Alexei Ramirez- CHA- Injury- Ramirez will be out of today’s game, but it has nothing to do with the beaning he took on Monday. He is apparently fully recovered from that, going 3-for-4 with a run and RBI. Ramirez injured the middle finger on his throwing hand fielding a grounder. It is hoped that it is just some residual soreness.
Magglio Ordonez- DET- Cold- Ordonez is not experiencing significant drops in either his BHIPx, his walk ratio or his strikeout ratios. The only thing that seems to be bothering him is an inability to hit the ball as far as he used to. Not only are his homers down, only 3 so far in 246 ABs, but he only has 9 doubles, when he hit 32 in 561 ABs last year and 54 in 595 ABs in 2007. At 35 years old, Ordonez may be hitting a wall.
Gil Meche- KC-Caution- Meche threw 121 pitches last night. He has hit 120 or more twice before this season. In the following two starts he lasted a total of 7-2/3 IP and gave up 14 runs. In each of the previous two years he hit that pitch count level only once and didn’t show any ill effects following. However, only doing it once may have been a factor there. Be very cautious as Meche heads into his next start.
George Sherrill- BAL- Cold- A night after picking up the save in the Orioles’ wild comeback against the Red Sox, Sherrill blew one, allowing Boston to tie the game in the 9th inning. He threw 15 of his 29 pitches for balls, walking 3 and giving up 2 hits. Sherrill seems to have some problems with control when he is called on to work after throwing more than 20 pitches. Earlier this season he had a string of 5 appearances where he walked a batter. During this string Sherrill also threw more than 20 pitches each time out, as well as the outing leading into it. Keep a watch on Sherrill’s pitch counts if you have daily transactions. If you see him start running high counts and losing control, you might want to give him a rest, even if Baltimore manager Dave Trembley doesn’t.
Ricky Romero- TOR- Hot- Romero threw 8 shutout innings against the Rays, allowing just 4 hits, walking 4 and striking out 7. It was his 6th consecutive quality start. It was also the second time in 3 starts Romero passed the 110-pitch mark. He showed no ill effects from the last extended outing, as he threw 7 shutout innings after it. Still, Romero is not yet 25 years old, so high pitch counts present a risk. Keep a watch on his usage patterns.
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