The Indians announced today that recently acquired center fielder Leonys Martin is headed to the 10-day DL owing to a stomach ailment. It’s unclear at this point how long he’ll be sidelined, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian adds on Twitter. The club will surely hope the issue resolves itself in short order, as Martin is expected to play a significant role in the team’s outfield rotation down the stretch and into the postseason. The 30-year-old had been off to a productive start in his first six games in Cleveland.
Here’s more from the central divisions …
- Bob Nightengale of USA Today took an interesting angle on the Pirates’ deadline moves recently, discussing them with former star Andrew McCutchen. The veteran outfielder, who was dealt to the Giants in the winter, said he was surprised that the Pittsburgh organization decided that this was the summer to push hard for improvements. It’s an interesting story, particularly for fans of these two clubs, in no small part because McCutchen discusses the feeling within the clubhouse of going through the trade deadline. Referring to his past experiences with the Bucs, he explained: “We felt we had a good team to compete, but then you see other teams making those moves, getting the key pieces to their team to make them stronger, and you feel like, “Dang, we’ve got to do something, too.'”
- In a recent post with notes on several ballclubs, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic presents one potential explanation for the timing of the Pirates’ moves. (Subscription link.) He writes that an executive with another team posits that the acquisitions of Chris Archer and Keone Kela were driven in some part by the team’s slumping attendance. That’s not the case, per president Frank Coonelly, who says instead the swaps were made out of a “desire to improve the club for this 2018 stretch run and for the next several years.” Coonelly also cited prospect depth as a factor that enabled the maneuvers. That certainly seems to be a fair explanation, but there’s also little doubt that the team has an eye on the bottom line as well. As Rosenthal writes, perhaps there’s some evidence here of “the power of a disgruntled fan base to effect change.”
- As Rosenthal further reports in that post, the Reds’ decisionmaking on center fielder Billy Hamilton continues to be influenced by the views of owner Bob Castellini, who has gone on record as a proponent of the exceedingly speedy but light-hitting player. Hamilton didn’t feature as a particularly likely August trade candidate regardless, though perhaps there’s some hypothetical plausibility to such a scenario. But the report suggests the organization may still be rather reluctant to part with the 27-year-old, who is set to enter his final season of arbitration eligibility after earning $4.6MM this year. Perhaps there’s still a way the front office can make this all work in a sensible manner. Hamilton, after all, is a useful MLB player — he’s a great defender and baserunner, and has at least been somewhat better historically against right-handed pitching — who is simply miscast in an everyday role. He could still make sense on what’s hoped to be a competitive 2019 roster, at least if the organization makes a supplemental addition in center and commits to leaning less heavily on Hamilton.
- It seems like it was just yesterday we were preaching patience in response to chat questions from irate Cardinals fans about Matt Carpenter’s struggles. But a turnaround of this magnitude remains a surprise. As things stand, he’s among the most productive hitters in baseball — even including his meager opening performance — with a .281/.393/.598 slash and 31 home runs through 476 plate appearances. It’s a fascinating situation for a variety of reasons, to be sure. Carpenter himself evidently feels that way, too, as MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets. “It’s just not who I am,” says the 32-year-old Carpenter of his exploits. “It’s not who I was. It’s not the hitter I’ve ever been. I’m developing into somebody I’ve never dreamt of or tried to be like. I don’t have an explanation for it.”
Carpenter and his recent explosion should put him in the MVP discussion
I agree, I also get upset when Arenado is involved in the discussion, he’s a very good player both sides but when he’s away from Coors he’s hitting .250. I hope voters see that because that’s not MVP numbers.
Certainly although Baez has to be the frontrunner considering his defense, slugging, RBI, instincts…. and Cubs would barely be contending without him this year
His defense? Him and Kolten Wong have played roughly the same number of innings at 2nd base is trailing Wong considerably along with almost every other starting 2B. Carp has Baez beat in BB%, wOBA, SLG, ISO, R, and wRC+.
Yeah sure you can make the argument that Baez is the better fielder of the two, but if you wanna hold Carpenter’s leadoff spot against him then you are wrong.
Plus, you telling the Cubs wouldn’t be in first place if Baez wasn’t on the team? A team with Rizzo, Bryant, a resurgent Heyward. Come on man.
No Bryant, Heyward still isn’t great. Without Baez the Brewers would win the division.
No Bryant, Rizzo has only hit out of the lead off spot, nothing happening at the bottom of the order, Chatwood and Darvish have provided negative value, Quintana has been blah, Hendricks has been meh, Morrow has been hurt, Russell’s offense hasn’t been there…
Baez and Montgomery have saved the Cubs.
Heyward > Fowler and Ozuna. Brewers can’t pitch and Lester has been Lester. The Cards have stumbled over themselves all year.
Thus Carp > Baez
The Cardinals spot in the standings is going to submarine any chance of Carpenter isn’t winning the MVP. If playoff position didn’t matter, Mike Trout would win AL MVP nearly every year.
Baez and Freeman are better choices.
Just because Wong is the best defensive second basemen doesn’t mean that Baez is a bad defensive second baseman…all in all Baez is the better all around player but if the cardinals squeeze into the playoffs then the argument could be made that Carpenter was the Most Valuable Player
Wong is the best defensive 2nd baseman? That’s a pretty bold statement.
Brewers have outstanding pitching where the hell doyou get they can’t pitch?
not if you look at defensive WAR stats…Wong is the best
Good thing the voters didn’t think that way in 87 when the hawks won the mvp and the Cubs were arguably the worst team in baseball
hawk…
That is still a travesty. Ozzie should have won hands down that year as he led the Cards to the World Series that year. The cubs finished in last place and would have finished there with or without Dawson. Harry Carry a one man show kept saying Hawk should win the MVP and I’ll be damn if the voters didn’t listen to him. Still unbelievable that happen.
Just last week they said he was 2nd in fielding war of any player in baseball
There were 10 players with better War that year than Dawson..that should have won the award including ozzir
Playoff position doesn’t matter.
At least, the voters are instructed to vote based on regular season performance only though I’m sure not every voter follows those directions to the letter.
But in theory, MVP voting only takes the regular season performance of a player in to consideration.
Edit: This comment was in response to a post that now appears to have been deleted. Sorry for any confusion.
Not if you have half a brain and looked at the defensive metrics
Be sure then you vote for Kyle Freeland for Cy Young. His near 2.00 ERA at home then should be rated around 1..00 for the season he is having. Cherry picking stats, Carpenter is hitting 260 at home, so he sucks at home but great on the road.
Kolton Wong is the best defensive 2nd baseman no doubt look up the numbers
Also RBIs should matter in this case because Carpenter is batting lead off and he will still have at least 80+ rbis so don’t give the rbi argument. Also don’t give the overall team performance argument, just ask Stanton
You are supposed to be the one to support your claim. If you have no doubt you should be able to do it fairly easy. I didn’t claim he was or wasn’t. A big part of it is what metric are you using? The best is highly subjective, which is part of why its a bold claim.
GEEZ….I guess I should have said that Wong is the better defensive second baseman…the best is a a little bold lol but still the defensive WAR stats don’t lie
If wong could hit he would ge more praise for his defense, he is an excellent defender and dont think your comment was too far off
Who cares what his home/ road splits are? It’s not like he’s playing all 81 road games at Coors.
Not unless St. Louis overtakes the Cubs & that won’t happen; in fact, it’s more likely they’ll finish 4th in the NLC.
Damon, the Tribe just can’t catch a break with CF injuries. Outside of Brantley, they’ve had nothing but a patchwork OF all season. A healthy OF and Salazar and they’d have a 20 game lead and could coast into he playoffs.
And he got sick quickly and overnight, they expect him to miss at least 2 weeks. Did he catch some bug? Appendicitis attack? Gall bladder removal?
They might as well call up Oscar Mercado and see what he’s got. Mercado may be a little raw, but he’s better than any other in house options they have.
For sure, he couldn’t do worse than Greg Allen. But I’m guessing they were hoping to limp to the end of the month and when the rosters expand get him in and not risk using an option.
Damn, not Damon…
I’m a big Carpenter fan but fans can be tough on a guy who is a below average defensive player and base runner when he isn’t hitting. But I personally appreciate that he plays whatever position fits the team best. I think he should have gotten the benefit of the doubt given his track record of getting on base and his power surge over the last year or two.
Carpenter has turned into a pretty decent first baseman. (Bernie says the defensive metrics have him in the Top-8 or something but I haven’t looked it up.) He’s average at third, and below average at second, but Shildt hasn’t been moving him around as much as Matheny.
He doesn’t seem to have as many bone-headed baserunning mistakes this season but it’s difficult to compare since he was so terrible on the bases last year.
I’m just glad he’s hitting again.
Well I believe we all can agree on 2 things….. Carp is our 1st Basemen & He is having a MVP caliber season. Carp will give Baez a run for his money for MVP and should remain at 1st base going forward. Please, to the bone heads running the FO for our beloved Cards, it’s time to make that big free agent offer or trade some of our young talent but it’s time to get stronger, more powerful, and let’s look like we are going to give Cubs & Brewers a run for the Central Division. I Love the Cards franchise but Have every right to be mad at FO last 3 years for lack of team potential. Let’s get this team the support it needs. Go Cards future!!!!
He’s actually rating as an above average first basemen, and he’s mostly sticking over there now. It will be hard to change the national perception of him as a bad defender though because he has had to play out of position so often
Flat out can not believe Coonelly on this.
They didn’t make the trade without scouting first. But short of them having an idea of trying to teach Archer a new pitch to go with his current 1 and garbage, I do not see how they aquired Chris for production more than name value.
Giants will not trade McCutchen back to pirates because they will want more than they gave up. Giants also think they are still in contention for a playoff spot. they have a big chance to get a player for Holland but will instead sit out trades. That is why they are a mediocre club refusing to rebuild.
1 1/2 months of this Cutch has way less value than 1 year of this Cutch. Giants will be lucky to get anything for him.
They could get something of value for him. Not a top prospect but could get some A ball prospect like a 15-30 team prospect. What I do not understand about the Giants is they never trade away upcoming free agents to rebuild their farm team.
they will be lucky to get a top 30 org in a decent system unless they are paying the remainder of his salary
There’s no way the Pirates even need Cutch. They have a much better OF now than the last few years with Cutch. I think you were confused by the article; Cutch was asked his opinion of the Pirates’ trades for Archer & Kela
HAHAHAH McCutchen is so salty. He seems to forget that the 3 times the Pirates made the post season, he completely disappeared. Now he’s in SF, behind the Pirates, on a team that did nothing at the deadline.
Cutch’s career postseason triple slash line–.321/.441/.357. Not otherworldly, but hardly disappearing.
0 RBI
Did he even have any/many opportunities though? RBI is completely team dependant. If no one gets on in front of you, you could go 10 for 10 and not get one.
Just quickly scanning 2014 and 2015, that seems to be the case. In those 2 games combined the Pirates managed just 10 base runners – and Andrew was 3 of them! Can’t have that many RBI opportunities when you’re one of the only guys getting on base
Scanned 2013. The game against Cincinnati, sure, maybe he could have gotten one. But against the Cardinals?
Well just look at what the two guys in front of him hit
Marte
.053/.143/.211/.353, 5G/21PA
Walker
.000/.095/.000/.095, 5G/21PA
Starling had 1 hit (a HR) and 1 walk. Neil had 2 walks and no hits.
So yeah, that is exactly why Andrew had no RBI against StL – the guys in front of him managed to get to first just 3 times in the 41 non-HR plate appearances!
Can’t blame McCutchen for both the Pirates 1 & 2 hitters disappearing completely
LOL @ the RBI comment.
I’ve never downvoted somebody so fast
also went .278/.381/.333/.714 2013 NLDS i mean small sample all the play off samples are often crap….. unless you got 50 games under your belt not much you can do about that
but he scored 2 runs, 0 rbis with one extra base hit, while the team scored 15 total that series. For the MLB MVP… not very inspiring. Stat lines don’t batter if you don’t score.
I love cutch and at the time there are few i would’ve rather had in there… but It wasn’t great (nor all that bad). do agree that one man shouldn’t be the play offs.. one person can’t win every game.
@Joe W
I literally just showed you the 2 guys hitting in front of him went 1 for 38 (a HR) with just 3 walks in that NLCS series. Who exactly was he supposed to knock in if no one was on base?
And he got on base nearly 40% of the time, but only scored 2 runs. So is that his fault or the fault of the guys who didn’t knock him in once he was on at such a fantastic rate?
There is no way of of acting like he was so kind of negative just because the guys around him utterly craped the bed. He did his job, it was others that went awol
@darkstar61
I literally just showed you that even if there was someone on to knock in, he probably wouldn’t have done it… okay maybe if marte was on first.. hes pretty fast….
he has had one extra base hit in the playoffs, ever. Does he crap the bed in the playoffs.. eh not enough of a sample to say. But he didn’t look like an MVP most of the time.
You’re assuming every Inning in which Cutch batted started with the leadoff man batting 1st. Could the 8 & 9 hole hitters been on base? By the way, solo home runs count as 1 RBI.
Barry Bonds hit .175 in 74 at bats over 3 seasons in the playoffs as a Pirate. THAT is disappearing in the postseason. Cutch hit .321. Can’t blame him that the entire rest of the team was choking at the plate. Not to mention the Bumgardner buzzsaw that cut down anyone in the playoffs of 2014.
McCutcheon to Cleveland would make some sense.
Should have got Cutch instead of Martin in the first place.
Lmao preaching patience
Connelly would never admit that the trades were bottom line driven. However, in order to get fans out to the park they had to make moves and being they had a bust in Glasnow and an expendable showcased piece in Meadows the cost wasn’t really that high. Therefore indirectly impacting said bottom line. The Pirates FO has always used double speak to parlay to fans their intentions. I believe Gm Huntington could do something with a lil more budget but the purse strings are so tight he has to do the reclamation route. He’s a stooge to the owner. My biggest gripe is this FO did NOTHING after winning 98 games in 15 rather they took 2 steps back. Annnnd after trading away your face of the franchise and arguably your best pitcher you tell your fans we are still going to compete for WS rings. Fans are not stupid. In some cases they are smarter and see the hand writing on the wall. Yes we are rabid and irrational at times but don’t hold face lie to us. Hence the reason attendance has plummeted and the FO has to save face by making some kind of splash at the trade deadline. IF this team can somehow make it a race down the stretch no matter how inept this owner is. The fans will come out because all we want to see is a good competitive baseball team that is given and gives itself a chance.
My biggest gripe is that they didn’t trade Glasnow and Meadows for Archer in 2014! Or David Price. Anyone! It was clear they needed someone to come in and be an ace, like Justin Verlander did for the Astros last season. JA Happ pitched out of his mind after they got him…. but they needed a legit #1. But as always, the Pirates were too obsessed with their prospects in Alan Hansen, Josh Bell, Glasnow, Reese McGuire, Meadows, etc etc to trade them. And where are they now? This Archer trade was a PR move, plain and simple. The Pirates are not making the playoffs. They may not finish above .500. I’m glad attendance is down. I’m a former partial season ticket holder that has been to PNC Park once this year. I’ve been to Cleveland for more games than Pittsburgh, and I work 10 blocks from PNC Park.
So, you are mad that they didn’t make a bunch of dumb moves and you are going to punish them for it?
Sounds about right. A true “fan”.
I’ve always looked at Carpenter as a patient hitter who’s job was to make the opposing pitcher throw a max amount of pitches per at bat. I’m curious to know the average pitches per at bat this year for Carpenter vs the last few years. That’s my only guess as to why we’re seeing these massive numbers
Swing percentage is perfectly career average. Contact is way down and swinging strikes are way up though.
The one glaring difference in his rates is the hard contact seeing a massive increase (from 38% career, and 42% the last two years, all the way up to 51% this season)
So he seems to be swinging with all his might, making much less contact because of it, but pounding the ball when does connect
He is also naturally walking much less, as would expect from swinging like that. But that’s a fact being masked by the 11 IBB he has received (he had just 20 for his career coming into the year)
In the beginning of the year Carp was taking many more pitches then hes taking now, his agressiveness has..resulted in the increased production that he lacked early in the year
IBS?
Always hated playing against Matt carpenter as a giants fan however have always respected him and enjoyed watching him as a player, I love his take on the changes, dude hits without batting gloves he’s old school ball player
GO CARP!! Whoever you are and whatever you’re doing, stay the same and don’t change a thing!!
A humble guy and team player..
Amen my brotha
I love Rosenthal, but that’s an odd article. It’s the speculation of a “rival” team exec and nothing more. That is, unless Huntingdon called him up and said “we need to make a trade to get these fairweather fans back in the seats.”
Why did they make these trades now?
Well, first off, Kela came really cheap given that the PTBNL is reportedly a lower ranked guy, so that’s a no brainer.
But, why would they give up Meadows and Glasnow for Archer now when they wouldn’t do it in 2016? Why trade prospects now when they wouldn’t before? I’ve heard multiple variations of this question today…
Uhh, seems pretty evident. In 2016, Glasnow was considered a potential ace and Meadows was regarded as a potential star. Even for Archer, that’s too much to give up. And maybe Glasnow still will be an ace and maybe Meadows will still be a star.
But they started to realize that Glasnow might also be a bust and soon become untradable (he has had a few really nice innings in TB, but that’s SSS Theater and he wasn’t going to gain value as the Pirate’s mop up man) and that Meadows might become a solid but unspectacular (and easily replaced) player instead of a star.
He found a team willing to value these players at their 2016 level because he was willing to value Archer at his 2016 level also. We’ll see who is right.
reason they didn’t trade meadows/glasnow in previous years for archer, sale, quintana, price, etc… is simply due to untradeability for various reasons.
first, Value. Glasnow, taillon, Meadows, Bell, etc.. appeared to have All-star or better ability. (still do but hasn’t really come out yet) other players are proven good but these types of prospects is what you attempt to build a team around so for the pirates higher value than most.
second, Health Meadows, Kingham, taillon and a couple others i think where near untradeable because they couldn’t stay healthy. They would be a ‘toss in’ in such a trade when they where hurt.
third, depth. the farm lacked it. Glasnow, Meadows, Bell and Tailon looked great but beyond that there wasn’t much in the near term espeically with the prolonged/nagging injuries they had.. pirates need that to survive.
put all that togeather. the only way the pirates would get anyone like Archer would be Glasnow, Bell plus a couple more ‘quality’ prospects and the pirates really didn’t want to give up either for hardly anyone.
Now with Archers value much declined. and the pirates having good depth.. its much easier.
Even with the trades the pirates still have some very quality prospects in their top 10 and could have feasibly made another larger move and not be any worse at the farm than they were a couple years ago.
The only two pitchers I ever wanted the Pirates to empty the farm system for were Chris Sale and Archer.
Renting Price would have been stupid. Trading for Quintana would have been stupid. Trading for and/or signing Darvish would have been stupid.
I know Archer is not an ace (he needs a third pitch) but he’s 4th since 2014 in K’s behind Kluber and ahead of Kershaw. He’s 9th ALL TIME in K rate behind Kluber and ahead of NOLAN RYAN.
Certain people want to talk about him like he’s Kevin Correia.
right on, i follow you. I’m just saying the pirates didn’t have much of a system to empty due to injuries and such.
The problem with Archer is not the K rate – yes, his Slider is able to K people like crazy.
The problem with Archer is he doesn’t have another pitch to go with it. He no longer has the Sinker he once used to great results, and his 4seam is flat and very hittable. Means when he isn’t striking a guy out they are pounding the ball – and it’s getting worse and worse, as you can see from the increasing BABip rates.
He needs a second pitch desperately, as right now all he really has is the slider. If he doesn’t develop one, I can’t imagine it will be possible to get his BAbip under 330, or even higher.
The Pirates clearly recognize the problem as he’s already trying to throw the Sinker again (17% in his two starts in Pit after it being gone for 3.5 years) – sadly for them though, it’s been ineffective, and they are quite possibly going to realize why he ever stopped throwing it in the first place.
I see the Carpenter haters have vanished all of a sudden?
Dude is a beast and has been for years.