MASH Report (3/6/14)

• Cole Hamels looks to miss even more time with “fatigue”.

Cole Hamels suffers setback. Said he is fatigued. No pain in shoulder. But obviously not good news. Wouldn’t say if he could pitch in April.

— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) March 6, 2014

Expect more information on his status  in the up coming days.

• I would not be surprised to find out that  Bronson Arroyo will miss a start or two because of a herniated disk. There is no chance he won’t pitch is Australia.

• Luke Hochevar will be out until at least late-May with a destroyed elbow.

The twinge shot up Luke Hochevar’s right arm on perhaps the second-to-last pitch of his checkered Royals career. He finished the inning Monday afternoon, but a subsequent MRI revealed a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and strained muscle tissue around the joint, a diagnosis that could result in season-ending Tommy John surgery.

For now, the club has proscribed three weeks of rest. Looks like at the end of the month, we should know more about Luke’s future.

• It seems like now Jake Peavy may miss a couple in season starts because he cut a finger on his non-throwing hand.

It is still too early to know if Peavy will return in time for the start of the regular season.
“Again, the next three days will probably have a lot to do with when he gets to the mound next in a game,” said Farrell.

If Peavy starts the season on the disabled list, Farrell said that Chris Capuano or Brandon Workmanwould be the two most likely candidates to fill in.

• Andy Dirks will be out three months after having back surgery.

The procedure is called microdiscectomy, the same operation that Detroit manager Brad Ausmus had in 2010. As Ausmus explained it, a fragment of the disk between Dirks’ L4 and L5 vertebrae tore away from the rest of the disk, so that piece must be removed to alleviate the pain.

I previously found back injuries never seem to leave and cause huge drops in production. Some other players who had back issues in 2013 were David Freese, Will Middlebrooks, and Miguel Montero,

• Clay Buchholz’s fastball was topping out at 93 mph.

Clay Buchholzdidn’t have great results during his Grapefruit League debut Tuesday, but the key for the righty is that he felt healthy, something he was not at the end of last season.

Buchholz threw some fastballs at 93-mph against the Rays. In Game 4 of the World Series, he was topping out in the high 80s while being bothered by right shoulder fatigue.

I don’t share the optimism. Late in the 2013, when he returned too soon from the DL, he was topping out at 93 mph.

He needs to be averaging 92-93 mph, not topping out at that range.

• Cameron Maybin is out at least two to three months and possibly longer if he needs surgery.

• Derek Holland officially went on the DL. He is the first player I would use to fill a DL spot. Pick him up late in a draft, stash on the DL and pick someone else up. Teams should not have an open DL slot after the first week of the season. I see them as one of the most under utilized fantasy assets.

• Reminder: Each night during spring training, I will report on Twitter (@jeffwzimmerman) pitcher velocities from the stadium’s with Pitchf/x cameras such as the following:

ST FB velocities: Paxton: 91-96 (up from last game), Farquhar: 92-94 T. Hanson: 87-90

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) March 6, 2014

Players on or Probably on the DL to Start the 2014 Season

(*) 15 Day Disabled List
(**) 60 Day Disabled List
(***) 7 Day Concussion List
(****) Free Agent
Red colored entries are updates since last report.

Major League Report

On DL

Probably on DL

Minor League Report