News and notes
Arizona Diamondbacks
In May, expect the Diamondbacks pitchers to get a better grip. On the baseball. For the first time, a humidor will store balls at Chase Field. Team officials have talked about the idea for the last five or six years, CEO Derrick Hall said, and decided to make the move because pitchers complained about slick baseballs after leaving the club.
Hall said he didn’t consult the team’s current pitchers on the decision. Major league scouts praised the move, saying it’s only fair to the Diamondbacks pitchers.
“I think Zack Greinke discovered last year that Arizona is an awful place to pitch,” an American League scout said. “It’s one thing to pitch there now and then. But when that’s your home ballpark, it’s a different story.”
Greinke was 5-5 with a 4.81 ERA at Chase Field last season, his first with Arizona, compared with 8-2 and 3.94 on the road. The 33-year-old is in the second year of a six-year, $206.5 million contract.
u May should be a good month for center fielder A.J. Pollock, manager Torey Lovullo hinted. Noting that Pollock missed most of last season because of an elbow injury, Lovullo said it takes about 100 at-bats to get back into a baseball rhythm.
Colorado Rockies
It’s a melodramatic observation considering how early it is in the season, but it would be quite an achievement if the Rockies can tread water between now and the All-Star break.
Bad luck for the starting pitchers is putting the team to a severe test.
Chad Bettis is unavailable because of testicular cancer, subtracting a credible performer who also is an admired teammate.
Ace Jon Gray went down April 13 because of a broken foot and will be out for at least a month, manager Bud Black said. The team had won all three of his starts. The Rockies might plug reliever
Chris Rusin into their rotation. In 2015, he made 22 starts and compiled slightly subpar statistics when adjusted for Coors Field. He was off to a good start this year as a reliever.
But the franchise’s pitching depth has improved. Other candidates include prospects Jeff Hoffman, German Marquez and Harrison Musgrave.
It’s also expected that several Rockies hitters will begin to hit more in line with their career norms, giving the offense a lift.
u For Gray, the bright side to the broken foot is that his season workload should be easy to manage. The 25-year-old threw a career-high 168 innings last year.
Los Angeles Dodgers
There again is little indication the Dodgers can score enough to handle the Chicago Cubs in a series.
The Dodgers will get another chance soon, on May 26-28 at Dodger Stadium. But the Cubs pitchers dominated the series last week at Wrigley Field as Chicago won two of three.
Scoring four runs in the three games, the Dodgers batted .177 with a .250 slugging percentage.
Three games is scant evidence, but the Dodgers hit poorly against Cubs pitching last year, too. Los Angeles scored 16 runs in the seven games during the regular season, batted .136 in the four games at Wrigley Field and compiled a poor .487 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) for the season series.
Then, in the six-game National League Championship Series, the Cubs held them to a .210 batting average and shut them out in the clincher.
There’s a good reason for the struggles: The Cubs pitchers did a great job. The Dodgers can only hope the success of two hitters last week against the Cubs —
Yasmani Grandal had a .417 on-base percentage, and Andrew
Toles hit a home run — will lead to better results next month.
u Left- hander Rich Hill’s finger blister problems continue to be a mystery. He was placed on the disabled list for the second time in 11 days Monday, and manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers are so frustrated, “We’re open to anything right now.”
San Diego Padres
Now that Wil Myers has done it, who will be the next Padres player to hit for the cycle?
Manuel Margot is among the candidates. The rookie has shown home run power this month and has the speed to take extra bases.
As for where the cycle will occur, the leader in the clubhouse is Coors Field.
Two Padres have hit for the cycle since the club joined the big leagues in 1969. Both did it at Coors Field. In August 2015, the cycle by
Matt Kemp was the franchise’s first, coming in its 7,444th game.
Myers, also a right-handed hitter, duplicated Kemp’s feat this month, right down to getting a triple for the fourth hit. His career OPS at Coors is 1.159.
“You see the ball really well, it’s a great batter’s eye, you have a huge outfield,” Myers said. “It’s my favorite place to hit.”
u If he can stay healthy, look for pitching prospect Enyel De
Los Santos, 21, to make his Padres debut this season. Obtained from the Seattle Mariners two years ago for reliever Joaquin Benoit, he threw six perfect innings in a recent Class AA game.
San Francisco Giants
If nothing else, the abysmal hitting of Giants left fielders should create more attention for Class AAA Sacramento and its left fielder, Austin Slater.
“Austin Slater is an interesting guy,” an American League scout told The San Diego Union-Tribune at the end of spring training. “Made huge strides last year. I could see him potentially helping them as a platoon-outfield type.”
Weeks after those comments, Giants left fielders were struggling en masse. One of them, Jarrett
Parker, cracked his collarbone while making a play against the wall April 15 and is out until June.
Slater, 24, was hitting .314 with two doubles, a home run and eight RBI through nine games.
Among the veteran options is newcomer Melvin Upton Jr. u Madison Bumgarner, winless in three starts despite 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a complete game, will pitch Wednesday at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium for the first time since closing out the 2014 World Series there with five scoreless innings.
“He has to do a better job controlling his emotions. He was pitching a great game and then someone got on and he got the balk call and he got frustrated. ... He can do better out there mentally.” Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez, on teammate Tyler Anderson, whose ERA through three starts rose to 8.59 after a loss Friday at San Francisco