Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Notes, quotes and comment

Scratch Ryan O'Rourke from the 2017 Twins pitching plans. The lefty specialist is to have Tommy John surgery. That news came quickly after his consultation Tuesday with the Rangers team physician.

So that's two pitchers who injured their elbows during training camp and needed the ligament-replacement surgery. The first, Trevor May, is also with the team in Arlington, Texas, checking in with the same doctor (Keith Meister) on his rehab process.

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Eric Thames bounced around American ball during his early 20s, hitting 31 homers in 700 at-bats with Toronto and Seattle. Then he went to Korea and mashed for three seasons. Now he's 30 and back in the majors with Milwaukee and still mashing; he hit his 11th homer of the young season Tuesday night.

And as the Cubs, apparently startled that there might be a good player on another team, imply that he's obviously using, the "random" drug tests seem to land on him a lot all of a sudden.




Thames' numbers in Korea are impressive -- but not as impressive as those of Byung Ho Park. This is what Park was supposed to be doing. And still might, if he can get back on the field and get another shot. I still believe in him.

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Phil Hughes: Four starts, two solid, one a struggle, one just plain ineffective. Yes, he's 3-1, but his ERA is 4.71 and he's giving up more hits than innings pitched, while his strikeout rate is essentially flat with the past two seasons. It's fairly obvious that

  • his fastball velocity isn't where it was before his surgery and
  • reinventing his pitching approach, with a heavier diet of changeups, remains a work in progress.
Also fairly obvious: 50 percent quality starts is a better rate than we're seeing from Kyle Gibson.

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