Charlie’s News At Five: 15th May 2013

Charlie covers five of the hottest news stories from the past week in baseball. This week, an ace rebounds, two injuries to key pitchers, a controversial umpiring decision, and a team surviving despite their current circumstances.

1. New York Yankees thrive despite being offensively short handed

During the offseason, Yankees GM Brian Cashman made a controversial decision deciding not to re-sign, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez, Nick Swisher, Eric Chavez and Andruw Jones. Together they accounted for 94 of the Pinstripes’ MLB leading 245 home runs in 2012. New York’s captain, and inspirational leader Derek Jeter, suffered a severe ankle injury near the end of September, and will not be available until at least early June. Jeter had led all of MLB in hits with 216 in 2012.

To make matters worse, near the end of spring training, Curtis Granderson suffered a fractured forearm. In 2012, Grandy had led the New York’s offense by slugging 43 home runs and driving in 106 RBIs. In early March, Mark Teixeira was taken down, with a strained right wrist. Tex did not have a vintage year by his lofty standards in 2012, but he was still a crucial offensive producer of 24 home runs, and contributing 84 RBIs to the Yankees cause.

This lengthy DL list caused a lot of analysts to be down on the Yankees going into the 2013 season. Predictions of third or fourth were common; with only a few believing they could seriously contend in 2013. Surprisingly, they are 21-13 in a three way tie for first place in the AL East. The bullpen, anchored by the legendary Mariano Rivera, has also performed well thus far, putting up a very respectable 3.69 ERA, 16th in MLB. The surprise however has been the offense; Robinson Cano has been his usual MVP candidate self hitting a very solid .314 with nine home runs and 21 RBIs thus far, while posting an exceptional .939 OPS. Unexpected contributions have come from Jayson Nix, Travis Hafner, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells. Despite the perceived shortage of power, the Pinstripes have slugged 44 home runs the fifth best total in MLB, whilst also posting a .750 OPS, seventh best in MLB.

Granderson is expected to rejoin next week however Teixeira is probably a month away, and Jeter at best around the all-star break. Without their star hitters, Yankees have to survive and stay in sight of the AL East leaders. They are, in my opinion, definite contenders who will only get better as more of their star hitters return. The AL East is still a lottery as of this point in time, but the Blue Jays struggling on a daily basis could be out of the race already.

2. Player spotlight – Clay Buchholz

In order for any team to be successful, their ace starting pitchers must lead the charge. For Boston Red Sox, this meant Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. Both struggled badly last year, and partly as a consequence, Boston finished 69-93. Lester has been great himself in 2013, 5-0 with a 2.73 ERA, an exceptional 0.987 WHIP, .231 BABIP and an FIP of just 3.24.

Buchholz has been even more outstanding, he is 6-0 with a 1.60 ERA, a 1.026 WHIP, a .273 BABIP and a FIP of an astounding 2.10. By comparison, last season he finished 11-8 with a 4.56 ERA, 1.326 WHIP, .283 BABIP and a 4.65 FIP.

How has Clay turned it round? First of all Bobby Valentine is no longer in Boston. The clubhouse under Bobby V was a complete mess, and was at odds with their manager. Secondly, his successor is John Farrell. Farrell has united the team, and his expertise is primarily as a pitching coach. Numbers wise, it seems to be down to much better command. The cases in point to this are Buchholz’s K/9 and K/BB statistics. In 2012 his K/9 stat was 6.1, in 2013 it’s 9.9. In 2012, Clay’s K/BB ratio was 2.02, in 2013 it has risen to 3.11. Also to make things even worse for opposing hitters, Buchholz’s 2 seam fastball also seems to have more movement on it than last season.

Buchholz will not keep this pace up, simply because of the calibre of hitters in the AL, i.e. they will adapt to his stuff. However, a 20+ win season with an era in the mid-2’s is very much possible. Despite injuries to Hanrahan and Bailey the Red Sox bullpen is very solid, and although it can be inconsistent at times, Boston’s offense should do enough help Clay win a lot of games.

3. The Home run that should have been

On Wednesday 8th May, the Oakland A’s were playing the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.

The score was 4 – 3 to the Indians in the top of the ninth inning. The Athletics had a runner on second base with two outs, and Adam Rosales at bat. On a 1-and 1-count, Rosales drove a towering drive to left field which appeared to clear the 19 foot fence and bounce back into play for a home run, the umpires on first sight called it a double. As the rule book says, the umpires then went to the video room to view a replay of the shot.

After conferring for a short time the umpire’s reappeared and surprisingly upheld their original ruling. Bob Melvin, the A’s manager, got thrown out the game by second base umpire Angel Hernandez for voicing his displeasure with the call, and after the game, Melvin stated that he was leaving the ballpark, still believing a home run had been hit. Hernandez declined to comment after the game and multiple Oakland players took to Twitter to voice their opinion.

The A’s ultimately loaded the bases against Cleveland’s closer Chris Perez, but Perez worked out of the jam to preserve the victory for the Indians. To compound matters further for Oakland, MLB Executive Vice President Joe Torre called it an “improper call” on Thursday, but stated that the decision would not be reversed.

On Baseball Tonight, Aaron Boone called it “the worst umpiring call he had ever seen”, Manny Acta chimed in with “for 144 years we got by without instant replay, so now we have it, we better get it right”. Retired future hall of famer Chipper Jones, stated that now he was retired and free from being fined for criticising umpires, also stated his displeasure with the blown call on Twitter.

To judge for yourselves Adam Rosales’ drive can be seen here

4. J.A. Happ suffers a concussion from line drive comebacker

On 7th May, Tampa Bay Rays’ Desmond Jennings hit a comeback line drive that unfortunately struck Toronto Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ on the side of the head. For a few very worrying minutes, Happ was laid on the ground. The Blue Jays starter was then carted off to hospital, and was diagnosed with a fractured skull, but luckily not with concussion. He was released the following day and placed on the 15-day DL by Toronto.

Despite a 4.69 ERA, J.A. had been one of the better pitchers in a very struggling Blue Jays rotation. It is very likely he will be replaced by Chad Jenkins who has been pitching in AAA, but also pitched to a 4.50 ERA at the show last year. Another candidate is Claudio Vargas, who has pitched in parts of 8 MLB seasons, and has averaged a 4.83 ERA.

Unfortunately, pitchers being hit with come backers, is more common than everybody would like it to be. Only last September, Brandon McCarthy at the time pitching for the Oakland A’s also took a shot off his face. Multiple companies are currently in the process of developing protective head gear. This is not as easy as it sounds, as most pitchers are welcome to the idea of wearing a protective cap, but they want something which is solid, but won’t feel unnatural. Hopefully something will be implemented before we get to the point where a pitcher could be disabled for life or worse due to a line drive.

5. The “Doc” goes to the DL

It has not been a good season for Roy Halladay as illustrated by his 8.65 ERA thus far. The problems seemed to stem from reduced velocity which had plagued him since last year.

In 2012, Halladay pitched to a 4.49 ERA, his worst since the 2001 season. In his last two starts, he allowed eight earned runs in each start, without getting into the fourth inning. In his previous three starts it looked as if Halladay righted the ship, as he allowed two earned runs or less, in each start.

On 6th May, Halladay went on the DL with shoulder inflammation and visited renowned specialist Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the LA Dodgers physician.

Dr. ElAttrache, stated that he would need to remove a bone spur in Roy’s right shoulder and clean up fraying in the labrum and rotator cuff through arthroscopic surgery. Halladay stated that the doctor would be able to “turn back the clock two or three years for him”. Dr. ElAttrache was also confident of improving, the former ace’s range of motion, location and velocity. Halladay is hopeful of being back to pitch for the Phillies in 2013. The only caveat could be, that the damage in Roy’s shoulder is not found to be worse than first thought, once the surgery is done.

Both the starting pitching and offense has been struggling for the Phillies. The cumulative starting ERA is currently 4.33, 19th in MLB, while the offense is a lowly 28th in MLB with a .673 OPS.

Despite, their struggles, and losing Halladay the Phillies are 16 – 21 but only five games out of the NL East lead. I’m sure the Phillies will look to trade for a starting pitcher to at least lengthen and solidify their rotation, although acquiring somebody of Halladay’s calibre looks to be impossible. Due to the overall strength and depth of the Braves and Nationals, I don’t see the Phillies making the postseason, although an 85–88 win season could be very possible.