MASH Report (7/20/15)

• Over the weekend,s reports have really been slowly coming in on the status of several players so make sure to check out the spreadsheet at the end.

• Chad Bettis is on the DL with an inflamed elbow. It seems like more information will be available soon on the injury.

• Chase Anderson was placed on the DL because he has been pitching horribly with an inflamed tricep. This DL trip totally looks to be a phantom DL trip.

• Andrew Susac will likely just miss the minimum 15-days DL days with a sprained thumb.

• Jarrod Saltalamacchia is on the DL with a strained neck.

• Jordy Mercer (leg) is not officially on the DL yet, but I expect him to go on it later today. It will be interested to see who the Pirates have play 3B with Matt Harrison also on the DL.

• Carl Crawford is expected to join the Dodgers today and the big question will be which player will get moved off the 25-man roster.

• Just a friendly reminder that Michael Brantley is still dealing with some back issues.

Even with the three-run home run he belted in the first inning of Saturday’s 9-4 win over the Reds, Brantley’s slugging percentage has been noticeably down from a year ago, and he has only six home runs on the season. It is possible that the back issue is at least partially to blame for the power reduction, but Francona said the outfielder is not one for excuses.

“I don’t want [to talk about his back], because I don’t think he wants to get into it,” Francona said. “But he goes out there every day regardless of how he’s feeling, and he finds a way to compete. Whatever percent he’s at, he gives you every bit of that. If his slugging is down, I get it, but I also see what he does, and I know when there’s a runner in scoring position, we like when he’s up.”

• Denard Span is dealing with some ongoing back issues.

The 31-year-old had surgery on both sides of his core last offseason, one in Decem-ber and one in March. He hurried back from the second one, which he underwent on March 9, returning April 19.

“I think a lot of this is stemming from injuries I had early in the year, just not being strong in my core,” Span said. “I had two surgeries in three months and came back pretty soon, so I think a lot of that is stemming from that. Changing my posture, lot of compensating. So we’ve been working a lot on trying to correct things that we didn’t get a chance to do before I came back from spring training surgery.”

• Michael Cuddyer will be dealing with a bad knee for the rest of the season.

Cuddyer figures he'll be dealing with his knee the rest of the way. Hasn't improved.

— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) July 17, 2015

Velocity Readings

• Matt Albers’ average fastball velocity is down 1 mph from earlier this year which was down 2 mph from the previous season.

• Scott Feldman’s velocity is fine

• Martin Perez’s velocity is up to his 2013 levels before he needed TJS.

• Chad Qualls’ velocity is the same as earlier in the season, but down from 2014.

Players on the DL in 2015

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.