• J.J. Putz hit the disabled list and the news isn’t good. The notoriously injury-prone reliever is said to be likely in need of surgery and, regardless, “he’ll be out a long time.” It seems that Putz’s 2013 BB% (14%) is double that of his career average could be a manifestation of a partially torn ligament and, reading the tea leaves, season-ending surgery is a real possibility for the 36-year-old. You might as well wait a couple days if you don’t need the spot, but feel free to drop him in shallow leagues or if you have an eye on another guy on the wire.

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… you’re the next closer for the Boston Red Sox!

Last night, the much-maligned Joel Hanrahan suffered an elbow strain while in the midst of blowing a save against the Twins at Fenway. Initial reports after the game were not positive with Hanrahan eschewing the clichéd “yeah, it’s a little tight, but I’ll be fine” and instead going with comments like “I threw the pitch and felt a little pull. My forearm went with the ball,” before eventually finishing the interview with “the pickoff at first, the ball barely got there. I threw one more. I couldn’t take it anymore.” Ouch. Those don’t sound like the comments of a man who thinks his removal from a tie game was an overly cautious one. With Hanrahan headed for an MRI today and quite likely to join fellow Boston late-inning reliever Andrew Bailey on the disabled list, the team’s bullpen depth, considered one of their key assets as recently as a week ago, is suddenly being tested.

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• Just in case anyone was living under a rock the last few days, Jason Motte decided to undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow and will be out for the remainder of 2013 and possibly (likely?) the early part of 2014. There were red flags implying this seemingly minor elbow issue in spring could prove worrisome for the Cardinals and fantasy owners, so hopefully you’ve already done your due diligence in snapping up Cardinals relievers. With Motte out for the season, Edward Mujica has one less guy peering over his shoulder. He only keeps helping his cause by racking up save after save (even though he’s given up a couple runs in his last three appearances) so keep running him out there on your fantasy squad.

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Holy May.

• While I was sleeping off illness, J.J. Putz was busy getting served at a late night Panda Express in Arizona last night. Pablo Sandoval’s two-run homer off Putz ruined a sparkling pitching performance from Trevor Cahill and caused more Arizona beat writers to question whether a change in the late innings is warranted. Putz’s fastball velocity is down a bit, although he’s historically been a slow starter who ramps up as the season goes along. More concerning is the number of free passes he’s granted since his current 12.5% BB% far surpasses his career 7.7% average. Read the rest of this entry »

While Ike Davis may not have been the super-trendy sleeper this year like he was going into 2012, he was still marketed as a nice buy-low candidate after a rough opening two months last year masked the significant improvements he made in the second half of the season. I (along with countless other owners) scooped him up for $5-8 in more than a couple drafts this year, and even went to $14 in our new Fangraphs Ottoneu staff league. But on the young season, “Vanilla Ike” has done nothing but disappoint to the tune of a .165/.265/.318 triple slash. After opening the year as the Mets cleanup hitter, he has been dropped a couple times in the lineup and there are even rumblings about a possible minor league demotion. Eek.

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• Jim Johnson had the day off on Sunday (he threw ~15 pitches both Friday and Saturday and had pitched four of the last five days) so Buck Showalter decided to try and have Brian Matusz close out the Athletics. “Try” being the operative word, because Matusz gave up a 2-run shot to recently-activated Yoenis Cespedes which sent the game into extras. It was there where Pedro Strop took the loss, although the winning run was unearned thanks to an error by Manny Machado.

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Last week I briefly touched on some guys who had been getting raked across the coals in the BABIP/LOB% department, making their raw stats look like something out of a horror film. This week I’ll take a look at the flip side; guys who have sparkling ERAs, but looking under the hood implies that your nice new sports car might not be purring quite as well as you had hoped. Just remember, it’s very early and a lot of the underlying peripherals haven’t stabilized yet; we’re just looking for guys we don’t want to make the mistake of overpaying for.

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• All aboard the Edward Mujica bandwagon! Mujica got another crack at the ninth inning tonight, trying to hold on to Shelby Miller’s third win of the season. Thankfully (for St. Louis fans), he made it look easy, pitching a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the 3-2 win. He doesn’t possess elite strikeout stuff, mainly relying on a fairly straight fastball and an above-average splitter as his two primary weapons. He offsets this lack of prototypical late inning heat with fantastic control, putting up a career 4.1% BB%. Yes, it’s sexy time. He doesn’t have the raw upside of a guy like Trevor Rosenthal, but he’s good enough (and the Cardinals pen has been shaky enough) that he can hold the job. He’s a must own in all formats. Hopefully you snagged him a few days ago but double check your wire if you haven’t.

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• Greg Holland gave owners a double dip in the saves category tonight, with Kansas City winning both games in a split doubleheader at Fenway today. He faced six batters and whiffed five of them (although the Red Sox were fairly indiscriminate in their strikeouts this weekend). More importantly, he gave up zero free passes, dropping his (small-sample) BB% from a terrible 26% to a still-terrible-but-slightly-less-so 20%. He did still have trouble with his breaking ball a few times, throwing a couple 55-foot sliders in the second game, but his fastball had enough life to get out of jams. He’s regained a stranglehold on the ninth inning, especially since Kelvin Herrera took a loss and blown save on Saturday.

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• Royals fans must have been anxious this afternoon when Greg Holland was called upon to nail down a 1-0 win. To make matters even more perilous, the first two batters he had the pleasure of facing were first-two-week MVP Justin Upton and Rookie of the First-two-weeks Evan Gattis. Ouch. Break out the dingers? Read the rest of this entry »