MASH Report (4/24/14) – Initial SLOW Report

• Chris Sale finally went on the disabled list after years of people saying he would be an injury risk. He is expected to only miss the minimum 15 days. Looking at his last game data, he had no injury indications. Since he is on the White Sox and they have a great history of minimizing injuries, I see the trip a small inconvenience for better health as the season goes on.

• Hector Santiago admitted to having back issues this season, but is feeling better now. He has never had much control (12% career BB%), but his Zone% dropped under 40% for two 2014 starts.

I am not sure enough value exists to buy right now, but I would keep an eye on him. If he can get the walks down, he could be a decent deep or AL-only option.

• Mark Trumbo may be done for the season. Maybe just most of it.

The injury was diagnosed Wednesday after an MRI was taken. An X-ray taken Tuesday did not show the fracture.

Trumbo has battled plantar fasciitis in the foot since Spring Training, and he said it could be because he was compensating for that injury that he wound up with the stress fracture.

Trumbo had a stress fracture in his right foot that he said took 5 1/2 months to heal during the 2011 offseason, but he said he does not believe this stress fracture is as serious.

“That one took a long time,” Trumbo said. “But this one probably should be significantly less.”

We will find out more details in the next few days. As with any injury, follow the team’s timeline for return, not the player’s. The player is always over optimistic.

• Gordon Beckham returns to the White Sox today.

• The chances of Neftali Feliz returning as the Ranger’s closer took a hit after being shut down with “general fatigue”.

Returning Pitcher Velocities

• Cole Hamels’s fastball velocity looks fine.

• Sean Marshall velocity is down over 2 mph.

• Brian Wilson’s is fine.

• Mike Adams velocity is fine compared to Hurt 2013 and down compared to Healthy 2012.

• J.A. Happ reliever velocity is the same has his starter velocity, so his velocity has taken a bit of hit.

• Tyler Chatwood’s velocity is fine

SLOW (Swinging Late or Whiffing) Hitters (2014 vs 2013 with a min. of 15 pitches)

Note: I created SLOW to help find if a player is able to solidly hit fastballs (>92 mph). A value of 100 or more means fastballs are owning the player.

2014 SLOWest Bats

• Justin Upton is just not keeping up with hard fastballs. Of all four-seam fastball he has swung at, he has missed over half of them. Instead of going after the fastball, he has lived off the change up this season by hitting it with a .556 AVG and .778 ISO. Well teams have notice and over the past five games, he has not seen one single change up.

It will be interesting to see when he sees his next change.

• Khris Davis offensive struggles come back to him handling fastballs. I will let brooksbaseball.net’s description take it from here:

In 2014:

Against All Fastballs (191 seen), he has had a poor eye (0.83 d’; 69% swing rate at pitches in the zone vs. 37% swing rate at pitches out of the zone) and an aggressive approach at the plate (-0.08 c) with a disastrously high likelihood to swing and miss (30% whiff/swing).

With pitchers throwing harder and harder, hitters will need to be able to hit a fastball and right now Khris Davis is not hitting them.

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