MASH Report (9/8/15)

• I better give my two cents on the Matt Harvey situation. In my opinion, there should not have been any big blow up on his innings limit this past weekend. Both sides should have gotten together before the season and discussed how Harvey should be handled in case the Mets make the post season. The general outline of this agreement should have then been made public so everyone has an idea of what is going on. This discussion should not be happening now in early September, but when the season started. The Mets, Harvey, and Boras created this mess and now they need to figure it out. Anyone who wants to point fingers needs to do so at all parties.

• Nathan Eovaldi will miss at least two weeks with an inflamed elbow.

Nathan Eovaldi is being shut down for 2 weeks with elbow inflammation. Still 4 weeks until playoffs, hope is he is back before that.

— Sweeny Murti (@SweenyMurti) September 7, 2015

• A possible buy low candidate is Adam Jones who has been dealing with a balky shoulder since June.

Normally, Adam Jones would try to talk Orioles manager Buck Showalter out of removing him from the game, but that wasn’t the case on Monday afternoon, when he exited an 8-6 loss to the Yankees in the middle of the eighth inning with the same right shoulder soreness that’s been hampering him since June.

He has really struggled since the injury with a .241 AVG in Aug and .130 AVG in September. I could see him a nice buy low next year if his shoulder is right.

• Albert Pujols will be limited to just playing DH for the rest of the season because of discomfort in his foot.

• Jose Iglesias is likely done for the season with a fractured hand bone.

What was hoped to be a bruised right middle finger for Jose Iglesias now looks like a fracture that could end his season. Follow-up exams on the Tigers shortstop taken Friday revealed a non-displaced small fracture of a bone in the finger.

Iglesias will be sidelined for at least the next two weeks, after which he’ll be re-evaluated. By that point, the Tigers will have just over two weeks left in their season.

• Domonic Brown will miss at least a week after experiencing a concussion after diving over a wall.

There will be no disabled list stint for Phillies right fielder Domonic Brown, but the concussion he suffered during Wednesday’s game could be enough to sideline him for longer than seven days — and perhaps even for much of September.

Brown, who took a hard fall while flipping over the short right-field wall at Citi Field, was diagnosed with a concussion after returning to Philadelphia on Thursday with symptoms. The Phillies will not place him on the seven-day DL with roster expansion in effect, but he needs to clear Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol before he can return.

“It could conceivably happen before [next weekend],” assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said Friday. “but again, I think that’s not likely.”

• Billy Hamilton (link), J.J. Hardy (link), Matt Cain (link), Jeremy Affeldt (link), and Dustin Pedroia (link) are expected to be activated from the DL today.

• Stephen Vogt could miss the rest of the season depending on how severe is his groin injury.

A’s catcher Stephen Vogt went down in a heap after taking a foul tip to the groin area Sunday afternoon and has been taken to a local hospital to undergo a series of tests.

“If anything’s fractured, it could be longer,” Melvin said, “but we’re hoping for the best. He was in pain, a lot of pain.”

“It’s terrible,” Blair said. “I just saw his reaction. It hurts to see that.”

• Miguel Gonzalez was placed on the DL with shoulder tendinitis and should miss the rest of the season.

• Kelvin Herrera and Alex Rios are done with their bout of chicken pox and are back with the Royals.

Velocity Readings

• Joe Beimel’s average fastball velocity is fine.

• Tyler Cravy’s is at a season high.

• Kyle Lobstein’s fastball is still at 87 mph which was his pre-injury level.

• Steven Matz’s velocity was down about 0.5 mph compared to his previous MLB starts.

• Joel Peralta’s is back near his pre-injury levels.

Cory Rasmus’s is a bit low.

• Marcus Stroman’s fastball velocity was at 91-93 mph in his last rehab start.

Stroman is probably right about all of those things. The results certainly weren’t great, as Stroman struggled to find the zone throughout his afternoon, throwing just 46 of his 81 pitches for strikes and frequently shaking off Bisons catcher George Kottaras which hampered his rhythm. He appeared to have the most trouble locating his fastball, which sat in the 91-93 mph range according to the radar gun at McCoy Stadium, especially down-and-away to right-handers and inside to left-handers.

He averaged 93.5 mph in 2015 so a possible 1.5 mph drop could be noteworthy. I am sure I will not be starting him once he returns until I see his results against MLB hitters and get some Pitchf/x data on him.

• Jose Urena’s velocity is up, but he is now pitching in a relief role so he should see a velocity bump.

• Mike Wright’s velocity was at a season high.

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.

Players who should be on the DL