MASH Report (5/5/16)

May 5, 2016

• I may be reading too much between the lines here, but I don’t expect Jung-ho Kang to be playable in mixed leagues because of a lack of playing time when he returns. The Pirates have said that he won’t play more than two days in a row. Also, I think there is a decent chance he gets sent to the minors to continue his progress. Here are the quotes which I make my stance on.

Saturday is the final day of Kang’s 20-day rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis. The Pirates essentially have three options. They could choose to activate him and add him to their roster this weekend in St. Louis. They could pause his rehab assignment and resume it shortly afterward, resetting that 20-day clock. Or they could activate him and option him to Triple-A to get more playing time.

The Bucs are mulling over those options, head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk said Wednesday, but they remain encouraged by the third baseman’s progress.
……
In 13 games with Indianapolis, Kang has hit .150/.217/.225 with four walks and nine strikeouts. He’s taken 40 at-bats, nearly reaching the threshold of 45-60 that the Pirates set for their players in Spring Training.

Over the past two weeks, Kang has played on back-to-back days before taking a partial day off to pinch-hit or come off the bench to play defense. General manager Neal Huntington recently said Kang likely will continue on that schedule when he returns to Pittsburgh.

• Devin Mesoraco is going to be out for a while with a torn shoulder labrum.

After he missed most of last season with a hip injury, Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco is now facing the specter of losing most of 2016, too. On Monday, Mesoraco was placed on the 15-day disabled list with another serious injury — a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

Surgery is a possibility, which would mean Mesoraco would miss the rest of the season.

I would expect nothing from him this season even if he comes back. I would begin now looking for other options at catcher if you rostered him.

• J.J. Hardy will miss four to six weeks with a fractured foot.

Hardy is expected to miss four-to-six weeks. He was in the Orioles clubhouse on crutches and will wear a boot for two to three weeks.

The three-time Gold Glove winner has no idea when he might return.

“I don’t want to put a timetable on it just because I don’t want to be disappointed if I don’t reach it or if I set one and try to rush back,” Hardy said. “I’ve never broken a bone in my body until this so I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

• Well, no Panda this season this season as he has surgery on his shoulder. If any details on this injury exist, they are vague. No one even knows when it happened. I would not be shocked a few years from now we find some to all of it was made up to give Sandoval a year to get it together. Without any clear details, we just won’t know.

• Alex Rodriguez is headed to the DL with a strained hamstring I am not surprised and this is why the Yankees got Aaron Hicks to play in the outfield as Carlos Beltran moves to DH.

• Ben Revere is expected to come off the DL today to be the “ignitor”.

“[Revere] is our igniter. That’s why we brought him here,” Baker said. “We brought him here as a leadoff man to start our engine. We will add another dimension to our team and our offense to go along with what we have now.

Sorry, that blurb has nothing to do with Revere’s injury, but I love me some Dusty quotes, hope you do also.

• Robbie Erlin will undergo Tommy John surgery and not be back until late next year. Again, reading between the lines, it seems like he knew of the tear immediately, but tried to pitch through it.

• Tony Zych is on the DL with soreness in his shoulder.

• I will inform both Matt Szczur owner that he is now on the DL also with a strained hamstring.

• The Reds may review their pitcher rehab procedures after several setbacks with pitchers returning.

Price endorsed the Reds’ medical staff and their work Monday, but acknowledged the organization might seek to review past practices just in case.

“I think anybody that has injuries that are copious and run over a stretch of time, you have to look at if we’re doing anything we have to look into,” Price said. “I have great confidence in what we’re doing here. I don’t think we’ve made any drastic changes that would suggest that we put our players in a different environment from a health standpoint and conditioning standpoint. There’s no reason to suggest there’s any issue with the protocols that are in place for our players. But we all have to do due diligence and all these things. I trust our people; we have good people.”

I am wondering if the Reds just seem to have a high number of setbacks because they have so many pitchers on the disabled list to start with.

Fastball velocity reading for pitchers returning from the DL

• Jared Hughes fastball velocity has been declining since he came off the DL.