MASH Report (6/20/16)

• J.D. Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks with a fractured elbow.

The Tigers lost right fielder J.D. Martinez when he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right elbow hitting a wall while chasing a fly ball in the right-field corner at Kauffman Stadium in the second inning. According to Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks.

• Jose Bautista is on the DL with a hyperextended toe.

Jose Bautista will travel to Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to undergo further tests on his injured left big toe. After that, the Blue Jays should be able to provide a timetable for his return.

Bautista was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday afternoon with a hyperextended toe. The Blue Jays seem confident he does not have a fracture, but further examinations are required before that can be known for sure.

The veteran slugger is expected to undergo a stress X-ray and possibly a CT scan to determine the exact nature of his injury. The tests also should be able to tell whether there is any damage to the ligaments in Bautista’s left foot.

It looks like we will find out more information on the injury’s extent tomorrow.

• David Peralta is back on the DL with a sore back.

But once he took some swings in the batting cage, his outlook changed and a stint on the disabled list became a reality Monday morning.
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“I went to the cage to take some swings and it was feeling good, and I tried to do a full swing to let it go and see how it goes, and it felt a little tight and sore,” Peralta said on Sunday.

• Wade Miley is on the DL with shoulder impingement.

Miley said his shoulder was nagging him his last couple of starts, but he doesn’t think it’s a serious issue. He expects to come off the DL as soon as he’s eligible on June 28.

“About two, three weeks ago, I thought it was normal shoulder soreness, but it kept barking, and getting worse and worse rather than going away,” Miley said. “So I’ll go ahead and take a couple days off, and get it right.”

It sounds like he doesn’t expect to be on the DL very long.

• Tyler Chatwood may be out for the minimum 15 days with a sprained back.

Chatwood left Saturday’s 9-6 loss to the Marlins after 1 2/3 innings with spasms. Manager Walt Weiss said he hopes Chatwood’s back heals soon so the team can rebuild his pitch count and return him to the rotation.

“I don’t think it’ll be much longer than [15 days], but it’s hard to tell,” Weiss said. “We’re thinking at this point that will be sufficient, the 15 days. But with a pitcher you’ve got to build them back up a little bit. That’ll be part of the process with Chatty.”

• Mallex Smith is not officially on the DL with a broken thumb but expect him to be on it later today or tomorrow. He will be out at least a month.

The Braves will not provide a timetable for return until Smith is evaluated by Dr. Gary Lourie on Monday in Atlanta. But there is a good chance that Smith will be sidelined through at least the All-Star break and possibly a significant portion of July.

• Juan Lagares finally went on the DL after dealing with and missing time because of a sprained thumb over the past couple of weeks.

Fastball velocity reading for pitchers returning from the DL

• Yovani Gallardo’s average fastball velocity is up 2 mph from earlier this season, but is still down 2 mph from last season.

• Liam Hendriks’s velocity seems fine.

Hitter Exit Velocity

I have been wanting to implement this feature for a while and have finally gotten around to it. I am not 100% sure where it will head, but I am hoping to find the point when a hurt hitter begins to hit the ball like they previously did before an injury. I am looking at a hitter exit velocity which begin to stabilize after 20 balls in play, unlike pitchers who see their fastball velocity stabilize almost immediately. The hitter will need some return time before I focus on them.

Today, the focus is on Andrew McCutchen and this quote from him:

The real issue for McCutchen has been his thumb. The base of his thumb swelled to the size of golf ball late in May due to what McCutchen said was the result of a tighter grip he unknowingly was using this season, which meant his thumb was bearing the brunt of contact when he was jammed.

“I know it (right thumb) probably has a lot to do with how I’ve been doing out there,” McCutchen told the Tribune-Review and MLB.com last week. “I would hate to attribute most of it to that, but at the same time, I’ve been doing it all year.”

So to see if the injury was bothering him, I got his average rolling batted velocities from the past two seasons.

He is definitely off his peak, but he has seen quite a few ups and downs the past two seasons. I think he will likely be the most productive when his batted ball velocity is at least 92 mph range and touching 95 mph.

Players on the 2016 DL

The Red players have had updates since the last report. Click on the “Date” for a link to go to the latest article on the player.