TEAM EVALUATIONS: RAZORS

Team: Razors

Conference: Patriot

Division: Central

2009 Record: 87-75, 3rd Place

Typical Lineup:

1B Adam LaRoche

2B Jose Lopez

SS Derek Jeter

3B Jorge Cantu

LF Matt Holliday

CF Josh Hamilton/Rick Ankiel

RF Adam Jones

C Miguel Montero

DH Adam Lind/Brad Hawpe

Holliday, Jones, Jeter, Lind, Hawpe and Montero highlight this outstanding offensive lineup.  There are no really great defensive players here, though, except for Hamilton, who will have to share CF with Ankiel.

Starting Rotation:

Josh Beckett

Edwin Jackson

Kyle Lohse

Tim Wakefield

Armando Galarraga/Gio Gonzalez/Livan Hernandez

Beckett and Jackson are above average but not quite true aces, and the rest are terrible.  Keeping those last three guys out of the rotation is paramount for a winning season, but somebody has to take the ball.

Bullpen:

Jeremy Affeldt

Danys Baez

Jesse Crain

Dan Meyer

Corey Wade

Michael Wuertz

Affeldt and Wuertz are almost unhittable, and Meyer should make a good lefty-killer.  The rest are nothing special.  It'll be interesting to see if the Razors abandon their recent strategy of leaving the starters in for complete games at all costs with a bullpen where at least half the pitchers can get people out.

Closer:

Andrew Bailey

The AL Rookie-of-the-Year and #1 Razors 2010 draft pick sends the signal that yes, the bullpen will be used this year.

Minors:

Domonic Brown

Deck McGuire

Drew Pomeranz

Hector Rondon

Carlos Triunfel

Karsten Whitson

Brown is a top OF prospect with the Phillies.  Rondon made the Indians big club this year at age 21.  Whitson, McGuire and Pomeranz haven't been drafted yet, but all should go high in the 2010 MLB draft.  Triunfel is slowly making his way through the Mariners organization after been signed at age 17, and has shown great speed and SS skills.  In total, it's a fairly long-range but high-quality group.

The Razors solid bullpen will be key to their success, since they aren't used to using it.  The lineup will win plenty of games for them by itself, but the back half of the rotation is so lousy, that I can't see them getting a playoff spot, although they shouldn't regress much from last year.

Predicted Record: 85-77

ONE SHEETS TO THE WIN

Ben Sheets staggered through six scoreless innings for the A's against the O's last night, walking three and giving up four doubles and a single.  BP doesn't show Fielding Independent Pitching stats on its Team Tracker, but it was probably pretty ugly.  The zero runs are much appreciated though.  The relievers fared about the same, with only Nick Masset giving up a run out of the five who appeared, and only Luke Gregerson really distinguishing himself.  The OPSA was .699, which is pretty lousy.

Speaking of lousy, the hitters put up an OPS of .511.  It was nice to see Alexi Ramirez back in action, and he responded to his benching with his first home run of 2010.  That was the only extra-base hit of the night, but we did draw six walks.

Mike Trout is still pulling his Ichiro act down at Cedar Rapids, with an OBP about 100 points higher than his SLG and still no extra-base hits.  Grant Green has cooled off after a hot start.  The pitchers should all be in action this weekend.  Aaron Crow will not pitch here in town against the Missions, since that series ends after tomorrow's game and his turn isn't up until at least Sunday.  I just hope, after last night's rainout, he's not face down in the river after a night at Coyote Ugly.

SALAMI SANDWICH

Carlos Quentin did the honors last night in Toronto, plating four with his second homer of the season.  David Wright homered in his second straight game, this one a two-run shot that I caught on MLB.tv before going to bed and missing another crushing Mets defeat.  At least David is making the most of those trips to Coors. The team as a whole had an OPS of .964, built mostly on singles.  The whole middle of the infield sat out, as Alexi Ramirez was benched for a youngster by the name of Omar Vizquel.  Yeah, Ozzie, he's the answer.

But the real story was the pitchers.  Jonathan Sanchez, who actually is a guy you can leave out for eight innings in April, completed eight shutout innings against the lowly Pirates.  Luke Gregerson and  Darren Oliver each contributed a scoreless relief inning, although they had three base runners between them.  I'll take 10 scoreless innings any way I can get them.

Down on the farm, Chris Withrow was hammered by the Tennessee Smokies, who have Cubs phenom Starlin Castro on their team.  A non-prospect named Jake Opitz doubled and homered off him.  Mike Trout has the OBP up to .406, but still has no extra-base hits.  Switch-hitting Justin Smoak keeps chugging along with an 1.167 OPS in Oklahoma City, while the Rangers sit Chris Davis against lefties.  Looks like an opportunity there, Nolan.

FIRE DAVE TREMBLAY!

What a crock.  Brian Matusz, 23, making his 10th major league start ever, just finished tossing two-hit ball for seven innings against the Rays, one of the toughest lineups in baseball.  It's April 13th, and Matusz is only a couple of weeks from finishing Spring Training, where he never went more than six and one third innings.  So what does Orioles manager Dave Tremblay decide to do?  Leave him out there!  Of course!  Why not?  It's not like the O's have SEVEN relievers in the bullpen who might be able to pitch. Oh, they do?  Well, Matusz can handle another inning.  All right, a K, nice going Kid.  See?  I knew he could handle it.  OK, so what if he gives up a single to the next guy.  And then the next guy.  And the next guy.  Maybe we should talk to him, see how he's doing.  He says he's not tired, so let's get that double play!  Oh, crap, another hit.  NOW, I should take him out.  FINALLY!

Unbelievable.  I don't care if he was under 100 pitch count, you don't leave your prized rookie starter out there to get pummeled in the 8th inning.  He never should have stepped on the mound in the 8th in the first place, but surely, after the second hit at least, you've got to take him out.  It's absolutely criminal that he was allowed to give up the last hit, certainly.  Of course, the O's bullpen came in and allowed every runner to score, blowing a 3-0 lead.  What a hideous display of managing on every level.  The O's went on to lose, and are now 1-7.  Good.  Maybe Tremblay will soon be free to ply his trade in a Dominican semi-pro league.

Matusz was the only Gunslinger to pitch last night, and the offense posted a respectable OPS of .892 thanks to homers by Bobby Abreu (a meaningless ninth-inning grand slam) and David Wright (aren't all Mets homers meaningless any more?), and eight walks in 33 plate appearances.

Aaron Crow struck out five and gave up a two-run homer in six innings, his first runs allowed as a pro.  His ERA is 1.69 after two starts.  Hey Dave, maybe the Northwest Arkansas Naturals will hire you, and you can send Crow out for another inning!

AARON GO DL

Aaron Hill (Toronto 2B, not Luann DeGroot's impossible crush) is on the Disabled List until April 21st with a bad hamstring.  This could be really bad.  Hamstring problems tend to linger for weeks and even for a second baseman, it could be a big detriment to his game.  I have basically nothing backing him up, unless Grant Green makes a meteoric rise from the California League, which isn't happening.  Juan Uribe, you're my only hope!

The Slingers didn't do much at the plate on a mostly full Monday of games, horking up a putrid .491 OPS in 29 AB.  The pitching was better, with Nick Masset and Darren Oliver combining for two and a third innings of scoreless relief with five strikeouts (and three hits allowed).

Martin Perez made his 2010 debut at Frisco, throwing four and two thirds scoreless innings with only two hits allowed.  Four walks and only three strikeouts were a negative, but I still think we'll see him in Arlington this summer.  Hmmm, the stats sheet said he had an astounding 9.0 ground out/air out ratio.  Since he retired 14 batters, three by strikeout, that leaves 11 other outs.  To get a 9.0 ratio, he'd have to have gotten nine ground outs and one air out.  What was the other out?  Wouldn't you count both outs of a double play as ground outs?  Maybe not.  Then there are breakdowns of GO/AO by bases empty, runners on, and runners in scoring position, and they make no sense either.  What if he got no air outs with bases empty?  You can't report a ratio where the denominator is zero.  I think I've found a fatal flaw in MiLB's stats reporting, one which matters only to me.

Here is the first week's stats from Baseball Prospectus.  The Gunslingers have a .917 OPS for, and an .818 OPS against.  They are both pretty high, and I'm hoping that the spread increases as the year wears on.  I don't like the fact that I'm being out-homered.  That should never happen.

Miggy Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez, Kosuke Fukudome, Russell Martin, Carlos Quentin, and Chris Snyder are off to rip-roaring starts.  Aaron Hill has a bad hammy, but Snyder is benefiting from the loss of Miguel Montero to a ruptured meniscus.  Hunter Pence went 0 for his first 12 before homering.  The Astros are just awful this year.

Among the starting pitchers, Mark Buehrle,  Kevin Millwood (despite the four homers allowed), Kenshin Kawakami, and Brian Matusz all started strong.  The bullpen has been a complete disaster, though, with several pitchers yielding multiple runs in their outings.  Looks like I'll have to clean house and start over again next year, as usual.  

In the Minors, Alex White had a terrific pro debut for Kinston (high A), going five innings without allowing a run and striking out seven.  Justin Smoak has a couple of early homers, and Grant Green is tearing up the California League with an 1.111 OPS.  Mike Trout was 1 for his first 13 and then 3 for his last 6 (all singles) after a huge spring.  Martin Perez has yet to make his first start with Frisco (AA).

BATTERS (Change Display Statistics)

Name	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	AB	R	H	RBI	HR	CS	SB	TB	BB
Bobby Abreu	.276	.300	.448	.748	29	3	8	1	1	0	0	13	1
Miguel Cabrera	.522	.621	.783	1.403	23	6	12	8	2	2	0	18	6
Kosuke Fukudome	.400	.429	.650	1.079	20	3	8	2	1	0	1	13	1
Adrian Gonzalez	.333	.429	.708	1.137	24	4	8	3	2	0	0	17	3
Aaron Hill	.125	.222	.250	.472	8	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	1
Russell Martin	.364	.611	.727	1.338	11	5	4	1	1	0	0	8	6
Hunter Pence	.095	.095	.238	.333	21	2	2	2	1	0	0	5	0
Carlos Quentin	.333	.538	.611	1.150	18	7	6	3	1	0	0	11	5
Alexei Ramirez	.182	.182	.227	.409	22	1	4	0	0	0	0	5	0
Chris Snyder	.300	.300	.700	1.000	10	2	3	5	1	0	0	7	0
Andres Torres	.000	.250	.000	.250	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Juan Uribe	.350	.440	.450	.890	20	5	7	4	0	1	1	9	4
David Wright	.263	.481	.474	.955	19	4	5	3	1	0	2	9	8
TOTAL	.298	.404	.513	.917	228	42	68	32	11	3	4	117	36

PITCHERS (Change Display Statistics)

Name	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	SO	ERA	WHIP	BS	Hold	R	ER	PA	AB	H	HR	TB	BB	UBB	IBB	HBP	SF	SH	DP	H9	SO9	HR9
Mark Buehrle	.216	.259	.275	.534	2	2	15.0	2	0	0	4	2.40	0.93	0	0	4	4	55	51	11	0	14	3	3	0	0	0	1	4	6.60	2.40	0.00
Luke Gregerson	.429	.500	.571	1.071	2	0	1.3	0	0	0	1	20.25	3.00	0	0	3	3	8	7	3	0	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	20.25	6.75	0.00
Kenshin Kawakami	.217	.250	.304	.554	1	1	6.0	0	1	0	1	3.00	1.00	0	0	3	2	24	23	5	0	7	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	7.50	1.50	0.00
Nick Masset	.214	.389	.429	.817	4	0	4.0	1	0	0	6	11.25	1.75	0	0	5	5	18	14	3	1	6	4	3	1	0	0	0	0	6.75	13.50	2.25
Brian Matusz	.143	.350	.143	.493	1	1	5.0	1	0	0	7	3.60	1.40	0	0	2	2	20	14	2	0	2	5	5	0	0	1	0	0	3.60	12.60	0.00
Jose Mijares	.444	.500	1.111	1.611	4	0	2.0	0	0	0	2	9.00	2.50	0	2	2	2	11	9	4	2	10	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	18.00	9.00	9.00
Kevin Millwood	.269	.283	.538	.821	2	2	12.7	0	1	0	11	2.13	1.18	0	0	6	3	53	52	14	4	28	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	9.95	7.82	2.84
Jamie Moyer	.333	.357	.593	.950	1	1	6.0	1	0	0	0	7.50	1.67	0	0	5	5	28	27	9	2	16	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	13.50	0.00	3.00
Darren Oliver	.167	.167	.667	.833	3	0	1.7	0	0	0	1	5.40	0.60	0	0	1	1	6	6	1	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.40	5.40	5.40
Ramon Ramirez	.556	.600	1.000	1.600	3	0	1.3	0	0	0	0	33.75	4.50	0	0	5	5	10	9	5	1	9	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	33.75	0.00	6.75
Francisco Rodriguez	.182	.308	.182	.490	3	0	3.0	0	0	0	3	0.00	1.00	0	0	0	0	13	11	2	0	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	6.00	9.00	0.00
Jonathan Sanchez	.368	.429	.421	.850	1	1	4.3	0	0	0	6	6.23	2.08	0	0	3	3	22	19	7	0	8	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	14.54	12.46	0.00
Ben Sheets	.341	.429	.561	.990	2	2	11.0	0	0	0	4	4.09	1.91	0	0	6	5	49	41	14	1	23	7	7	0	0	1	0	2	11.45	3.27	0.82
TOTAL	.283	.348	.470	.818	29	10	73.3	5	2	0	46	4.91	1.47	0	2	45	40	317	283	80	12	133	28	27	1	1	2	3	6	9.82	5.65	1.47