MASH Report (7/15/13)

Injury news was slow side over the weekend and no pitchers were taken off the DL. I have a few updates, a 2013 SLOW leader board. With less expected later in the week, I will breakdown in detail the PAIN and HURT leader boards in my next article.

• Last week I examined Matt Cain‘s and Yu Darvish’s possible injuries. More news has become available on them.

Yu Darvish is said to just have shoulder fatigue.

Yu Darvish was examined by Dr. Keith Meister in Texas on Thursday, and the results showed nothing out of the ordinary in the right trapezius muscle. The Rangers feel Darvish is dealing simply with fatigue in the muscle and nothing more. Darvish did not even undergo an MRI. (Source)

Matt Cain says he is fine, but he is dealing with some loose bodies in his elbow.

The back-to-back starts are a pair of red flags, no doubt – especially for a pitcher who has loose bodies in his right elbow. (Source)

Stuff floating around in a pitcher’s elbow can’t be good, but it seems some writers are also trying to give him a large velocity drop.

Baggarly, however, notes some red flags that suggest something isn’t right with Cain. For one thing Bochy had a reliever warming up just 20 pitches into Cain’s start Wednesday, suggesting the Giants knew something was up. Beyond that Cain’s fastball velocity was down 2-3 miles per hour. (Source)

His average fastball velocity was down 0.6 MPH from the previous game (91.7 mph to 91.1 mph), but it averaged being below 91.1 mph in 10 separate games earlier in the season. There is no data of a 2-3 mph drop. I have no idea where this data originated.

• Max Scherzer took a ball off his hand during his first loss of this season.

Scherzer had another issue — a bad bruise on his left wrist. It came in the sixth when Ian Kinsler’s hard ground ball through the box ricocheted off Scherzer and to the glove of second baseman Hernan Perez, who handled the force-out at second base.

Scherzer got ice on the wrist between innings and pitched the seventh. But the wrist was swollen afterward and he conceded it affected not only his delivery, but could become an issue ahead of Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

“It got me right on the wrist — right on the bone,” he said. “Obviously, it wasn’t broken, but you never realize how much you use your glove to pull through, with your body. It kind of changed how my mechanics worked.” (Source)

Looking back at the game, his release points and velocity were fine. It will be interesting to see if he throws in the All-Star game (he has been selected as the starter). If he does throw, I wouldn’t put too much stock in his velocity because he will be dealing with the injury and will not want to hurt himself.

• Jeff Locke has been heading my PAIN list for a couple of months now. He missed his scheduled start on Sunday and will not pitch in the All-Star game because of back pain. It will be interesting to see if the time off helps his results.

SLOW (Swinging Late or Whiffing) Hitters (2013 with a min 40 pitches in the heart of the strike zone)

Rank	Name	SLOW	Stand
1	Tim Lincecum	83.3	L
2	Justin Upton	80.5	R
3	B.J. Upton	79.9	R
4	Adeiny Hechavarria	78.9	R
5	Dayan Viciedo	74.0	R
6	Martin Maldonado	72.2	R
7	J.P. Arencibia	70.2	R
8	John Buck	68.4	R
9	Jeff Francoeur	67.5	R
10	Ian Desmond	67.5	R
11	Yoenis Cespedes	65.5	R
12	Mike Morse	65.3	R
13	Josh Donaldson	61.7	R
14	Tyler Moore	60.6	R
15	Jarrod Saltalamacchia	60.3	L
16	Will Middlebrooks	60.0	R
17	Drew Stubbs	58.9	R
18	Rick Ankiel	58.8	L
19	Hector Gimenez	58.4	L
20	Wilin Rosario	58.3	R
21	Delmon Young	58.1	R
22	Tyler Colvin	57.5	L
23	Nick Hundley	56.4	R
24	Brandon Moss	55.3	L
25	Jesus Guzman	54.8	R

• One interesting player in the 2013 list is Yoenis Cespedes with a 65.5 SLOW value, up from a 49.5 value in 2012. When Cespedes came into the league, he had problems with breaking pitches. He adjusted as the 2012 season went on. His K% is up from 18.9% in 2012 to 23.5% in 2013. His fastball pitch values (weighted and non-weighted) are all down significantly. It seems pitchers have found a weakness of his and are beginning to exploit it.

Players on the DL

(*) 15 Day Disabled List
(**) 60 Day Disabled List
(***) 7 Day Concussion List
Red colored entries are updates since last report.