Sean Doolittle (shoulder) sounds likely to make two more outings in the minors before being activated. His velocity is down about three mph, and there’s no telling how frequently he will be able to take the bump when he joins the A’s. Not like Edward Mujica is any good – 5.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 6.00 K/9 – but it’s no lock that Doolittle will be closing any time soon, or have success when he returns to the majors.

Yu Darvish threw today from 45 feet, 25 throws, as he begins his throwing program coming back from Tommy John surgery. He is hopeful, but not certain, to be ready for Opening Day next year. Meanwhile, Derek Holland is set to return from his shoulder issue Wednesday. He’s made one outing this year that counted and is tough to trust despite his talent.

Sonny Gray is really good. Check it out.

Randal Grichuk… not good news, but not awful. GM John Mozeliak of the Cardinals estimated that the star youngster sill be out 15-20 games due to an elbow injury. Grichuk has a low-grade strain in his right elbow according to an MRI and should be fine long-term. Might see Peter Bourjos and Tommy Pham more frequently, though neither will come close to replacing the wonderful work of Randal (.284-15-44-46-4 with a .894 OPS over 85 games).

Jedd Gyorko playing shortstop for the first time as a pro on Monday. Yeah, the Padres really know what they are doing. Sure he has hits in eight of 10 games, and has 11 RBIs in that time, but he’s also hitting .229 with a .620 OPS against righties and faces Williams Perez Monday.

Jason Kipnis will return from his shoulder issue Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. He’s been an elite performer this season hitting .326 with a .401 OBP and .477 SLG. At the same time he only has six homers and 11 steals, off the 15/20 pace he’s previously established.

Dustin Pedroia (hamstring) was able to, finally, take batting practice Monday giving he, and the Red Sox, hope that he might be able to return from the injury before the end of August in what has become a very tricky situation including setbacks (he last appeared on July 22nd). In 75 games he has hit .287 with a .348 OBP, nine homers, 34 RBIs and 35 runs scored.

David Peralta last 12 games through a quad issue: .463/.511/.756. Crazy good. He’s also hit three homers with 15 RBIs. On the year he’s batting .304 with a .897 OPS with 12 homers and 63 RBIs. Compared to last season, in the exact same number of at-bats, he has four homer homers, 27 more RBIs and six more runs scored. No one saw this coming.

Gregory Polanco over 11 games… finally getting it a going. He’s batting .400 with a .455 OBP and .660 SLG. Three homers and two steals as Polanco joins the VIP party.

Matt Wieters (hamstring) ran the bases Monday and it sounds like he will be able to avoid the disabled list. For more on the performance of Wieters, Caleb Joseph and other catchers see this Daily Trends report.

Shocker. David Wright will not return this weekend from a back injury as was previously expected. Just a little bit of a delay though as he’s now scheduled to return Monday in Philadelphia. I don’t see how anyone could have any confidence in him at the moment. 

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday at 8 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).