MASH Report (4/14/14) – Initial HURT Report

• Alex Cobb will be out four to six weeks with a strained quad muscle.

Cobb admitted that he “felt something grab” on his final pitch Saturday to Reds leadoff man Billy Hamilton. But he thought it was just a cramp or a slight pull and went on to throw 82 more pitches over seven impressive innings, feeling more pain between pitches than during, before finally taking himself out of the game. He thought he might miss at most one start.

It does seem a little long, but he may have made the problem worse by throwing 82 more pitches after he felt the “grab”.

• Tyson Ross’s velocity dropped off in his second start (down about 4 mph from 2013). In his last start, he made some mechanical adjustments and his velocity is up.

So on the Padres’ off-day last Thursday, there was Ross, throwing his between-starts bullpen session, while Balsley watched, instructed and suggested. The problem, Balsley and Black had ascertained, was that Ross was not properly using the lower half of his long body during his delivery.

For a tall guy, Ross is a short-strider on the mound. This creates a steep downward angle on the ball, which helped get Ross back to where he was the second half of last year. But by relying too much on his upper half, Ross’ command had gone spotty and his walk rate was on the rise.

Thursday’s fixes were apparent from the beginning against the Tigers. Ross retired the first seven hitters. He fanned three Tigers in one four-batter stretch: Miguel Cabrera, Austin Jackson and Nick Castellanos.

Most noticeably, by the time Ross’ afternoon was finished, he had walked only one hitter during his season-high seven innings.

It is not back to end of 2013 levels, but it has improved.

• Brett Anderson will be out 4-6 weeks with a broken finger.

• Ryan Zimmerman makes his yearly DL trip because of a fractured thumb.

• Denard Span was the first player in 2014 to go on the 7-day concussion DL.

• Maicer Izturis is headed to the DL with bad knee caused by tripping over a dugout step.

“I [felt a] pop twice and [felt] pain,” Izturis said. “I’m worried about it.”

He was quietly having a decent season so far.

• Avisail Garcia will miss the rest of 2014 with labrum surgery.

• Dustin Pedroia (72 HURT) has been dealing with a wrist issue. No wonder his ISO (.114 to .055) and Contact% (89.1 to 88.2%) are both down.

• Brian Wilson may return from the DL today.

• After some initial struggles, Sonny Gray’s velocity is trending up.

• Colby Lewis will pitch tonight for the first time in the majors since 2012. I don’t have a problem with picking him up, but don’t start him right now. The Rangers had to add him to their roster or release him. He still might not even be close to 100%. No need to ruin a team’s rate stats on an unknown talent level.

• Joe Maddon blames over use in youth baseball teams for the recent rash of elbow injuries.

“I think sometimes it would be obvious that we’re doing something wrong here, but sometimes you have to look underneath the surface,” Maddon said. “And what he’s suggesting, and I kind of agreed, has a lot to do with youth sports and travel teams and multiple travel teams, and kids pitching to win when they’re really young and throwing too many pitches.

“I’m a total non-advocate of the travel team concept. I think it’s insane. I think too many parents are trying to have their kids become professionals at an early age to fulfill their lifelong dreams and not necessarily the kids, and I think that’s where it’s starting to break down.”

Maddon noted that some athletes can be predisposed to injuries.

“[Elbow injuries] have been a part of the fabric of baseball for many, many years. I think the more recent epidemic, to me, curiously, might be tied to what they’re doing before they get here professionally.”

Fastball velocities for pitchers coming off the DL

• Dane de la Rosa made one appearances after coming off the DL and his velocity was down 6 mph. After the appearance, he was demoted to AAA.

• Jonathan Broxton’s fastball is down 2 mph.

• Craig Breslow’s fastball is down 3 mph

• Louis Coleman’s fastball velocity is down 2 mph.

• Chatwood’s fastball velocity is fine.

HURT (Hitter’s Under-performance from Recent Trauma) Rankings :

Any player with a HURT value over 100 (red) has the traits of a batter playing through an injury.

Name	HURT	ISO (2014)	ISO (2013)	Contact% 2014	Contact% 2013
Josh Reddick	155	0.000	0.153	0.718	0.810
Khris Davis	152	0.116	0.316	0.644	0.734
Will Venable	151	0.047	0.216	0.743	0.772
Leonys Martin	143	0.000	0.125	0.750	0.786
Bryce Harper	138	0.095	0.212	0.700	0.772
Robinson Cano	127	0.048	0.202	0.819	0.867
A.J. Pollock	120	0.130	0.140	0.765	0.821
Miguel Cabrera	108	0.150	0.288	0.761	0.808
Jordy Mercer	107	0.000	0.150	0.793	0.841
Brett Gardner	104	0.091	0.143	0.789	0.868
Prince Fielder	98	0.043	0.178	0.771	0.780
Curtis Granderson	98	0.159	0.178	0.640	0.695
Marcell Ozuna	97	0.160	0.124	0.671	0.753
Omar Infante	97	0.000	0.132	0.863	0.845
Chris Carter	95	0.100	0.227	0.634	0.654
Wil Myers	95	0.047	0.185	0.708	0.745
Carlos Santana	94	0.047	0.187	0.807	0.827
David Wright	94	0.083	0.207	0.814	0.834
Evan Longoria	92	0.125	0.230	0.750	0.766
Marlon Byrd	91	0.140	0.220	0.711	0.727

While the injury list may be a bit early, these player are just seeing huge drops in power and contact. A couple of players do have know injuries, Omar Infante (wrist) and Bryce Harper (everything). We may hear more information on the other players in the future as more information on their struggles becomes available.

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

Minor League Report