MLB Weekly Wrap-up (Week of 5/4/15)
In the most recent weekly wrap-up, New York Yankees 3rd baseman Alex Rodriguez was the main headline after tying Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time homerun list with number 660 (Rodriguez has since moved past Mays after hitting his 661st homerun last week). Now, a pitching milestone is stealing the spotlight. Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez tallied the 2,000th strikeout of his career on Sunday in a 4-3 win over the Athletics, bringing his record on the season to 6-0. Hernandez became the fourth-youngest pitcher ever to reach the milestone, doing so at just 29 years and 32 days of age. Hernandez also has more strikeouts than any other Venezuelan-born pitcher in history. Since making his first all-star appearance in 2009 and winning the CY Young award in 2010, King Felix has been one of the top pitchers in all of baseball. He even has a perfect game to his name. If he continues on this trajectory, expect Hernandez to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer whenever he decides to retire from major league baseball.
The Los Angeles Dodgers entered last offseason with a small problem: they had five quality outfielders (with a sixth on the way) fighting for playing time among the three outfield spots. That forced the Dodgers to trade away Matt Kemp in the offseason, and they would ideally like to move Andre Ethier too if anybody wanted him and his expensive contract. Even with top prospect Joc Pederson off to a fast start in his first major league season, the Dodgers may now have a new outfield problem to deal with: the recurring hamstring injury to one of their biggest starts, Yasiel Puig. Puig has missed the last two weeks after straining his left hamstring. He was on a rehab assignment in the minors and was hoping to return to the Dodgers by the beginning of this week. However, Puig pulled up lame while running out a groundball on Friday night, so it appears as if he is back to square one with this injury. With fellow outfielder Carl Crawford also on the disabled list, the Dodgers are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that Puig’s setback is a minor one. His MRI is scheduled for Monday.
Hottest Team: Washington Nationals (5-1 last week)
Image courtesy of sportslogos.net
A couple of weeks ago, the Nationals were the coldest team in all of baseball, and really struggling to live up to the expectations that were set for them back in spring training. The pitching was simply average, and the offense was stuck in neutral. However, as the calendar turned to May, this team started to turn the corner. The Nationals took two out of three from the Miami Marlins last week and swept the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. They have won 10 out of their last 12 games, pulling to within 3.5 games of the Mets in the National League East division. The Nationals are battling injuries to key players such as Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon, but they still have enough talent to take this division. A 100-win season is likely no longer in play, but perhaps a deep October run is.
Coldest Team: Colorado Rockies (0-4 last week)
Image courtesy of sportslogos.net
The Rockies had three games postponed last week due to inclement weather, which as it turns out, was probably a good thing. This team has been ice cold of late, both literally and figuratively (the team woke up Sunday to see Coors Field covered in snow in the middle of May). After starting the season with a respectable 11-8 record, the Rockies have now lost nine in a row, falling eight games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. Over the course of that losing streak, the pitching has been abysmal: 76 runs allowed over those nine games. The majority of those runs were allowed on the road, so the blame cannot be placed on the mile high altitude in Colorado. It is simply a lack of talent on this roster. Since reaching the World Series in 2007, the Rockies have been very mediocre other than a wildcard berth in 2009. It is time for this team to trade its two stars, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, in order to replenish the farm system and rebuild from the bottom up.
Best Hitter: Bryce Harper – Nationals (.455 AVG, 6 HR, 13 RBI last week)
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports
It is no coincidence that the Nationals are the hottest team in baseball right now. They have been almost single-handedly carried these past few days by Bryce Harper. After starting last week with a couple of hitless games, Harper went on an absolute tear. He hit 3 homeruns with 5 runs batted in against the Marlins on Wednesday, and he followed that up with 2 HR and 5 RBI against the Braves on Friday. If that wasn’t enough, Harper homered for a third straight game on Saturday, this time in walk-off fashion. He has 10 hits in his last 16 at-bats, with six of those hits being homeruns. Those are crazy numbers. This is Harper’s fourth season in the big leagues, so it is easy to forget that he is still only 22 years old. Perhaps Harper is finally living up to the massive hype that followed him out of high school and becoming the reliable force in the middle of the lineup that the Nationals desperately need.
Best Pitcher: Michael Pineda – Yankees (2-0, 0.60 ERA, 22 SO last week)
Image courtesy of Associated Press
In 2011, Michael Pineda was a member of the Mariners and was considered one of the best young pitchers in the game. He made the all-star team as a rookie that season. The Yankees then acquired Pineda from the Mariners that offseason, hoping that he would be a front-end starter to pair with CC Sabathia. However, during 2012 spring training, the velocity on Pineda’s fastball was down, causing him to be put on the disabled list. He eventually had shoulder surgery, causing him to miss all of 2012 and a big chunk of the 2013 season. More injuries limited him in 2014, but he was solid in his limited number of starts. Pineda is throwing well this season too, and was flat out dominant last week. On Tuesday, he threw 8 shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, and on Sunday, he pitched 7 innings against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing just one run and striking out a career-high 16 batters. Pineda has yet to lose a decision in 2015. Perhaps, the Yankees are finally getting the kind of return on their investment that they envisioned when making the trade a few years ago.
Be sure to check out last weeks MLB weekly wrap-up here!
