More from RealGM
 More General NewsGeneral Links
The Brian Sabean ? Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle: "(Barry) Zito won his initial start of a season for the first time since 2003 by suffocating a Houston lineup that, truth be told, lacked punch even before Lance Berkman's knee surgery. Still, Zito showed a requisite aggressiveness as he threw first-pitch strikes to 11 of his first 15 hitters and finished his night by retiring the two fiercest Astros, Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee, to strand a runner on second base. Zito walked one and struck out five, in contrast with his initial starts with the Giants, 2007-09. He was terrible in those, lasting a total of 14 innings with a 6.42 ERA. This year, he and Tim Lincecum have opened with 13 shutout innings for the rotation. You're up, Matt Cain." The Ned Colletti ? Paul Gurnee of True Blue LA: "Scott Elbert, James McDonald, Josh Lindblom, and John Ely? will all be in the (Triple-A) rotation as they try to impress the brass, or other teams brass. When the mass media says we are thin they neglect to mention we have at least two candidates and possibly three who can step into our rotation at some point this summer. Of course Josh Towers would probably get the call before any of them but that is the price we pay for a GM who would rather give first shot to a? failed veteran then a promising young arm.?" The Dan O'Dowd ? Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: "(Ryan) Braun, your basic hitting machine who went .320-32-114 last season, said (Ubaldo) Jimenez, who beat the Brewers on opening day, isn't the same pitcher who broke into the big leagues in 2007 and won 12 games a year later. "When he first came up, he was more of a thrower," Braun said. "You can see now that he's really learned how to set guys up. You never want to be defensive at the plate, but when you face a great pitcher like that, you realize it's going to be a battle." The Josh Byrnes ? Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic: "When the Diamondbacks swung a blockbuster deal in December to acquire two starting pitchers, they were counting on (Edwin) Jackson to help stabilize their rotation after (Dan) Haren. But he did not deliver in his first start with his new team, going just five innings and giving up three runs. His evening began in dominant fashion. He retired the side in order in the first, ending the inning with a strikeout of Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez with a pitch sequence that went like this: 97 mph fastball (swinging strike); 97 mph fastball (foul); 88 mph slider (ball); 98 mph fastball (swinging strike). But the Padres broke through in the second when, with two men aboard, No. 8 hitter Everth Cabrera lined a down-the-middle fastball off the left-field wall for a two-run double, giving the Padres a 2-0 lead. An inning later, Jackson hung a full-count slider that Will Venable crushed for a solo home run. "I felt pretty good on the mound, felt like I had a good tempo and threw a lot of strikes for the most part," Jackson said. " The Jed Hoyer ? Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune: "(Chris) Young, who entered spring training still rehabbing from surgery to his right shoulder last Aug. 17, walked three and struck out five while throwing 86 pitches. The top end of Young?s velocity last night reached 87-88 mph compared to 80-82 last June when his season ended due to shoulder problems. Young retired 10 of the first 11 Diamondbacks he faced." The Doug Melvin ? Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel: "While (Randy) Wolf failed to dominate lefties, he refused to crack open like a half-boiled Easter egg. After Casey McGehee crunched an opposite-field, three-run homer in the bottom of the first off Greg Smith to erase a one-run deficit, Wolf never surrendered the lead. He made a mid-game adjustment with his slider, which had been flat in the early going. Wolf also kept on the attack, throwing 72 of 97 pitches for strikes while issuing no walks." The Jim Hendry ? Josh of Bleed Cubbie Blue: "Even though there are other great prospects on the D-Cubs, I think it's safe to say that most eyes will be on third baseman Josh Vitters. Vitters has been hotly-debated around here even before he was taken with the #3 pick in the 2007 draft.? Without a doubt, few prospects have a better ability to put his bat on the ball and hit it hard.? In a half a season in Peoria, Vitters hit .316 and clubbed 15 home runs.? He struggled in Daytona, so he'll have to show this season that was just a fluke. While he's an aggressive hitter, he's not a free swinger.? He doesn't swing at pitches he can't hit often, but sometimes he swings at a "pitcher's strike" rather than waiting for a mistake that he can drive. One thing to watch this year is to see if he goes deeper in the count.? The talent there is limitless. His game is a lot like the Giants' Pablo Sandoval minus about 100 pounds and Panda's totally-awesome kung fu ability.? Sandoval didn't walk much in the minors either." The John Mozeliak ? Pip of Fungoes: "If Win-Probability Added is any indicator of the most-valuable player ? we think it should be ? Pujols started his trophy defense well, with +.344, best in the game. He received our Fangraphs? 3-star player of the game vote. Rasmus, at +.145, and Carpenter, at +.144, were next on our ballot. Just like everyone else who followed the game." The Walt Jocketty ? John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "The Reds could have paid (Joey Votto) $440,000 or something like that, instead he got $520,000.?As a one- to three-year player, he had no bargaining power. I asked him a couple of weeks ago if he was happy with the deal the Reds gave him. ?Yeah, they were fair,? he said. ?I think the system in baseball is better than some other sports. I had a good year, but it was only my second year in the big leagues.? Votto?s big payday will come next year when he?s eligible for arbition. He?ll probably add a zero on to the end of this year?s salary. Actually, my guess is he gets a multi-year deal?before the year?s over or?in?the offseason." The Ed Wade ? David Coleman of The Crawfish Boxes: "This was a strange night for Wandy. He got through the first inning unscathed, produced a ton of ground balls, but did get hit around pretty good in the sixth. Yes, he used four pitches. But not really. All but eight of his pitches were curveballs or four-seamers. And he only got five swing-throughs all night. That's not a very good night. The one big thing that jumped out at me as well was his strike percentage on his four-seamer. For a pitch he threw 39 times, 55 percent strikes isn't very good. You can't even claim that he was trying to miss intentionally to get batters to chase, because he didn't get one whiff all night with the four-seamer. Compare that number on the fastball strikes to the profile we did on him a couple weeks ago. He threw the fastball for strikes over 66 percent of the time in 2009. This must've just been an off night. His velocity looked fine. After all, Wandy will never be mistaken for a hard thrower." The Neal Huntington ? Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "This year, John Russell expects the players he put on the field for Monday's season opener will actually become regulars, instead of transients.. Ironically, the first player to be bumped out of a starting job this season might be last year's rock, Andy LaRoche. Top prospect Pedro Alvarez is expected to debut by midseason, which could force LaRoche into a utility role." The Frank Wren ? Pacgnosis of Talking Chop: "First off, a definition of the DerekLoweWin. A DLW is any game in which a starter: Gets the win, Gives up at least 4 earned runs, Has a WPA* of -0.05 or worse. Overall, the 2009 Braves were 66-18 when allowing 3 or fewer runs (0.805 win%) and 20-48 when allowing 4 or more (0.294 win%). This type of pattern holds up for nearly all teams. It's amazing how simple baseball can be sometimes: give up 4 runs, and you're probably going to lose. Unless Derek Lowe is pitching, of course." The Omar Minaya ? Mets Today: "(Johan Santana) didn?t have his best stuff, but he had ?good enough? stuff and allowed only one run through six. His velocity wasn?t as high as we?d like, but it?s early ? he should add a few MPH as the season wears on. More importantly, his slider had great bite, the kind of bite we haven?t seen from him since he one-hit the Mets in 2007. His efficiency was nowhere near what it was in that particular game, which is the only pebble in my shoe concerning Santana ? ever since Dan Murphy muffed a fly ball around this time last year, it seems like Johan has been trying to retire hitters with swings and misses rather than rely on the defense. The Ruben Amaro ? Joshua Buckely of the Galveston Daily News: "Jarred Cosart, the eighth-ranked prospect for the Phillies was awarded the Bill Giles Award at the end of spring training. The award is given to the player in Phillies camp who displayed ?love and respect for the game of baseball, an outstanding work ethic and pride in being a member of the Phillies.? Cosart has been assigned to the rotation of the Class-A Lakewood BlueClaws. The BlueClaws are the defending champions of the South Atlantic League." The Larry Beinfest ? Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald: "Ricky Nolasco knew something wasn't normal last May when his ERA shot up to 9.07 and his record shrunk to 2-5. He felt like he wasn't pitching all that poorly. But bloopers were dropping in for hits, and ground balls were finding holes in the infield, and instead of outs he was being nickel-and-dimed to death for runs. It didn't go away fast enough for Nolasco. When the Marlins could bear no more, they sent last season's Opening Day starter to the minors to get straightened out. But Nolasco, convinced that he was nothing more than a victim of bad luck, didn't change much of anything, other than deciding to be a little less cute with hitters and challenging them head on." The Mike Rizzo ? Doug McKee of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg was the main attraction Tuesday during media day for Washington's double-A affiliate in Harrisburg. That's where the 21-year-old righthanded flamethrower will start his professional career. The No. 1 draft pick was the best starter for the Nationals in spring training but was sent to the minors for more seasoning. Strasburg says he's been given no timetable on when he'll get to the majors. Harrisburg pitching coach Randy Tomlin calls Strasburg's stuff "off the charts" but said the young pitcher will have to learn some things about game management." Click here to read Wednesday's American League edition of Scoop. |
Each NL team is represented below, marked by a not-so-subtle nod to the general managers we focus so much of our site's attention towards and our namesake.