The Detroit Tigers have seen Prince Fielder's numbers drop significantly in 2013. Photograph: Aaron Josefczyk/ReutersThe Tigers come shot back to earth after ripping off 16 wins in 17 games, a remarkable stretch of dominance that included a 12-game winning streak. Since then Detroit have dropped four out of six games - nothing to be concerned about of course, especially when you consider the separation between themselves and the pack, Cleveland and Kansas City, both chasing in the American League Central. Generally speaking it's good to be a Tigers fan right now, but if there is a concern it has to be with Prince Fielder - his numbers have plummeted across the board this season and it's hard not to wonder if this is the start of the kind of decline we've seen in players such as Albert Pujols. Torii Hunter thinks otherwise, hinting at the reason for his struggles on Tuesday, telling Detroit Sports 105.1 FM radio that:
Prince is a strong guy. A lot of people don't know what's going on in his life. This guy is a strong guy. He's out there every day. He won't come out of the lineup, no matter what's going on off the field or on the field. He's a strong guy. Us as players, we know what's really going on and we appreciate him going out there every day.
Whatever is going on in Prince's personal life, and Larry Brown Sports is claiming that Fielder is going through a divorce from his wife Chanel, it's certainly affecting his game - his batting average is down over 50 points from last season, his slugging percentage is down nearly 100 points while his on base percentage is also down. Last season Fielder hit 30 home runs, this year he is on pace for 23. Sluggers can have off years, but Fielder hasn't put up these sort of numbers since he was a rookie, and that was a small sample of 39 games. Hunter also said:
There's always something going on in somebody's life. He, just like everybody else, has something going on. He's fighting through it and he's getting it done. You guys don't need to know what it is unless he wants to tell you. That's it. That's all that was said. It's the truth.
Credit Hunter for defending a teammate whose subpar play has made him somewhat of a target for Tigers fans despite the overall success of the team. Fielder seemed to be OK with Hunter running interference, saying later on Tuesday that "we're good", while playing down any personal issues.
I'm going to turn the story off. It's fine. Everything's fine.
Maybe it is, or maybe there is more to Fielder's slump than just everyday people problems. Perhaps he's the victim of his own success in staying healthy and on the field - Prince's consecutive games streak is now up to 462 games, and the last time Fielder missed a game was back in September of 2010 when a consecutive games streak of 327 games came to an end. Fielder has made it clear that he takes pride in the streaks, but in a season full of pitfalls for the 29-year-old, the slugger may just need a few games off to recharge, one argument that his manager, Jim Leyland, will have a tough time winning.
Everybody thinks the Washington Nationals are out of the race for the playoffs, except of course, the Washington Nationals - that much was evident on Wednesday night when Denard Span reached out and made a game saving catch against the Giants to preserve a 6-5 victory and keep their winning streak alive at five games. Bryce Harper jumped all over Span as he raced to join his teammates on the mound to celebrate another vital victory, and their body language didn't read like a team playing out the string, quite the contrary.
For all their issues in 2013, their starting pitching rotation can keep them in any game, and, as it has been all season long, they are an offensive groove away from returning to 2012 form. Is it too late? If you ask coolstandings.com the answer is yes. The sabermetric website says Washington have just a three percent chance of reaching the postseason. The team they are chasing, the Cincinnati Reds, are on a little run of their own, winners of four straight and don't look like relinquishing that 8.5 game advantage in the wild card race – coolstandings.com gives them a whopping 71% chance of reaching the postseason via one of the two wild card playoff spots available. Here's the thing though, the three teams battling it out in the National League Central, Pittsburgh, St Louis and those Reds will play a lot of games against each other down the stretch. If one of those teams get beaten up during that stretch and the Nats catch fire, they could make up a lot of ground pretty quickly. So, while the odds are very much against them, yes, I'm saying there's a chance.
New York Yankees outfielder Alfonso Soriano has been a hit in his return to the Bronx. Photograph: Ray Stubblebine/Reuters All of a sudden the Yankees can hit home runs again, and it's not Alex Rodriguez who has been going deep in droves, rather, it's the slugger he was traded for back in 2004 who is supplying the power. Alfonso Soriano is back in the Bronx after being reacquired from the Chicago Cubs and has been carrying the team after a slow start to his second act in New York. The 37-year-old outfielder struck out 21 times in his first 16 games after arriving, but has made adjustments, exploding for four home runs in two nights, including a grand slam in the first inning of the Yankees' Wednesday encounter with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. New York hit just 10 home runs in July but thanks to Soriano and the rest of the team picking up the pace, the Bronx Bombers have 15 in August, and there's still two weeks to go.
Couple that with Rodriguez making slow and steady progress, which included his first home run of the season on Sunday, and all of a sudden the offensively challenged Yankees, just five games out of a wild card spot right now, are showing signs of life with their bats, an issue which has plagued them all season long. They'll also be encouraged by news that Derek Jeter is taking batting practice in preparation for a return, although the Yankee captain won't say when.
I would like to [play], of course. It's up to them. Like I said, of course I'd like to, but it's not up to me. At this point, do you think I have any input in anything that goes on around here?
Yes, if there's one thing we've learned lately it's that the Yankees get upset when the inmates try to run the asylum. A-Rod, who is playing pending an appeal of his 211-game suspension by Major League Baseball for his connection to the defunct Biogenesis of America wellness clinic that allegedly supplied performance enhancing drugs to MLB players, was reportedly fined roughly $150,000 on Sunday for failing to turn up to a rehab game on 12 July and seeking a second opinion on his quad injury in the run-up to his return, while Francisco Cervelli was also fined for a similar offense, a failure to turn up to his hand and shoulder rehab on 28 July. Who says the Yankees play favorites?
On Tuesday, the legal/PR team representing A-Rod denied a New York Daily News report that the Yankees third baseman would have taken a suspension of 80 or 100 games followed by a paid retirement had the deal been offered by Major League Baseball during the pre-suspension negotiations.
Meanwhile, back on the field, closer Mariano Rivera faces an unprecedented crisis in confidence after blowing three consecutive saves, something that once seemed as likely as daily flights to Saturn. In a strange sort of way, we're finally going to see how the closer, whose last appearance came on Sunday, deals with adversity - aside from his knee injury in Kansas City last season, Rivera really hasn't had much over an unprecedented 19-year career.
Fresh off the Yasiel Puig explosion comes another Cuban prospect via defection – Jose Abreu has taken up residence in Haiti and should land in the United States as a free agent soon enough. Thanks to Puig, the hype is building for a player who could get a contract upwards of $50m, well deserved according to his childhood friend and Baltimore Orioles rookie Henry Urrutia, who also defected two years ago.
He's one of the greatest players to ever come out of Cuba and I know he suffered there, making $300 a year. What are you going to do with that? He has so much talent and he's playing with torn batting gloves and old balls there. The bats aren't very good. The equipment is old. Imagine what he's going to be like when he gets to work with quality equipment. I don't think there is anyone I can compare him to right now. I heard Ryan Howard. And as a person, there is no comparison.
Yoenis Cespedes certainly brightened the financial futures of Cuban prospects with his monster rookie season, but if not for the way Puig performed in Los Angeles, chances are Abreu would not be getting the sort of attention he is getting now, which is lots. Just consider what the respected publication Baseball America was saying about Puig after LA signed him to a seven-year $42m deal.
What are the Dodgers thinking? … The question around baseball is how the Dodgers could justify awarding such a lavish contract to a player who scouts considered more of a solid than a spectacular prospect. Puig hasn't played in a year, and aside from a light series of workouts last weekend that were more notable for a circus atmosphere than anything else, he hasn't been seen (legally) by American scouts since June 2011.
Now consider the sort of numbers Abreu put up in Cuba - in the 2011-2012 season, he hit .394 with an OPS of 1.379, which included 35 homers in 71 games for Cienfuegos. This season he hit .382 with an OPS of 1.270 with 13 homers over 42 games - jaw dropping numbers, which should provide him with some decent leverage in negotiations, as will his recent appearance in the World Baseball Classic during which he hit three homers in six games. However, some in the business advise caution – the same Baseball America article that described the bewilderment surrounding LA's financial commitment to Puig, also included this quote from an unknown Latin American director:
Leslie Anderson's numbers were good in Cuba –where's he at?
Yes, Anderson had impressive career numbers in Cuba over nine seasons, flirting with a .900 OPS, but the answer to the question is he's in the Tampa Bay Rays system at AAA Durham where he's been for three years. To be fair, he's having a great 2013, albeit, at the wrong level.
So, is Jose Abreu the next Yasiel Puig or the next Leslie Anderson, and who will take the gamble? The sweepstakes has only just begun, but so far teams rumored to be interested include Miami and Boston.
Dan Uggla is having trouble seeing the ball these days, so he's getting voluntary LASIK eye surgery...during the season. Photograph: RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS Dan Uggla has never put up the prettiest of stat lines but this season has been a whole other level of ugly. The Braves second baseman is hitting .186, by far the worst batting average in baseball among non-pitchers. What's changed? Well, if you ask Uggla, it's his declining eyesight. Uggla is leaving the team to undergo LASIK eye surgery, which will keep him out for a month, something that's a bit strange but is basically a non-issue for Atlanta as they've basically wrapped up the National League East. Tyler Pastornicky was brought up to replace him, but after hurting his knee on Wednesday, Atlanta may have to dig a bit deeper into their system to temporarily replace the All-Star.
Uggla is one of those players that's been able to keep his job despite a plummeting batting average and a rising strikeout total because of his power. Despite compiling a WAR of -1.9 this season, because Uggla has blasted 21 home runs (a lot these days, that ranks him seventh in the National League), his league leading 146 strikeouts and other putrid statistics are tolerated. Somewhere, somehow, striking out at a furious rate became acceptable in baseball, and there's no sign of that changing now that we're in a pitcher's era. Strikeouts are down slightly this season compared to last season, but before that, you have to go all the way back to 2004 to find a year in which strikeout rates dropped. Because of that overarching trend and his moderate-to-good power, Uggla will almost definitely have a job when he returns and the Braves head to the postseason.
