Cardinals
Mets Notes: Wheeler, Wright, Duda, Davis
The Mets have been one of baseball’s worst teams thus far: they currently outpace only the Astros and Marlins with a 17-27 record. While the team’s weak start hardly qualifies as a major surprise, the club certainly hoped to remain in contention and see more development from several promising youngsters. Already staring at a ten-game deficit in the NL East, attention has turned to the future … The future could come early for one piece of the Mets’ long-term plans, as we learned yesterday that top minor league arm Zack Wheeler is firmly expected to be called up sooner rather than later. With the club hoping to avoid handing Wheeler an extra year of arbitration, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com took a look yesterday evening at different teams’ projections of the “safe” date for avoiding Super Two status. He reports that the Mets appear to have an earlier target than other teams; while some executives quoted a mid-to-late June timeline, New York seems to feel comfortable with a range between early June and June 10. This leads Rubin to project that Wheeler could come up to face the Cardinals at home on June 12, or could be held back until a road start against the Cubs on the 17th. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently explained the Super Two cutoff projection for players who could qualify following this season.
Quick Hits: Yankees, Dodgers
The Yankees and Dodgers have far and away the game’s highest Opening Day payrolls, but have had polar opposite results thus far. While the Yanks were supposed to be the team that failed to deliver performance commensurate with its big spending, they sit atop the AL East with a robust 29-18 record. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are buried seven games back in the basement of the NL West, sporting a 19-27 mark after a listless showing against the Cardinals last night at Dodger Stadium. Let’s take a look at the latest on these clubs: It has been a comedy of injuries this year for the Yankees, with a steady flow of DL stints nevertheless failing to slow the team’s winning ways. Last night brought more of the same, as two key players — outfielder Curtis Granderson and starter David Phelps — left the team’s 9-4 drubbing of the Rays. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch had the story. Phelps, who was hit on the arm by a come-backer, appears to have escaped significant injury and is expected to make his next scheduled start. Granderson was not so lucky. After suffering a broken forearm on a hit-by-pitch during Spring Training, causing him to miss the first month and a half of the year, Granderson only logged 31 big league plate appearances before being struck by another inside pitch.
Lynn dominates Dodgers for seventh win
The Cardinals rode homers and three RBIs each from Allen Craig and David Freese to a 7-0 win in front of 45,134 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. Lance Lynn threw six scoreless innings to become the third National League pitcher to record seven wins on the season.
Central Notes: Reds, Cubs, Morneau
Here are a few notes from around baseball’s Central divisions: With the Reds welcoming the division-rival Cubs for a three-game set on the same day that Cincinnati reliever Sean Marshall made another DL trip, Hal McCoy of the Dayton Times looked back on the December 2011 deal between these clubs that put Marshall in the Reds’ pen. Travis Wood, the primary piece going to Chicago in that trade, is off to a sparkling start to the year with a 2.24 ERA over 60 1/3 innings. While he has posted a pedestrian 5.8 K/9 to go with 2.8 BB/9, Wood has managed a stellar .928 WHIP this season (good for seventh best among starters, tied with Shelby Miller). Marshall, meanwhile, continues to be effective when he is healthy: he sports an ERA of just over 2.50 over his two seasons in Cincinnati. It is worth noting, as well, that the Reds’ rotation is in fine shape thus far without Wood: Cinci starters own the second-best collective ERA in baseball, after the Cardinals. Even if the Cubs have played better than their record, the team is looking up in the standings at a host of strong ballclubs
Draft Links: Manaea, McGuire, Prep Catchers
Kevin Gausman, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2012 draft, made his Major League debut for the Orioles last night. In a poll on Wednesday, roughly 39 percent of MLBTR readers agreed that Michael Wacha of the Cardinals would be the next first-round pick from last year’s draft to make the leap to the big leagues. There are less than two weeks until the 2013 draft, and we’ll keep track of today’s draft-related news here… The first mock draft from Jim Callis of Baseball America had the Astros taking Mark Appel No. 1 overall, but his newest version has the Astros taking Jonathan Gray. That leaves Appel to go to the Cubs at No
Quick Hits: Beltran, D’Backs, Draft, Cashner
Epifanio “Epi” Guerrero, one of the key figures in the history of Dominican baseball, passed today at age 71. Guerrero signed a number of the sport’s most notable Dominican talents (including Cesar Cedeno, Tony Fernandez and Carlos Delgado) while working in the Astros, Yankees, Blue Jays and Brewers organizations as a scout and coach during a career that began in 1965. Guerrero was one of the first scouts to be involved in the development of the baseball academy system that gave countless young Dominican prospects chances at a professional career. We here at MLBTR extend our condolences to Guerrero’s friends and family on his passing. Here are some news items from around the baseball world… While it has been assumed that the Cardinals will part ways with Carlos Beltran after this season, Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch thinks both Beltran and the Cardinals could benefit from Beltran re-signing a short-term contract, provided the veteran was willing to take a hometown discount. While Miklasz has a point that Beltran is a surer thing to produce for a contender than youngsters like Oscar Taveras or Matt Adams, I would be surprised if Beltran returned to St. Louis in 2014. If the Cards were confident enough in their young talent to let Albert Pujols and Kyle Lohse go, they’re confident enough to do with the same with Beltran.
Quick Hits: Beltran, D’Backs, Montero, Draft, Cashner
Epifanio “Epi” Guerrero, one of the key figures in the history of Dominican baseball, passed today at age 71. Guerrero signed a number of notable international talents (including Cesar Cedeno, Carlos Delgado and Tony Fernandez) while working in the Astros, Yankees, Blue Jays and Brewers organizations as a scout and coach during a career that began in 1965. Guerrero was one of the first scouts to be involved in the development of the academy system that gave countless young Dominican prospects chances at a professional career. We here at MLBTR extend our condolences to Guerrero’s friends and family on his passing. Here are some news items from around the baseball world… While it has been assumed that the Cardinals will part ways with Carlos Beltran after this season, Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch thinks both Beltran and the Cardinals could benefit from Beltran re-signing a short-term contract, provided the veteran was willing to take a hometown discount. While Miklasz has a point that Beltran is a surer thing to produce for a contender than youngsters like Oscar Taveras or Matt Adams, I would be surprised if Beltran returned to St. Louis in 2014. If the Cards were confident enough in their young talent to let Albert Pujols and Kyle Lohse go, they’ll do with the same with Beltran. The Diamondbacks may not need to make any major moves before the trade deadline, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. The Snakes have depth at several positions and further reinforcements are coming as some injured players return from the disabled list. The only possible area of need could be at closer given J.J. Putz’s elbow problems but GM Kevin Towers is “100% confident” that Putz will recover. The Mariners talked with Jesus Montero about a long-term contract before he was linked to the Biogenesis scandal, but nothing came of those conversations, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. Earlier today, the M’s demoted the 23-year-old to Triple-A. If MLB announces that an international draft will take place in 2014, Baseball America’s Ben Badler notes that teams like the Rangers, Yankees, Cardinals or Reds (who are likely to pick near the end of that draft’s first round) could be wise to exceed the spending cap on international prospects this year. Such teams would lose their 2014 or ’15 international draft first-rounder for going over the cap, but it could be worth it to get a jump on the non-North American talent market. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo profiles some of the top corner infielders in the upcoming amateur draft, a list led by University of San Diego third baseman Kris Bryant
Prospect Rumor Roundup: Talking Twins
Despite opening the year with one of the best minor league systems in baseball, the Minnesota Twins’ collection of young talent continues to get stronger. The club’s system entered the year as one of the top five systems, according to two different publications: Keith Law of ESPN (2nd out of 30 — subscription required) and Baseball Prospectus (4th). Baseball America had a slightly different opinion and ranked the system 10th overall. When looking at the three Top 10 lists for those publications (Keith Law, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America – subscriptions required), a total of 14 players were represented: Oswaldo Arcia, Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Kyle Gibson, Aaron Hicks, Jose Berrios, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Danny Santana, Luke Bard, Travis Harrison, Jorge Polanco, Alex Meyer and Trevor May. We can delete both Kepler and Bard because they’re in extended spring training and have yet to appear in an official game. Santana appeared on just one list (Baseball America’s) and has struggled in Double-A. The highest profile name — outfielder Aaron Hicks — is hitting just .144 in the majors after being touted by some as an early American League Rookie of the Year candidate. The other 10 players are thriving in 2013. Arcia, called up to the Majors in mid-April, has posted a .746 OPS while helping to compensate for the loss in offense as fellow rookie Hicks finds his footing. Strikeouts have been an issue for Arcia but his three home runs have put him in a four-way tie for third on the team in that category despite appearing in just 28 games.
Lyons stymies Padres in big league debut
Southpaw Tyler Lyons became the latest Cardinals rookie to deliver on Wednesday night, turning in a dominant seven innings while making his Major League debut in a 5-3 win against the Padres at Petco Park.
NL Central Links: Garcia, Carpenter, Garza
Jaime Garcia will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery on Friday, writes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Heyman goes on to write that Dr. James Andrews was amazed that Garcia was able to pitch anywhere near as well as he did, as the left-hander has a “30-40 percent tear” of the labrum in his left shoulder. Garcia is in the second year of a four-year, $27.5MM contract that he signed in June 2011. His deal contains a pair of club options as well.
