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.

Although Reds starting pitcher, Bronson Arroyo, says he feels great, Dusty Baker says the Reds are going to get him checked out.

“We’re kind of lost right now,” he said. “We’re going to get him checked out, maybe something is wrong with him. His pitches aren’t sharp. His breaking ball isn’t crisp. He’s kind of gotten a little bit predictable as far as throwing the 3-2 breaking ball. Ordinarily, that ball (Tom) Glavine hit doesn’t stay up in the zone.

“We’ll get him examined. You don’t want to find anything. But, hopefully, we can come up with some kind of solution. I know he’s going crazy, too.”

Arroyo was clear that he doesn’t think anything is physically wrong with him.

“There ain’t nothing to check out,” he said. “They said they want to check me out? That’s probably the best I felt in years on a day game. I’ve got no excuses. They just beat my (butt). I had a good fastball, decent command, everything felt good.”

At 1-4 with an 8.63 ERA, if Arroyo is still in your fantasy lineup, you might need a trip to the doctor too.

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.

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.

To say that you must keep up with minor league prospects in order to win your fantasy baseball league is a bit of a stretch. You don’t HAVE to look to the youngsters in the minors, but boy can it sure help. Think about Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo from last season. Don’t you think the fantasy GM’s who were tracking them in the minors greatly benefited from signing them upon the call ups to the show?

So, we’re going to keep an eye on the minor leagues this season. Here we go…

1. Cameron Maybin | AA Carolina Mudcats | Florida Marlins - Maybin should have won the center field job for the Marlins out of Spring Training, but a little more minor league seasoning can’t hurt, right? Through 10 games in 2008 he’s averaging .303/.477/.545 with 2 home runs and 3 stolen bases and is just a quick flight away from Miami when Amezaga stops overproducing. Maybin should use the extra time in Double-A to work on hitting lefties, which shouldn’t be a problem for this right-handed youngster. MLB ETA: June 2008
2. Clayton Kershaw | AA Jacksonville Suns | Los Angeles Dodgers - What does a mid-90’s fastball with a plus curve get you these days? Well, if you’re Clayton Kershaw, it gets you to Double-A by the time you turn 20 and also turns you into the top Dodgers pitching prospect. He’s 0-2 so far this season in two starts, but his ERA is good at 3.38 and he’s got a very nice strikeout to walk ratio of 3.00 (12:4). The Dodgers rotation isn’t really rock solid at the #5 spot, and Kershaw could find himself pitching in Los Angeles earlier than expected if he keeps his K:BB ratio rolling along. MLB ETA: July 2008
3. Jo-Jo Reyes | AAA Richmond Braves | Atlanta Braves - This 23-year-old lefty was brought up to Atlanta a bit too early last season and suffered in 10 Major League starts with a 6.21 ERA and an abysmal 0.9 strikeout to walk ratio (27:30). If anyone could benefit from another year in the minors, it’s Jo-Jo. But, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen in 2008. Atlanta starting pitchers are dropping like flies and Reyes is really impressive so far in 2008 in his 2 starts.  He’s yet to record a victory, but he hasn’t allowed an earned run and has a phenomenal strikeout to walk ratio of 4.66 (14:3). MLB ETA: May 2008 (most likely late April… next week even)