A few injury updates to start out ...
Max Scherzer started a minor-league game, mixing his usual two-finger fastball grip with the three-finger grip he has used to spare his sore knuckle in side sessions, and came out feeling great.
“Now, I feel back,” Scherzer said.
The Nationals didn’t have any velocity readings, but pitching coach Mike Maddux said hitters were struggling to catch up to the fastball. Scherzer might not start the very first game of the season, but he looks like he’ll avoid a DL stint.
Matt Carpenter is back in the Cardinals lineup Friday after missing three weeks with a sore back. He says he’s 100 percent, and the assumption was always that the Cardinals were being extra cautious after an oblique injury wrecked his second half last year. He should be fine for the season.
The swelling has gone down in Carlos Carrasco’s elbow, allowing him to throw Thursday. He should make a minor-league start Tuesday and then be back on schedule. The Indians don’t need a fifth starter until April 15, so they may hold him out until then. It just depends how his next few starts go.
The Rockies are now hoping for a mid-April return for Ian Desmond, giving him a 4-6 weeks timetable, according to manager Bud Black. Their initial timetable of mid-April seemed on the optimistic side, but given how well the surgery went and the medical care available to him, they’re willing to dream even bigger. I’m not moving him up in my rankings just yet, though.
Zack Wheeler hit 97 mph in his second Grapefruit League start Thursday, reassuring the Mets he’s finally over the Tommy John surgery that has sidelined him the past two years. They’re still planning to limit him to 100-120 innings this year, though, and they may not want to begin that tally until later in the season. He remains a risky mixed-league investment.
Dodgy decision-making
As Hyun-Jin Ryu was working his way back from a torn labrum in his shoulder, we kept hearing about how his velocity wasn’t where it should be, which makes his performance so far this spring all the more surprising.
Most recently, he struck out four over three one-run innings Thursday, putting him right back in the rotation discussion.
The one who really has to answer to the radar gun is Scott Kazmir, who supposedly checked out fine after leaving his last start with a stiff hip.
He was throwing between 82-84 mph in a simulated start Thursday, though.
“We need to see the velocity,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Of course, both are probably long shots with the way Brandon McCarthy and Alex Wood have looked this spring.
And that’s before even getting to 20-year-old sensation Julio Urias. McCarthy started Wednesday’s game against the Mariners and threw 60 pitches. Urias entered as a reliever and threw 30.
With so many of the Dodgers’ wealth of arms returning to health, Urias is looking more and more likely to begin the season in extended spring training to preserve his innings for later in the year.
He remains the one of these five getting drafted in standard mixed leagues, and it should probably stay that way. His going rate in CBS Sports leagues (Round 13 in both Head-to-Head and Rotisserie) may be a little too high, though.
The pull of Pineda
Here we go again.
Michael Pineda has a 2.17 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings in his last four spring trainings combined, and it generally hasn’t turned out too well for Fantasy owners.
My contention just a couple weeks ago was that he can dominate for the short stretches pitchers typically have in spring training because his fastball and slider are both so good, but his lack of a quality third pitch ruins him over a starter’s normal workload.
But then he turned in this performance Wednesday against the Phillies:
Granted, five innings, especially perfect ones, don’t allow for that third time through the lineup, but catcher Gary Sanchez and manager Joe Girardi both praised Pineda’s changeup use in this game.
If he plans to throw it more than the 7.5 percent of the time he did last year, it chould change everything. The talent, given that he ranked first in the AL in strikeouts per nine innings and ninth in strikeout-to-walk ratio last year, speaks for itself.
“I think this guy is really big for us this year,” manager Joe Girardi told MLB.com. “Really big.”
With the hype at a minimum this year, Pineda often lasts until Round 20 or later. In spite of my skepticism, I’m coming around the idea of drafting him then.
Yoan turns it on
Yoan Moncada, considered by some (myself included) the top prospect in baseball, was having a miserable spring, and then he did this Wednesday against the Royals:
The opposite-field shot was particularly impressive. Granted, they were his first two home runs of the spring, which he has mostly populated with strikeouts ...
... so I don’t think he’s in the discussion for opening day. The White Sox don’t want to make the mistake the Twins made with Byron Buxton, calling him up too early and then having to rebuild him from the ground up. But the performance at least serves as a reminder after mostly unimpressive showings against major-league pitching that Moncada does indeed have real talent.
Stashing him away in a standard mixed league may be a little too optimistic, but don’t rule him out for a midseason call-up.
Bell bottoms out
Josh Bell, who became one of this year’s earliest injury victims when he had a loose body removed from his knee in early February, has gotten to play five games since returning, but he has yet to record a hit. And with two more strikeouts Thursday at the Red Sox, he’s up to eight in just 13 at-bats.
This is completely out of character for a hitter lauded mostly for his plate discipline and bat control. He was one of just three players with at least 100 at-bats to have more walks than strikeouts last year, and that was in his first ever look at major-league pitching.
I’m thinking his hurried return from knee surgery is having an impact here, so no need to bury him yet. But just because he’s projected to be the Pirates starting first baseman doesn’t mean he has to be if he doesn’t show he’s ready. They still have John Jaso, after all.
I still love the potential. I’m still calling him a sleeper to begin 2017. But I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion he begins the year in the majors.
Glover to the rescue
Shawn Kelley entered spring training as the favorite for saves in Washington, but Blake Treinen and Koda Glover are in that discussion as well.
Glover recorded a save Thursday against the Mets, striking out two in a perfect frame while hitting 97 mph, and continues to draw praise from manager Dusty Baker.
“He’s locating, that’s the secret. If you can locate that velocity, you’re ahead of the game,” Baker told The Washington Post.
According to The Post, Baker typically just shakes his head when asked about Glover’s stuff, and it’s no wonder. He has allowed just one hit in six innings this spring, striking out 10. He had a 2.63 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings in 12 appearances for the Nationals last year before trying to pitch through a torn labrum in his hip, ruining his line.
If nothing else, the 23-year-old has distinguished himself as the Nationals hypothetical closer of the future. Whether the future begins on opening day remains to be seen, but as reluctant as they’ve been to commit to Kelley in the role, questioning if he has the durability for it, Glover deserves late-round consideration in leagues where saves are scarce.