With reigning Cy Young winner David Price on the disabled list, the Tampa Bay Rays have promoted right-hander Jake Odorizzi to take his place in the rotation, reports Bill Chastain of MLB.com. Odorizzi will take Price's turn in the rotation today.
Odorizzi, acquired by the Rays in the off-season in the James Shields trade with the Royals, is perhaps the most heralded of the Rays impressive upper-minors pitching depth. He was considered the most major league-ready pitcher in the Royals system at the time of the trade and made two starts in the majors towards the end of last season. Odorizzi was 4-0 with a 3.83 ERA and a 4.21 FIP in eight Triple-A starts this season.
Odorizzi is not an over-powering pitcher, featuring a low-to-mid 90's fastball to go along with a curveball, slider and change-up. It's a basic repertoire, but he gets the most out of it and should have no problem establishing himself as a reliable big league starter, although he's not in the Price/Matt Moore/James Shields class of upper-rotation starters.
With Roberto Hernandez struggling, Odorizzi's time in the rotation while Price is out could serve as an audition to stick around upon the return of their ace. If not, Odorizzi, along with Alex Colome, Alex Torres, and Chris Archer, continue to provide the Rays with the best pitching depth in baseball.
The inevitable happened over the weekend. The Texas Rangers sustained an injury, this one to second baseman Ian Kinsler, and top prospect Jurickson Profar was called up to take his place.
But leave it up to Ron Washington to not use him.
Expectations need to be tempered for Profar, not because he's not talented or worthy of being the top prospect in the game, but because what Mike Trout and Bryce Harper did last season was historic, and should not be the new expectation for all top prospects. But despite that caveat, however, Profar should be a considerably better player than Leury Garcia, especially at the plate.
There is no telling how long Profar will be with the Rangers. Kinsler is on the 15-day DL and shouldn't have any issues returning in two weeks, meaning Profar's stint in the majors could have a two-week shelf life from its outset.
But why would Profar not play every day during those two weeks?
The Rangers justification for starting Profar in the minors this season was that they didn't want him to be in the majors unless he was going to play every day, and this was the correct philosophy to take. There was no sense in letting him rot on a major league bench when he could be playing every day in Triple-A. But the situation has changed, and there are at-bats for Profar for the next two weeks. How could he possibly lose any of them to Leury Garcia?
Garcia is a nice player, but he's a utility man at the major league level, which is why the Rangers had no problem keeping him in the majors without a place to play every day but did not want to do the same to Profar's development. No offense to Garcia, but he's not the same type of player as Profar, who is a cornerstone of their future. If Profar is going to be in the majors, he needs to play every day.
Johnny Hellweg earned his second win of the season thanks to six shutout innings despite walking six batters in the outing. It was the first time since his initial start of the season that the Brewers flame-thrower allowed zero runs and he's now walked 31 batters in 38 2/3 innings.
In his return to Triple-A, Martin Perez allowed four runs in five innings but struck out four to take a loss. The Rangers left-hander hasn't truly been effective at any level since a half-season stint in Double-A in 2011, yet because of his talented left arm, he continues to be a focal point of prospect followers.
Sonny Gray allowed just one run in his first six innings of work, but the A's right-hander failed to get out of the seventh inning and allowed four runs (three earned) when it was all said and done in the loss.
Michael Wacha tossed his Cardinals teammates on his back on Thursday and led them to a victory behind seven dominant innings of one-run baseball during which the 2012 first-rounder struck out eight and walked just one.
Double-A
The Marlins got a nice glimpse into their future on Thursday as Christian Yelich continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with a double and a home run in support of left-hander Adam Conley, who has been inconsistent this season but allowed 3 runs (two earned) in five innings on this night.
Trevor May has generally been strong in his initial season in the Twins organization, but on Thursday he allowed more runs than innings pitched for the second time this season, allowing five runs and nine hits in four innings.
Schoop has spent the entire 2013 in Triple-A, hitting .268/.331/.368 on the season. I noted before the year that this was a make-or-break year for Schoop to prove that he could hit right-handed pitching more consistently, but even after a strong fall league and a solid World Baseball Classic, he still has yet to prove he can consistently hit same-handed pitching.
So far this season in a limited sample of games, Schoop has kept with his career trends:
The limited sample from this year wouldn't be enough to make the determination on it's own, but when pared with his totals from last year's dramatic splits...
This injury has little to do with his on-field production and shouldn't prohibit the Orioles from calling him up later in the season if they choose to do so, but for now, Schoop will take a week off and rest his ailing back.
Graham left his last start after just two innings, but doctors were unable to identify what in his right shoulder was giving him issues. Due to the ambiguity of his injury, there is no current timetable for his return.
It's logical to question how long Graham has been having issues with his shoulders, given his struggles over his last two starts. Graham hadn't been dominant all year, but prior to his seventh start on the season in May 8th, he had a 3.41 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 29 innings. In his two starts since then, however, he struck out just three batters in seven innings. Obviously the sample size is ridiculously small, but a drop in strikeout rates can sometimes be due to a drop in velocity which could be due to discomfort in his shoulder.
Of course, it could also just be a coincidence.
Either way, Graham is out for the time being until the Braves can get a better grip on what is wrong with his arm. Given that it's a shoulder issue, the Braves will likely handle him conservatively, especially until they can figure out exactly what is causing his discomfort.
We're getting to that time of the season where the anticipation of prospect call-ups begins to swell, especially for those moves we know are inevitable. After all, the savior-in-waiting everyone knows is going to be the missing piece for said team is just too exciting to think about.
But for two of the games top pitching prospects, that time is not now.
Forget service time for a second, Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman simply aren't ready for their time in the majors just yet.
Cole is closer than Gausman. As Tim Williams of PiratesProspects.com points out, Cole's time in Triple-A this season was thought to be more of a formality than anything with any actual substance. It was thought to be nothing more than a place to stay loose while waiting for the Super 2 barrier of his service time to pass by, like a race car forced to idle in pit row for speeding through too quickly.
But a funny thing happened while Cole was idling in Indianapolis - he struggled. It turns out, he had a few more things to learn before he came to save the day in Pittsburgh.
As Williams illustrates, Cole is struggling with his command in the International League and isn't missing bats the way he should with his stuff. This isn't a new problem for Cole (although his high walk numbers this season are a new, and likely temporary, blip on the radar), but I pointed out almost a year ago while scouting Cole in his Double-A debut that he failed to dominate his competition the way he should with his ability.
Cole is having a strange season, with increased walk numbers, dramatically lowered strikeout numbers, yet an ERA of just 2.55 thanks to a fortunate BABIP of just .230 and a strand rate of 83.7 percent. Neither of those last two numbers is sustainable, hence his 4.45 FIP, easily a career high.
The Pirates probably won't hesitate to call Cole up in a month or so, although if his struggles continue, the Pirates likely won't be forced, thanks to a number of additional starting pitching options in addition to their current rotation.
The Orioles, on the other hand, don't have that type of depth. Thanks to injuries, their already relying on Freddy Garcia and Jair Jurrjens in their rotation, a plan that doesn't seem likely to end well. There was speculation that Gausman would be called up to take one of the open spots in the Orioles rotation, but Eduardo Encina of The Baltimore Sun says that he's not being considered.
Which is probably the correct decision. It's not that Gausman hasn't pitched well, but he still has just 12 professional starts to his name after just two seasons at LSU.
Like Cole, however, it's not incorrect to believe that Gausman could be in the majors at some point this season, although Cole should beat him by a few months. Gausman could help the Orioles down the stretch if the organization stretches his innings out properly over the course of the year and isn't forced to shut him down early. Bu September, he could be one of the only healthy Orioles pitchers left, in addition to being one of the most talented.
But for now, Gausman won't be heading to the majors, seemingly no matter how desperate the pitching situation gets in Baltimore.
