Quick Afternoon Hits

Joe Girardi is not ready to bench Brett Gardner just yet.

While I laid out the alternatives to Brett Gardner the other day, I can’t say I’m shocked he’s not being benched. It makes sense to give him a handful more plate appearances to see if he can right the ship. Not so fun fact: Brett Gardner’s total bases and OPS+ are equal so far this year: 9.

This morning, Josh Norris laid out just how well the Charleston RiverDogs have been pitching in the early season:

Charleston RiverDogs starting pitchers: 74 innings, 77 strikeouts, 20 walks. Those numbers mean a 9.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, and a 3.9 K/BB.

And of course there’s the combo of Tommy Kahnle and Dan Burawa – 27 strikeouts, 7 walks, 1 HR, 21 2/3 innings. That’s a combined FIP of 2.566.

Like my 11 AM post, Pinstripe Alley took a look at other Yankee SSS issues.

My long-time Internet buddy Mike Rogers took a look at the Tigers and Jim Leyland’s bullpen usage through a bubble chart. Spoiler alert: I’ll probably be jumping into something like this as well.

MLB is moving towards a ten team playoff. Ugh.

Carlos Silva is throwing BP today and Kevin Millwood is starting for Scranton tonight (H/T RAB). These so called “scrap heap” moves will start having a greater effect in the coming days and weeks, so keep an eye on Silva and Millwood.

Great piece here from JoePoz about the Hall of Fame, that makes mention of two of my “I wish they got more consideration” cases, John Olerud and Kevin Brown.

And, finally, the Brewers inexplicably signed Ryan Braun to a five year extension yesterday. I just don’t get this move at all. The Brewers assume all the risk and it seems completely unnecessary, considering Braun is under contract through 2015 anyway.

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