Some pitching notes from around baseball:
- Rays’ right-hander Charlie Morton came out of a twenty-pitch bullpen session feeling well, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’s seemingly on track to return next weekend, Topkin adds. The 36-year-old was placed on the 10-day injured list earlier this week with shoulder inflammation, which could partially explain Morton’s two mile per hour drop in fastball velocity from 2019 to 2020.
- Like Morton, Tigers’ right-hander Buck Farmer looks on track to return from an IL stint in short order. Manager Ron Gardenhire confirmed to reporters (including Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group) that the important set-up man could return from a groin injury by the middle of next week. Farmer’s swing-and-miss rate is down a bit from his strong 2019 effort, but he’s nevertheless held opponents to two runs over his first 6.2 relief innings this year.
- Corbin Burnes will get the start for the Brewers on Tuesday, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Jounral Sentinel. He’ll take the place of Eric Lauer, who was optioned this week amidst a rough start to the season. Working primarily in a multi-inning relief capacity, the hard-throwing Burnes has racked up 24 strikeouts in 16 innings this season, although he’s also issued an alarming 11 walks.
- Mets’ manager Luis Rojas was noncommital when asked if Steven Matz would remain in the team’s rotation, notes Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (Twitter link). The southpaw allowed six runs in 4.1 innings in last night’s loss to the Phillies, continuing a disastrous start to his 2020 season. He’s coughed up 23 earned runs in as many innings, thanks almost entirely to an untenable nine home runs. On the other hand, Matz’s velocity has held in its customary 94-95 MPH range, and he’s run a solid 23:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Of course, New York is rather thin on potential starting pitching replacements if they elect to remove Matz from the rotation.
- As expected, the A’s have placed reliever Burch Smith on the 10-day injured list, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). Smith was diagnosed with a forearm strain yesterday. Fellow right-hander James Kaprielian has been recalled to replace him on the active roster. Smith has tossed twelve very strong relief innings for Oakland this season. Kaprielian, meanwhile, will get another chance to make his MLB debut. The former first-rounder got his first MLB call August 4, but he was optioned down two days later without having gotten into a game.
i mean, who would they replace Matz with? he hasnt looked good but someone has to take his spot.
A pitching machine would be better.
The home runs against him will slow down and his ERA will cut in half. He’ll be alright.
Maybe giving Lugo a shot as a starter.
Lockett stays in the rotation when deGrom comes back.
As bad as Matz is, Lockett is worse.
Obiously the Mets need to immediately contact the Red Sox about one of their starters…..
I was thinking the opposite. Trading Matz for Bradley Jr.
I highly doubt BVW trades Matz for JBJ straight up. Matz is a proven middle of the rotation SP; Bradley is a below average starting CF with no bat whose defense is declining, yet is making $11M per year. He is a negative value at this point.
The Mets do not need Jackie Bradley, jr. Please just no! Enough with signing bad player after bad player just because they play CF. Can we see it just doesn’t work?
Who are all these bad CFere thr mets have supposedly been signing?
Hamilton, Cordell, Lagares….
I know this is just piling on and all but I wouldn’t want to see a Matz-JBJ trade if I were a Mets fan. I would rather take my chances with Matz. He may have just had some bad games in a row. He was doing pretty okay two starts in and you have to have someone pitching to take those innings.
Looking forward to Burnes to solidify him in the starting rotation with Woodward and Houser. I believe they are going to find two more young arms that will be solid too out of Brown, Supak, Peralta, Ashby, Lauer, and a couple more
Is it just me or has MetsFan22 been absent a lot lately. Now, there is a MetsFan9 who is saying things that are the opposite of what that 22 homer would say.
I sarcastically wonder why.