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MLB - Red Sox Hire Dave Dombrowski as President of Baseball Operations

8/20/2015

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by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff
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Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons user Cathleen Carrigan
While Dave Dombrowski's last couple of years with the Detroit Tigers haven't been his best, as he's made some questionable trades, he definitely left the Tigers on a good note getting some really good young talent in exchange for rentals. Dave knows Sox owner John Henry from his days with the Florida Marlins, and was responsible for building the 1997 World Champion Marlins. When he moved on to the Tigers, he engineered the trade for superstar Miguel Cabrera and built up a strong core through lots of other great trades. While his past couple of seasons have been a bit disappointing, the Tigers did make the playoffs last year and definitely underperformed this year (much of that due to injury). He left with the very capable assistant GM Al Avila taking over his old duties.

While Sam Kennedy is now team President of the Red Sox, he is only in charge of the business side of things. I like Dombrowski a lot, and if I were to pick anyone to fill the vacated position that Larry Lucchino recently left, he would be my first choice.  So I feel the Sox did the right thing here. Ben Cherington was not fired, and was in fact asked to stay on as general manager. But as he would be reporting directly to Dombrowski, he declined to remain; however, he will remain on-board as an assistant for the remainder of the season. It will be interesting to see who Dombrowski chooses as Cherington's successor in the off-season, or if he will assume the dual role of President of Baseball Operations and GM that he had in Detroit. As Dombrowski is assuming baseball operations duties effective immediately, it will be interesting to see if there are any August deals and how September call-ups will be handled under the new leadership.
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MLB - Red Sox - At Least David Ortiz is Returning in 2016

8/9/2015

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by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff
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The 2015 Red Sox have been nearly an unmitigated disaster. Just when it appears they may turn things around, another losing streak ensures. But not everything has been horrendous. Mookie Betts has become the Red Sox’s best player this year, with Xander Bogaerts finally living up to his talent (although the power hasn’t been there.) Brock Holt continues to be an above-average player, and well could be the starting left fielder on next year’s Sox. Hanley Ramirez has hit just fine, but given all that value back in the field - perhaps prompting a move back over to third base as Sandoval may move to first.

On the pitching side of things, nothing has gone well. Buchholz out-pitched his ERA but now is hurt and certainly isn’t being rushed back. His $13 million option for 2016 should be picked up, however. Knuckleballer Stephen Wright has been effective in his few starts. Wade Miley started off horrendously, but has rebounded to at least be serviceable. But beyond that, Porcello was a disaster, who’s now signed long-term and Joe Kelly has found no consistency - possibly headed for a bullpen role in 2016.

And despite a slow start to the season, long-time Red Sox David Ortiz has turned it on since June, and is especially mashing the ball in August. This is good news for both team and player, as David Ortiz now will enjoy at least $11 million next season, since his 2016 option has vested with his 425th plate appearance of the season. He’ll earn $1 million more each for 475 PA, 500 PA, 575 PA, and 600 PA. WIth Big Papi showing vintage form, none of those milestones look unobtainable, and why wouldn’t you play him with his clutch hitting clearly on its rebound?

At 39, Ortiz may only have one more strong season in him, but this is great news for Sox fans. Ortiz is now at 489 career home runs. As it stands, Big Papi is a borderline Hall of Famer with 48.6 WAR, according to Baseball Reference. It’s fully possible that Papi has 11 more homers left in him for 2015, but now he doesn’t have to be pressured about that number this year. Not that anyone is seeming to notice. It hasn’t really been a story - more of a footnote. That’s just how bad and uninspiring the 2015 Sox have been.

Fortunately, the Sox do have a future. Betts will return for the league minimum. Holt is not going through arbitration for the first time until 2017, but doesn’t expect to land a huge payday with his counting stats. Pedroia will be back, only being kept on the DL since the Sox are going nowhere anyway - he was having a fine season before his injury. Papi is obviously back, so the DH spot is settled. Hanley Ramirez will be fine if they get him out of the outfield. Sandoval is probably not going to stay this bad, but a move to first base may be in the cards. It will be interesting to see if the Sox return outfielder De Aza, who’s flashing the batting prowess he once did with the White Sox. Rusney Castillo has potential, and probably just needs to have a consistent spot in the 2016 lineup. His Triple-A numbers don’t look tremendous (.282/.337/.385) but if he becomes the above-average defender he’s expected to be, that’s a slightly above average starting outfielder.

The pitching staff is a mess, but Henry Owens has the stuff to be good. Eduardo Rodriguez has had some rough starts, but has shown he was a steal from the Orioles - although Andrew Miller has been a force since signing with the Yankees. Joe Kelly’s arm is fantastic, but he’s probably a set-up man going forward. As already said, Buchholz will probably return. But Wade Miley and especially Rick Porcello have to get their acts together. The former could be fine, but the later has a lot of money due to him for the next few years.

No matter how the Sox are, though, the fans should remember that they have a potential Hall-of-Famer on his way to 500 home runs. While the PED concerns will linger over him because of his contemporaries, Ortiz is such a likeable character who’s become such a complete hitter over the course of his career that I highly doubt he won’t eventually be enshrined. At least 2016 will have one race to look forward to.

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MLB - Leonys Martin Forgot How to Hit

8/4/2015

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by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff
PicturePhoto Credit: Wikimedia Commons user Keith Allison
Leonys Martin is a really good outfielder. In fact, he’s quietly been one of the best defensive center fielder in the American League for the past three seasons. He’s never hit much, but he never had to. Being 10 percent below league average offensively is fine when you save 13-15 runs a year. Defensively in 2015, he’s as good as ever, saving 14 runs already. But he’s been about 40 percent below league average with the bat, making him roughly a replacement level player.

With the Rangers hoping to shoot for a Wild Card spot this year, the Rangers have sent down their plus defensive outfielder for a guy you’ve probably never heard of: Ryan Strausborger. I don’t think many people have, and that’s because he’s a 27-year old former 16th round pick that has had an up and down career. He has some speed - 27 steals in 2015 - with roughly league average offense. He can play all three outfield positions, presumably all effectively, as that seems to be his reputation.

If you’d like to learn more about him, here’s an interview he did with MLB Reports in 2012. Here’s another interview that he did in 2013. He was once a pretty good prospect who has had consistency issues at the plate, but it’s seems he’s finally ready to see what he can do. It won’t take much to be better than Martin has been this year.

This is quite the fall from grace for Martin who’s been a bit of an underrated player for a couple of years. It’s now time to see how a long-time minor league role player like Strausborger fits into the big leagues.

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MLB - Jeremy Hellickson is Really Good at Home in 2015

8/4/2015

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by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff
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Photo credit: Flickr user Keith Allison
The Arizona Diamondbacks weren’t expected to be good this year, but they’ve hung around .500 for much of 2015. Part of their struggles have to do with the amount of home runs their pitching staff has given up. Some of that has to do with the homer-friendly Chase Field in Phoenix. While Rubby De La Rosa has been victimized by homers both at home and on the road, fellow offseason acquisition Jeremy Hellickson has actually pitched quite well at home. He has given up fewer homers at home than on the road (7 vs 10) and has a far lower home ERA (4.03 vs 5.94).

While Hellickson isn’t going to be the ace of a staff (although he looked like a potential ace in 2011 with Tampa Bay), he’s not as bad as he’s been on the road. His strikeout rate and walk rate have almost perfectly matched his career bests this year, and he has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career. Were it not for those extra few homers and unlucky .321 BABIP (batting average on balls in play) on the road, we’d be looking at a mid-rotation starter. While Hellickson probably is a league-average starter at best, the Diamondbacks will be more than happy to have that. If he resolves his struggles against left-handed batters, Hellickson may even be a bit more.
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MLB - Anibal Sanchez Will Be OK

8/4/2015

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by Richard Rowell, Write W.A.V.E. Media Staff
PicturePhoto credit: Wikimedia Commons user cbl62
Plenty of things haven’t gotten well for the Detroit Tigers in 2015. One of those things has been a rough year from Anibal Sanchez. But while he’s had some rough starts, the signs are there that these struggles shouldn’t continue. Anibal is one of a few pitchers that has suffered from high home run rates this season. After giving up almost no home runs over the past two seasons (0.45 and 0.29 HR per 9 innings), he’s given up 1.51 HR/9 in 2015. This has been a major part of his ERA shooting up near 5. After 22 starts, it currently sits at 4.77. His FIP isn’t much better at 4.43. It isn’t until you look at his xFIP, which uses a “normal” HR rate, that you see that he should be faring better: an 3.86 xFIP is perfectly acceptable.

While his walks are up a bit this year (2.7 walks per 9 vs 2.14 in 2014) the strikeouts are also back near his career average, roughly 7.9 K/9. His groundball rate is down about 4%, too., but it's not a huge warning sign The projections see him as more of a 4.00 ERA pitcher going forward rather than the rotation filler that he’s pitched like recently. Sanchez is still a slightly above-average starter, very good news as he’s due almost $40 million over the next two seasons. That figure includes a $5 million buyout of a $16 million option for 2017. It’s possible Sanchez is declining, but it shouldn’t be as dreadful for him going forward.

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