yeah, Cy Young Greg Maddux Warren Spahn Andy Pettite John Smoltz Tom Glavine Phil Niekro Christy Mathewson I think they will all disagree with you. REJECTED.
Pittsburgh just flat out owns us recently. Maybe this is the best thing. If we were to get swept by the Pirates and then go to Milwaukee and get hammered management might finally realize that we are not contenders. I just dont get how management refuses to admit that this team is in serious need of a make over. The failure of the 2007 draft cemented our need to start over. There has to be a market for the likes Valverde, Erstad, Brocail, Loretta, and Tejada.
yeah, it's hard to root for your team to lose games, but losing the next 4, and having 5 or 6 days before the trade deadline....surely they'd dump some players, right?
See the word "rarely". Foul called. No rejection. Two points on free throws for the win. There are far, far more cases where elite pitchers have velocity and control than only one or the other.
Pitchers with great velocity and control don't exactly grow on trees. And there's a big gulf between crap pitching and the elites... there are plenty of "good to very good" pitchers who rely on location more than velocity. Give me a guy who throws 90-92 with control over a 95-96 mph guy who can't find the plate any day.
I didn't say great velocity, just velocity. Cassel has poor velocity. If he's not locating, he's getting tagged. The speed of his pitches will never bail him out.
depends on what you mean by "market." i don't think tejada has an ounce of trade value; not unless we pick up the majority of his remaining $19M-ish salary. and even then, i don't think he'd net anything more than a marginal prospect. erstad, brocail, loretta, blum - they're all nice bench players. teams aren't gonna give up much to acquire back-ups that likely aren't going to greatly impact the pennant race. valverde likely has value, although, again - we traded an average middle reliever and a failed middle infielder for him 7 months ago - not sure what he's done since to garner anything more.
as already stated, the velocity guys aren't exactly a dime a dozen......i can list a lot more current players who rely on location wandy rodriguez is one of them, chris sampson.....brandon webb, jake peavy to an extent. the list goes on. there are plenty of pitchers today that rely on location and have been around/will be around for awhile. instant replay, no foul. all ball. game over. cut in offseason. signed by new tai team to minumum contract.
didn't cassel throw some absurd number of innings (like 140-150) w/o giving up a bomb in triple A? wandy got tagged hard his first few starts and he's fine. Cassel has more upside than say blowkowski or hernandez. i'd like to see him stick around a lil more before i tag him with the 'he sucks' label.
I agree that Cassel is slightly more desirable than Bumkowski or Hernandez but that isn't saying much.
I am talking about pitchers with poor velocity, like Cassel. None of the guys you mentioned above have poor velocity. I was never making the point that they had to be throwing Lidge fastballs, just some kind of decent velocity plus control is usually (not always) criticial to being good or better in the big leagues. Cassel could get by with his lack of velocity in the minors but after 8 years of seasoning, it's pretty apparent that Cassel lacks big league stuff because of his total lack of velocity. He would have to be one of those rare greats to get away with control only.
Found this article using Google: “Jack has to be perfect. When he is...much velocity, you’ve got to hit your spots.” Here is an extract of what Cooper said after last night's loss: “Jack has to be perfect. When he isn’t, he gets in trouble,” Cooper said. “When you don’t throw with very much velocity, you’ve got to hit your spots.”
Here's some more reading for you Landlord: http://journals.aol.com/bads85/ManyGoFewUnderstand/entries/2005/03/28/scouting-pitchers/483 An excerpt from this article about scouting pitchers: "5. Control is important, but not paramount. Often control is mistaken for polish. Just because a guy is polished ahead of the normal learning curve does not always equate to future success. A polished pitcher will have better control, which will allow for success in the low minors, but if that control is not complemented with velocity or movement, the guy will be toast soon. Too often a guy with an 88 MPH fast ball and control at the lower minors is projected too high. An unpolished pitcher with velocity and movement has a bigger upside than a polished pitcher without those tools. However, a pitcher with great stuff who has logged a great deal of innings in the minors and still is unpolished is a major red flag. Some guys are never going to get that polish (often a result of poor mechanics). There are also polished prospects that still have control issues; these guys simply can't control their tools. Some of them eventually find control, but most don't."
His ground ball/flyball ration at AAA is awesome... something over 2. Bob Tewksbury might a good comparable example of a low velocity guy who needed some time to figure it out at the major leage level, but put together several good seasons when given a chance. And Cassel has a ton of movement on everthing he throws. Everything bends.
coop is an idiot for saying that. not because it's not true or anything......... i'm losing faith in that guy by the second.
How long does Cassel need?: http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/players/playerpage/1171067 He's barely sniffed the majors after 8 years.
Given that Cooper is not a pitching expert, I doubt he came up with that idea on his own. I am pretty sure the pitching coaches feel exactly the same way.
