Mormon Baseball

Archive for the ‘Weekly Updates’ Category

The week of the All-Star Game can be a boon to some players—those who don’t play. First you get three days of rest. Then the shortened week can make you look good for the week. And among the Mormons in the Majors, the All-Star week worked best for Eric Sogard. After his three days of rest, Sogard, who is best known among the Oakland fans for his glasses, went 4 for 8 and hit his 2nd home run of the year. His batting average is back up to .264, and unlike fellow Mormon on the team Adam Rosales, Sogard has not been sent down to triple A ahead of the trade deadline.

Sogard isn’t the only Mormon blasting away at the plate. Jacoby Ellsbury was still red hot after the All-Star Game, hitting .364, scoring twice and walking twice. His batting average is up to .307 and he has maintained a lead in stolen bases in the majors with 37.

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After spending the first half of the season this year in the Red Sox’s bullpen, Clayton Mortensen is back on the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox and wasted no time making a case for his return to the majors. Mortensen pitched 4 1/3rd innings of relief last week, giving up just 3 hits and 3 walks, but no runs, while striking out 3. While his era for the week was lower than the 5.34 era he managed over 30 innings in the majors, his other stats were in line with his MLB performance.

That may not be enough to keep Mortensen in the majors for the long term, however, he is likely good enough to again make the team’s 40-man roster when the roster is expanded ahead of the end of the season. Of course, Mortensen might also be a strong enough prospect that the Red Sox will trade him in search of high calibre players that will keep them at the top of the American League East.

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Managing pitchers is, more than perhaps anything, a search for consistency, and I tend to think that pitching staffs are actually constructed as a series of backups for when consistency proves elusive. This year, if I were to chose the Mormon pitcher who seems most consistent, I think I’d have to choose Matt Lindstrom. And this past week Lindstrom showed the quality of his relief, appearing 5 times for a total of 4 innings without giving up a single run and just 2 hits. While Lindstrom isn’t exactly lights out (WHIP is 1.38), his era is down to 2.87 for the season, the lowest among the Mormon pitchers in the majors.

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It has to be exactly what any newly drafted ballplayer wants. Adam Law was drafted in early June in the 12th round by the Dodgers, assigned to play in the Arizona League, and there he has played well almost from day one. Law is among the leaders in the Arizona League in OBP, runs scored and stolen bases, and last week he practically exploded, going 10 for 18. While it is very early in Law’s career, this performance raises expectations that he may be promoted next year, and hopes that Law, the 3rd-generation in pro ball in his family, may eventually join his father (Vance) and grandfather (Vern) as someone who played in the majors.

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Its an old story in baseball. The pitcher performs extremely well, but the team behind him doesn’t, and the pitcher ends up with a loss. That was the story for the Toronto Blue Jay’s Josh Johnson last week.
Over 5 innings Johnson pitched fairly well. He gave up 1 earned run and 7 hits while striking out 5 and walking just 2. While that perhaps isn’t a great performance, it should be sufficient to win the game. What’s missing is that the the team gave up a total of 6 runs, 5 of which were unearned, due to errors made by Johnson’s teammates.

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Sometimes just when things are going well, that’s when something goes wrong. Mitch Maier was very hot last week, hitting .571 with 2 runs, 3 rbis and 2 walks. And for the season he has also done well—he sports a .315 average with 3 home runs in 108 at bats. But halfway through the week he injured his oblique and ended up back on the DL—Maier already spent much of the season on the DL and only has half the at bats of most other players. As a result he doesn’t qualify for the stats leaders boards, but if he did he would be among the top ten in batting average, on base percentage and OPS in the International league.

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After starting the season strong, Royals’ pitcher Jeremy Guthrie has struggled, loosing ground from an era of 2.28 after his May 9th game to 4.11 at the end of this week. But this past week’s game was a quality start, despite a loss, so perhaps Guthrie will turn around his season and do better. Guthrie led the Mormon pitchers in the majors this past week with a 2.84 era, striking out 4 and giving up 6 hits and 2 walks over 6.1 innings. His performance was marred only when he was hit in the hand and taken from the game. But subsequent news reports indicate that Guthrie won’t miss his next start.

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Yankees prospect Nik Turley, who planned to attend BYU before he was drafted, seems to be improving at the AA level, but his progress seems to come in fits and starts, a strong start followed by a weaker start. This past week Turley lasted 7 innings, while not giving up a single run. He gave up 5 hits, walked 2 (a 1.00 WHIP for the game) and struck out 4. But Turley’s previous start was a 5-inning loss with a 10.80 era. Still, overall he seems to be making progress, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that he may start in AAA next year.

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Mormon baseball fans should perhaps be looking to Boston at the moment, where Jacoby Ellsbury just had a great week. In addition to retaking sole posession of first place in stolen bases in the majors, Ellsbury hit .400 for the week, scoring 6 runs and earning 4 rbis and boosting his season batting average to .289—back in the range of what he has performed in the majors in previous years. And at his current rate of stealing bases, Ellsbury may have one of the best years of his career. He has stolen 32 bases so far, on track to come close to the 70 bases he stole in his best year so far (2009). He should be able to best his second best year (2008), when he stole 50 bases.

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How long does it take before a player becomes accustomed to a new level of play? And how do you tell when they just need more time to get acclimated, or have reached the most of what they can do? Managers and players alike must wonder as they ponder when to promote or demote those who are struggling or performing well. Take Taylor Cole, for example. He pitched very well last year for Vancouver in the Northwest League (A short season), earning a 0.81 era. This year he is still fairly good (3.99 era), but has struggled at times, basically alternating a good start with a start in which he struggled — kind of like his first year in Vancouver (5.88 era).

Given this past week’s performance, it looks more like Cole is just becoming better accustomed to the new league. He struck out 7 in 7 innings without giving up a walk and just 2 earned runs (both solo home runs) for his 4th win of the season. Keep it up, Taylor, and managers will have to believe you’ve become accustomed to this level of play.

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