MASH Report (4/10/14)

• Matt Moore has a torn UCL and in the best case scenario, he will return late in the 2014 season. More likely he will under go Tommy John surgery. I had an idea the injury was pretty bad right after it happened.

Matt Moore’s in game2game velo was fine, but a 38% Zone% and late game velo plunge http://t.co/3PfqkWQjpr have me concerned about the injury

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) April 8, 2014

Late game velocity plunges are usually not healthy for a pitcher. We will have more information on Moore in the up coming days, but for now, don’t expect any useful production from him in 2014.

• James Andrews talks about what he believes has led to the increase in Tommy John surgeries. Take five minutes out your day and listen to the entire conversation. It will not be time wasted.

• Josh Hamilton is back on the DL train with a torn ligament in his left thump after sliding into first base.

Idiot.

• James Paxton will be out for at least a month with a strained lat muscle.

The 25-year-old said he’s not sure when he’ll be allowed to begin throwing again, as trainers are putting together a rehab plan.

“We’re kind of still in the assessment stage right now,” said Paxton, ranked as Seattle’s third-best prospect. “We’ll re-evaluate after those 15 days and see where I’m at. I wasn’t sore this morning and my strength was really good. I was feeling pretty good about it, but we just want to be careful with it right now.”

Fifteen days until an evaluation and then he will need to get back into game form.

• David Robertson is headed to the DL with strained groin. He should return after the required 15 DL days or just soon after.

• As much as I want to see Ryan Zimmerman succeed, his shoulder is making him completely unreliable. Right now he is feeling fine, but he changed his throwing motion to sidearm. He has already missed two games this season because of the shoulder. I would approach him two ways. If his owner likes to look everyday at every lineup and micro-manage roster moves (see Brad Johnson), Zimmerman can just be added to the mix. If his owner isn’t as active, they may look at trying to trade him to a move active manager.

• Another player who seems to love some drama is Ryan Braun. After serving a PED suspension last year, people expected his thumb to be fully healed. Bad assumption.

Braun entered the game batting .150 with no home runs or RBI, and made it known last weekend in Boston the thumb issue that plagued him in 2013 had returned. Since his last homer on May 22 of last season, he had gone 98 plate appearances without a home run – the longest drought of his career.
….
Instead of wrapping a layer of padding around his right batting glove, he put addition padding inside the glove.

“It feels a little more similar to how it normally would if I didn’t have to wear that little pad thing and everything else we’ve been trying,” said Braun. “The less invasive anything is, the more comfortable it is for me as a hitter. Hopefully, we found something else that works.”

Braun made another more dramatic adjustment at the plate, eliminating his front leg kick and shortening his stride. The thinking was that he’d get his bat through the hitting zone quickly and compensate for the ailing thumb

“It impacts my bat speed, it impacts my bat path, it impacts everything,” he explained. “So the quicker I’m able to get that (front foot) down, the better chance I have to find a swing that works.”

Well, great. A bad thumb which he will try to play through. If I owned him, use the three home run game as a selling point and sell. I just don’t see him producing up to expectations and eventually missing some time. Even though it is different bady parts, this situation reminds me of Albert Pujols last season.

• Taijuan Walker my may return as early as Sunday (unlikely) or Monday (more likely).

• Michael Bourn also hopes to return on Sunday.

• Colby Lewis will make his first major league start in a couple years on Saturday at home versus the Astros. I would not start him for the game. Even though the Astros are not the most feared team in the league, they can put up good numbers against subpar pitching. Wait a start and get an idea of how Lewis will perform before rostering him.

• Josh Beckett’s first start was good on process (5 K, 2 BB), but bad on results (5 ER in 4 IP). Since he was able to post a decent velocity, I would continue to keep an eye on him.

• Boone Logan’s fastball velocity is close to previous values.

Bookmark of the Day: With plenty of pitch velocity talk, here is the list of the league’s hot and cold Pitchf/x radar guns.

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

Minor League Report