Devourer of young pitchers, heart-er of scrub veterans.

One of the biggest threats to a young pitcher is being brought along too fast or overworked too much–Dusty Baker and Kerry Wood ring a bell–and if your team is sporting a hot young prospect, you may just have reason to be a little worried. Tom Verducci catalogues some of the pitchers that may be in danger of overuse and injury this year and fans and fantasy players may want to keep an eye out.

How much should those guys be worried? Over the previous three years I red-flagged a total of 24 young pitchers at the start of those seasons. Of those 24 at-risk pitchers, 16 were hurt in that same season. Only one of the 24 pitchers managed to stay healthy and lower his ERA: Ubaldo Jimenez of Colorado, a guy I said would be less at risk because of his powerful body type.

Names on the list include Cole Hamels and Tim Linecum.

Source.

Rick Vaughn pitching, SI

Mark Teixeira - maybe not the next Reggie?

Prized free agent acquisition C.C. Sabathia made his Yankees debut today and promptly got shelled with slow-starting also-prized free agent acquisition Mark Teixeira also not doing so great as the Orioles drubbed the Yanks 10-5.

Sabathia lasted only four and a third innings, allowing six runs, eight hits and five walks. He did not record a strikeout. Teixeira went 0 for 4, each out coming with at least one runner on base. A Maryland native, Teixeira was jeered all day for turning down an offer from his hometown team.

Yankees faithful can only hope this is a bump on the road to much brighter things.

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Rick Vaughn c.c. Sabathia, mark texiera, New York Times, pitching, yankees

Japanese baseball in a nutshell

Wither Darrell Rasner? The former Yankees #4 starter was shuffled aside when Cashman brought in some firepower over the off-season and went where Cheap Trick and other once-great American creations go to eke out a living: Japan.

Unfortunately, he’s n0t doing so great there, either.

Making his first start for the Rakuten Eagles, Rasner coasted through the first three innings against the Nippon Ham Fighters, retiring nine of 10 batters as his team took a 4-0 lead.

But in the fourth, former San Diego outfielder Terrmel Sledge hit a two-run homer. Rasner gave up six straight hits, and was taken out after allowing six runs in 3 1-3 innings.

Rasner was 5-10 last season with a 5.40 ERA in 24 games and 20 starts for the Yankees, who sold his contract to the Eagles in November.

His team rallied to win so, perhaps mercifully, he escaped without the loss.

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Rick Vaughn darrell rasner, japan, pitching, yahoo

Greg “Mad Dog” Maddux, a legend of pitching, is no longer active, but his legacy remains. Fittingly, the Braves will be retiring his number.

The Braves announced Sunday morning that they will retire Maddux’s number and induct him into their Hall of Fame during a July 17 ceremony at Turner Field.

“His fingerprints are all over the success this club enjoyed from 1991-2005,” Braves president John Schuerholz said. “Those kinds of guys who make that kind of impact deserve to be honored in the manner that we are going to honor Greg.”

For the best article on Maddux that I’ve read, see this amazing piece on ESPN.com. Or this one. While he’s not the type to open up, the man’s a legend. If only for “Chicks Dig The Long Ball.”

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Rick Vaughn greg maddux, mlb.com, pitching

Are the Orioles going to be competitive this year? Probably not. But who do you throw to the wolves in a non-competitive year?

Dempsey’s Army, one of the Orioles’ fan blogs, takes a look at who is available and builds out a “shoulda been” rotation accordingly.

Raise your hand if you honestly believe the Orioles can win this season? Yeah , me neither. So unlike most teams, this is not just a matter of picking pitchers who give the team the best chance to win. It goes deeper than that.

1) Pitchers who give you team the best chance to win.
2) Pitchers with upside who may or may not be ready for the majors but are out of minor league options.
3) Pitcher who can be used as cannon fodder, eating some innings for a couple months while better options can be found without resorting to rushing young arms to the majors.

Some interesting insights in there.

Source.

Rick Vaughn orioles, pitching

Oh, I say!

While I was preparing the previous post, I found an old New Yorker piece on Wakefield and the knuckleball. While some of the references are obviously dated, the history of the knuckleball, the grooming of Charlie Zink, and the backstory on Tim Wakefield are all fascinating. Take a peek.

The knuckleball—also known as the knuckler, the fingernail ball, the fingertip ball, the flutterball, the floater, the dancer, the bug, the butterfly ball, the moth, the bubble, the ghostball, the horseshoe, the dry spitter, and, curiously, the spinner—has been around, in one form or another, for nearly as long as professional baseball itself, though for much of that time it has been regarded with suspicion. Spinning is precisely what it does not do. In fact, a lack of spin is about the only identifying characteristic of the pitch. There is no right way to hold a knuckleball when throwing it (seams, no seams; two fingers, three), and no predictable flight pattern once it leaves the hand. “Butterflies aren’t bullets,” the longtime knuckleballer Charlie Hough once said. “You can’t aim ’em—you just let ’em go.” The pitch shakes, shimmies, wobbles, drops—it knuckles, as they say. Which is doubly confusing, because the term “knuckleball” is itself a kind of misnomer, a holdover from the pitch’s largely forgotten infancy.

Definitely worth printing out and reading wherever you do your monocle-popping deep thoughts reading.

Naturally, I mean on the toilet.

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Rick Vaughn charlie zink, knuckleball, new yorker, pitching, tim wakefield

When asked for comment, Jake Peavy angrily threw a no hitter.

The Fox News formula has taught me that you can say pretty much anything so long as you follow it with a question mark.

Rumor has it, courtesy of MLBTradeRumors, that new Padres owner Jeff Morad may be looking to shop ace Jake Peavy. Coming straight from the article, Morad says, ““It would be premature for me to say what is going to happen. The goal is to build this for the long term. I don’t know how that impacts the Peavy situation. But we’re going to do whatever we can to improve the team.”

Another, separate,  comment has Morad saying that while Peavy has been great for the club, they’re going to do whatever they can to improve the team which, let’s be fair, is pretty much anything at this point.

I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, god has given you an ace pitcher. I’ve seen Peavy in person and the kid is just phenomenal. And I suspect anyone with his talents is extremely frustrated being on a team that’s less than a contender. And an ace pitcher could stock your team with a fat wad of cash and several decent prospects.

On the other hand, the businessman in me says that trading away one of the few guys that people go to Padres games to see is a terrible, terrible idea. And a guy like Peavy is a guy you can build around. I’m not sure getting rid of him would have any immediate benefits and if those fistful of prospects don’t work out, you’re spending the rest of your life as “The guy who traded our one good player for a bunch of scrubs.”

Rick Vaughn jake peavy, Jeff morad, padres, pitching

I Googled "Braves Bullpen" and this came up. I don't know.

No, I don’t know what’s going on in that picture. I’m as disturbed as you are.

Atlanta’s top relievers aren’t doing so hot. Witness the carnage:

Over the past four games, Cox has seen his prospective relievers total 8 1/3 innings and allow 21 earned runs. That equates to a 22.68 ERA, which has been primarily accounted for by struggles from Logan and fellow left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty.

…

Closer Mike Gonzalez surrendered three earned runs in one inning Wednesday night, and he then talked about how excited he was about his increased velocity. This outing against the Nationals came just a few hours after Rafael Soriano decided to tell the Braves that he was feeling some discomfort in his left side.

It’s only Spring Training, but it’s always ominous when your bullpen implodes before the season starts. Either Bobby Cox needs to get some help on the line or he needs an exorcist to cast out the Curse of John Smoltz, last seen lurking ominously around the bullpen making spooky “Woooo!” noises.

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Rick Vaughn bobby cox, braves, john smoltz, mlb.com, pitching