Mormon Baseball

Posts Tagged ‘Kyle Farnsworth’

Yes, Mormon outfielders like Jacoby Ellsbury and Bryce Harper are well-known and exciting to watch, but given last week, maybe fans should give some love to the Mormon pitchers active in the majors. Kyle Farnsworth, Doug Fister and Jeremy Guthrie were all stellar in the games they pitched—Farnsworth and Fister didn’t give up an runs while Guthrie gave up just one run in 6 and 2/3rds innings while striking out 9. And both Fister and Guthrie ended up with a 0.75 WHIP for the week. Fister now has a season era of 2.65.

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After falling into a slump that lasted most of the month of May, Jacoby Ellsbury stole his way back toward his customary performance last week, going 8 for 23 (.348) with 5 rbis and 4 stolen bases, despite an overall mediocre performance by his team, the Yankees. The stolen bases are particularly noteworthy, since they raised him from 11th in the majors last week to 6th overall. During his career Ellsbury has 3 times led the American League in stolen bases.

He isn’t the only Mormon to do well at the plate last week. The As Eric Sogard also cracked .300 — going 5 for 13 (.385) with a run scored. But Sogard’s part-time role means he gets fewer plate appearances, and his record reflects that. And while Sogard is popular with fans, its hard to justify his presence in the lineup when he is hitting just .207 for the season.

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While Jeremy Guthrie isn’t known as the kind of pitcher who will lead your rotation, he does usually provide the kind of solid starts that a good team can use. He fits well as a 4th or 5th starter, let’s say. But occasionally even 5th starters show a little brilliance, like Guthrie managed last week. He pitched for 7 innings against the White Sox, giving up just 1 run, 3 hits and 2 walks. For the game he had a 1.29 era and a 0.71 WHIP—exactly what you want from the ace of your staff. I’m sure Guthrie wishes he could pitch like this every start.

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Earning his 5th save of the season last week, the White Sox’s Matt Lindstrom is looking like a solid closer at the moment. In his two one-inning appearances last week he gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk — for a 1.00 WHIP and 0.00 era. For the season his era is down to 2.81 in 16 innings of relief and 8 save opportunities. But Lindstrom isn’t expected to keep up this level of performance for the whole year.

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The backup role is hard. I’ve wondered for some time what toll the backup role takes on a player’s performance. Take John Buck, for example. As a backup this year the catcher has played in just 4 games so far, while last year he had played in 16 games by April 20th. And last year at this point Buck had a .293 batting average, while this year he is hitting just .231. How much of this difference is because Buck isn’t playing every day this year? And how much is because he began last year on fire?

This past week, despite his backup role, Buck was .333 at the plate with a walk and 2 strike outs, raising his batting average for this year to near his career average. Still, in a backup role its hard to have much higher expectations of Buck.

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For some players, spring training has to be stressful. If your status reads “NRI” (non-roster invitee) or if you are at the bottom of your team’s depth chart (or you think you are), then how well you do in spring training makes all the difference.

The Indian’s Elliot Johnson, in spring training as a non-roster invitee,  must be struggling with that now. And so far he seems to be making a strong case. Johnson was 5 for 13 last week (.385) with 3 rbis, bringing his total so-far to 5 rbis in just 16 at bats. Can he keep this level of performance up for most of spring training? If he does, will it mean he makes the roster?

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We are a week away from the first Spring Training baseball games, and most players have already reported. And as always happens during the off-season, many players have moved from one team to another as managers search for just the right combination of players, and players look for more money or better opportunities.

Of course, the Mormons in professional are no exception. Here is a rundown of the Mormons who played at least one game in the majors last year and where they are at the moment. Tomorrow I’ll give a rundown of those who only played in the minors last year.

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Only one of three Mormon players on playoff teams in action last night stepped on the field, but neither of the two teams with Mormon players won, as the Los Angeles Dogers beat the Atlanta Braves 6-1 and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1.

Elliot Johnson was the first Mormon player to take the field in this year’s playoffs, starting the game at second base for the Braves. But the speedy Johnson was 0-4 at the plate, including 3 strike outs, and never really got a chance to steal a base. Johnson will likely see much of the playing time in the NLDS, because the Braves have left Dan Uggla off the roster, probably because his performance at the plate this year has been poor.

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The only playoff team with two Mormon players, the Pittsburgh Pirates, beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2 last night to advance to a five-game series against the League-leading St. Louis Cardinals starting Thursday. However, neither of the two Mormon players, backup catcher John Buck and reliever Kyle Farnsworth, appeared in the game. As backup players they may appear late in any of the Pirates’ future playoff games. And the heroic’s of the Pirate’s starting catcher, Russell Martin, in last night’s game may make Buck’s appearance in the playoffs less likely.

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Adam Rosales chance to appear in a post-season game this year ended last night as his team, the Texas Rangers, lost to the Tampa Bay Rays in their playoff game to see which team would earn the second AL wild card spot. Rosales did not appear in the game.

Meanwhile, tonight two Mormon players could appear in the first NL wild card game as the Pittsburgh Pirates face the Cincinnati Reds. Both Buck and Farnsworth would only appear late in the game, and Farnsworth is the more likely to make an appearance.

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