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Colorado is a dark horse
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Pittsburgh Pirates star outfielder Starling Marte has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing drug, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday. The suspension begins with Tuesday's game in St. Louis and will keep Marte out of the Pirates lineup until after the All-Star break.Comment -
Starling Marte set career highs last season in BA (.311), OBP (.362), SLG (.456), OPS (.818) and stolen bases (47). He also led all left fielders in Defensive Runs Saved (19).
Starling Marte has notched 4.9 WAR or higher in each full season of his career (since 2013). The only other outfielder with at least 4.5 WAR in each of the last four seasons is Mike Trout.Comment -
Now I see how he runs so fast.Comment -
The Phillies announced on Tuesday that left fielder Howie Kendrick has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to an abdominal strain, thus making him the second veteran Philadelphia addition to go down with an injury today. (Clay Buchholz will miss anywhere from four to six months after undergoing surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon.) “It’s like upper abdomen, lower rib cage,” Kendrick told reporters, including MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “Hopefully it’s something that’s not a nuisance, but we’ll see. It hasn’t gotten any worse over the past couple days, so hopefully it’s something that’ll be done pretty quickly.” Fellow veteran Daniel Nava could be the primary substitute for Kendrick, though certainly the injury could lead to a bit of extra playing time for Aaron Altherr or Brock Stassi as well. As noted earlier tonight, the Phils selected the contract of right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. to fill Kendrick’s spot on the roster.
Elsewhere in the NL East…
- The Nationals are considering a change in the ninth inning, manager Dusty Baker told reporters after he had to remove Blake Treinen in the ninth inning of tonight’s game (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Jamal Collier). “This ain’t working,” said Baker of the current alignment. Indeed, the Nats entered the day with a collective 6.25 ERA out of their bullpen — fourth-worst in all of baseball. Treinen lasted a third of an inning tonight and yielded a run on two hits and two walks before giving way to Shawn Kelley, who managed to salvage a 3-1 win for the defending NL East champs. Kelley and young right-hander Koda Glover seem like the two most plausible replacement options for Baker, though it’s unlikely that there’ll be definitive word on the situation until tomorrow. (Those chasing saves in fantasy baseball can follow @closernews on Twitter for updates on ninth-inning situations around the game.)
- Right-hander Joe Ross will join the Nationals’ rotation tomorrow night after opening the year in Triple-A Syracuse, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (Twitter links). The Nats optioned Ross to Syracuse in an effort to help limit his innings early in the year, though Baker acknowledged that the decision backfired on them. (Jeremy Guthrie was shelled in his lone appearance for the Nationals when he started in place of Ross.) It’s worth debating exactly how much the decision even worked toward the Nationals’ stated goal, as Ross has already thrown 9 2/3 innings in a pair of Triple-A outings. Regardless, he’ll be a welcome addition to the D.C. rotation if he can approximate the 3.52 ERA, 8.0 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and 45.5 percent ground-ball he posted through his first 181 2/3 Major League innings in 2015-16.
- ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick interviewed Mets right fielder Jay Bruce about the slugger’s struggles following the 2016 trade that brought him to New York and the hot start he’s experienced in 2017. Bruce brushes off any previous suggestions that he “couldn’t handle” the move to the big city and the more imposing media market. Rather, he explains to Crasnick the difficulty he had being uprooted from his daily routine in Cincinnati. Bruce calls himself a “routine-oriented guy” and details that he stayed with six different teammates in addition to living out of hotels during his first few months with the Mets — all with his wife and infant son remaining behind in Ohio. “I understand how people come up with their thoughts,” Bruce tells Crasnick. “…I think it’s a pride thing with people from New York, and I get it. It’s an amazing city. It’s chewed a lot of people up and spit them out. That doesn’t even exist to me, though. This is the team I’m playing baseball for, with an incredible opportunity. I was just bad at baseball for a month.” As of this writing, Bruce is hitting a robust .275/.362/.529 with four homers in his final year before free agency.
- There’s more concern in the Mets organization surrounding Jose Reyes’ woeful start to the 2017 season than the team is publicly expressing, writes Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News. Reyes picked up a double in tonight’s loss to the Phils but is still hitting just .100/.182/.140 on the season. Reyes, Ackert notes, was brought back with the hope that he could solidify the leadoff spot and allow Curtis Granderson’s 30-homer bat to hit lower in the order, but Reyes has been dropped to the bottom third of the order due to his poor performance. Michael Conforto hit leadoff for the second time this season on Tuesday, and Granderson has been in the leadoff slot three times in the past five games as well.
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X-rays on Logan Forsythe's toe were deemed inconclusive after he left Tuesday's game with a contusion.
We'll know more Wednesday if this is something that might sideline him for a bit. The Dodgers have Chase Utley available to step in at second base.
Source: Andy McCullough on TwitterComment -
Marte's suspension opens up the CF spot for McCutchen try and rebuild his trade value at least.Comment -
Pirates are done for sure.Comment -
Wei-Yin Chen is the fourth pitcher to be pulled from a no-hit bid through at least seven innings pitched in the last two seasons. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, that's the same as the previous 18 seasons combined.
Rick Hill, LA Dodgers, 89 pitches, 9/10/16
Adam Conley, Miami, 116 pitches, 4/29/16
Ross Stripling, LA Dodgers, 100 pitches, 4/8/16Comment -
ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick has an interesting profile of Twins star second baseman Brian Dozier. The Mississippi native has proven adept at picking up a variety of games and activities. Last year, it seems, he took an interest in hitting lots of home runs. Now that he has established the ability to play at such a high level in the majors, says Dozier, “everything seems different now.” He goes on to explain: “I’ve found the longer you’re in the game, the slower it becomes. The learning curves are there each and every year, but you become wiser and you realize what you have to do in order to succeed.”
Here’s more from the American League:
- If the Blue Jays can’t rebound, they’ll have no choice but to explore a trade of star third baseman Josh Donaldson, Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star argues. Toronto is in a tough spot because of the talent gap between the current MLB roster and the clubs best prospects, many of whom aren’t really that close to contributing in the majors. If this Jays outfit isn’t able to turn around an abysmal start, says Griffin, dealing Donaldson might be the only chance the organization has to add quality, near-MLB talent. Regardless, the team must hope that Donaldson is able to get past his current calf issues as soon as possible.
- Lefty Felix Doubront is still rehabbing for the Athletics, but there are already plans to make a change when he returns. Doubront will return in a relief role, GM David Forst told reporters including MLB.com’s Jane Lee (via Twitter). The 29-year-old has mostly functioned as a starter in the bigs, though he does have experience working from the pen as well. Doubront could return from his Tommy John surgery by June, per the report.
- Rangers righty John Fasola underwent Tommy John surgery today, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports on Twitter. Fasola, 25, isn’t exactly a hyped prospect. But he did win the club’s award as the top reliever on the farm last year after throwing 51 innings of 3.18 ERA ball with 10.2 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. Fasola went on to have a solid Arizona Fall League run and might soon have been a factor in the major league mix were it not for the injury.
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Dozier a nice player for the twins, glad they kept him.Comment -
The Mets' last 6 games have been decided in the winning team's final at-bat. Last team to have 6 straight such games: 2004 Athletics. The last Mets team did so in 1989- 7 games (via Elias Sports Bureau).Comment -
Red Sox starter Chris Sale had 42 strikeouts in his first 4 starts with the Red Sox. The only pitcher with more through 4 starts for them is Pedro MartÃnez (44) in 1998. (Via Elias Sports Bureau).Comment -
Yoenis Cespedes exited tonight’s game with a hamstring injury that was heavily wrapped after the contest, as Newsday’s Marc Carig notes (all Twitter links). Mets manager Terry Collins expressed some concern over the injury, Carig notes. Cespedes told reporters that he felt a “shock” in his leg, though he added that the current injury doesn’t feel as bad as previous hamstring issues that have sidelined him for four and five days at a time in prior seasons. Cespedes will receive an MRI in the morning, and Carig notes that doctors currently expect an absence of two to three days. The Mets have no shortage of outfielders on hand to cover a brief absence for Cespedes, with Curtis Granderson, Michael Conforto, Jay Bruce and Juan Lagares all on the roster. Of course, none of those players comes with Cespedes’ upside at the plate, and his absence removes the Mets’ most potent right-handed bat from the lineup. And the fact that the Mets are slated to begin a three-game series with the division-rival Nationals this weekend, the timing of the injury is obviously poor.
Elsewhere in the NL East…
- Speaking of the Nationals, Joel Sherman of the New York Post spoke to one team official who tells him that the Nats pursued Kenley Jansen, Mark Melancon and David Robertson “very aggressively” this offseason but weren’t able to close either free-agent deal or swing a trade with the White Sox. Sherman notes that it’s somewhat surprising to see an expected division contender neglect to address its most obvious need in the offseason and writes that the Nationals may have little choice but to go beyond their comfort zone in trade talks for Robertson or another available closing option this summer. Sherman lists Tampa Bay’s Alex Colome as a speculative option, while FanRag’s Jon Heyman suggests that the Rays’ Brad Boxberger or the Cardinals’ Trevor Rosenthal make sense as on-paper fits. (Though Rosenthal, of course, is throwing quite well this season and there’s no guarantee the Cardinals would even be willing to move him.) Beyond those two speculative fits, Heyman adds that as of the end of Spring Training, there’d been no recent talks with the ChiSox regarding Robertson.
- Marlins manager Don Mattingly created some degree of controversy when he elected to pull Wei-Yin Chen after the lefty had thrown seven no-hit innings yesterday, but Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reminds that Chen is pitching through a slight tear in his ulnar collateral ligament that was discovered last summer. The tear, however, isn’t something that has hindered Chen, the left-hander himself told the Miami media. “With the tear in the ligament, it doesn’t really heal,” Chen said through a translator. “It’s still there. It won’t heal. So I don’t really think about if it’ll get worse or not. I just think about with this, what treatment I should be getting.” Chen opted for a platelet-rich plasma injection and plenty of rest for his injury last summer, as the tear is not significant, Healey notes. Several pitchers have gone this route, with varying degrees of success. Healey lists Masahiro Tanaka as one prominent example and notes that Adam Wainwright pitched more than five years with a modest tear of his elbow ligament before undergoing Tommy John. (I’ll add that Ervin Santana also pitched through a partial UCL tear and never required surgery.) Mattingly flatly said that given Chen’s 2016 injury, he simply won’t consider letting Chen throw 130 pitches in a start.
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Eric Thames still on fire, hit his 8th HR of the season yesterday.Comment -
The Giants placed Madison Bumgarner on the disabled list with a sprained left shoulder and bruised ribs. According to Ken Rosenthal,“Bumgarner sustained these injuries yesterday during a dirt bike accident on the team’s off day in Denver, Colorado. Bumgarner is out of the hospital, currently resting at the team hotel and will be reevaluated next week.”This is Bumgarner’s first-ever stint on the DL. It’s unclear how long he will be out. The Giants are in last place in the NL West at 6-10 so hopefully their ace makes a swift, thorough recovery—and lays off the in-season motorsports going forward.
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That was the most ridiculous no hitter. He walked like 8 guys and hit a few if memory serves.
