Norichika Aoki had a .492 OBP coming into Tuesday action on the road. Wow.
A.J. Burnett has taken the bump 13 times going 6-2. His ERA is 1.89 and his WHIP is 1.13 after allowing one run in his last two starts (16 innings). Those are off the charts good for anyone, especially a 38 year old coming off an 8-18 season with a 4.59 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. The K-rate is down at 7.77, but he’s currently sporting the best BB/9 rate of his career (2.52). After walking four per nine last year his effort to this point has been astounding. Heck, the guy even has a 54.4 percent ground ball rate. He’s been great.
Wei-Yin Chen has been demoted. Don’t panic, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Really. He was going to have his start against the Blue Jays skipped since the Jays crush lefties mercilessly. The Orioles figured they would send him down to the minors so that they could call up Chris Parmalee to fill a bench spot over the weekend. Take a deep breath Chen owners… just an odd thing going on here. Kevin Gausman could be recalled to pitch Saturday if he looks sharp Tuesday in Frederick, and if he looks sharp Saturday let’s hope that the Orioles will finally give the youngster a shot to pitch every five days. A guy can hope.
Dee Gordon his last 26 games: .263/.282/.289. Ugh. Does have 10 steals but also has driven in just two runs.
Who does this?
My thoughts on Kyle Schwarber and Domingo Santana can be found in the Daily Trends piece.
Rookie are everywhere, clubs just love calling up talent even if it’s not experienced. My thoughts on the best of the best who have already been called up to the big leagues can be found in the Rookie Report.
Who are the best hitting options Tuesday? The Hitting Coach gives some thoughts.
Noah Syndergaard has 45 strikeouts through seven starts. Only a handful of Mets have ever had more in that timeframe: Dwight Gooden (51), Nolan Ryan (50) and Matt Harvey (49). Noah has a 3.76 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in those seven starts but there is way more than that going on. Synd has a 9.96 K/9 mark, a 1.77 BB/9 mark and a 46 percent ground ball rate. Nothing I don’t like about that. In fact, his BABIP is .342, and his effort to this point could have produced an ERA under three like SIERA (2.91) and FIP (2.91) suggest.
Kyle Elfrink, my co-host on the SiriusXM Drive (7 PM EDT, Sirius 210, XM 87), in all his glory.
Luis Valbuena has 41 hits. Sixteen of them have been home runs or 39 percent of all his hits. Dude is batting .189 with a .258 OBP. Awful he has been. What a price to pay for the power.
Vincent Velasquez was hit hard allowing seven runs, while walking two batters, as he allowed five runs over 4.2 innings against the Rockies (three earned). He struck out seven in the very uneven performance as his WHIP rose to 1.66.
And my favorite Ray Rant...
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).