Crooked Pitch

Thank you for visiting Crooked Pitch! While you're here you'll find tons of valuable fantasy baseball information to help you win your fantasy baseball league. If you're new here, or haven't done so yet, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

23-year-old pitching prospect, Greg Reynolds is being called up to enter the Colorado Rockies rotation this Sunday, as Mark Redman has been sent to the bullpen. Reynolds, who is 6′7″, is a ground-ball specialist who was taken in the first round of the 2006 draft (second overall).

Last season, before a shoulder injury ended his season, Reynolds was 4-1 in eight starts with a 1.42 ERA and a 3.88 strikeout to walk ratio (35:9) at the Double-A level. He hasn’t been quite so stellar this season in seven starts. His record is 1-2 with a 4.86 at Triple-A Colorado Springs, but it’s his strikeout to walk ratio of 1.77 (16:9) that is troublesome.

The Rockies front office seems to be less than thrilled with the promotion of Reynolds, as they would have preferred to wait a while longer. That’s just an option that is no longer available to this pitching staff.

Officially, the Rockies said they were acting cautiously with the prized prospect’s tender right ankle. Unofficially, they have been unable to complete a trade for Cincinnati’s Josh Fogg or Boston’s Julian Tavarez, leaving Reynolds as the most viable alternative for a disappointing rotation.

General manager Dan O’Dowd’s preference was to promote Reynolds next month, allowing him more time to increase strength in his surgically repaired right shoulder. A Triple-A teammate said Wednesday that Reynolds, just 21, has shown huge improvement in his last few outings after eschewing off-speed pitches early in counts and regaining command of his sinkerball.

Last week, just about fantasy baseball GM checked his waiver priority status to see if they held the #1 spot. If you did, you were able to sign Arizona rookie pitcher Max Scherzer.

Scherzer, who was the Diamondbacks first round draft choice in 2006, gets his first big league start tonight against Philadelphia. On April 29th, he made his Major League debut, pitching 4.1 innings of perfect baseball in relief with 7 strikeouts to boot. The big question on the minds of many is how the Diamondbacks plan to use Scherzer to keep his innings pitched at a manageable lever since he only threw 90.2 innings last season.

Rookie Max Scherzer will make his first major-league start Monday night and perhaps two or three more after that before left-hander Doug Davis figures to be ready to come off the disabled list.

Barring other developments, that likely would mean Scherzer’s time in the rotation would be up. As far as his development goes, that might not be such a bad thing.

“I think potentially a good byproduct of that is keeping Max’s innings in check as we get him through the season,” General Manager Josh Byrnes said.

That is to say, when Davis returns, Scherzer could end up pitching in the Diamondbacks bullpen and perhaps remain there the rest of the season.

Clubs try to incrementally increase the workload they put on their young starting pitchers, adding a certain number of innings per season - roughly 20 to 30 - until they build toward the 200-inning mark.

This could be great news to Scherzer owners in keeper leagues.

Seattle Mariners prospect Wladimir Balentien was called up from Triple-A Tacoma and got his first at-bat’s of the 2008 season last night in an 8-3 loss to Cleveland. Balentien had an impressive start going 2-4 with 3 RBI and a run scored, with one of those hits being a 7th inning three-run home run off of Cliff Lee.

Balentien was called up after 63 Triple-A at bats where he batted .254/.329/.619 with 6 home runs, 20 RBI, and a stolen base. The 23-year-old rookie has played three solid years in the minor leagues hitting more than 20 home runs in each of the three seasons. In 2007, Balentien made a huge stride in his plate discipline reducing his strikeouts from 140 in 2006 to 105 in 544 plate appearances in 2007.

Balentien is also a stolen base threat. He stole 15 bases in 19 attempts last season, and had 14 and 9 stolen bases in 2006 and 2005 respectively.

Since Balentien should be the every day right fielder for the Mariners, he’s a must add in AL-only leagues. He also should be added in deep mixed-leagues and keeper leagues. If you’re in a shallow mixed-league you may want to wait and see if Balentien’s strikeouts continue to drop. If not, his batting average may hurt you more than his home runs will help.

In four starts for Triple-A Tucson, Max Scherzer has overpowered hitters. He has a 1.17 ERA in 23.0 innings, but more impressive is his strikeout to walk ratio of 38:3. It’s only been a matter of time until the promotion of Scherzer happened, and today was the day.

However, Scherzer isn’t joining the Diamondbacks rotation. It’s straight to the bullpen for Max Scherzer following his promotion to the big leagues.

“I think we’re still aware of it,” Byrnes said. “Yes, he can develop some in the big leagues. There are a lot of issues, but right now the most compelling issue is we need him in the big leagues. We just have a tired bullpen. There’s a little more short-term urgency than there has been.”

As for the bullpen/starter thing, Byrnes said the club wants him to be a starter long-term, it’s just that right now they need help in the bullpen. And what’s going to happen with his role the rest of this season?

“We’ll see,” Byrnes said. “I think that’s going to be the fluidity of this season. Sort of assessing what our big league team needs and how he can contribute. And then also aware of the longer view of him and the team.”

Homer Bailey, the Cincinnati Reds uber pitching prospect, still isn’t pitching in Cincinnati. But he’s tearing up Triple-A hitters. Harang, Arroyo, Cueto and Volquez seem pretty safe right now, but Matt Belisle needs to show Dusty Baker that he deserves that 5th rotation spot more than Bailey.

If that happens, Bailey may be promoted to the big leagues and used in a relief role.

“I haven’t thought of him as anything other than a starter,” Jocketty said. “I haven’t really talked to anybody about that.”

Bailey, a 21-year-old right-hander, is doing what he’s done the last three years: Dominating in the minors. He’s 2-1 with a 1.95 ERA for Triple-A Louisville.

Jocketty brought up Adam Wainwright in St. Louis as a reliever. Wainwright went 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA in 61 relief appearances in 2006. Last year, he was 14-12 with a 3.70 ERA as a starter.

Jocketty said there becomes a point when a pitcher has little to prove in the minors.

“When a guy continues to do well at that level, yeah,” Jocketty said. “There are some things they had him working on. From what I understand, he’s done well with what they’ve asked him.

26-year-old Detroit Tiger pitcher, Armando Galarraga saw his first Major league action last week and impressed with a 6.2 inning outing where he only gave up one hit, two earned runs and had six strikeouts. He got the win that day and looks as if he’ll do it again today.

The Tigers are ahead of the Blue Jays 5-0 in the 7th right now and Galarraga threw 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball. He gave up three hits, walked four and struck out four. If things hold up for him, once the game is final, Galarraga will be 2-0.

Galarraga was promoted last week to fill in for Dontrelle Willis, and anyone pitching in the potent Detroit lineup should be given some consideration. But remember that he hasn’t pitched too much above AA. He also missed a good portion of 2006 with shoulder problems. So, even though Galarraga is showing promise right now, his track record isn’t established enough to push him into the must sign category.

In AL-Only leagues you should surely look to sign him. For this short-term stint, he looks to be ready to perform. But, signing him in hopes that he’ll continue like this, or even continue in the rotation all year, is wishful thinking. You can also look at him in very deep mixed leagues right now. But only as a fill in and surely not as one of your top 5 starters. Don’t throw a lot of eggs in Armando’s basket just yet.

Lefty outfielder John Bowker saw Major League action for the first time in his career Saturday for the San Francisco Giants, and promptly went 2-3 with a home run. Then for an encore he wet 2-3 with another home run on Sunday. Not bad for the 24-year-old. His consecutive game home run streak ended at two when he went 2-4 with only a triple on Tuesday.

Bowker has come out of the gates red hot. Last season in 139 games at Double-A Connecticut, he batted .307 with 22 home runs and 37 doubles. This kid can hit, and his power keeps developing every year. With Randy Winn and Fred Lewis around, Bowker might not be around to stay, not just yet. But if his performances stay relatively close to this level, the Giants will have to find a spot for him.

Bowker is surely worth an add in NL-only fantasy baseball leagues, and he should be on your mixed-league radar as well.