Some of you who follow me on Twitter and/or are friends with me on Facebook know I have been moving this past weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have internet access and won’t until Wednesday. That delayed a piece I wanted to post over the weekend looking at worthwhile spot starters to pick up for the week. I will try to get Tuesday-Sunday up tonight, but just for the record, here were the Monday guys:
MONDAY:
Jason Hammel (COL) – Hammel and the Rockies head to Citi Field to take on the Mets. If you have been coming to this site for any amount of time, you probably know I’m a fan of Hammel’s so a matchup against an OK team in a favorable pitcher’s park for a guy with good skills is one worth utilizing. He was less than impressive in his season debut against the Dodgers, but managed to get the win. He’s got sub-4.00 ERA skills and excelling in starts like this are a major part of what will get him there.
Jesse Litsch (TOR) – After a very impressive debut where Litsch displayed an uncharacteristic penchant for strikeouts (7 in 6.3 IP v. OAK), he gets a chance to keep it going with a trip to Seattle to face the Mariners. A career 4.5 K/9 pitcher, you shouldn’t expect him to continue missing bats at the clip displayed in his first start, but if there was a team he could keep it up against, it would the uninspiring lineup of the M’s in SafeCo. Even in the Ks don’t hold, the favorable park and weak lineup should make for a quality start (both literally and figuratively).
Apart from that, I am going to the Round Rock Express series against the Omaha Storm Chasers (Kansas City’s AAA affiliate) the next four days where I aim to get a bunch of video of their top prospects for that team including Mike Montgomery and Danny Duffy who throw Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, as far as I can tell mapping things out. On the hitting side, I will get to see Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Clint Robinson, Johnny Giovatella and Lorenzo Cain. Since I will have spotty at best internet access until Wednesday afternoon, I will probably post the scouting reports Thursday, Friday and throughout the weekend.
There’s a chance that I will be heading down to San Antonio on Saturday where the Kansas City AA affiliate, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, will be playing the Missions. That series runs Thursday-Saturday so Saturday would be the only game I can get to realistically. Unfortunately, I would miss both John Lamb and Chris Dwyer based on the rotation schedule, but on the hitting side they have Wil Myers, Christian Colon, Salvador Perez and Derrick Robinson so it’s probably still worth the trip.
In addition to the Spot Starters, I’ll probably have some more profiles similar to the Trevor Cahill one from last week looking at the starts of some other pitchers. With only a few games to go off of, it’s dangerous to read too far into anything so I will be mindful of that, too.
Baseball By Paul 