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Blalock moving to first, is it a good idea thou?

Texas Rangers’ third baseman Hank Blalock is following the footsteps of other oft-injured sluggers, and that is moving to first base. Blalock is currently on the disabled list with a torn left hamstring since April 26th. Hank was actually the one who brought up the idea of him playing first, saying he thinks its best for the team. He’s now working with coach Ron Washington on how to play the position, he’ll spend a couple days in Arizona working on this. This should help Blalock stay healthy, but is it best for this team? The answer is Yes and No, lets take a look. Read more

Diamondbacks swing a trade

A relatively minor trade took place tonight between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers. In the deal, the Rangers receive for Arizona Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Dustin Nippert and the D-Backs get minor league pitcher Jose Marte. Nippert was originally the favorite to take the last spot in Arizona’s bullpen so this deal is a little surprise.

Nippert has gradually slipped down the ladder over the past 3 years. What I mean by that is this, in 2005 he was voted Minor League Pitcher of the Year in the Diamondbacks organization. Since then his career has taken a gradual dip. In 2007, he finally saw action in big league games and started off on fire going 1-0 with a 2.87 in 12 relief appearances. Not bad, I know. His end of the year line thou, 1-1 with a 5.56 era, so basically he more then imploded. Nippert had previously spent most of his career as a starter, so who knows maybe it was just the pressures of relieving? Not sure. He’ll definitely get a chance to regain his touch in Texas thou.

Marte is pretty much a whatever in this deal. Marte was formerly an outfield in the Chicago Cubs minor league system. He was converted to a pitcher and had a pretty bad season in Class A Bakersfield and Clinton last season, going 4-4 with a 5.43 era. Marte is only 24, so he may have a chance at being a middle reliever one day, but its a HUGGGGEEEE long shot.

This looks more like a dump off on Arizona’s part. They basically got tired of dealing with Nippert and waiting for his talent to finally take over. For the Rangers, it is a great deal. They gave up virtually nothing and might have a very effective middle reliever on their hands if he can harness that talent and start to produce.

MLB Injury Update, 3/27

Alright boys and girls, here is today’s MLB Injury Update report. There’s 15 players with updates from the Brewers, Rangers, Padres, Mariners, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Yankees, Braves, Rays, Phillies and Marlins. Its a doozy, enjoy.

• San Diego Padres - Mark Prior - shoulder. Prior finally faced live hitters for the first time today. He threw around 25 pitches in batting practice, while throwing about 35 pitches in a bullpen session before that. His fastball was only in the low-80s. Yea I know low 80s, what the hell! But remember the Padres aren’t even considering putting him in game action before June, so he has at least 2 months to build up strength.
• Texas Rangers - Milton Bradley - knee surgery. Bradley is progressing just fine from off-season knee surgery and should open the season with the big leaguers. Bradley played in his second appearance in right but sixth game overall, going 2 for 3 with a homer. He’ll be with the team but don’t expect to see him in the outfield, he’ll most likely need to DH for a while first.
• Mariners - Brandon Morrow - sore shoulder. Morrow has been experiencing a sore shoulder for most of the spring and has struggled mightily in minor league games since returning. The Mariners are considering one of two options. A) starts the season on the DL B) starts the year in the minor leagues. Morrow will be the 8th inning guy thou once his healthy and accuracy has fully returned.
• Toronto Blue Jays - Matt Stairs - sore hip. Stairs has been struggling with soreness in his hip this spring and because of that has only played in minor league games. The good news he’s getting in his work and his swings, downside the pain might still be to much to handle. The only reason he’s been playing in the minors is in case the Jays decide to give him some more healing time and place him on the disabled list. If he goes on the DL it would be backdated quite a bit since he’s been playing with the farm boys.
• Toronto Blue Jays - BJ Ryan - Tommy John surgery. General manager J.P. Ricciardi says BJ Ryan will get to start throwing off a mound sometime next week. He’ll undoubtedly be starting the season on the disabled list but the team somehow expects him to join the club in mid-April. “I think we’ll get Ryan back sooner rather than later,” Ricciardi surmised yesterday. I wouldn’t be surprised if its more of late-April, early-May but we’ll see. In the meantime, Jeremy Accardo will occupy the closing duties till he’s back.
• New York Yankees - Andy Pettitte - back spasms. Daily update number 15,583 for Andy Pettitte. This will be the last time I update on him unless there is a setback. Pettitte is now officially scheduled to start Sunday in a minor league game. That puts him in position to start the fourth game of the season. That would also mean Philip Hughes would likely take his start against the Blue Jays in the #2 spot.
• Milwaukee Brewers - J.J. Hardy - bacterial infection. Hardy missed the last 10 days of action due to a bacterial infection. He rejoined the lineup today and went 2 for 2 with 2 rbis. Not a bad return. Expect him to be in the lineup, Opening Day.
• Milwaukee Brewers - Chris Capuano - damaged ligament in left elbow. Capuano underwent a second opinion on his injured elbow from Dr. James Andrews. After the consultation, Capuano decided NOT to undergo Tommy John surgery. He’ll rest for about a month or so, then work on making a comeback. If there is any pain once he starts working out again then surgery is definitely on the table.
• Chicago Cubs - Scott Eyre - sore left elbow. Eyre was officially placed on the 15-day DL today because of his sore elbow. The move is retroactive to March 22nd. He’ll take time to rest and should miss the first week or so of the season. In the meantime, Sean Marshall will probably take his bullpen spot.
• Atlanta Braves - John Smoltz - sore shoulder. Same deal as Pettitte, barring any setbacks this is the last update about his current problems. Smoltz threw for 20 minutes in the bullpen today and felt great afterwards. “I got everything accomplished that I wanted to,” Smoltz said of today’s session. “It went really well. It was great. It was the best day I’ve had down here.” Smoltz is still starting on the DL but will make his first start on April 6th against Johan Santana and the New York Mets.
• Philadelphia Phillies - Mike Zagurski - Tommy John surgery. Zagurski also went for a second opinion on his elbow but has decided to go for the surgery. He’ll be visiting Dr Andrews down in Birmingham, AL to undergo the surgery at some point within the next 10 days. His goal is to be back for the start of spring training in 2009.
• Minnesota Twins - Carlos Gomez - left leg cramps. Gomez was scratched from today’s lineup due to continued soreness in his left leg. The injury is still considered very minor and the Twins just wanted to give him some extra rest. He should be able to go Friday.
• Minnesota Twins - Jesse Crain - shoulder surgery. Crain will be starting the regular season with the Twins. He’s pitched 5 innings this season with a 1.80 era. He’ll be held back this April, pitching coach Rick Anderson said he will not be used in back to back games for at least one month.
• Tampa Bay Rays - Willy Aybar - hamstring. Aybar is still experiencing problems with his injured hamstring and still not playing in games. He’s only got 28 at bats this season, and to get him some more the team is going to have to use him in minor league games this weekend. He should still be ready for Opening Day thou. “I still believe he’s going to be fine to play in that game,” Rays coach Maddon said. “I’m not hearing anything that leads me to believe that he won’t be.” Hows that for irony, star prospect Evan Longoria, who had a very good spring was sent down to the minors and now his replacement hasn’t even been able to play. Great move by the Rays demote the hot hitting prospect for a guy who’s going to start off pretty cold all to save a dollar.
• Florida Marlins - Jeremy Hermida - tight left hamstring. Hermida played DH today in a minor league game. He hasn’t played in a MLB game since March 15th due to the hamstring injury. The Marlins will place him on the DL retroactive to that date so in all he’ll only miss 4 games, 5 tops. “Worst-case scenario (Hermida could miss) the first four games of the season,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

It will be a late night at work tonight, so if there are any injury updates in the night games, I’ll post them. Look out for tomorrow’s MLB Predictions. I’ll give my predicted records, LCS and World Series winners, as well as MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, and Manager Awards then.

MLB Injury Update, 3/26

Here’s today injury update from around Major League Baseball. Today we’ve got updates on the Yankees, Royals, Cubs, Rangers, Twins, Padres, Giants, Mets, Brewers and Angels. Like usual its a long read.

• San Francisco Giants - Kevin Frandsen - Ruptured Achilles tendon. This is an unfortunate injury that will cost Frandsen the entire baseball season. Surgery is needed but has not been scheduled yet. He’s expected to be on crutches for around two months after he does have the surgery. Eugneio Velez should take over his backup role
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Scot Shields - Inflamed forearm. An MRI revealed no ligament damage which is a good thing. He’s still expected to start the season on the disabled list. He pretty much just needs to stay behind in extended spring training to get some more action in before facing major leaguers. “He’ll need to pitch and to work out some things, and he can do that better in camp games,” Scioscia said. “If we back-date a DL stint, he’d only miss the first six or seven games. It’s worth the price to pay short term, rather than risk a month or two of the season because he’s doing something he’s not ready for.”
• Kansas City Royals - Hideo Nomo - pulled groin. Nomo pulled his groin in a start Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. He’s now expected to start the season in the minors as he won’t be ready to pitch come opening day. He was already a long shot to make the roster thou.
• Chicago Cubs - Mark DeRosa - sinusitis. This guy has had one rough spring. First an irregular heartbeat, then the flu, now he’s missing game due to sinusitis. The good news for him thou is that the team has finally decided to break off negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles’ about Brian Roberts. His job as the starting second baseman is safe.
• San Diego Padres - Jim Edmonds - strained right calf. Edmonds feels his strained right calf is finally healed enough to at least attempt game action. He’s been running and working out on the side. He will test the calf out this upcoming week in minor league games. He’s still expected to start the season on the DL, just to get in his at-bats.
• Milwaukee Brewers - Yovani Gallardo - knee surgery. Gallardo made his second minor league start today in his recovery from arhroscopic knee surgery. He went three innings giving up one hit and a walk, but no runs. He’s expected to re-join the team in mid-April after a brief DL stint as he is working on strengthening that knee.
• Texas Rangers - Luis Mendoza - finger blister. Mendoza will start the season on the DL because of the blister. This injury really doesn’t affect the rotation thou as he’s the fifth starter and won’t be needed till April 12th. This is more just to get an extra reliever on the Rangers roster during that time. Mendoza will start on the 12th when needed
• Minnesota Twins - Carlos Gomez - left hamstring cramping. The injury isn’t as severe as originally thought. During today’s game, Gomez came up lame after going to the left-center field gap to make a play. The way it looked, it seemed like a strained or pull but luckily it was just cramping. He’ll be considered day-to-day as the team will take it easy with their starting center fielder since this is the hamstring that caused him to miss a few games last season.
• New York Mets - Moises Alou - hernia surgery. Alou showed up at training camp today for the first time since having hernia surgery on March 6th. The recovery time is 4 to 6 weeks, and Alou is hopping to be cleared to at least start jogging shortly. He’s definitely starting the season on the DL with an estimated return of late April, early May.
• Mets - Ramon Castro - strained hamstring. Castro hasn’t played in a game since March 16th and may need to start the season on the DL now. He recently suffered a setback in his recovery efforts.
• New York Yankees - Sean Henn - shoulder tendinitis. Unfortunately for Henn, he’s a victim of the numbers games. Henn is out of options and recently lost his left-handed specialist job to Billy Traber. Due to that, he’ll start the season on the disabled list with shoulder tendinitis. It’s been a while since he’s pitched in a major league spring training game so the Yankees were at least able to back date this and he could return April 5th. Henn pitched in a minor league game this afternoon and experienced no problems.
• New York Yankees - Brett Gardner - split lip. Gardner suffered a split lip today after foul ball bounced back up and hit him in his mouth. He went to see a dentist after the game, this is clearly a day-to-day injury. Gardner may open the season with the big boys if Melky Cabrera serves out his suspension to start the season.
• New York Yankees - Johnny Damon - flu. Damon was scratched from today’s game due to the flu, he’ll most likely miss another day or two with it. Maybe its a good thing, it will leave him well rested for Opening Day in the Bronx.
• New York Yankees - Andy Pettitte - back spasms. And now the daily Pettitte update. Pettitte had a 10-minute bullpen session today throwing 36 pitches and is now fully on target to pitch in the 4th or 5th game of the season. “It makes me feel good that I got through that and I felt good,” Pettitte said. “I could just tell that I felt a whole lot better this morning when I woke up. It loosened up nice for me.”

That is tonights update. It’s still relatively early in the evening almost 9pm. If there’s enough updates then I’ll send out a Part 2 around midnight.

Reed Johnson signs with the Cubs

Not much surprise here the Chicago Cubs signed Reed Johnson, who was recently released by the Toronto Blue Jays. Johnson is expected to platoon in center field with Felix Pie, as he has a .308 career average against lefties compared to Pie’s .111 avg. The deal is for 1-year, $1.3 million, and the Cubs wasted no time getting him in the lineup. He started in center field during today’s game against the San Francisco Giants. What does this mean for Marlon Byrd?

Well the all off-season and spring training camp talks between the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers are dead. The team no longer has a need for Byrd. The talks initially hit a stand still because the Rangers were demanding Matt Murton and a young pitching prospect, a price the Cubs weren’t willing to pay. And with Reed Johnson hitting the market, the team definitely wasn’t going to pay that. So right now, Byrd will be on the Rangers Opening Day roster himself.

The market for Reed Johnson

Now that the Toronto Blue Jays have released OF Reed Johnson, their is a group of teams that are showing interest. Currently, Johnson is on waivers so not technically able to sign with any team. It’s fully expected that he clears thou as his current contract calls for him to make $3.275 million. Fairly steep for a back-up platoon outfielder. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com lists the Cubs, Red Sox, Rays and Rangers as teams showing interest. Here are some reasons why each team may go after him.

• Chicago Cubs - The Cubbies have shown the most interest in Johnson, as they are still looking for a back-up CF to Felix Pie. Ideally, the team would like an outfielder who can play all 3 positions AND platoon with Pie by batting against left handed pitchers. Throughout his career Johnson has played most of his games in the corner outfield positions thou, playing only a fraction in center. He’d fit what the Cubs want thou as his career average against lefties is a .308 with 18 homers and 79 rbis in 5 seasons. In contrast, the 23-year old Felix Pie batted a .111 verse the lefties last season in 36 at bats. So ideally, the Cubs don’t want to expose him all out to them at this point in his career.
• Boston Red Sox - I’m not quite sure what level interest they have in Johnson. I can only see them going after him if they somehow find a suitor for Coco Crisp. With Manny Ramirez in left, and JD Drew in right there’s not much room in a star-studded outfield. If Crisp is dealt, then Johnson could be used as Jacoby Ellsbury’s back-up and also spell Drew in right.
• Texas Rangers - They to have a crowded outfield, so any signing of Johnson would also be predicated or followed by a trade. It’s known that Texas would like to move Marlon Byrd if the right deal came along. Byrd is also another player the Cubs have been scouting and hoping to add to their outfield. With Josh Hamilton, Byrd, Milton Bradley, and Frank Catalanotto thou maybe the team would look into adding him for even more depth.
• Tampa Bay Rays - This team could use the depth. Their outfield consists of Carl Crawford, BJ Upton, Cliff Floyd and Jonny Gomes. One of those is easily going to be the DH on this team next year so Johnson could easily become the teams fourth outfielder and see considerable playing time. With how cheap the Rays are thou I could see this being a long shot.

Ok, so you have to consider the Chicago Cubs the front runners. They’ve got the most need for him and also have been the most persistent in trying to acquire Johnson, or any other outfielder for that matter. Cubs GM Jim Hendry could also be starting to feel the heat for not signing a player yet to fill that role. “We could play with what we have,” he said. “I would feel better about my contributions to the club in Spring Training, if we could add somebody before Opening Day. We’ll be fine with what we have. I made the philosophical decision to wait until now, and I think I need to get that done.” Sounds a lot like someone not to sure about his team.

Rangers ink Patterson

Starting pitcher John Patterson, just released by the Washington Nationals, was signed to a minor league deal by the Texas Rangers. Patterson has already been assigned to the clubs Triple-A farm team, the Oklahoma RedHawks. “It’s no-risk for a guy who has had success in the big leagues,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “We want to bring him in, get him healthy and send him [to Triple-A].” Not a bad pick-up for the Rangers, I agree with Daniels, this is very low risk, high reward scenario.

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