Orioles Roster Review: Least Valuable Pitchers

Paul Folkemer looks back at the 10 pitchers who added the least value to the 2016 Baltimore Orioles:

https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/10/25/2016-orioles-roster-review-part-three-the-replaceable-pitchers

I am shocked, just shocked, to see Gallardo and Jimenez on this list. I would have had Matusz on the list over Drake or Hunter.

No mention of how Miley improved after taking with Scotty M, either.

Drake had a pretty good year when Buck wasn't asking him to this:

6/28 @ SD 37 Pitches 22K/15B 1.2 IP 3ER - Clearly struggled after a 1-2-3 1st inning of work.

6/29 @ SD 21 Pitches 14/7 0.2 IP 3ER- Right back out there after throwing 37 the day before.

Still had an ERA of only 4.00 for the year. Let up only 2ER in his other 16 IP. Obviously we had guys up from the minors last year to eat innings. This was a case where Drake had to take one for the team last year. We won both games @SD and they were blowouts.

I'm not some Drake fanboy, but the article is way off here on their evaluation. Drake is a valuable part of our pen. Has an option remaining, good K rate, can get LH's out too, makes the league min.

I am shocked, just shocked, to see Gallardo and Jimenez on this list. I would have had Matusz on the list over Drake or Hunter.

Matusz was already covered in the first part of the series, for players who appeared in 10 games or fewer. That's just how I chose to group them. But yes, he was certainly awful.

Drake had a pretty good year when Buck wasn't asking him to this:

6/28 @ SD 37 Pitches 22K/15B 1.2 IP 3ER - Clearly struggled after a 1-2-3 1st inning of work.

6/29 @ SD 21 Pitches 14/7 0.2 IP 3ER- Right back out there after throwing 37 the day before.

Still had an ERA of only 4.00 for the year. Let up only 2ER in his other 16 IP. Obviously we had guys up from the minors last year to eat innings. This was a case where Drake had to take one for the team last year. We won both games @SD and they were blowouts.

I'm not some Drake fanboy, but the article is way off here on their evaluation. Drake is a valuable part of our pen. Has an option remaining, good K rate, can get LH's out too, makes the league min.

Good point about the pitch count in the SD games. But Drake only appeared in 14 games, and not in many high-leverage situations, so how valuable could he be?

I stand by my assessment of him being one of the Orioles' less valuable pitchers. That's not the same as saying he was bad.

Matusz was already covered in the first part of the series, for players who appeared in 10 games or fewer. That's just how I chose to group them. But yes, he was certainly awful.

There are 19 pitchers who appeared in at least 11 games -- so, the bottom 10 is over half of them. I guess everyone else is in the top 9?

Good point about the pitch count in the SD games. But Drake only appeared in 14 games, and not in many high-leverage situations, so how valuable could he be?

I stand by my assessment of him being one of the Orioles' less valuable pitchers. That's not the same as saying he was bad.

I agree with others that Drake is a weird choice. You can't really blame him for lack of opportunity.

O'Day pitched more innings, made a lot more money, but put up pretty similar numbers. He has to be on this list.

If you are going to count guys who made it to the team but did poorly in spot situations, I would say Ondrusek was worse than Drake, and Miranda was "less valuable" simply by virtue of only pitching 2 innings.

I agree with others that Drake is a weird choice. You can't really blame him for lack of opportunity.

I'm not blaming him for anything. He just didn't get into many games, and didn't pitch in many high-leverage situations. Ergo, he wasn't really that valuable in 2016.

I think people are conflating "Least Valuable" with "Bad." That's not necessarily the case with every pitcher listed here.

O'Day pitched more innings, made a lot more money, but put up pretty similar numbers. He has to be on this list.

The "more innings" thing is a big separator for me. O'Day pitched more than twice as many innings as Drake, and pitched solidly (if not great), which makes him more valuable.

If you are going to count guys who made it to the team but did poorly in spot situations, I would say Ondrusek was worse than Drake, and Miranda was "less valuable" simply by virtue of only pitching 2 innings.

Ondrusek and Miranda were both covered in the 10 games or less section.

Maybe the way I've grouped the categories is confusing. I have one section for players with 10 or fewer games, since they were basically non-entities in 2016. Then of the remaining players, I group them into least valuable, solid, and most valuable.

I'm not blaming him for anything. He just didn't get into many games, and didn't pitch in many high-leverage situations. Ergo, he wasn't really that valuable in 2016.

I think people are conflating "Least Valuable" with "Bad." That's not necessarily the case with every pitcher listed here.

The "more innings" thing is a big separator for me. O'Day pitched more than twice as many innings as Drake, and pitched solidly (if not great), which makes him more valuable.

Ondrusek and Miranda were both covered in the 10 games or less section.

Maybe the way I've grouped the categories is confusing. I have one section for players with 10 or fewer games, since they were basically non-entities in 2016. Then of the remaining players, I group them into least valuable, solid, and most valuable.

Matusz had more impact (bad) in his six innings than Drake had in his 18.

With the O's, Miley had a great 9.2 K/9 rate, to go with a good 2.5 BB/9 and okay 1.2 HR/9. He gave up a ton of hits, singles and doubles. LD% was the same as with SEA at 28% (seems high, I'm not sure what the AL avg is). Did he just run into some horrible luck?