MLB movers and shakers: Guess who's back?
By Ted Sevransky
Manny returns
Manny Ramirez made huge headlines last year, playing his way out of favor in Boston then hitting .396 BA with 17 dingers in just 53 games after his trade to the Dodgers. After signing a mega-contract with L.A. in the offseason, ManRam got off to another hot start, hitting .348 BA in his first 27 games of 2009.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock since May, you know that Ramirez was suspended without pay for 50 games thanks to a violation of MLB’s steroid policy. Los Angeles fared well during that 50 game stretch, which concluded with a 1-0 win over Colorado Wednesday. Joe Torre’s squad was 21-8 when Ramirez was suspended. They survived his absence, with a 29-21 mark in their 50 games without him.
The Dodgers offense was held to three runs or less only seven times in the first 29 games of the season with Ramirez in the lineup, and they were on a 14-6 run to the over in the last 20 non-push games prior to his suspension. Without Ramirez in the lineup, L.A. was held to three runs or less 21 times in 50 games and were on a 20-11 under run over the last month.
We know that Ramirez’s production is going to help the Dodgers win games over the final three months of the regular season – even without him, they still lead the NL by a full 7.5 games, sporting the best record in all of baseball. But be sure not to underestimate Ramirez’s effect on the totals in Dodgers games – expect an immediate tick upwards upon his return to the lineup this Friday.
D-backs setbacks
Arizona was in the race for the NL West division title right through the final weekend of the season last year, finishing only two games behind L.A. in the standings. In 2007, Arizona won 90 games and the division before losing in the NL Championship Series to the Rockies. With an emerging young lineup and a three-ace staff, most prognosticators expected more of the same from the Diamondbacks in 2009.
Things have not gone as projected, to put it mildly. Arizona enters July with the second-worst record in the NL, ahead of only lowly Washington in the standings. Only two everyday players – outfielder Justin Upton and infielder Felipe Lopez – are hitting higher than .270 BA. Upton and third baseman Mark Reynolds are the only batters with more than six home runs. Zona has been held to three runs or less a whopping 39 times in their first 78 games. Yet, a lack of offensive production is only one of the D-backs’ myriad of problems.
How does a team with three staff aces heading into the season perform so poorly? Dan Haren certainly hasn’t been the problem. The D-backs are 9-4 in Haren’s last 13 starts, and his 2.19 ERA is the best in the NL.
But behind Haren, the pitching staff has been a complete, unmitigated disaster. The free agent signing of Jon Garland from the L.A. Angels as the third ace has not panned out. Arizona has lost each of Garland’s last eight starts.
But the biggest disappointment has been Brandon Webb, who’s been sidelined since opening day with a sore shoulder. Webb won 56 games in the last three years, including 22 games last year when he finished a few votes short of his second Cy Young award. It was announced this week that Webb will not undergo surgery at this time. Webb had a setback last month while playing catch, prompting him to see several doctors to get advice. The advice: Let the shoulder heal with rest and a strengthening program.
“He's thrilled with the prognosis and the plan that's been set for him…,” Arizona manager A.J. Hinch, said of Webb. “He wants to pitch this year. He's not mortgaging the year. So that was the exciting part to come out of it. He's got his mind prepared to get back to competing this year as soon as his health dictates it's possible.”
A September return to the rotation isn’t going to help Arizona out of their current doldrums. And with an overworked, under-performing bullpen that ranks ahead of only the nasty Nats in the NL, it looks like a very long second half of the season ahead for an Arizona squad that is a woeful 22-40 in games not started by Haren this year.
Bus ride changes Mets' fortunes
Professional baseball players don’t spend much time on busses – they did enough of that while rising through the minor leagues. Suffering through a losing streak, still waiting for the big bats of Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran to return at some point this month, manager Jerry Manuel decided to shake things up a little bit prior to Wednesday’s game at Milwaukee.
The Mets held one of those infamous team meetings following their fifth consecutive loss Tuesday Night - a 28-minute Manuel diatribe. Then, instead of lining up at the taxi stand for a ride to Miller Park the next day, Maunel mandated a team bus ride to the stadium. Ryan Church couldn’t remember riding to a game on a team bus in his big league career. Francisco Rodriguez called it “a little weird”.
But it was starter Mike Pelfrey who seemed to benefit the most from the togetherness exercise, calling it “a little bonding time with everybody.” The Mets offense was still anemic, held to three runs or less for the sixth time in their last seven games. But Pelfrey and the bullpen threw nine innings of shutout baseball, carrying the Mets to their first win in nearly a week.
The Mets went 9-18 in June, the same type of swoon that they’ve endured at crucial junctures of the season several times in recent years. The coincidence of the ‘togetherness’ bus ride immediately followed by a streak snapping victory won’t mean much unless New York gets its key bats back on to the field in the very near future.