picture of uneven production over his seven-year MLB career, which has continued to raise questions about his earning power on the upcoming free-agent market. And as Dodd writes, Hosmer has several teammates who are also struggling quite a bit early on. If there’s a silver lining to the club’s 7-and-12 start, though, it’s the fact that the division leaders haven’t exactly sprinted out of the gates. Entering today’s action, the Indians and Tigers sit just 3.5 games up.
- The White Sox were able to get a look at lefty Carlos Rodon yesterday, as he played catch under the watch of pitching coach Don Cooper, as Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago writes. But that doesn’t mean there’s any further clarity to the question of when the talented southpaw will be back to the majors. Details are murky on Rodon, whose biceps injury initially seemed minor. As Hayes notes, the club had initially hoped to see Rodon push past 200 frames this year, but that’s obviously no longer a viable target.
- As righty Ivan Nova continues to produce good results for the Pirates, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post looks at why things didn’t quite turn out that way when he was pitching for the Yankees. Though Nova did have his share of success in New York, he was dealt last summer on the cusp of free agency and re-signed in Pittsburgh after eleven impressive outings. He doesn’t blame the Yankees’ handling for his uneven stint there, but does say that a lack of confidence in his standing in his old organization was partially at fault. “It’s very different when you know that you’re going to pitch every five days, that’s for sure,” says Nova. He continued to explain that he previously would worry about being dropped to the bullpen or Triple-A, explaining: “It wasn’t because they told me what’s going to happen after. It was something I put in my mind. It was my mistake, my fault, to think that way instead of keeping positive all the time.”
According to lots of Cards fans in the Post-Dispatch, the Bernie Miklasz site, and Viva El Birdos, the sorely-missed Jose Oquendo should be the head of the team’s new Department of Baseball Fundamentals. The players and prospects are not learning good basics under MO and Mike M, nor on the farm.
They’ve looked a lot less fundamental-y on tv, too. And objectively their defense and baserunning have regressed according to sabermetrics.
Granted I’m a Mets fan so I barely see them outside of a few games, their playoff appearances, and some highlight replays. But it definitely sounds like a believable narrative to me!
Yeah our (Cardinals) defense has been below standard since Oquendo was out with knee surgery.
I definitely hope they bring Oquendo back into the mix. He seems too valuable of a teacher to have at the bottom of the list. I understand not wanting to be 3rd base coach because of the knee, however he could still vastly improve the Cardinals defense in this role.
He does not want to come back to the big leagues. He is working for the club at their Florida complex.
And four more errors last night. Could have been five. Each one led to a Jays run, too.
They watched Rodin play catch? What a joke!!!
No, they watched Rodin sculpt “The Thinker”.
As a die-hard White Sox fan I have grown more and more pessimistic about the emergence of Rodon. Hopefully I’m wrong but he seems destined for the back of the rotation in the next few years.
Nova at less than $9 million a year for 3 years is easily one of the best contracts handed out this winter.
Agreed. Nova was smart to stay in Pittsburgh, it’s a great place to pitch.
oquendo is working in florida. he’s still with the cardinals.
Even if they are incapable of determing whether the bursae are infected, didn’t it make more sense to just assume that & remove them? They shut him down in ST & if they had just removed them in that biceps area, they would’ve grown back by now & he’d be on a Mid may schedule to return. This is turning into a black eye for their medical staff which I assume still has Herm Schneider at the helm.