Joe Orsulak: Putting Dylan Bundy In Orioles' Rotation Would Risk His Future (He's starting anyway)

[weams]

Guys. I believe 5+ is still the correct answer.

Bundy has 5 more seasons of control...PLUS....the rest of this one. No?

You are totally right. And so is Brian.

[Frobby]

Hypothetical: The Orioles put Bundy in the rotation and he wins more than he loses. The O's make the playoffs, Bundy pitches some postseason games and the O's win the World Series. Next spring, his arm starts to hurt and it's determined that he needs a second TJ surgery. He is never a successful major league pitcher again.

Worth it?

[weams]

But let's never take about a player's career beyond their six years of team control as if it is something that a team can value. If they resign, they get paid full value.

[foxfield]

My question is this:

Regardless of the number of innings Bundy gets this year, do we not also expect these same conversations next year? I don't see how we go from 80 innings to 200.

What is the ideal path to taking the wheels off and letting him go?

[weams]

Hypothetical: The Orioles put Bundy in the rotation and he wins more than he loses. The O's make the playoffs, Bundy pitches some postseason games and the O's win the World Series. Next spring, his arm starts to hurt and it's determined that he needs a second TJ surgery. He is never a successful major league pitcher again.

Worth it?

Causality? Or just that the Arm is not meant to throw overhand?

[Can_of_corn]

Guys. I believe 5+ is still the correct answer.

Bundy has 5 more seasons of control...PLUS....the rest of this one. No?

Only if you consider him a top of the rotation starter this year.

[weams]

My question is this:

Regardless of the number of innings Bundy gets this year, do we not also expect these same conversations next year? I don't see how we go from 80 innings to 200.

What is the ideal path to taking the wheels off and letting him go?

No one knows. Not the surgeons. Not the guru's. Heck, Tom Verducci was even proven wrong. No one knows.

[weams]

Only if you consider him a top of the rotation starter this year.

Yes. That's true. That was his premise.

[Can_of_corn]

Causality? Or just that the Arm is not meant to throw overhand?

It's meant to.

Just not with that level of velocity and repetition.

If he limited it to half a dozen spears a day Bundy would be fine.

[Frobby]

Causality? Or just that the Arm is not meant to throw overhand?

We will never know. Just like the Nats will never know if Strasburg could have kept pitching in 2012 without getting hurt, and will never know if his availability would have made a difference in the series they lost to the Cardinals.

[Frobby]

My question is this:

Regardless of the number of innings Bundy gets this year, do we not also expect these same conversations next year? I don't see how we go from 80 innings to 200.

What is the ideal path to taking the wheels off and letting him go?

As I have posted before, the odds of Bundy pitching well enough and efficiently enough to approach 200 innings next year are pretty minimal. More realistic would be 160-170, not because of an innings limit but because of reality with a pitcher with his level of experience.

[pastorfan]

Yeah - all cases are unique but look at Matt Harvey. Coming off TJ last year and the Mets worked him pretty hard (216 innings pitched). Career may be done.

Yeah and they almost won a world series. Worth it every time. Plus, who really knows if it is related.

[pastorfan]

Ultimately, Bundy may be as valuable to us in the pen as rotation right now anyway. He'd only be a 5 inning guy at the most. If we get into the playoffs then maybe he can start a game or come in early relief and give you 4 innings or so. The time to fix the rotation was over the winter.

[DrungoHazewood]

A month ago, our analytical posters were using 20 innings of stats to prove the same thing. I think lost in all this is the fact that Bundy could still be a disappointment or could take another year to adjust

Either "our analytical posters" were wrong or you misinterpreted what they were saying. You never prove anything in 20 innings unless someone's arm has become detached at the shoulder and can't be put back.

[backwardsk]

Yeah and they almost won a world series. Worth it every time. Plus, who really knows if it is related.

The Mets could have gone just as far had they shut him down. He made about 9 starts from mid August, the time they were considering shutting him down. The team went 5-4 in those starts and won the division by seven. They scored 13 runs for him in the division series and then swept the league championship series.

If people want to complain that we didn't need Miller because we won by so many games, then the same line of thinking can be applied by Mets fans.