-- Colin Dunlap of the Post-Gazette makes the case, through pitch location boxes, that the real culprit in yesterday's loss wasn't the pitching as much as the umping. Then again, if the ump isn't giving you the low strike call, it's on the pitcher, not the ump, to adjust.
-- Kevin Correia will take on Shaun Marcum to open tomorrow's Brew Crew series while Paul Mahom and Randy Wolf will work the second game. The Bucs are off today; they were the only team in the league to go ten games without a break.
-- The Pirates still won't tip their hand as to who will make Ohlie's start against the Brewers on Thursday, saying they haven't decided if Jeff Karstens, the odds-on favorite, Brad Lincoln or Brian Burres (both in Indy) will get the nod.
The option to skip his spot is also possible with today's day off. That would give Charlie Morton his four days rest for the Thursday game.
-- LHP Joe Beimel's rehab will continue in Indianapolis; he was just moved upstairs from Class A Bradenton, another sign that he's nearly ready to join the MLB roster.
-- Eric Seidman of Fangraphs has a piece on Clint Hurdle and the McCutch switcheroo.
-- Indy is off to an 0-4 start; they've allowed 22 runs to score in that span. But it's not a staff-wide meltdown. Cesar Valdez and Tim Wood have been charged with 10 of the tallies in just 3-1/3 innings of work. OF Alex Presley is off to a flying start, hitting .500.
Hurdle had kind words for Presley, and if he keeps hitting, I think he could replace Bowker. I like Bowker as an extra man and of course he can play first in a pinch where Presley cannot, but Presley just keeps on hitting. He'll never be a power guy, but I like him in a throwback kinda way; he reminds me of a lot of 1970s players, especially outfielders, who weren't super big or muscular, who usually didn't hit more than about 15 HR a season, and who weren't even exceptionally athletic, but who did nothing but blast line drive after line drive after line drive all over the yard, night after night after night. Al Oliver comes to mind, that kind of hitter, though Oliver probably had more power than Presley does.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind Presley is the kind of player who can get lost in the shuffle due to "sabremetric distortion". He won't jump out at you in a traditional sabremetric sense, that is, his OPS may never hit .800, which is usually the threshold for "good" major league offensive outfielders. But high average hitters, it says here, are still worth their weight in gold. If Presley keeps it up, surely they have to take a look at him this season, don't they? Speaking of which, maybe Garrett Jones might be the guy to go and not Bowker?