Here’s the latest from around the NL West…
- Denard Span told CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic and other reporters that he hopes to miss only a few days after hurting his shoulder crashing into the outfield wall last night. Span said he suffered a similar injury in 2012 that kept him on the DL for several weeks, though his current issue doesn’t quite seem as serious, with Span noting that “the good thing is I’ve got range of motion.” Between Span’s injury, Hunter Pence day-to-day with a knee strain and the team’s ongoing need in left field, the Giants are in need of some roster creativity to address the outfield. Manager Bruce Bochy raised the possibility that Brandon Belt could play left (as he is today) in order to get Buster Posey at first and Nick Hundley behind the plate, as Hundley is hitting well. Drew Stubbs could also be promoted from the minors as further outfield depth.
- Kenta Maeda now has an 8.05 ERA through his first 19 innings after another rough start last night, though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts still expressed faith in his starter. “We’re definitely going to hang with him. But we’re going to talk through some things, and see what’s best for Kenta,” Roberts told Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times and other reporters, adding that the Dodgers could potentially skip Maeda’s next start. Maeda has been hampered by a whopping 22.6% homer rate, a lack of grounders and an increase in hard contact (though only from soft to medium contact, by Fangraphs’ calculations). As McCullough, Maeda’s problems actually date back to last season, as Maeda was less effective down the stretch than in the first half of his MLB rookie year.
- With Cory Spangenberg on fire at Triple-A, the Padres may be in a bit of a roster crunch, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes. Spangenberg could be called up to take some playing time away from the struggling Ryan Schimpf at third base, though that still wouldn’t give Spangenberg the everyday at-bats the Padres want him to get, plus it also seems early to relegate Schimpf to a part-time role. There’s also a 25-man issue in finding a place for Spangenberg, as the Padres have three Rule 5 Draft picks and three out-of-options players on their big league roster.
The Padres are just buying tine with Spangenberg and Asuaje in AAA to keep their MLB clocks from running. I would imagine both Solarte and Schipf get traded sometime in June or July and Spangenberg and Asuaje both finish the year on the Padres.
I’m not so sure they will trade Solarte. I think it depends on how good of a first half he has. Definitely a possibility.
They definitely have the time to hold on to both and sell them at their highest value.
Solarte and Schimpf both have basically zero trade value right now. Solarte is a barely average major-leaguer even when he’s hitting well because of the negative defense and baserunning, and Schimpf is just not adjusting at all to major-league pitching. I love TTO players but he’s so extreme and I think he’s a fluke. Spangenberg hasn’t shown any ability whatsoever to stay healthy and his power is non-existent, plus bad middle infield defense; I think he’s a utility player if he’s anything.
For real. You are to Solarte like Pads Fans is to Derek Norris. Solarte has eons of trade value, especially with that ridiculously team friendly contract. His bat is hugely underrated and while his defense is nothing to write home about he’s not going to embarrass you in the field like Matt Kemp.
Schimpf’s 2016 season is looking more like a fluke every day. Spangenberg’s only problem is injuries.
When Derrick Norris finishes this season poorly, will you shut up?
Also, eons is a long measurement of time, you can’t have eons of trade value
.173 with a .396 OPS this season. .186 last season. At some point you are going to realize that I am right about Norris. You won’t admit it, but you will at least realize it.
Meh. I don’t have any particular dislike of Solarte. He’s a league-average hitter with very little defensive or baserunning value. He’ll also turn 30 this year and the lack of wheels are starting to catch up to him big-time. Hitting into 8 double plays in 19 games? That’s not very encouraging. There aren’t a lot of contenders that I can see that have a need for a third/second baseman anyway, and, yeah, maybe he gets traded to be somebody’s super-utility guy or whatever, but that’s not going to fetch a big return.
Since when is an .808 OPS league average?
No
Right about what? You are right that there are some troubling trends in his offensive production (his strikeouts and walks have both trended in the wrong direction every year since he was an All Star in 2014 and he seems to be trying to hit it out every time he comes up even tho most of his success as a hitter has come from driving the ball into gaps). But you are wrong about stolen bases allowed mattering. You have spoken out against people using counting stats several times in the past but when it comes to Norris it’s suddenly warranted? And while I had my doubts about his pitch calling, trading him hasn’t stopped our pitchers from giving up excessive home runs.
@ West Coast Ryan, Well, he only did that once, and it was only in like 110 games. Solarte has only played one full season, which is sort of odd for a guy hitting 30 this year. Solarte’s career 108 OPS+ is fine, but the lack of defense and baserunning make him an average player. Maybe some team in the AL uses him as a DH to avoid the bad stuff, but as a DH his numbers aren’t that special.
Is service time still a factor for Spangy?
I don’t think they are concerned wrt Spangy’s service time but if he stays in the minors until May 12th the Padres gain control over his 2021 season.
Spangenberg is in a tough spot because of all the injuries he’s had. Schimpf is 6 for 55, but he’s walked 15 times. I think he gets until at least June, maybe July.
Maeda is awful. They need to try and trade him. Mabey the Marlins can take a chance on him
I’m sure they would if the Dodgers pay all of his salary. Question is what do the Marlins have to offer in that farm system?
I’m sure they have enough to get a pitcher with an 8+ ERA.
True.
His contract is only 3 million guaranteed a season and im sure the dodgers would take anything for him.
The Dodgers cannot give up on or trade Maeda yet…It just simply makes zero sense to trade him at this point. Maeda has just been going through a rough time, but the Dodgers have to hope they can fix him.
It isn’t like the market is flooded with pitchers, that have his ceiling or natural pitching talent. Roberts and his pitching staff are just going to have to devote their resources to finding out why Maeda has been struggling as of late.
The young man just needs more time, some mechanical adjustments/refinement, and he needs to get his confidence back. I wouldn’t at all be suprised if he is put on the DL, with some type of arm fatigue, so the Dodgers can let him rest a bit, regain his composure, they can work on his mechanics, and then send him down to make a few minor league starts to fine tune his new adjustments.
Personally, I think Maeda will ultimately be okay, and he can go back to putting up some quality starts for the Dodgers. If they are going to make a run at the pennant, and a major run towards the world series, they will need Maeda performing at his peak level.
Remember too that when the Dodgers signed Maeda one team official said, on condition of anonymity, that Maeda had “the worst medicals I’ve ever seen.” There’s a reason his contract was so team-friendly.
Not too worried about Maeda – yet. He’s giving up homers at twice the rate of last year, and only stranding 62% of baserunners, both numbers that are unsustainable. He’s not exactly being smacked around either – he’s giving up hard hits 29.5% of the time, compared to 29.0% last year, and he’s giving up less line drives than last year. It’s just those flyballs are leaving the yard and there are too many of them.
Interestingly, his fastball velocity is up more than 1mph. He’s sucked so far, but there’s reason to believe that an overreaction is unncessary.
Sounds like he’s tipping his pitches.
Yes, this is certainly worth mentioning. If anything was really wrong with his arm, it should show up in velocity, which for Maeda, is actually up. He’s a pitcher who lives in the strike zone and relies heavily on breaking pitches. Pitching like that requires pinpoint control, which he obviously isn’t getting right now, for whatever reason.
If the Padres do promote Spangenberg, now’s a good time to try getting jack-of-all-trades-and-definitely-not-master-of-any Christian Bethancourt through waivers. Another team could claim him and continue his pitching experiment in the minors, but it seems better to expose Bethancourt than lose even the modest upside someone like Torrens may have.
Agree, Bethancourt needs to be optioned. If we lose him we lose him, you can’t ignore a guy in AAA that is putting up big numbers. Bethancourt has been horrendous on the mound and has done nada in his plate appearances either, he isn’t a Major League Baseball player right now.
He’s out of options. Just like Rymer Liriano. And players still don’t gain extra option years if they are traded or claimed.
If another team claims Bethancourt they cannot continue his pitching development in the minors. He’s out of options. If they claim him they are subject to the same restrictions we are.
I understand Bethancourt is out of options… was thinking this could be one of those waiver-claim-then-immediately-outright scenarios. Guessing Bethancourt wouldn’t go through waivers more than a. Ou ole times before he cleared and could be outrighted.
The team that claims him would also have to put him on waivers if they did that and if someone else were to claim him then the first team would lose him. Something like this happens to at least one player every offseason. This past one it was David Rollins.
Bethancourt might be the worst player in baseball. He can’t field, pitch or hit and on a team with 4 catchers he is unnecessary. Just lose him if you must. Schimpf’s 2016 season was a stone fluke – there’s a reason he was a minor-league free agent – and while the walks are nice, everybody in baseball now knows he has the most extreme launch angle in baseball by far, and nobody’s pitching into his wheelhouse. He’s also 29 and free talent, so no reason to think he’s a building block for the future.
I think all 30 teams would take Bethancourt as their backup catcher over Norris at this point. It’s pretty clear the Padres only see him as a pitcher. MLB Network ballpark cam caught him getting in a bullpen session before the Padres game today.
Only way Bethancourt can continue his pitching in the minors is if he clears waivers. Then the Padres would just keep him. If another team claims him, they have to keep him on their 25 man roster or try to pass him through waivers themselves.
Yeah, like I said in my badly proofread post above another team could claim Bethancourt and try to outright him themselves with the hope that a third team didn’t also want Bethancourt enough to prevent the second team’s attempt to outright him with a claim of their own.
And if the Padres only see Bethancourt as a reliever, all the more reason for SD to try and get him through waivers now rather than risking a potentially more valuable Rule 5 or out-of-options teammate. Bethancourt has been totally overmatched at the plate and in the mound.
Very well said, I’ve watched every game this season and agree 100%. Bethancourt is the first roster casualty in my opinion for if and when Spangenberg gets promoted. Then they have to figure out what they want to do with Sardinas, yeah he can play multiple positions and provides a warm body that can play SS on a roster that doesn’t have many options there but geez he is awful, no pop, looks lost at the plate and I think it’s time to move on from him as well.
Sardinas has pretty much zero value as well. I’d rather see Cordoba the back up SS. Spang can play everywhere else that Sardinas can. He’s just not a good player. Dump him and if he makes it through waivers, stash him in AAA or where ever as organizational depth.
If Urias continues to shred up the minors, and he can handle SS, he’s our future anyway until the J2’s are ready. Then move him to 2B.
If you need a 40 man spot, dump Guerra. He can’t even hit single A pitching and he’s a head case. No one is gonna claim him and use a 40 man spot on him.
Jankowski can be sent down to call up spangenberg. He has OF experience.
You have wiggle room to get spangenberg playing time. SS, 3B, OF.
Though given his injury history OF may not be the wisest choice, but still a possibility.
Jankowski needs to work things out in Triple A. Once you trade solarte or schimpf move spangenberg to 2B or 3B and call jankowski back up.
Schimpf doesn’t exactly have any trade value at present. And few teams are making trades in April anyway.
Trade deadline is in July which leaves plenty of time to let schimpf build value, solarte build value, and jankowski to work things out in AAA.
Janko has no value 0 Rbis for season! He stinks aside from fast. Solarte not good fielder limited value.
No
No no
No outfield no short for spang
This is correct.
Third is still very much a work in progress too.
Yes. He is a natural second baseman. This is something they started with him after they traded head case. Instead of moving jed to third… they tried spang and the little ninja there
I don’t know that he’s a “natural” anything defensively. But he does fit best on the field, and has the most experience, at second.
Janko needs new career MLB not for him
Re: Maeda:
“We’re definitely going to hang with him.”–Dave Roberts
Don’t tell Clint Eastwood or Inger Stevens.
Giants are a mess…… A sorry excuse for baseball
Spang always hurt not piece of puzzle