Tag Archives: Atlanta Braves

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Injury prevention

Ervin Santana had spent several months waiting for an opportunity to his liking after turning down the Kansas City Royals’ qualifying offer and becoming a free agent earlier in the offseason.

The opportunity finally came this past week, but the Atlanta Braves’ acquisition of the pitcher on a one-year deal was bittersweet for the team.

The Braves were never considered to be a contender for Santana’s signature until they were struck by a double dose of bad luck that left a gaping hole in their starting rotation.

Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy are both booked in for appointments with Dr James Andrews on Monday and few are expecting a positive prognosis. Both have undergone Tommy John surgery on their pitching arm elbow before and both look likely to have the same procedure done again. If so, their 2014 seasons will be over before they ever got going.

On Friday evening it looked like the Oakland A’s might be in a similar position, only without a Santana to sign (nor the money to do so).

A.J. Griffin went for an MRI scan on his pitching elbow on Friday, whilst Jarrod Parker, the team’s anticipated Opening Day starter, will be jostling for a seat in Dr Andrews’ waiting room on Monday hoping that the soreness in his pitching forearm isn’t a consequence of structural damage in his elbow that would lead to him, like the two Braves’ pitchers, having his second Tommy John surgery. The early indications are that Griffin and Parker may not be quite so badly injured as first feared, although that remains to be seen.

You would think if Dr Andrews was a character in a Terry Pratchett novel he would speak in capital letters such are the ominous tones in which a visit to his Practice are talked about; however his surgical skills (and other surgeons, not least the originator of the surgery Dr Frank Jobe who passed away recently) are the reason why damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in a player’s elbow is often no longer the death of a career.

It is still a depressingly familiar tale and one that merits wider consideration.

There isn’t an obvious equivalent to Tommy John surgery in other sports, in terms of it being a common serious injury (serious in the sense of it leading to a considerable period on the sidelines). Knee ligament injuries in football would be a contender, as potentially would be concussions in sports like rugby and the NFL, yet neither really match up with the perceived prevalence of Tommy John surgery in baseball.

It makes you wonder if there is a fundamental inevitability at play. Is it simply a biological fact that the structure of a human elbow (and shoulder) doesn’t marry up well with the demands of a repeated high velocity overarm throwing action?

For all of the Tommy John surgeries that stick in the mind, the fact remains that the majority of players don’t undergo the procedure. Through a combination of factors like genetics, mechanics, strength and conditioning, playing time management and possibly a bit of luck the seeming inevitability disappears.

From the outside, the obvious question from there is just how well those above factors are understood? It would make sense that no one course of action will work perfectly for every individual. For example, a strength and conditioning regime for one person may not be ideal for another of a different physical size with different mechanics and it may change over time given the player’s age.

Tailoring a regime for an individual would involve a detailed understanding of all the factors at play coupled with a detailed understanding of the individual’s own characteristics. Clearly, that’s a lot of complicated parts to piece together into an even more complicated overall puzzle.

Teams and players do not need to be told how important health and fitness is and there appears to be a growing campaign by professionals to increase the ability to prevent injuries. It was one of the topics on the agenda at last week’s annual SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix and Christina Kahrl’s summary on ESPN.com is well worth a read (as are her summaries of Days Two and Three in respect of the latest developments generally in the baseball research community).

In particular, it’s important to note the statement that the perception of a rise in injuries is largely due to a greater understanding of those injuries. With Tommy John surgery, for example, the underlying injury now can accurately diagnosed and the surgery and the relatively lengthy rehabilitation process are often chosen as the course to take because in most cases players can be confident that they will be able to continue to have a successful professional career as a result.

In the more general sense of the word, MLB is in a very health state right now. There have been many changes in baseball over the past 20 years and 2014 will continue the trend with the introduction of instant replay; however, whilst injuries will always be a part of sport, any work that can be done to further improve the chances of the best players being out on the field – especially reducing the number of pitchers suffering elbow injuries or at least making even greater strides in reducing the recovery period from surgery – arguably would be the most significant development of them all.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: O’s add 2

Much as I enjoy all the news and rumours that the offseason ‘Hot Stove’ brings, there’s a certain joy in knowing this is the last column I’ll be writing for just over eight months that is not influenced by actual games being played.

The Spring Training leagues begin on Wednesday. These are the main stories of the week or so leading up to umpires shouting ‘play ball’ once again.

O’s2

Baltimore Orioles fans had sat through the majority of the offseason waiting for their team to do something to give them hope for the season ahead.

That hope may have been about to run out before the O’s revealed their London Bus approach to the free agent market: waiting around for ages and then signing two at once.

Baltimore, like every team, was keen to add a starting pitcher and they did so in the form of Ubaldo Jimenez on a four-year, $50m contract.

Jimenez is an enigmatic player, switching between ‘Ubaldo the Magnificent’ and ‘Ubaldo the Mess’ like a change in the weather. Scouts explain that his complicated pitching mechanics make him more susceptible to ‘losing’ his delivery, as you sometimes see with cricket bowlers (England’s Stephen Finn would be a good recent example). When a pitcher struggles to repeat his delivery, he struggles to put the ball where he wants to and the result is walks and ‘hit me’ pitches.

Jimenez is a quality pitcher when everything is in synch, such as during his 19-8 season with the Colorado Rockies in 2010 and last year with the Cleveland Indians. It’s unlikely, although far from impossible, that the Orioles will receive four consecutive seasons of Jimenez at his best, but one such season along with three decent ones would still make for a good return on their relatively modest $50m investment.

Jimenez was one of the group of players still on the free agent market in part because signing them involved giving up a valuable amateur draft pick. Nelson Cruz was also on that list until he agreed a one-year deal worth $8m with Baltimore and it’s no coincidence that the Orioles doubled-up on their free agent signings. Having already lost their 2014 draft first round pick due to signing Jimenez, Cruz will only cost Baltimore their less-valuable second round selection. He is slated to be the team’s Designated Hitter this season.

Bailey bonanza

The Cincinnati Reds signed pitcher Homer Bailey to a six-year, $105m contract extension this week (roughly an average of £202k per week).

Bailey was drafted out of High School by the Reds in 2004 and he has come through some growing pains since making his Major League debut as a 21 year old in 2007. The past two seasons, both of which included him pitching a no-hitter, have seen the big Texan develop into the quality starting pitcher that the Reds always believed he could become.

You could argue that he’s not quite an ace, even factoring in that his home ballpark is hitter-friendly (his career ERA is a full run less on the road than it is at the Great American Ballpark – 3.73 compared with 4.74), but if so then he’s at least very close to being one.

Last season he was 24th among pitchers in the Majors with his combined performances measured at 3.7 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), as per Fangraphs, a mark that put him 10th in the National League and second on his club behind Mat Latos (4.4 WAR).

Securing his services for the next six seasons at what is, based on the current market, a sensible annual cost is a good piece of work from the Reds, made all the more welcome due to it coming in an offseason where the team has been relatively quiet.

Add Bailey to the list that’s no longer on the list

As noted by ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield, Bailey is the latest player to be taken off the potential free agent list as part of a growing trend in which teams are signing their key players to contract extensions.

The most positive part of this development is that, as in the case of Cincinnati, it’s not just the clubs with the biggest pockets that are able to do this now.

The Reds’ 10-year, $225m contract with first baseman Joey Votto, signed in April 2012 and coming into effect from this season onwards, was the most significant deal  so far in that regard, alongside the eight-year, $184m contract that the Minnesota Twins agreed with Joe Mauer in 2011.

Thanks to rising national and local TV contracts, even teams outside of the leading media markets such as New York and Los Angeles have a chance of funding contracts that allow them to keep hold of at least some of their best players. That can make the free agent market a bit less exciting, but few fans will mind this if it means that there’s a better chance that their favourite players are not inevitably going to be snapped up by the big boys.

Braves keeping hold of their own

The Atlanta Braves are yet another example of this trend. They followed up their contract extensions with Freddie Freeman (six-years, $135m) and Julio Teheran (six-years, $32.4m) this week with a four-year, $42m contract with closer Craig Kimbrel and a seven-year, $58m contract with shortstop Andrelton Simmons,.

The performance value of a closer is always hotly debated when weighing up the amount of innings they pitch (including the postseason, Kimbrel has averaged 70 innings per season over the past three years) against their perceived importance and the fact that reliable outstanding closers are a very rare breed.

Kimbrel has been so dominant in the role that the Braves’ desire to keep hold of him is understandable, although the ever-present fear of a year lost to Tommy John surgery will make it more important than normal to wait and see if it was money well spent once the contract comes to an end.

As for Simmons, watching him play shortstop is one of the delights of the game and if he can at least hold his own at the plate, Braves fans will be delighted to have him on their team for years to come.

Greinke the Grouch

Finally, Spring Training will have a different feel to it this year for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers as they head over to Australia for two regular season games on 22-23 March.

The Dodgers’ Zack Greinke is not greatly enthused by the prospect, stating to ESPNLosAngeles.com “I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it … there just isn’t any excitement to it. I can’t think of one reason to be excited for it”.

Hopefully he’ll enjoy it when he gets there.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Jeter to retire

One of the joys of this time of year is that none of us really knows what the season will bring; the possibilities are endless in Spring.

However, we do already know one thing that 2014 will be remembered for.

One more year for Jeter

The announcement on Wednesday that this will be Derek Jeter’s final season was a major news story and, particularly considering it was telling us something that’s not actually going to happen until later in the year (my instant reaction to the mass coverage was to mis-read it and I thought he was retiring there and then), that goes to show just how big an impact he has had on the game.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark summed it up by drawing on research last August that overwhelming placed Jeter as the recognised ‘face of MLB’. As Stark put it:

“How does any sport replicate what Derek Jeter has meant to baseball over the last decade and a half — and still does? Is that even possible?

Oh, the Yankees will find another shortstop. There’s a 100 percent probability of that. And Jeter will find stuff to do that probably doesn’t involve spending 14 hours a day curled up in a chair playing Sudoku.

But where does baseball find the next Derek Jeter? Good luck on that”.

It’s difficult to judge from the U.K., where generally you are either a dedicated baseball fan or don’t pay it any attention whatsoever, but clearly Jeter has meant a lot to baseball in terms of its image to the casual fan in the States and, with so many entertainment options out there competing for people’s eyes, ears and money, that’s an important factor that MLB needs to grapple with.

Yet the very nature of sport means that legends come and go. Even if there isn’t necessarily a ready-made, obvious replacement – as Stark suggests is the case here – other players will emerge in time to take on the mantle. MLB will produce new icons, but it won’t be so easy for the Yankees to find another Jeter and what he represented.

He was part of a group of players that created a new era in the rich history of the New York Yankees. There are some similarities here to Manchester United’s ‘Class of ‘92’, documented in the film released last December.  In both cases, you had a group of very talented young players who came through together and, for a period, personified the team. Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and co became Man Utd, just as Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Posada and co became what you thought of when you thought of the Yankees.

Not only was that felt by the fans, particularly of the respective teams, but you got a sense that it was felt by players that joined the teams too. Star players coming into the dressing room or clubhouse generally had to fit in with the culture and example that was set by those core players.

Jeter is the last of the fabled ‘core four’ and whilst the Yankees may well use their spending power to put together championship-contending teams in the years to come, it will be a while before they, or potentially any other team, brings through such an incredible group of players that define an era quite like this group has.

A.J. to the Phillies

A.J. Burnett won a World Series with Jeter and the Yankees in 2009 and in 2014 he’ll be pitching for the team that they beat. The Philadelphia Phillies have continued their offseason trend of adding veteran players by bringing in the 37-year-old pitcher on a one-year deal.

If he pitches as well as he did in the past two years with the Pirates then the Phillies will be more than happy with their $16m investment, yet it’s difficult to shake the feeling that the deal would make more sense for a team with a genuinely good shot at making the playoffs this year.

And it’s difficult to shake the feeling that the Phillies’ General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is misjudging his roster if he’s putting his team in that category.

Hamels hobbled

The Phillies certainly have some reason to hope that they could get in the Wild Card race, but they need their ageing roster to stay healthy and they suffered a blow this week when Cole Hamels, one of the younger veterans at 30 years old, revealed he has a shoulder injury that could see him miss most of the first month of the season.

Iwakuma injured too

Injuries to pitchers is a depressingly familiar theme each Spring and the Seattle Mariners are also cursing their bad luck early in Spring Training. Hisashi Iwakuma, who had such an impressive season in 2013, has injured his right middle finger and will miss 4 to 6 weeks, meaning he won’t be ready for the start of the season.

The Mariners do have some talented young pitchers to call on and my favourite scouting work of the week came from their ace Felix Hernandez, who described James Paxton as “a funky lefty dealing over the top, throwing 97 [mph]” and Taijuan Walker as “a big dude throwing cheese”.

The Mariners also lost outfielder Franklin Gutierrez for the coming season due to a recurrence of a “gastrointestinal problem”, or as new manager Lloyd McClendon put it: “his health was not cooperating with him”.

Late start for Latos

The Cincinnati Reds’ Mat Latos is another pitcher who started Spring in exactly the way he hoped he wouldn’t. Latos felt a twinge in his left knee during some workouts on Tuesday and underwent minor arthroscopic surgery on Friday. The Reds hope it will only sideline him for 10 days or so, but any setback is a worry for a team that had a relatively quiet offseason and is mainly relying on the players they had last year combining to have a better year in 2014.

Contract extensions

Ending on a more positive note, two young players had a very good opening week to Spring Training by agreeing contract extensions with their respective teams.

Outfielder Michael Brantley signed a four-year contract extension with the Cleveland Indians worth $25m, whilst pitcher Julio Teheran agreed a six-year, $32.4m extension with the Atlanta Braves. The deal with Teheran follows the eight-year contract extension signed by first baseman Freddie Freeman recently as the Braves try to keep hold of their core young talent for years to come.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Season Number Eight

Baseball is on its way. The Superbowl has been and gone, MLB.TV subscription details have been announced and teams are starting to head to their Spring Training camps in Arizona or Florida.

The long winter months are tough to get through, but we’re over the worst of it and can now look ahead to what is certain to be another incredible MLB season.

I’ve been covering MLB in a weekly column, ‘Weekly Hit Ground Ball’, since 2007 and will do so again in 2014. It’s undergone various format changes over the years to hopefully keep it fresh, including changing from being published on a Sunday to a Monday.

This season as standard I’ll be going almost full circle and returning to something close to the initial format where I used the column to bring together all of the major stories, plus other things that caught my eye, in one bundle.

That approach is going to be flexible, so if one major story dominates the news agenda in a given week then I’ll devote the entire column to that, but by and large I’ll try to touch plenty of bases in the column and will chip in with a post or two during the rest of the week if a particular story deserves to be covered there and then rather than waiting for Monday (or Sunday, as I’ll occasionally be putting it online a day earlier, such as this weekend).

With that explained, let’s head on to the main stories of the last few days.

Arizona extensions

I mentioned last week that I had picked up the Baseball Prospectus 2014 book and the first two team essays – on Arizona and Atlanta – have proved quite prescient.

The Diamondbacks were the first team to open their Spring Training camp due to their participation in the early MLB season opener in Australia.

The BP essay focused on the futures of General Manager Kevin Towers and Manager Kirk Gibson. Both were due to enter this season with only one year remaining on their contracts and with some question marks over whether they would be with the team in 2015.

It was thought that they would need to use the 2014 season as an extended trial to prove they were the men to take the team forward in the coming years; however those thoughts were pushed aside this week as both received contract extensions.

The D-Backs are in an interesting position having finished dead on .500 in each of the last two seasons and with the Dodgers’ spending making them strong favourites for the NL West division again.

Arizona need to find a way to take the next step and to push for a Wild Card spot and if they don’t it would call into question whether the contract extensions, Gibson’s in particular, were a good decision. Acting early does at least mean there will be no distractions if the season doesn’t start brilliantly for them, so in that sense clearing up the issue could work in their favour.

Arizona have improved their chances of a mounting a decent challenge by agreeing to a two-year deal with Bronson Arroyo. Their starting rotation was in need of support and Arroyo’s brand of solid if unspectacular work should meet the need well.

Eight years for Freeman

The Atlanta Braves’ chapter in BP 2014 centred on their young core of players and impending dilemmas the team would face in trying to keep hold of as many as possible.

Stage one in that process was completed this week as the team agreed an eight-year, $135m contract extension with first baseman Freddie Freeman. It’s the most lucrative contract in the team’s history and shows how much faith they have in the 24-year-old.

His age is crucial to the deal for the Braves. Freeman finished fifth in the NL MVP voting process last season and yet you could have a long argument over whether he’s really an elite young player worthy of $135m or ‘just’ a very good one. The key point is that either way it represents good value because the Braves are going to be paying that money when he’s in his prime.

The Braves also agreed a two-year, $13.3m deal with outfielder Jason Heyward. He was already under contract with the team for those years, and it may prove difficult for Atlanta to keep hold of him beyond this point, but this at least puts to bed any arbitration wrangling.

Which camp?

There are still a number of free agents who don’t yet know which Spring Training camp they will be heading to.

It was presumed that A.J. Burnett would be staying at home and beginning retirement, but in the past couple of weeks it has emerged that he fancies giving it at least one more year. A return to the Pirates does not appear to be on the cards, leaving the Orioles, Phillies and Blue Jays as the likely main contenders for his signature.

Ubaldo Jimenez and Ervin Santana are also on the radar of teams seeking an additional starting pitcher. Jimenez has been heavily linked with a move to Toronto although no deal has been struck just yet.

Seattle bound

Fernando Rodney reportedly has found a new team in time for the beginning of Spring Training after agreeing a two-year contract with the Mariners.

Seattle are also seen as the team keenest to end outfielder Nelson Cruz’s stay on the free agent market.  Cruz has been characterised as the booby prize this offseason with the assumption being that one team desperate for a right-handed bat will hand the 33-year-old a multi-year contract they’ll soon come to regret.

After taking their $240m plunge with Robinson Cano there’s a sense that the Mariners need to add at least one more bat to the mix in 2014 and that they may be the team to pay Cruz.

Another victim

Sadly it’s always only a matter of time in Spring Training before a pitcher’s season is cut cruelly short before it has even begun as their elbow gives way and Tommy John surgery is required.

This spring’s first victim, the Padres’ Cory Luebke, is doubly unfortunate as he is undergoing the operation for a second time after his recovery from the first operation didn’t go to plan. Luebke has been out of action since May 2012 and it will be 2015 before he has any chance of getting back out onto the field.

Good news at last

Finally, that rarest of things: a news story about Alex Rodriguez that is good for baseball. Rodriguez has dropped his lawsuit and accepted a season-long ban for his alleged part in the Biogenesis drug case. The game didn’t need the sideshow of an ongoing bitter legal dispute this year and we can now all concentrate on positive news such as the teams heading back to Spring Training camps.

Offseason so far: NL East

Our review of the offseason so far moves from the American League onto the National League, starting in the NL East division.

Atlanta Braves

In November, the Braves announced plans to move from Turner Field to a new ballpark 10 miles away, with the hope being that they’ll be in their new home for the 2017 season.

Frustratingly for Braves fans, that’s where the exciting news came to an end as the reigning NL East champs  done little to improve their roster, whilst seeing veterans Brian McCann (Yankees) and Tim Hudson (Giants) depart. Ryan Doumit and Gavin Floyd, the latter currently on the rehab trail from Tommy John surgery, are the main additions to a roster that still contains plenty of talent, but perhaps looks vulnerable to injuries or repeats of the poor form showed from B.J Upton and Dan Uggla last season.

Washington Nationals

Never mind two players, the Nationals received disappointing seasons from a whole host of their team last year as the pre-season favourites for a World Series appearance ended up never seriously competing for a playoff spot.

They’ll be looking for a bounceback in 2014 and have helped their cause by swinging a trade for starting pitcher Doug Fister. The Detroit Tigers had other options for their rotation that made Fister available and the Nationals were able to add him as a replacement for Dan Haren – who has moved to the Dodgers – for a surprisingly modest outlay.

Jerry Blevins has also been added to the bullpen in a trade with the Oakland A’s as Washington has so far kept out of the free agent market.  The biggest change at the club so far has been in the retirement of manager Davey Johnson and the appointment of Matt Williams. The former D-Backs coach will make his managerial debut this season and hopes will be high that it will be a winning one.

New York Mets

This offseason was always going to be difficult for the Mets after star young pitcher Matt Harvey underwent Tommy John surgery in October and will likely be missing for the whole 2014 campaign.

Not much could make up for such a blow and in the circumstances the free agent signings of pitcher Bartolo Colon and outfielder Curtis Granderson would be easy to overlook, but they are two decent additions that should work out well for the team. Chris Young may also be a good bet to bounce back from a disappointing year with Oakland.

Philadelphia Phillies

Ryne Sandberg looks set to begin his first full season as manager of the Phillies fielding a familiar roster. The likes of Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz (who re-signed this offseason on a three-year deal) are still on the team, but the back-to-back World Series appearances of 2008 and 2009 seem a long time ago and hoping for a sudden turnaround after an 89-loss season with an ageing roster may be asking for too much.

Alongside re-signing Ruiz, the main addition so far has been acquiring 36-year-old outfielder Marlon Byrd. Roy Halladay has retired after a painful final season, but the presence of Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels does at least offer some hope that a surprising return to form by a veteran or two may be turned into something close to a Wild Card push. Without further additions, that seems to be the extent of their expectations for 2014.

Miami Marlins

As for the Marlins, it’s been nowhere near as dramatic as their last two offseasons: a free-agent cash splash in 11/12 and then a trade-away-anything-that-moves 12/13.

They’ve building up again with some good young talent, not least the NL Rookie of the Year Jose Fernandez and the much-sought-after slugger Giancarlo Stanton. This offseason has been spent adding some established Major Leaguers to the mix, in the form of Jarrod Saltalamacchia (fresh from helping the Red Sox win a World Series), Garrett Jones, Casey McGhee and the returning Rafael Furcal who missed all of 2013 through injury.

Rounding the Bases: Deals being made

One week ago I stated that we may be waiting a few weeks before the MLB Hot Stove started to heat up and teams began making significant roster additions.

It turned out that this past week was in fact quite a busy one, with several free agent signings being completed and one major trade.

Fielder and Kinsler swap teams

At breakfast time on Thursday morning I was tucking into a bowl of porridge and enjoying watching the highlights of Day One of the first Ashes Test on Sky Sports News (enjoy the good times while they last, comes to mind) when I noticed that an MLB news item was about to scroll across the bottom of the screen. I expected it to be news of a minor free agent signing, but instead was taken aback to read that the Texas Rangers had swung a trade to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

Just two years ago, the Tigers caused a major shock by coming out of nowhere and signing Fielder to a nine-year, $214m contract. Despite having a disappointing 2013 season, Fielder appeared to be set to stay in Detroit for years to come and yet all of a sudden the long-term commitment between player and team had been broken.

At first glance it looks to be a trade that should benefit both teams handsomely, not just in the player each team has required but the knock-on effects for their respective rosters.

The Tigers can now move Miguel Cabrera over to first base, where his limited fielding skills are better suited, and create an opening for their best prospect, third baseman Nick Castellanos. Kinsler will add a combination of some power and speed to the lineup and moving the majority of Fielder’s hefty contract (the Tigers have given the Rangers $30m as part of the deal to cover some of the remaining $168m) gives them some financial flexibility potentially to add another player or two or to add to the pot for a contract extension for Max Scherzer and, down the line, Miguel Cabrera.

As for the Rangers, they were desperate to make a big move after suffering late season heartbreak in the last two seasons. Acquiring a premium slugger is a statement of intent and moving to the homer-friendly confines of Rangers Ballpark should suit Fielder down to the ground. Moving Kinsler also frees up some space for the Rangers to let top prospect Jurickson Profar settle in at second base.

Angels and Cardinals

The Rangers’ AL West rivals the Los Angeles Angels also completed a trade this week, acquiring third baseman David Freese from the St. Louis Cardinals for centre fielder Peter Bourjos, with a couple of young prospects thrown into the deal too.

Freese will forever be a hometown hero in St. Louis for his 2011 World Series heroics, yet it looks like a good time for him to move on to a new challenge with the Angels. The Cardinals will probably move their infield players around so that Matt Carpenter shifts over to third base and Kolten Wong moves into second base full-time, potentially with former Detroit Tiger Jhonny Peralta joining the team as their new shortstop if the rumours from Saturday night are accurate. Bourjos, if he can stay fit and on the field, will be a better option in centrefield than the disappointing John Jay for the Cards, whilst Mike Trout will no longer be moved aside to the Angels’ left field and will instead be the number one centre fielder.

Pitchers getting paid

David Freese should be a good addition for the Angels, but their most pressing need over the offseason is to bolster their pitching corps. Another opening in the rotation has been created by Jason Vargas departing as a free agent as he agreed a four-year, $32m contract with the Kansas City Royals.

The signing was met by a fairly lukewarm response. In part this was because of the Royals rumours swirling in the hour before it was announced:

A “major-baseball announcement” immediately created visions for some of Carlos Beltran donning the ‘KC’ cap once again, so when the reality was a player you can neatly file under the words ‘solid’ and ‘dependable’ there was bound to be some disappointment.

Giving a four-year contract to a less-than-spectacular player also raised a few eyebrows, yet $8m per year for a good starting pitcher looks like being a good deal for the Royals on the current pitching market.

The San Francisco Giants spent $23m this week to sign 38-year old Tim Hudson on a two-year contract (£137k per week). Hudson’s 2013 season was ended by a horrible freak accident when the Mets’ Eric Young accidentally landed on the pitcher’s right ankle as he was covering first base. The Giants are confident that Hudson will come back from his fractured ankle as good as new and if he does then he should help the team in their attempt to get back to the postseason and to win a third World Series in five years.

Elsewhere in the NL West, the San Diego Padres have also signed a pitcher whose 2013 was impacted by injury. Josh Johnson has spent most of his career so far battling the tag of being an ace when not injured. Recently he’s spent more time injured than being an ace but the Padres have little to lose in signing him to a one-year contract worth $8m and, with Petco Park being a great place for a pitcher to ply his trade, it’s also a good setting for Johnson to have a good year and then earn a more lucrative contract in a year’s time.

Another veteran for the Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies played at the Veterans Stadium for 33 seasons before moving to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. The team’s General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr has done a good job in recent years of honouring their old home by building rosters dominated by veterans and, just a week after signing 36-year-old Marlon Byrd to a two-year contract, he added another this week with the re-signing of catcher Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz has spent his whole Major League career with the Phillies and even when his contract ran out at the end of the 2013 season, there always seemed a very good chance that he would carry on with the club.

Amaro’s decision to hand the 35-year-old a three-year contract worth a guaranteed $26m (annual salaries of $8.5m – approximately £101k per week – with a $500k 2017 buyout fee) made sure of that and immediately led to the GM’s thought processes (or more precisely lack of) being questioned.

Giving a three-year contract to a 35-year-old catcher isn’t ideal, but Ruiz is a good all-round player, not spectacular at anything but solid enough at the plate and behind it, at a position where merely being good carries plenty of value. Additionally the risk involved is mitigated slightly by the Phillies’ familiarity with him, from how he fits into the group as a personality to a detailed knowledge of his fitness.

And finally …

The Phillies kept hold of their catcher, but it looks like the Atlanta Braves have lost theirs. Brian McCann has been with the Braves for his entire professional career and his nine-season Major League run with the team always looked likely to come to an end this offseason when he became a free agent. Sure enough, late on Saturday night it was being reported that he has agreed a five-year, $85m contract (just over £200k per week) with the New York Yankees.

Rounding the Bases

After a couple of weeks of rest after the World Series, I’m now back in off-season writing mode.

There will be a series of 2013 review articles leading up to Christmas touching on MLB, the British Baseball leagues (something that I wasn’t able to cover as much as I had hoped during the second half of the season) and International competition (from the high of the World Baseball Classic to the low of baseball’s latest Olympic rejection).

I’ll also be writing regular round-ups of the most important news from the Major Leagues, starting with this one today.

Atlanta Braves are on the move

Arguably the biggest news of the past week has been the surprise announcement that the Braves are planning to leave Turner Field for a new facility 10 miles away, with the projected opening being in 2017.

The reports make clear that there have been issues rumbling along about Turner Field’s ability to meet Atlanta’s needs in the coming years, but there had been little in the way of public comment about the Braves potentially moving until this recent announcement.

Turner Field is a relatively new ballpark itself, having been converted into its current state after the 1996 Olympic Games. It is proposed that the current stadium will be bulldozed which seems an awful waste.

It must be galling to the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays in particular as they are having little joy (to put it mildly) in finding a way out of their current ill-fitting venues. So desperate are they, the two teams would be forgiven for momentarily considering a far-fetched plan like trying to dismantle Turner Field and moving it somewhere else.

Mauer on the move

The Minnesota Twins announced that current catcher Joe Mauer will be ditching the so-called ‘tools of ignorance’ and wearing a first-base glove instead from the start of the 2014 season.

The fielding position of catcher is unique across sport. Even with some occasional rest days, playing the position over a long season takes a toll on the body and offers the constant risk of injury via foul-tips and home-plate collisions (the latter potentially being outlawed, or at least heavily regulated, in the near future).

Mauer’s future fielding position has been a topic of conversation for several years as he is so valuable to the Twins, both in terms of his contributions at the plate and in terms of his contract. It makes sense to move him out of harm’s way, but catchers generally are reluctant to give up the position.

In this case, Mauer has taken it upon himself to suggest the move after a concussion ended his 2013 season prematurely, a decision made easier due to the Twins not having an ideal first baseman on the roster already.

Hopefully the move works out well for Mauer. Twins fans are in a strange position in that in recent years their team has made decisions that delighted them (staying in Minnesota, building a wonderful new open-air ballpark, preventing hometown hero Mauer from being snaffled by the Yankees etc) but the performances on the field have been bitterly disappointing.

Player moves 

The Hot Stove is not bubbling yet, in fact it’s hardly even simmering. Exciting rumours are seeming hard to come by, let alone news of actual moves potentially being on the cards.  The Winter Meetings do not begin until 9 December and it’s quite possible there will just be a batch of minor deals, with maybe one or two leading free agents coming off the market, over the next three weeks.

The main free agent acquisition so far has seen the Philadelphia Phillies signing outfielder Marlon Byrd to a two-year, $16m contract (£95,470 per week).

Byrd put up a good showing in 2013, firstly with the New York Mets and then with the NL Wild-Card-winning Pittsburgh Pirates, but it came after a miserable 2012 when he performed poorly for the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox and served a 50-game suspension for failing a drugs test. He turned 36 at the end of August and having earned $22m from twelve seasons on Major League rosters, being able to add a $16m contract to that is an incredible turn around for someone whose career looked to be finished one year ago.

So it’s great news for Byrd, but the Cinderella story for him will have Phillies fans fearing they’ve spent $16m on a pumpkin. After winning the NL East division five times in a row between 2007 and 2011 inclusive, Philadelphia have dropped off the pace in the last two years (their 73-89 2013 record was their first sub-.500 season since 2002) with ‘win now’ spending to sign or keep hold of veteran players creating an old and increasingly injury-plagued roster.

Signing Byrd doesn’t look to be a way to turn the tide in that respect.

Japanese player posting system

There may be one less free agent on the market this offseason. Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka reportedly was likely to be made available to MLB teams, but this is now in doubt after MLB’s proposed new player positing agreement with Japan was withdrawn.

Players in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League become free agents after playing for nine seasons and they can only seek offers from MLB teams before then if they go through the player posting system. The respective Japanese club will make their player available in a blind bidding process. If the largest bid is acceptable to the team, the player can then begin negotiations on an MLB contract. From the Nippon Professional Baseball League’s perspective this allows them to get the best fee, but that’s exactly why MLB doesn’t like it.

Paying transfer fees – as that’s effectively what they are – is alien to MLB teams and there’s a view among some fans in the States that the whole process should be scrapped. However, Japanese teams clearly cannot trade players in the way that MLB teams do between themselves, and receiving an amateur draft pick as compensation is not an option either, so a fee is the only viable way for a Japanese team to be compensated if an MLB team wants to acquire a Japanese player who is still under contract.

MLB understands this and their proposal was simply to revise the process so that the fee would be a defined point between the 1st and 2nd-best bids.  Nippon Professional Baseball League has failed to respond to that offer and MLB has now withdrawn it, working from the position of strength that it only effects a small number of players and that unless Japan’s league agrees to a system more to their liking, they will walk away and wait until players reach their nine-year free agent mark.

That will deny the very best Japanese players the opportunity to move to MLB during their prime, whilst taking away the chance for a Japanese team to receive a substantial transfer fee and potentially affecting the standing of Japanese baseball as their best players will not get the chance to showcase their abilities in what’s considered worldwide to be the best competition (in fairness, the Nippon Professional Baseball League is very popular in Japan, so they may feel keeping hold of their stars is better than any second-hand publicity boost through one of their players performing well in the States).

In short, there are a host of reasons why players and teams in Japan would want to retain the option of having a system to transfer players and MLB has now put the ball back in their court to achieve this.

Managerial set complete 

After the Detroit Tigers did indeed appoint Brad Ausmus as their new manager, that left the Chicago Cubs and Seattle Mariners as the two teams still seeking a skipper.

Those positions have now been filled with the Cubs appointing the San Diego Padres’ bench coach Rick Renteria to be their 53rd manager in franchise history and the Mariners opting for Lloyd McClendon who had been on the coaching staff of the Detroit Tigers for the last eight years following a five-season spell as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Both have substantial experience in coaching and managerial positions, showing that whilst teams are not afraid to give managerial newcomers like Ausmus a chance, there’s no reason for established coaches and former managers to give up hope that another opportunity may come their way.

 

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Teams on a charge

Now we’re firmly into August, there are a number of teams putting together some runs of form that are setting them up for a postseason berth.

The Atlanta Braves are the most prominent example. They came shooting out of the traps with a 17-9 record in April, new recruit Justin Upton leading the way by smashing the cover off the ball on a nightly basis. Upton then cooled off and the team kept up a steady if unspectacular pace, adding wins to their total without necessarily wowing anyone with their dominance.

Tim Hudson then suffered a gruesome fractured ankle on 24 July in a win against the New York Mets, putting the pitcher out for the rest of the season. Hudson had been struggling so losing him from the rotation wasn’t quite the blow you might initially expect, but he is a leader on the team and it could have had a wider negative effect. The Braves lost the next day against the Mets and everyone looked on wondering if a wobble was on the cards.

Not a bit of it; Atlanta reeled off a 14-game winning streak only ended on Saturday in a 1-0 loss to the Miami Marlins. Prior to Sunday’s games, they had a 14.5 game lead over the Washington Nationals in the NL East and the playoff odds on the ESPN.com standings had their chances of making it to the postseason at 99.9 per cent.

Three of those 14 wins came in a series sweep against the Nationals last week and Washington’s most notable contribution came via a bench-clearing incident when tensions boiled over after Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch.

The Braves’ good form has only served to heighten the sense of disappointment around the Nationals. After winning 98 games last year, they appeared to have a well-rounded roster set up to have a battle royal with the Braves all season long. Instead, they have fallen a long way short of expectations for a variety of reasons, in particular with off-season acquisitions Denard Span and Dan Haren playing poorly and the re-signed Adam LaRoche failing to repeat his success of 2012.

They’ve got enough talent and resources to get back into the race next season, but their handling of Stephen Strasburg’s innings last year looks worse by the day. If 2012 was their year, the Nationals failed to take advantage.

You could make the same argument about the Detroit Tigers, who played so well to get to the World Series only to end the season with a whimper by being swept in four-games by the San Francisco Giants (who themselves are having a very disappointing season, but that’s much easier to take when you have won two World Series recently).

The Tigers put together a 12-game wining streak recently, ended by the New York Yankees on Friday night, in a run that included a four-game sweep over the Indians in Cleveland. Whilst Terry Francona’s team are falling away, the Tigers are putting their foot down and their playoff odds (98.7%) were only marginally less impressive than the Braves before Sunday’s games.

Losing Jhonny Peralta to a 50-game suspension will have an impact because he had been arguably their second-best hitter so far this season behind the incredible Miguel Cabrera. However, General Manager Dave Dombrowski planned ahead by adding shortstop Jose Igelsias before the trade deadline and although he doesn’t figure to offer too much with the bat, his glovework will certainly improve what was a pretty dicey infield defence.

With Victor Martinez looking like he’s now knocked off the rust from missing all of 2012 with a knee injury, and a very impressive pitching staff even with Justin Verlander not performing quite at his best, Detroit look well set to make amends for their Fall Classic flop.

The recent form of the Tigers and Braves has helped cement their division leads, but the most impressive turnaround over the last month or so has come from a team that was dead-last in their division on 30 June. The Los Angeles Dodgers were 9.5 games out in the NL West on 22 June and although they had cut that to 4 by the team they had played their 81st game of the season on 30 June, they were still nowhere near where they should have been considering their sky-high payroll and array of talent.

Less than two months on, and a period of 28 wins from 35 games, the Dodgers sat atop the division with a 6.5 game lead before their series finale against the Rays on Sunday. What’s more, their 7-6 walk-off win against the Rays on Friday was one of those games that makes you think that destiny is on a team’s side.

L.A. were 6-0 down at the seventh-inning stretch and although they had cut the deficit in half by the time the bottom of the ninth came around, they still looked out of it with Fernando Rodney coming into the game and the 8, 9 and 1 hitter coming up to bat. Somehow the Dodgers rallied and when Rodney inadvertently chucked the ball into the outfield on an attempted force-out at second base, Adrian Gonzalez gleefully crossed home plate to seal one of the stranger walk-off wins you’ll see this season.

Manager Don Mattingly was able to ride out a rough spell earlier in the season when, considering the ‘win-now’ mentality that must exist in L.A. following their spending spree, it looked like he would be cast aside. He’s now leading a team that has every chance of making it to the playoffs.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Upton away

Every football fan knows the feeling of foreboding created by an ex-striker of your team coming back home to face you for the first time since their departure.

Whether you try to put him off through jeers or try to win him over with cheers, you know he’s going to score against you. Returning strikers always do.

Fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks must have had that exact same feeling last Monday when Justin Upton returned to Chase Field for the first time since being traded to the Atlanta Braves over the off-season.

A ground-out and a single in his first two at-bats suggested his first game back wouldn’t be too explosive. Then in the sixth inning Wade Miley hit B.J. Upton with a pitch as brother Justin waited in the on-deck circle.

That was Miley’s first mistake. The second came on a 2-0 change-up that Miley left up in the zone.

Justin Upton absolutely hammered it over the high wall in centre field for a two-run bomb; a swinging statement if ever there was one.

The D-Backs’ determination to trade away the gifted younger Upton brother remains one of the most perplexing roster decisions of recent times. It’s the sort of move that you would expect to be shrouded in rumours of the player being a ‘clubhouse cancer’, but reported comments from former teammates show that couldn’t be further from the truth. Arizona’s Front Office simply decided the organization was better off trading Upton for other pieces.

The team has had a promising start to the season, with Paul Goldschmidt really coming into his own as a leading hitter in the National League and Gerardo Parra reveling in a starting role manning the spot in right field that had previously been Upton’s. Martin Prado, the main established Brave that came Arizona’s way in the trade, has struggled so far and we’ll have to wait several years before finding out if the Minor League prospects they obtained will come good.

Whatever the thought process was behind the trade, the early returns from Arizona’s perspective have been decent and the Braves are certainly not complaining either. Upton has been everything they’d hoped he would be, leading the Majors in homers with 14, whilst Chris Johnson has been a more-than-useful contributor so far too, including whacking a two-run longball of his own against his former team on Monday.

Maybe it will turn out to be a trade in which both teams ‘win’. Still, I’d sooner have Justin Upton in my team for the next few years and his home run on Monday may well not be the last time he makes Arizona regret their decision to part with him.

One brother to another

Justin Upton’s blistering form has been a big help to his older brother. B.J.’s early days with his new team have been distinctly underwhelming. Signed to a five-year, $75.25m contract over the offseason, B.J. Upton was ‘hitting’ just .145/.237/.239 heading into the Braves’ game on Sunday,

His struggles have shown that spending money on a leading free agent doesn’t guarantee you instant returns. If you’re going to spend money to improve your roster, it has to be done as part of a wider plan to make sure that an injury or loss of form for your new recruit doesn’t completely scupper a season.

The Yankees’ fountain of youth

The Toronto Blue Jays thought they had followed that line of thinking to the letter when they brought in a whole host of new players over the offseason. Unfortunately for them, even the best laid plans can unravel.

Despite a four-game winning streak at the start of the last week, the Blue Jays sit dead last in the AL East. They lost the first two games of their series in New York before Sunday’s game was rained out, putting them ten games behind their opponents in the standings and 1-7 against the Yankees so far this season.

What is it about those magical pinstripes that brings the best out of players? Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and Travis Hafner are the latest three discarded veterans to have found a new lease of life in the Bronx.  The Yankees haven’t yet found a lucky charm to turn around their Disabled List misfortunes, Andy Pettitte being the latest addition to the crowded treatment room, but Curtis Granderson made his season debut last week and both Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis shouldn’t be too far behind in returning to the field.

If Wells and co can continue to keep this team firmly in contention, the Yankees could really come on strong in the second half. My prediction that the Yankees will win the AL East might not turn out to be such a reach after all.

Harvey backs up the hype

The Yankees’ surprisingly strong start to the season isn’t quite the biggest baseball story in New York. That award has to go to the New York Mets’ young phenom Matt Harvey.

A day-game against the Chicago Cubs on Friday provided the perfect opportunity to watch Harvey at work and, after a slightly wayward first inning, he settled in and showed exactly why everyone is talking about him. Harvey even showed a flair for the dramatic by breaking a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning when he singled home the go-ahead run that decided the game and improved his win-loss record to 5-0.

ESPN America took the SNY feed for the game and co-commentator Keith Hernandez provided an insight into what Harvey is like as a character. Hernandez noted that whilst the young pitcher is keeping his head down among more experienced team mates, inside there is a steely confidence that drives his determination to not simply be a quality Major League starter, but to be the very best.

He’s got a long way to go to get there, but the early signs are that he has all the tools necessary to give it a good shot.

Reward for Rizzo

Finally, the only Cubs batter to get an extra-base hit against Harvey was Anthony Rizzo. He had an excellent week off-the-field too as the Cubs announced he had signed a seven-year contract with the team worth at least $41m (£26.6m).

It’s a well-deserved deal that will provide financial security for the player who, after his enthusiastic play for Italy during the recent World Baseball Classic, can surely be claimed by us as an honorary European.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: From coast to coast

The recent trade of Justin Upton from Arizona to Atlanta will impact the pennant races in the East and West divisions in the National League.

For Atlanta, the trade completes a wonderfully exciting outfield in which Justin Upton will join brother B.J. and Jason Heyward to form a dynamic trio that should delight the fans at Turner Field.

Centrefielder Michael Bourn led the Braves in 2012 with a brilliant season in his final year before free agency and his departure – destination still unknown – had the potential to leave a notable hole that Atlanta could ill afford considering the strength of division rivals, the Washington Nationals.

Losing Bourn could still have a negative effect on the team’s performance. He had a markedly better campaign than either of the Upton brothers in 2012, although Justin Upton was hampered by a thumb injury, while the retirement of Chipper Jones and the loss of Martin Prado – sent to Arizona as part of the Upton trade – could leave them light on leadership.

However the great potential of the Upton brothers is undoubted and the Braves will hope that pairing them together will bring out the very best in both. If so, there will be a fascinating sub-plot to the NL East division battle with the best of the Braves being compared to the nifty Nationals.

Washington will have new recruit Denard Span manning centrefield, with Bryce Harper following up on his excellent rookie season and Jayson Werth hoping to rebound from an injury riddled 2012.

Werth was signed to a seven-year contract in the 2010/11 offseason and whilst the deal always looked like an overpay, it was expected that the real cost would come near the end of the contract. Instead, Werth’s first two seasons in Washington have been a major disappointment. The 2013 season is the ideal time for him to provide the Nationals with the sort of performance that won him the multi-year deal.

Elsewhere in the NL East, the New York Mets are interested in signing Bourn but the prospect of losing their first-round draft pick currently appears to be a price too high when combined with the size of the contract Bourn is looking for and the fact that the Mets are very unlikely to be contenders in 2013 even with a new centrefielder.

As for the Phillies, their outfield looks distinctly underwhelming and General Manager Ruben Amaro – a man clearly not held in the highest of esteem by many on the web – has been ridiculed in some quarters for signing free agent Delmon Young to be the team’s right-fielder. The thought of the blundering Young regularly trotting out to right field will make you laugh or cry depending on whether you are a Phillies fan or not, although the meagre $750k investment in the former Detroit Tiger suggests that Amaro isn’t committed to Young being the answer all season either.

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ General Manager Kevin Towers will be all-too familiar with the dismissive comments flying Amaro’s way.

His decision to trade away a young star in Justin Upton has left many people scratching their heads. When combined with the decision to trade away pitcher Trevor Bauer, the explanation that Towers and manager Kirk Gibson are conducting a purge of players that don’t fit their favoured ‘gritty’ mould is too convenient to ignore, despite that protestations that this has been exaggerated (which may well be true to an extent).

Players that will scrap for every out are an important part of a winning clubhouse, but the best teams are those that can win games in different ways and that means possessing a roster containing players of different talents. Anyone can get their uniform dirty diving for lost causes and charging into the outfield fence. Few players, even among Major Leaguers, have the raw talent to make the game look effortlessly easy and to produce moments of magic.

What makes the Upton trade so baffling is that his ex-teammates are quick to point out that, whilst he may not outwardly show his passion, he is as hard-working and dedicated a professional as you could wish to meet.  For a team that wants to both win now and over the next few seasons, you’d be hard pushed to find a better player to have in your outfield.

It seems a strange move, but in fairness to Towers his busy offseason has still left the D-Backs with a competitive roster that has good pitching depth and some more-than-useful batting options. They don’t hold the honour of being the reigning World Series champions like the San Francisco Giants, nor do they have the media exposure of the free-spending Los Angeles Dodgers, but Arizona should not be overlooked as a genuine play-off contender this coming season.

Rounding the bases

Francisco Liriano went into the festive season with a two-year, $12.75m contract agreed with the Pittsburgh Pirates only to take a tumble and break his right arm. Thankfully for him, the Pirates did not walk away and instead agreed a restructured contract that takes into account him potentially missing part of the 2013 season. When healthy, Liriano figures to be in the rotation alongside A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, James McDonald and Jeff Karstens, with star pitching prospects Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon waiting in the wings.

Staying in the NL Central, the Milwaukee Brewers will have to make do without Corey Hart until the end of May at the earliest after he underwent knee surgery this past week.  Mat Gamel will get another chance to grab hold of the first-base job after his presumed succession to Prince Fielder fell apart last year due to his own knee injury.

Former Brewer Shaun Marcum has agreed a one-year contract with the New York Mets. Milwaukee acquired Marcum in a trade over the 2010/11 offseason along with Zack Greinke in an effort to finally provide some pitching to go alongside their talented batting lineup. The deals took them to the 2011 NLCS, however they are now back in the same situation they found themselves in at the end of the 2010 season, with a rotation of Yovani Gallardo followed by question marks.

The headline gave a stark message: “Alex Rodriguez could miss the entire 2013 season”.  As soon as you got into the story, though, it was clear there was a very strong emphasis on the word “could”. Yankees GM Brian Cashman has noted that it’s a possibility they could be without their third baseman all season, but the expectation is still that Rodriguez will return sometime in July.  The real question for the Yankees is what level of performance they can expect from him once he does return? The one thing we do know is that it will not be worth anywhere remotely close to the $28m (£17.7m, or just under £341k per week) they will be paying him.