May 1-7 Weekly Update

Welcome back to another edition of the weekly recap! There were plenty of things that happened around the league, good and bad, that we will discuss in this week’s recap. Lots to cover, so let’s get into it ya bunch of baseball nerds! Per usual, we will start with those pesky injuries!

The Injury Tent

1. Eloy Jimenez – this poor guy can’t catch a break! It seems that ever since he put on a White Sox uniform, he has been injured. Are the White Sox just bad at this point? The man was on the IL just a few weeks ago with a leg injury and is now on the IL after getting an appendectomy Saturday that is expected to keep him on the shelf for 4 – 6 weeks. Sorry southside fans. He is one of the most talented hitters in the league, but he just can’t stay on the field to show those skills off. Besides Eloy, are the White Sox just bad? They have so many talented players they signed internationally, drafted, or traded for and none of them seem to have panned out. We know about their managerial struggles, but are they just bad at developing talent/developing an offseason regiment to keep guys on the field? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

2. Mike Yastrzemski – the Giants outfielder lands on the IL with a grade 1 hamstring strain. That’s good news considering this is the mildest of hamstring strains you can come away with. However, this is still a tough blow for the Giants. They have depth and are known for platooning their hitters, but Yaz is one of the few that is in the lineup on an everyday basis!

3. Brandon Crawford – another Giant hits the shelf. The veteran hit the IL with a right calf strain. This was nice for prospect Casey Schmitt who was able to come up May 9th and earn his first MLB hit, MLB homerun, and MLB multihit game. Schmitt is a third baseman by trade but has developed into a solid shortstop and second baseman as well. Crawford is 36 years old and still has one of the smoothest gloves in the league. If Schmitt can hold his own, he would likely stay up after Crawford is activated off the IL. Speaking of prospects, let’s jump to the numerous pitching prospects who debuted this week!

Peter Piper Picked a Pack of Pitching Prospects

1. Bryce Miller, SEA – Holy hell! What a debut this guy had! The rotations spot was vacated by Robbie Ray needing season ending surgery. Mariners fans may be forgetting about Ray very soon though! The man comes in and throws 6 innings with 10 strikeouts allowing only one run on two hits. He had a perfect game through the 5th inning for crying outloud! I watched as much of this start as I could and he was dominating the Athletics with high 96+ mph fastballs. “But Keller, it was the Athletics!” I know they’re garbage, but he followed it up with 6 innings of 2 hit, 1 walk ball against the Houston Astros! Do you believe in him now? I was honestly shocked to see this kind of success from Miller. Mostly, because most guys struggle with nerves in their first MLB game. Can you blame them? I’d have a massive brown stain on the backside of my pants I would be so nervous! Also, he had struggled early in Double A this season with a 6.41 ERA through 12 innings. We need to remember though; the minors are more for development. So, he may have just been throwing his worst pitches in the minors to develop those and get them ready for the MLB. So far, it seems like it has worked!

2. Brandon Pfaadt, ARI – I was really high on Pfaadt coming into the season. He had 167 innings pitched in the minors least year and led the minors with 218 strikeouts. This is extremely hard to do considering the elevation effects on the PCL that he pitched in (Remember the Mexico City bit from last week??). Well, my predictions of success for Pfaadt did not pay off. He gave up 4 homeruns to the Texas Rangers, who are one of the top offenses in baseball this season. The offspeed pitches looked great, but he left too many fastballs down the middle. He gave up 7 runs in 4.2 innings. Pfaadt throws about 92-95, not 96+ like Miller, so it is very difficult to get away with fastballs down the middle when throwing that soft. Is anybody else reading this and thinking, 92-95 is soft? Crazy right?! This is the world we live in now! I believe in the skillset, but Pfaadt will need to refine his control and start working the corners a little better to ensure he does not run into the homer trouble he has had so far in his young MLB career.

3. Gavin Stone, LAD – Gavin Stone is another pitching prospect who debuted last week. He is similar to Pfaadt in that he has a middling fastball, but his bread and butter is his changeup. Stone seemed to be fine, but he ran into some bad luck early in the game. It doesn’t help that his debut was against the reigning NL Champions Philadelphia Phillies, who got Bryce Harper back on the same day! I would have another brown streak in my pants for a completely different reason in this game. MLB Debut and facing that lineup! Phew no thank you. Stone handled the pressure fine, but seemed like he wasn’t quite ready for the show yet. He will be back soon once the Dodgers have another hole in their rotation.

Let me know in the comments if you would like for us to start doing a weekly, or monthly, prospect article highlighting all the guys that debut. This was fun, but now we have some bad news to discuss.

“Mets are Gonna Met”

I can’t help but laugh at this section. The Mets have been so bad for so long. The past couple of seasons they have made some big time Free Agent additions and trades. They even signed Justin Verlander this offseason to add to their wealth. They almost had Carlos Correa before he failed his physical. Well, the saying goes, “Mets are Gonna Met” because despite their best efforts they always seem to lose. Nothing seems to go their way. Well, despite their insane lineup and rotation, they got swept by arguably the worst team in the league, the Detroit Tigers. Baseball is a crazy game, and anything can happen, but swept? Come on Mets. This just goes to show, money doesn’t solve all problems!

Cardinals Contreras Conundrum

I am on a roll with these section titles, right? Seriously though, what is happening in St. Louis?! They were projected by plenty of writers, readers and myself to run away with the division. Here we are one week into May, and they are at the bottom of the division. If you remember from the trade article I wrote (you are reading all of these, right? RIGHT?!) their biggest hole in their team is starting pitching. They signed Contreras in the offseason to a 5-year, $87.5 million contract to replace the retired Yadi Molina. Somehow, they are blaming their pitching woes on the catcher instead of the pitchers themselves. The Cardinals called up a third catcher this past week and have said that Contreras will play some outfield and DH. What are they thinking? It seems like they are trying anything and everything to right the ship. I am just not sure the moves they are making are the right ones to do so. I think the front office needs to take a long hard look in the mirror and see that Contreras behind the plate is not the reason for the early season struggles. If I had to guess, it sounds like they have some nervous brown streaks of their own they are trying to hide! I still believe in the Cardinals, and it is a long season, but if they don’t figure something out soon, they are going to be a lot of pissed of Cardinals fans in St. Louis this summer.

Come Sale Away

Okay enough with the bad news! Let’s get to the feel-good stuff! Chris Sale has had a tough go early this season after two injury riddled seasons. He came out against the Phillies this past Friday and looked absolutely dominant. He made it through 4 innings of shutout baseball before giving up some hits and allowing 3 runs in the 5th before going out in the 6th inning and shutting the Phillies down for his final frame. This was encouraging for the veteran who has struggled with his velocity and command early this season. He also struggled with a bit of bad luck evidenced by his .350 BABIP (Batting Average on Ball in Play) for April. He struck out 10 Phillies and was touching 99 with his fastball. If you are as old as me, you remember the dominance that Chris Sale brought to the White Sox earlier in his career. I hope this is here to stay because when Chris Sale is pitching like this, boy is it fun to watch!

Weekly Wallops

In this section, the last section of this week, I will be going over the hitters who showed some impressive power of the past week!

1. Christian Walker and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., ARI – two Diamondbacks in this section. Safe to say they had a good week as a team winning 3 of their 5 games this past week! Both sluggers had a game with two home runs included in the 4 home runs they each hit this past week! Don’t sleep on the Diamondbacks. They are young and talented and NOT the Diamondbacks we have grown accustomed to over the past seasons.

2. Paul Goldschmidt, STL – the reigning NL MVP had 3 home runs this past week, and guess what? He hit all 3 of them on Sunday in the same game going for 4-5 doing everything he could to ensure they didn’t suffer the same miserable fate the Mets faced earlier in the week of getting swept by the Tigers.

3. Javier Baez, DET – speaking of the Tigers, Javy Baez had 3 home runs of his own this past week. This man is one of the most athletic players on the diamond but has struggled since signing in Detroit. This looks like he could be turning a corner for his Detroit career, or it was a one-week blip where he wanted revenge on the Mets for not resigning him and his old divisional foes, the Cardinals. Time will tell!

4. JJ Bleday, OAK – Whoaaaa Oakland has somebody to highlight?! This is a rare occasion for the team that seems to be doing everything it can to lose and move out of Oakland. Bleday is an ex-college bat from Vanderbilt University who was drafted by the Marlins in the first round and was shipped to Oakland in the AJ Puk deal this offseason. He has tremendous raw power from the left side and is a great athlete. I think he will be fun to watch for the “Insert City Here (Vegas?)” Athletics, if he can keep his strikeouts under control like he has in the minors so far this season before his call up this past Wednesday.

Thanks for reading, and as always, leave anything you think I may have left off in the comments! We love the feedback, and the support you guys are giving us by reading! Be sure to share with any of your other baseball groupies! Until next time!

--Keller Douglas