Pitching Wholesale

Alex Anthopoulos shops for pitchers like a woman at the checkout counter ends up being shitty magazines and soap opera digests. Does it look like it might be interesting? Fuck it, you’ve got room in the car, it’s only three bucks, and if it sucks, you give it to your kids to cut up for that collage project they have to do for Easter. Looking past the allegory that I’ve just waterboarded into oblivion, the Jays current signings have all involved pretty marginal arms from the disused corners of the minor leagues and the rank ends of other teams’ depth charts to see if they can be made to work.

The interesting thing about the strategy though, is that most of these guys were first round prospects at one point. Highly touted for whatever reason as young players and have hit a snag (or in a few cases, severe tire damage) in their development and are on the skids. The most obvious case of this is Brandon Morrow, who we’ve looked at before as being the textbook case of how not to develop a starter. The signings are mostly depth or a shot in the dark, but if there is one key strength the Blue Jays have displayed as an organization, it has been the ability to develop underlooked starters who can go toe to toe against the monstrous and expensive offensives of the AL East.



There’s no parallel existence in which Kevin Gregg is an excellent pitcher. At best, he’s had stretches of being a decent reliever who has closing experience and walks too many batters. His numbers in 2008 and 2007 were fairly solid, and according to reports, suffered through knee problems in 2009, which limited his effectiveness. In other words, his ability to find the strike zone without rucking it straight down the pipe. Gregg’s key value to the organization, oddly enough, is not necessarily as a pitcher per say. With Gregg, the Jays gain flexibility to move either Frasor or Downs without hurting their relief depth, and if Gregg has a half-decent year and decides to use that to dangle himself on the market, he’s worth a draft pick. With Frasor and Downs entering free agency after 2010, Gregg’s option is a very low cost price for a closer, even if he’s a marginal one.



Dana Eveland is kind of the new Josh Towers; a not very good pitcher who has the makeup to have pretty good stuff. Unfortunately, he’s struggled with his control, and last year, was rumoured to be pitching through an injury of some type. He was also spectacularly unlucky last year, with a BABIP of .400. All those excuses aside, he’s still not a good pitcher. However, he throws a lot of groundballs, and was establishing himself as an acceptable back of the rotation starter in 2010. What he has is experience, and if he can limit his ridiculous walk rate and keep the ball down, he could be a serviceable anchor for the back end of a very young rotation.



Yes, yes, he’s already been nicknamed ‘oily pussy wig’ by people. We get it. Merkin Valdez is a Daniel Cabrera type; electric stuff, lots of power, and couldn’t hit the town bike much less the strike zone. Merkin throws hard, really hard; 95mph through nine hard. He’s got a good change and basically nothing else. He has been handled almost as well as Morrow, with the Giants being patient enough to give him a whole inning in the minors rehabbing an injury before bringing him back up. Valdez’ talent is unquestioned. The big wonder is whether or not the Jays can get him to control it at the big league level.