Trot Nixon- CLE- FYI- The Indians are using Nixon very sparingly, trying not to expose him as much and hoping to keep the injury bug away. Part of the handling of Nixon will be to avoid playing him in the "day game following a night game"scenario that usually affects catchers. With Casey Blake shifting to 3B last night, manager Eric Wedge opted to give David Dellucci the start in LF, with Nixon getting the start this afternoon.
Gil Meche- KC- Hot- The skeptics who were laughing at the Royals for bestowing a big bucks contract on Meche this offseason are not so loud right now. It's still early in the season, but Meche has been exactly what the Royals wanted. In 3 of his 4 starts he has allowed 1 or fewer earned runs. For the second consecutive game Meche allowed no earned runs (although he was charged with 3 unearned runs). The quality start consisted of 8 IP in which he gave up 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6. It wasn't enough to earn Meche the win, but the outing put them into the position of being able to pull out an extra inning victory. So far, so good, but be careful in his next start as Meche crossed the 110 pitch barrier, throwing 111, so fatigue could be a factor the next time out.
Scott Kazmir- TB- Caution- Pardon me while I go on one of my most frequent rants, and one that seems to come up whenever I do a report on the morning after a Kazmir start. Against the Orioles yesterday, Kazmir lasted just 4 innings, getting tagged for 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks while striking out 3. Now it's not Kazmir himself or his performance per se that gets the smoke coming out of my ears. Far from it. It's looking at the pitch count and seeing that Kazmir threw 102 pitches to get 12 outs. In his final inning of work, Kazmir threw 40 pitches. Manager Joe Maddon seems to be doing his best to make sure that Kazmir blows his arm out. What will it take to demonstrate to Maddon that high pitch counts for young arms is dangerous and that having a young pitcher continue to throw when he is fatigued is downright criminal? If this keeps up, Kazmir will end up being a textbook example of mismanagement of a potentially great talent. You'd think that Kazmir's shoulder woes last year would have woken Maddon up, but he seems determined to keep pushing Kazmir until permanent damage is done.
Jerry Hairston- TEX- FYI- Hairston was elected from last night's game for throwing his helmet, but it probably won't earn him any further disciplinary action. He was angry after being called out on a close play at first base, when Joe Crede made an outstanding play to throw out Hairston at first. It was the closest thing the Rangers had to a hit all night, but of course Hairston couldn't have known that at the time. What he should have known, especially being the son of a big leaguer, is that you shouldn't try to slide into first base as he did, especially not head first. Running full out is faster than sliding. Ironically, if Hairston had remembered that fundamental, he probably would have been safe, not been ejected, and we wouldn't be talking about a Buehrle no hitter.
Frank Thomas- TOR- FYI- There are signs that Thomas' bat is coming around. For the second time in three games he went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. Outside of those 2 doubles, he has only one extra base hit this year, his only homer. Thomas has also walked in 4 consecutive games so his OBP is starting to recover and now stands at .333. It was a stretch of 5 games from April 10th through 14th, in which he went 1-for-19, that is the main drag on his 2007 numbers. It looks like it's just one of those statistical blips that is magnified because of the low number of appearances so far.
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