10th Round - Jay Gonzalez - Outfielder - Mount Olive

Beat writers reuse narratives around players to provide context. He is not obsessed with the guy. McKenna was a logical choice to call on when Hays down, for the reasons Roch mentions, but the O's went with the more deserving player. 

Wells can go on an extended rehab as well if there is a crunch. 

Honestly, this almost feels like a positive. Last year an outing like this might have had 4 or 5 walks. Hopefully this indicates a better ability to grind out a start without his best command. 

Yea that’s a lot of pitching.  Only 1 walk but the str% was just under 60%.

A few ideas:  McKenna has been around for a long time, Roch probably knows him pretty well.   Maybe he likes the guy.  It is a fact that Hyde (and likely Elias too) like to have a good mix of RH and LH bats, and take LH/RH splits very seriously.    We see it in their lineups, and in player moves, all the time.   It is clear based on the multitude of comments that come out each time a lineup is posted, that Hyde/Elias put a lot more stock in LH/RH splits than the majority of fans here do.   Whether you agree with them or not, the bottom line is it DOES matter to THEM, a lot.   And with Hays down, and now Burdick gone, our MLB/AAA pool of potential outfielders is VERY lefthanded, which means that McKenna probably has more value to them than he does in most our minds.   And Roch is just reflecting that value in his blog.   (When Hays got hurt, I wasn't 100% sure his replacement was going to be Kjerstad, I thought there was a chance, based on past behavior of Elias/Hyde, that it could be McKenna to get another RH bat in the mix). Perhaps Cowser has, or will, convince them that he can be an adequate backup CF if something happens to Mullins.   I don't know if that has happened yet.   But with Hays out, and Mateo so far not passing the eye test as a CF, it's possible that McKenna is still the #1 answer if something were to happen to Cedric.   Which gives him more significance than some other 4A guy who can be DFA'd 3 times in a season like Banuelos and pass through waivers or be easily replaced.

We smashed him pretty good last year and he’s due for regression. He’s an average pitcher that we should beat. 

Yeah, the limited IP so far is small.  But it feels like he's not at the right level of competition. Of course it's also as much competing against himself (pitch shape, location, etc. that the team tracks) as against the hitters too.  Like you mentioned elsewhere, he's younger than DeLeon.