The Game: New York Mets (16-13) at Los Angeles Dodgers (17-14)
The Matchup: Oliver Perez (2-2, 4.03) vs. Chad Billingsley (1-4, 5.20)
The Story: The Mets head a little further west to take on Joe Torre and the Dodgers, who are hot, having won 8 of 10 after a very slow start to the season. The Mets are coming off of a huge series win at Arizona, and look to continue their winning ways with a “regular” lineup for just the second time this year. Oliver Perez makes his first start after last Wednesday’s embarrasment against the Pirates, and if he sticks to his one-on, one-off plan tonight might be a good night. He needs to find control, and if any catcher can help him keep his composure it is Brian Schneider, who makes his second start after being hospitalized.
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Mets, Brian Schneider, Oliver Perez, Dodgers, Chad Billingsley, Joe Torre
The Game: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Philadelphia Phillies
The Matchup: Max Scherzer (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 SO, 0 BB, 0.00 WHIP) vs. Jamie Moyer (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 12 SO, 10 BB, 1.75 WHIP)
The Story: Highly touted prospect Max Scherzer gets his first big league start against the Jamie Moyer as the Phillies begin a seven game trip to Arizona and San Francisco. The Phillies will play four games against the Diamondbacks, who have posted the league’s best record thus far at 21-10. Scherzer, coming off a perfect 4.1 IP and 7 punch outs in relief of Ed Gonzalez, is expected to remain in the rotation only for a few starts until Doug Davis comes back from thyroid cancer surgery. Scherzer was the 11th overall pick in the 2006 draft. He’s a power pitcher and throws a lot of fastballs. This should be sink or swim for a Phillies team that hits a lot of homers and strikes out a ton.
The Phillies bats certainly have their work cut out for them after a somewhat lackluster weekend against the giants. The D-backs are the first over .500 team the Phils have played since the Mets two weeks ago, so they will need to bring their best game out West. 45 year old Jamie Moyer is coming off a 5.1 IP, 4 ER outing. 6 innings seems to be his target this season. Anything better is taken as a bonus.
We’ll see if Chase Utley and Pat Burrell can continue to carry this team on their backs. At some point, Ryan Howard and the rest of the bats are going to have to pick up the slack.
Stat of the day: The Phillies lead the league in home runs with 48. Chase Utley is first in the league with 13 and Pat Burrell is tied for third with 9.
UPDATE:
Lineups: Phillies - Victorino (CF), Bruntlett (SS), Utley (2B), Howard (1B), Burrell (LF), Jenkins (RF), Feliz (3B), Ruiz (C), Moyer (P)
D-backs: Young (CF), Byrnes (LF), Hudson (2B), Jackson (1B), Upton (RF), Reynolds (3B), Snyder (C), Drew (SS), Scherzer (P)
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Chase Utley, Diamondbaks, Doug Davis, Ed Gonzalez, Jamie Moyer, Max Scherzer, Pat Burrell, Phillies, Ryan Howard
Jimmy Rollins was 4-4 with two RBIs in an extended spring training rehab start today.
“It was fine,” Rollins said. “Running around the bases for the first time, it felt good. Second time, I felt a little twinge, but I was still able to kick it in coming around to score, and I was fine…
…”Once I get the confidence that I can do anything without worrying about my ankle, that’s when I know I’m 100 percent,” Rollins said. “So, with that being said, I feel about 90 percent confident.”
He’ll play again tomorrow in another rehab start and he’s scheduled to come off the 15 day DL on Thursday. Don’t expect him in the lineup unless he’s 100%.
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Jimmy Rollins, Phillies
The Miami Herald has a great piece today about this year’s “strange” Marlins bullpen that likes to keep the mood light and joke around. Whatever they’re doing, well, it’s working. From hiding golf carts to heckling fans, this group of guys may not be the Scum Bunch, but they certainly know how to entertain themselves (and hold/save/win games).
Categories: Marlins
Tagged: Marlins
Last week I wrote about 1B/OF Valentino Pascucci, who the Mets recently acquired from the Phillies organization. Pascucci is off to a good start for AAA New Orleans, going .333, .455, .667 so far in 5 games with a home run and 3 RBIs. Yes, that’s only 5 games, but consider his numbers last year (.284, .389, .577) with 34 home runs and 98 RBIs for AAA Albuquerque. Pascucci hits much better against lefties and, if he continues to succeed, could potentially platoon with Carlos Delgado if Delgado starts to struggle again.
Maybe this guy has a shot or maybe I’ll delusional from reading Chris Coste’s book, The 33 Year-Old Rookie(very entertaining, by the way, I’ll review it in the near future), but I’m going to keep Pascucci on my radar for the time being.
-Jonathan Kraft
UPDATE: Pascucci went 3-3 with a walk, double, and solo shot, and scored 3 runs last night.
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Carlos Delgado, Chris Coste, Mets, Valentino Pascucci, Zephyrs
According to the AJC, Braves reliever Peter Moylan has been placed on the 60-day DL and is expected to have season-ending elbow surgery. Not unexpected, but a big blow for the Braves, as the second-year Moylan had been their most consistent guy in the bullpen until injuring his elbow April 11.
Categories: Braves
Tagged: Braves, Peter Moylan
AJC is reporting that Braves IF Martin Prado was placed on the 15-day DL today and is expected to miss up to eight weeks.
Within that same piece, word that the Braves have acquired IF/OF Greg Norton for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Norton, along with Ruben Gotay, will help fill the void on the bench left by Prado’s absence.
Prado was diagnosed with a left thumb sprain after injuring himself sliding into first base yesterday.
“Prado’s not okay,” said Bobby Cox. “He’s got a pretty damaged thumb.”
For the season, Prado is hitting .282 with 6 RBIs and 2 triples. He can play every infield position, which makes this injury a concern for the Braves.
Categories: Braves
Tagged: Braves, Greg Norton, Martin Prado, Ruben Gotay
According to John Delcos of the Journal News, the Mets are discussing signing Derek Turnbow, who was recently DFA’d by the Milwaukee Brewers. Turnbow was an all-star in 2005, but has recently lost his control, and started out this year an ERA over 15.
Personally, I’m all in favor of the Mets signing as many ‘projects’ as they want to (see: Tony Armas, Ruddy Lugo, Claudio Vargas). As we all know, it’s a long season, and having depth in the bullpen is incredibly important (see: 2007 season). Turnbow is a raw pitcher who has been very inconsistent since his great 2005 season, but, then again, I believe almost every bullpen pitcher is inconsistent (hence why they are a bullpen pitcher and not a starter). Maybe this guy can help us out later on this year, maybe not. There’s not much risk here. It’s worth a shot.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Claudio Vargas, Derek Turnbow, Mets, Ruddy Lugo, Tony Armas
Mets Today posts about who Omar Minaya should send down to the minors in order to reactivate Matt Wise from the DL. Wise is ready to return, but the problem is, who stays and who goes? I’m nervous that Omar is going to send Joe Smith down, which scares me because Smith has been the Mets best bullpen pitcher so far this year.
Mets Today advocates for the optioning of Aaron Heilman, which would be nice, but it simply not realistic. Heilman would probably just decline the assignment and become a free agent, and would certainly be picked up by another team (I’m not completely sure how this process works, but I believe this is a possibility). As much as Heilman has stunk up the joint so far this year (he has given up 4 home runs in 17 appearances compared to 8 in 81 last season), there’s really just no good way to get rid of him unless Omar makes a move to trade him.
The question is, does he have any value left? It’s looking more and more like O should have traded him over the offseason. Hindsight may be 20/20, but is anyone really surprised that Heilman started this year where he left off last? I’m certainly not.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Aaron Heilman, Matt Wise, Mets
Great week for the division. The NL East is hot; only the Marlins came in at under .500 for the past 10 games. The last-place Nationals are just 4 games out, and are 8-2 in their last 10. The Phillies may still lead the division, but the Mets and Marlins are just a half a game out.
Some of the league’s finest talent plays in the division, and this cream of the crop is setting the pace in 2008. Chipper Jones leads the league in Batting Average with a whopping .421 so far. Chase Utley leads in home runs, with 13; Pat Burrell is tied for second with 9. Burrell is also second for RBIs, with 28. Utley and Jones lead the league in OPS, with 1.193 and 1.189 respectively. Marlins starter Mark Hendrickson is second in the league for wins, with 5 so far. Of the pitchers with WHIPs in the top 10, 4 are in the NL East: Johan Santana, Tim Hudson, Jair Jurjjens, and Cole Hamels. Billy Wagner leads the league in Batting Average Against (.070). And Wagner, Brad Lidge, and Jon Rauch are tied for fifth in the league for saves, notching 7 to this point.
As expected, the division is shaping up to be extremely competative down the stretch. Look for the Marlins to cool off as their young pitching exhausts itself, and for the Braves to heat up as key players such as John Smoltz and Mike Hampton return. The Mets have nowhere to go but up, the Phillies continue to be led by career years by both Chase Utley and Pat Burrell, and even the Nationals are playing good baseball at present.
Here are the standings through Monday May 5:
Philadelphia: 18-14
New York: 16-13, 0.5 GB
Florida: 17-14, 0.5 GB
Atlanta: 15-15, 2 GB
Washington: 14-18, 4 GB
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Braves · General · Marlins · Mets · Nationals · Phillies
Tagged: Billy Wagner, Brad Lidge, Braves, Chase Utley, Chipper Jones, Cole Hamels, Jair Jurjjens, Johan Santana, John Smoltz, Mark Hendrickson, Marlins, Mets, Mike Hampton, Nationals, NL East, Pat Burrell, Phillies, Tim Hudson
David Murphy’s got the scoop on JRoll’s return:
Like 50 Cent, Jimmy Rollins don’t walk with a limp.
As such, Rollins is scheduled to leave Citizens Bank Park today at 2 p.m. to head to Clearwater, where he will begin a rehab stint in extended spring training games to test his ever-better sprained left ankle. He hopes to return in time for the Phillies’ game Thursday in Arizona.
“It feels real good,” said Rollins, louging in the clubhouse, pointing at his left foot, comfy in a sweet pair of denim Louis Vuitton boat shoes.
Rollins initially injured the ankle April 8. He has been in the 15-day disabled list since April 20.
Rollins has looked at the pitching mathcup and realizes that, if he starts upon his return, he will be facing Brandon Webb, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball over the past several seasons.
“Maybe I’ll wait ’til Friday to come back,” he said, then smiled. “No, really. I like facing guys like him.”
Believe that hype: Rollins is 10-for-24 against Webb, one of the highest success rates in the league.
Now, I really do hope that Rollins doesn’t rush his return, but my frustration over the Phils’ butchering of the situation has not waned. A sense of urgency would be nice…
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Brandon Webb, Jimmy Rollins, Phillies
