MLB Daily: Dan Uggla to the Rescue; Masahiro Tanaka to the DL; Jose Bautista Takes Out Coke Sign
By Mike Cardillo
Welcome to MLB Daily, yep, we’re still doing it.
It’s Getting Uggla (up in here): As the old baseball chestnut goes, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher, so maybe it’s prudent to avoid reading all that much into the Nationals’ 13-12 win in Atlanta Tuesday night. Washington twice came back from eight-run deficits — reportedly the biggest comeback since the team moved from Montreal — with ex-Brave Dan Uggla capping it with a three-run homer in the ninth off Jason Grilli.
The win ended Washington’s six-game losing streak. If the Nationals get hot and snap out of their early-season doldrums, the narrative will point to this game as the all-important turning point. If Jordan Zimmermann gets shelled tonight at Turner Filed, it’ll be just another game.
Uggla is fun to talk about since he’s a quirky statistical player and a bit of an outlier — a power-hitting, lead-glove second baseman. Maybe it’s because of his defensive foibles in the playoffs or his disastrous start in Atlanta last year that led to his release, but Uggla did hit 30+ home runs for five straight seasons. His 162-game average is 29 homers … with 164 strikeouts. Uggla is a noted butcher in the field — better suited for the DH or slow-pitch softball — but his lifetime fielding percentage is .979, which sort of points out it’s not a very relevant statistic since making close to 98 percent of the plays would, at surface value, seem good. Every other advanced fielding metric that charts runs saved and such rates Uggla out poorly.
That said, having Uggla as a late-inning pinch-hitting option or occasional interleague DH — if and when Anthony Rendon returns — is a nice option for a National League team.
That said, the New York baseball media thinks Tanaka needs Tommy John surgery. For instance the New York Post has a column today, “Why Tanaka needs Tommy John surgery.” I have a degree in journalism (yes, seriously) and it didn’t require me to take any human anatomy courses. Nor have I seen the MRIs on Tanaka. Anecdotal evidence — the Post cites Pedro Martinez and Mark Mulder saying they could “see this coming” for Tanaka — points toward surgery. Without the actual medical evidence, it’s impossible to speculate … which will never stop the New York tabloids, or sports-talk radio.
Tanaka does seem outwardly reluctant to have the surgery and it’s possible the team could announce the injury will require surgery in the coming days, but until then everyone is playing doctor — which is one of the least-productive or wise things you can do in sports.
More concrete is that the loss of Tanaka is a certain blow for the Yankees, who are playing great and in first place. Short-term, Tanaka’s absence puts a lot more pressure on CC Sabathia, who has been a shell of his former self so far in 2015. New York will need to cross its fingers that Michael Pineda can stay healthy. If Tanaka is gone for more than a month, the Yankees have Chris Capuano and Ivan Nova coming back, eventually, from injuries of their own. Although the New York system hasn’t produced many position players, Cashman has found a knack for developing some decent arms in the minors — although their best work tends to be out of the bullpen. Either way, so much with the Yanks brief flirtation with a six-man rotation.
Smart signing: Most of the baseball world chortled when Kansas City added Kendrys Morales in the winter, in part to replace Billy Butler and his much-loved BBQ sauce. The Cuban put up one awesome year, with a 139 OPS+ … but that was back in 2009, well before he blew out his knee celebrating a walk-off win at home plate. Last year Morales was about as bad offensively as you could get, posting a .218/.274/.338 line with Minnesota and Seattle. Sure it’s a small sample size, but Morales once again has a 139 OPS+ and 14 RBIs in the middle of the potent Royals’ lineup. If he keeps that up, KC got a steal for $6.5 million this season.
Pressure Drop: The Royals dropped the Indians last night, leaving Cleveland with the worst record in the AL at 6-13. Yes, yes, yes, YES it’s early but baseball is a weird sport, especially with pressure and expectations. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter Sports Illustrated picked Cleveland to win the World Series? Probably not, but it gets into the players heads — its only human nature. The tricky thing with baseball is over 162 games you can’t blow teams away with superior talent all the time, every night you need to grind for those 27 outs. Some teams play much better when free of any expectation.
Cleveland’s problem is mostly offense, where it’s in the bottom-third in a lot of categories. Michael Brantley aside, there isn’t much consistency. Terry Francona’s resorted to batting Jason Kipnis leadoff due to Michael Bourn’s continued decline. Losing Yan Gomes hurts, but it’s difficult to win when five regulars (Roberto Perez, Jose Ramirez, Lonnie Chisenhall, Bourn and even Kipnis) are posting sub .600 OPSs.
Last night Cleveland’s pen allowed eight runs over the final three innings last night. This could be worth watching since Trevor Bauer only went six innings — which is longer than usual for him. Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar are each over 10 Ks per 9, but that leads to high pitch counts which could put a toll on the pen over the course of the season.
Pepsi challenge: A Jose Bautista foul ball hit the Coca Cola sign at Fenway last night. Maybe Adrian Beltre will send him an invoice?
Fun with Stats: Your list of sub-1.00 ERA pitchers is down to four: Nick Martinez, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Archer and Scott Kazmir. Archer’s the guy to watch, as he’s allowed a paltry 18 hits in 32+ innings.
Fun with Stats II: Madison Bumgarner out-dueled Clayton Kershaw in a 2-1 Giants win last night on the West Coast, providing another reminder that if you live on the East Coast you’re routinely missing a lot of good stuff on a nightly basis. The fun part? After five starts, the aces have thrown 31 1/3 innings and have matching 3.73 ERAs. Fun, right?
This & That: Jed Lowrie is going to be out until after the All-Star break due to a torn thumb ligament. That’s a pretty big blow for Houston, since Lowrie was batting right in the middle of its order. The Astros have won 9 of 10. … FanGraphs ran a brief post that games are quicker and runs are up, slightly, so far in 2015 because (for some reason) this is the only topic some readers seem to care about when it pertains to baseball. Sigh. … … Archie Bradley took a liner in the face off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez and is expected to go on the DL. Fortunately he walked off under his own power. … Today’s White Sox-Orioles game, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, will be played behind closed doors. According to MLB historian John Thorn the lost attendance for a game is six, and that’s for a game in the 19th century… Carl Crawford joins Yasiel Puig on the disabled list for the Dodgers.
[Hard work]