MLB Player News

Rockies starting pitcher Juan Nicasio made his final appearance of the spring Friday in a minor-league game against the team's Triple-A roster.

He got his work in at the team's training camp, working seven innings and striking out nine batters slated to begin the season at Colorado Springs. He worked a regular-season load, tossing 104 pitches. He allowed three runs on three hits and a pair of walks.

Nicasio finishes the spring with 17 strikeouts and nine walks in six games, while posting a 4.87 ERA. According to MLB.com, he spent the spring working on adding a changeup to his arsenalto supplement his existing fastball and slider combination. Nicasio will open the season as the team's third starter, with his debut scheduled for Wednesday against the Brewers. Nicasio has faced the Brewers once in his career. He tossed seven shutout innings in July of 2011. 

Diamondbacks starting pitcher Patrick Corbin made a strong statement in his final push to make the rotation Friday, pitching a regular season workload against the Reds.

Corbin threw 93 pitches in six innings and limited the Reds to just two hits. He shut them out, allowing just one extra-base hit. Corbin walked two batters and struck out seven while lowering his spring ERA to 2.81.

The Diamondbacks are expected to make their final cuts Saturday, and the rotation will likely be announced at the same time. Corbin posted a 4.54 ERA in 107 innings last season, and appears to be battling with Randall Delgado for the final spot. 

The list of pitching jewels in the 2014 free-agent class was reduced by one Friday, as Justin Verlander agreed to a five-year extension with the Tigers worth $140 million which also includes an option for a sixth year at $22 million. That leaves the possibility of the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw being the best pitcher available on the market after the 2014 season.

He could command more money than Verlander, the Los Angeles Times notes. At 25, Kershaw is five years younger and left-handed, a trait viewed as a perk for pitchers.

Kershaw also captured the NL Cy Young Award in 2011 and finished second in the voting last year with his third straight season with a sub-3.00 ERA and 200-plus strikeouts. His salary last season was a relative bargain at $7.75 million.

Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched four perfect innings in his final spring start Thursday against the Angels, striking out four batters while facing the Angels' opening-day offense. It gives Ryu just one hit allowed in 11 innings over his last two starts and lowers his spring ERA to 3.29 with a 27:8 K:BB ratio. Ryu is scheduled to go toe to toe with Madison Bumgarner in the Dodgers' second game of the season Wednesday.

Mets manager Sandy Alderson stated during a conference call regarding Johan Santana's likely season-ending injury that top prospect Zack Wheeler will remain on his established timetable. Rated baseball's 11th-best prospect by Baseball America this offseason, Wheeler has made just six starts at Triple-A and is likely to open the season there.

The root of my reluctance to draft Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu this spring is a fear of the unknown. All I know about baseball in Korea is it's not as advanced as baseball in Japan, and I've gotten burned by enough Japanese imports to know not to read too much into their pre-MLB numbers. But so far, Ryu has done nothing but impress, striking out a batter per inning with a respectable walk rate.

Before, I feared he had Wandy Rodriguez upside. Now, I'm hopeful he has C.J. Wilson upside. Granted, I'm not going to draft him alongside Wilson, but when Ryan Dempster and Wei-Yin Chen start going off the board, he's on my short list.

So Al Melchior has come around enough onthe Braves' Julio Teheran to say he's worth watching early in the season to see if he's worth pursuing. But you'll be too late, Al!

I understand the incentive to wait and see if spring performances carry into the regular season, but enough people buy into them that those who don't -- and I'd consider myself part of that latter group -- are forced to rush to judgment on players like Teheran just to have a chance at them.

I'm not saying you should be reckless about it, but between the improved mechanics after last year's debacle, the upgraded arsenal and the top-prospect pedigree, Teheran gives you plenty of reasons to believe. He's my favorite late-round starting pitcher and, with Adam Eaton down, my NL Rookie of the Year pick.

You know, I've been a little reluctant to draft the Cardinals' Lance Lynn over the last couple weeks, often skipping over him for Marco Estrada and Josh Beckett in my rankings, because he's been so hittable this spring. In and of itself, that wouldn't bother me, but with his dramatic weight loss this offseason changing his body type to the point that his mechanics are inherently different, struggles of that magintude are a cause for concern.

Needless to say, his six shutout innings against the Marlins Thursday, in which he allowed two hits with no walks and five strikeouts, are cause for relief.

I'm still not entirely sure what to expect from Lynn this season, either mechanically or statistically, but I'm feeling kind of silly for avoiding him now.

Then again, I really like Estrada and Beckett.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw made his final Cactus League start on Wednesday against the Mariners before his opening-day duties. He allowed three runs on five hits over three innings. The left-hander surrendered a solo, two-run homer to Michael Morse in the first before giving up his final damage in the third. Kershaw also struck out two and walked one while throwing 54 pitches; 34 for strikes.

Kershaw, who posted a 4.18 ERA in seven spring starts, will face the Giants on April 1. The 25-year-old went 2-3 with a 1.62 ERA in five starts against San Francisco last season.

CBSSports.com Baseball Insider Jon Heyman confirmed that the Cardinals and starter Adam Wainwright agreed to a five-year, $97.5 million contract extension on Wednesday. Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com was the first to report the deal.

Wainwright, St. Louis' opening-day starter, went 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA in six Grapefruit League starts.