MLB Player News

Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington was not in the team's starting lineup Friday.

Pennington was scratched from Wednesday's lineup due to a thumb injury. He's not the usual starter at short, so it's unclear whether Pennington is still hurt, or if he's available off the bench. He's hitting .257 in 70 at-bats. 

Diamondbacks shortstop Cliff Pennington has been scratched from Wednesday's lineup due to a thumb injury, FOXSportsArizona.com reports.

Pennington hurt the thumb on his glove hand administering a tag on a slide Tuesday, and he'll get Wednesday off to recover. He has hit .257/.342/.343 with six RBI in 70 at-bats.

Diamondbacks shortstop Chris Owings went 1 for 4 with a walk and a solo home run in his team's 2-1 win over the Mets in the first half of Sunday's doubleheader.

Owings smacked his home run over the left-field fence in the top of the first inning, and he watched the winning run score on an error committed during a ground ball he hit in the ninth inning. Owings has hit .267/.313/.413 with three home runs and eight RBI in 150 at-bats.

Nationals infielder Zach Walters will be the odd man out when Adam LaRoche returns to action. Walters will be sent back down to Triple-A Syracuse prior to Sunday's game against the Pirates, MLB.com reports.

Walters batted .182 with three homers and four RBI in 33 at-bats for the Nationals.

Dodgers infielder Dee Gordon has been slowed on the bases recently, but he snapped out of it with a three-steal game Friday against the Phillies.

Gordon reached base twice in the game, going 1 for 4 with a walk and a run scored, while stealing three bases fourth time this season. He leads the National League with 28 steals in 45 games, despite having just one in his previous nine games. 

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford extended his team's lead to 4-0 Wednesday against the Rockies with a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning off Matt Belisle. The Giants would win 5-1, as Crawford hit his sixth home run and fifth in his last 17 games.

Crawford is batting just .242 in his last 17 games, but he has a .532 slugging percentage and .812 OPS in that span. Crawford has three doubles, 11 RBI, nine runs and one stolen base in his last 17 games.

Diamondbacks shortstop Chris Owings hit his second home run Saturday against the Dodgers.

Owings led off the fourth inning belting the first pitch he saw from Jamey Wright out to left center for the solo shot. He also belted a triple and a double in the game, finishing a single away from the cycle. Owings finished 3 for 5, with four runs and two RBI. 

Mets infielder Ruben Tejada will get the bulk of the playing time at short, according to ESPN.

The club called up Wilmer Flores recently, and he was expected to see playing time at the position. That could change, as Flores may start platooning at second base. Tejada has hit .192 over 104 at-bats.

After a second opinion, Padres infielder Ryan Jackson has not improved as quickly as anticipated, which could cause him to opt for surgery, U-T San Diego reports. If he undergoes surgery on his right wrist, he would likely miss a good portion of the minor-league season.

Shortstop stinks. I get it.

But haven't we been through this once before with Brandon Crawford? The hot start? The wishful thinking? The foolishness to entertain the notion that he might be more than just a defensive whiz?

It would be so, so, so, so helpful if that was the case. But as we learned last year, it probably isn't.

With his home run Wednesday, Crawford now has five to go along with a .258 batting average. Through May 14 last year, he had five to go along with a .271 batting average only to hit four with a .240 batting average over the final three-fourths of the season. The worst part was nobody made a move for him until after he hit that fifth home run, so they missed out on the one part of the year when he had something to offer, banking only the regression to the mean. I fear that's happening all over agian.

It's one thing if you invested everything in Brad Miller in a deeper league and are just hoping to get something, anything out of the shortstop position until he bounces back, but if you pass up on a Jonathan Villar or Asdrubal Cabrera type for Crawford, you'll probably regret it.