AccuScore
| Joba Out of Commission |
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Joba Chamberlain is heading to the DL, but he actually received some good news as well. Ian Kennedy will get another shot in the rotation in the meantime while a former Yankee is enjoying his short time with his new team in the NL.
 A visit to see Dr. James Andrews is never good for a baseball player, but Joba Chamberlain got news about as good as one can hope for after making a pilgrimage to Alabama. The Yankee ace was still placed on the disabled list Wednesday, but he was diagnosed with tendinitis in his throwing shoulder. Luckily an MRI revealed nothing more serious. There is still no timetable for his return, and Chamberlain will be shut down for a week before starting on a throwing program. While a DL-stint is always a concern for a pitcher, the prognosis doesn’t sound too bad and Chamberlain should be back on the field in a few weeks. Fellow rookie Ian Kennedy will be called up over the weekend to make a start instead of the recently displaced Darrell Rasner. Kennedy actually has been pitching very well at Scranton-Wilkes Barre (AAA). Over his last four starts he has struck out 20 in 27 innings allowing just 4 runs. He is 3-0 over that span. Maybe this is the time he will stick at the major league level. Kennedy is a control-style pitcher and has failed spectacularly so far with New York, but I still have faith in him as a prospect. His minor league performance certainly says he is capable of so much more, and he is still only 23 years old. Kennedy is one to watch for 2009 along with the injured Phil Hughes. • Jeff Karstens is enjoying the National League much better than the American League. One of the newest Pittsburgh Pirates is having some immediate success on the field. Karstens took a perfect game into the eighth inning against Arizona before Chris Young doubled to break it and the no-hitter up with two outs. Karstens would allow one more hit and a walk, but he did finish the game and notch his first career shutout. He is now 2-0 for the Pirates and has yet to allow a run. He actually has struck out just six batters and walked five though so no, this is not real. Karstens is a decent pitcher though for the National league, but if you think he could actually be this good a la Justin Duchscherer or Cliff Lee you are very mistaken. • I will continue to pimp Rafael Perez until he is the closer in Cleveland. He is clearly the best reliever on the team, although manager Eric Wedge is probably doing the smart baseball thing by pitching him in higher leverage innings earlier in the game. But that doesn’t help us in fantasy. Masa Kobayashi certainly isn’t helping any teams, and he blew yet another save Wednesday. • Texas rookie David Murphy had a nice run as a fantasy relevant player this year, but that’s over with now that he has been placed on the DL. He suffered a strained right knee ligament that could hold him out for up to four weeks. A full month would mark a return sometime in September and leave very little of the season. Feel free to drop Murphy as his performance lately wasn’t much better than anything you could find on waivers. • Ervin Santana wasn’t perfect (7 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 7 K) but he still got the job done winning his 13th game. He and Joe Saunders now have 27 combined wins already to offset the loss of starter Kelvim Escobar. Jose Arredondo pitched a perfect final two innings for Santana against Baltimore, and now sports an ERA of just 1.03. The rookie has been lights-out this season, and could be in the mix as closer in 2009 if Francisco Rodriguez opts for free agency. • Jay Bruce is on a 10-game hitting streak and has 5 home runs and 8 RBI in his last 6 games. With the trade of Ken Griffey Jr. he is also now batting third in the lineup, and is showing much more power than when he was batting leadoff just a couple weeks ago. Try and steal him cheap before your league’s trade deadline. Remember this is a true superstar prospect not some random rookie going through hot and cold streaks. • St. Louis officially is going by closer-by-committee. Jason Isringhausen and Ryan Franklin just have not been getting the job done. One intriguing name in the pen could be prospect Jaime Garcia. His future is as a starter, but that did not prevent Adam Wainwright from having great success for a year as a closer. Perhaps Tony LaRussa will try Garcia in a similar role. • The Tigers are three games under .500 and 8.5 games back of the White Sox after losing to their rivals again Wednesday. It might be time to put them to rest for the year; they just don’t look capable of mounting a serious challenge with such serious issues in their bullpen. Todd Jones might be ready to come back in a week, but his presence won’t solve Detroit’s problems. Joel Zumaya might still nominally be the closer but he will be limited the rest of the year in an effort to keep him healthy. He supposedly was unavailable Wednesday after pitching (and blowing a save) on Tuesday. • Turns out Shaun Marcum just needed to face the A’s in order to get his mojo back. He had been terrible in three starts since returning from a stint on the disabled list giving up 16 runs and subsequently being dropped in a lot of leagues. Marcum showed his real stuff on Wednesday though going 7 strong innings striking out 7 and allowing just 2 walks and a solo home run to Bobby Crosby. Before his injury, Marcum was the AL leader in ERA so don’t be dismissive of this performance because it came against the weak Oakland lineup. • Marcum’s start was also interesting because his opposing pitcher was Gio Gonzalez who was making his major league debut. The rookie gave up four runs in six innings with four strikeouts. He’s thought by some to be the top pitching prospect for Oakland, and although I prefer Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill, he still bears watching. I doubt he becomes mixed league relevant this season given the struggles of even more highly regarded prospects like Clayton Kershaw.
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