Sammy Sosa continues his march to nail down a spot on the Texas roster. After going 2-for-3 in yesterday's game, Sosa is hitting .464 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, a triple and 6 RBI. At this point it looks like the odds are he will be headed to Arlington when the team breaks camp. Don't count on this performance lasting long into the regular season, however. In Sosa's last spring training in 2005 with the Orioles he hit .302 with 3 homers in 63 at bats. He then tanked when the games counted.
Chris Burke is normally a hot spring training hitter, but his .059 average so far in the Grapefruit League is about as cold as you can get. Still, neither he nor the Astros are worried about it. His starting spot as the new center fielder is secure. Burke may be still suffering some lingering effects from offseason shoulder surgery, although he says not. There doesn't appear to be anything going on that is enough to change his projection, except that he will probably get more at bats in a full time starting role.
The Royals sent the first pick in the 2006 draft, Luke Hochevar down to AA Wichita. This is not unexpected, as Hochevar was ticketed for the minors to start the season. If he performs well there, though, there is a very good possibility that he will see time in KC before the year is out. In keeper leagues, Hochevar has some value.
Curt Schilling threw 81 pitches against minor leaguers in a simulated game yesterday. He continues to work on a changeup to add to his repertoire. Schilling says that he is satisfied with his progress and that the change is about 15 mph off his fastball, which is about where he wants it. If he is successful at being able to throw the change effectively the 40-year-old may be able to beat his projections.
Ben Sheets had a shaky start yesterday, getting only 9 of his first 20 pitches over the plate. He settled down in a big way, though, firing 31 strikes in his last 44 pitches and posting 5 shutout innings in the outing. The big question about Sheets is durability. Over the past two seasons he has had three muscle injuries that have landed him on the DL. All are related to muscles involved in the pitching motion. In addition he has tested positive for muscle weakness. Since showing up in the top 5 in the NL in batters faced in 2003-04 (and just missing by two batters in 2002), Sheets has not pitched a full season.
Michael Young had to leave yesterday's game after being hit in the head with a pitch from Gavin Floyd. It was a breaking ball that didn't break the right way. Young received some stitches for a cut on his ear and will probably not see game action for a few days. It doesn't seem to be anything that will have effect beyond that. Young should still be one of the most valuable shortstops in the AL this season.
The drama continues in the Yankees' clubhouse. Alex Rodriguez had a lengthy interview with WFAN's Mike and the Mad Dog yesterday and insisted that he wants to remain a Yankee for the rest of his career. With ARod possessing an option to leave the Yankees at the end of this season and test free agent waters again, this is probably going to be a recurring story line in this season. Will it disrupt the clubhouse more than in the recent past? If it does, then there will probably be a set of dominoes going down. One would likely be the firing of manager Joe Torre. There is always turmoil in the Bronx, but there may be more than usual this season. Impact on individual seasons is hard to predict at this point.
Jeff Francis was involved in some rather pointless beanball wars between the Rockies and Padres and will likely get some sort of punishment from the MLB office. OK, maybe "beanball wars"is overselling the incidents. Francis was ejected from yesterday's game after throwing behind, way behind, Kevin Kouzmanoff with 2 out in the 5th. Francis had been scheduled to go 5 innings in the start. This had followed warnings from umpire Alfonso Marquez after Padres' pitcher Doug Brocail had plunked Matt Holliday on the forearm in the 4th inning. Brocail had also hit Troy Tulowitzki in a game Saturday between the same two teams. It was rather ridiculous to think there was something intentional going on by Brocail, especially since he had a torn fingernail yesterday and lacked control of his pitches. Still, Colorado manager Clint Hurdle felt the need to make a statement about protecting his players and Francis delivered it. Whether the inevitable suspension will be held until the games really count of whether Francis and Hurdle will have to stay away from some exhibitions remains to be seen.
Expect to see revision in Chad Billingsley's projected numbers. They were based on his winning a spot in the Dodgers' starting rotation. Yesterday, he was told he would be pitching out of the bullpen this year. The highly respected prospect may suffer some short term value loss, but it may be a very good long term move. At the age of 22, Billingsley is in that range where overwork can have a very detrimental effect on the length of a career. Even though he will not be starting, Billingsley should still see some innings and have some value. In keeper leagues, he will be one to seriously consider holding on to, if he is still available.
There was a direct comparison in yesterday's game between two of the three pitchers vying for the fifth starter spot for the White Sox. John Danks came out on top. Danks had been considered likely to start the season in AAA after his offseason acquisition from the Rangers. Facing his former organization yesterday in relief of Gavin Floyd, Danks took a step closer to scuttling those plans and heading north with Chicago. Danks threw 3 innings, allowing 2 hits and a run. He now seems to have the lead in the competition for fifth starter.
Where Danks thrived yesterday, Gavin Floyd struggled. In 3-1/3 IP he allowed 6 runs on 9 hits while walking 2 and striking out 3. Of the 72 pitches he threw, 44 were strikes. The main problem for Floyd seemed to be getting his fastball in his chosen spots against the Rangers. He still has a chance to get it back on track, but for now he is the trailer in the chase for the fifth starter spot for the White Sox.
The third candidate for the Chicago fifth starter spot, Charlie Haeger did not face the Rangers yesterday, but was in action in a B game against Arizona in the morning. His overall line did not particularly impress, as he allowed 3 runs on 6 hits in 5 innings. However, looking a little deeper at the numbers, it's not as bad. Only one of the runs was earned and all three of them scored in his last inning, when he was in the final stages of tossing 66 pitches. Realistically, although Haeger will be starting for the rest of spring training, his likely destination for 2007 will be in the bullpen with the White Sox. He will have value, but not as much as he would as a member of the rotation.
Taylor Buchholz came to the Rockies from Houston in the Jason Jennings deal. He had been a candidate for a fifth starter job until yesterday. Manager Clint Hurdle announced that Buchholz would work out of the bullpen to start 2007. Buchholz would have likely had problems in Colorado as a member of the rotation, humidor or no, having yielded 21 homers in 113 IP last season for the Astros. The tendency to allow flies is going to be a major obstacle for Buchholz to overcome in order for him to gain fantasy value.
Mark Prior threw 50 pitches on the side yesterday, primarily working on his breaking ball. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild expressed mild satisfaction with the session, which doesn't bode well for Prior's attempt to take the fifth spot in the Cubs' rotation. Manager Lou Piniella also commented that it would take all of spring training for Prior to earn the spot, if he were able to do so. The session pushes back Prior's next scheduled appearance in game conditions from an intrasquad scrimmage to morrow to a minor league game Friday. Nothing in all this news makes it any more likely that Prior will return to the level of production he had before the chronic injuries set in.
Scott Kazmir had another poor outing yesterday, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk in 4 IP. This leaves him with an ERA of 8.64 in 3 appearances this spring. Kazmir has some serious red flags regarding his usage. He has thrown some very high pitch count games over his first two seasons in the majors (those of you who subscribed last season will recall how frustrated I was watching that) making his late season shoulder problems not much of a surprise. Often, innings are not what causes a lot of damage to a pitcher, particularly a young pitcher, but innings thrown when a pitcher is fatigued. In 2005, Kazmir averaged 17.73 pitches per inning, a very high number (in contrast Jeremy Bonderman logged 15.35 P/IP last year). Last year, Kazmir was still throwing 16.84 P/IP. This indicates that Kazmir was left in when he was struggling with control and was part of what accounted for his racking up some starts with excessive pitch counts. He is at risk of continued shoulder and arm problems.
