Jump to content

LHP John Means is ready for his opportunity


Tony-OH

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 89
  • Created
  • Last Reply
1 hour ago, Frobby said:

How recently have you watched Means?    Have you seen much of him in his current hot streak?    His K/9 and K/BB are off the charts compared to what Means has done historically, and that makes me wonder if something fundamental has changed for Means.    Maybe Mike Griffin has taught him a new trick.   

I have, it's nothing new IMO, it's just consistent feel for FB, CB, CH. Ability to throw them in any count and keep them out of the middle of the plate. Basically the same thing he was doing last year when pitching well, just more consistent. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went back and watched a few of Means' starts including his last one against Durham. When he's on, he's throwing four-pitches for strikes and getting swings and misses on his fastball, change and slider.

FB: (87-91) Slightly below average velocity (sits mostly 88-90) and movement. He's commanding the pitch pretty well to all quadrants of the zone and most importantly he;s staying out of the middle of the plate. It's more effective up and in and low and away against righties and up against lefties. Seems to get barreled often hard low in the zone. (Scouting Grade: 45)

Ch: (80-83) His most consistent offspeed pitch to righties. He gets pretty good drop and some fade and is not afraid to throw early in counts for strikes. He does seem to leave it up a little too much which will could get hit hard by big league hitters. (Scouting grade: 50)

SL: (79-83): An inconsistent offering that can flash plus with good tilt but flattens out at times. It's his go to pitch against lefties and will work it up and in against lefties. (scouting grade: 45/50)

CU: (73-74): A get me over slow curveball that lacks consistent bite. Can be effective at times as an alternative to a batter looking first pitch fastball. Most batters seem to ignore it and it won't be an effective pitch in the majors besides being a show me pitch. (Scouting Grade: 40)

Overall, Means must be able to command his fastball  to all quadrants of the zone and have his change and slider working in order to be successful at the major league level. He's been doing just that of late in AAA, but the question is whether this is hot streak or something his clicked. It does appear he's using his fastball better up in the zone and if that's combined with a change and slider that he can throw effectively in the zone, then he has a chance to be decent 5th starter in the major leagues.

I see no reason why he shouldn't get an opportunity in this lost year. He's got a better chance to be a big league starter than Ramirez and Yacobonis and should get some starts soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Luke-OH said:

I think Akin needs to show he's fully healthy after a couple of bad outings and his groin issue before a promotion.

Good point about Akins. I'd like also see him get some starts at AAA before being an option. I could see him being a September callup either way though unless for some reason they want to save a 40-man roster spot this offseason, but that would seem silly with as much flotsam and jetsam that's currently on the 40-man. Guess it will really depend on who they get in return for Machado, Britton, Jones, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Is it a home game?  If so give it to Tillman, have him tip his cap and get relieved without facing a batter.  He retires after the game.

 

No offense to the guy, but at this point he's ruining his legacy by not retiring when it's clear that he can't even get low minor leaguers out consistently. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Tony-OH said:

No offense to the guy, but at this point he's ruining his legacy by not retiring when it's clear that he can't even get low minor leaguers out consistently. 

I agree.  Hence him not actually pitching, just getting a chance to say goodbye.

If it's a road game that would be all sorts of awkward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




  • Posts

    • dWAR is just the run value for defense added with the defensive adjustment.  Corner OF spots have a -7.5 run adjustment, while CF has a +2.5 adjustment over 150 games.    Since Cowser played both CF and the corners they pro-rate his time at each to calculate his defensive adjustment. 
    • Just to be clear, though, fWAR also includes a substantial adjustment for position, including a negative one for Cowser.  For a clearer example on that front, as the chart posted higher on this page indicates, Carlos Santana had a +14 OAA — which is the source data that fWAR’s defensive component is based on. That 14 outs above average equates to 11-12 (they use different values on this for some reason) runs better than the average 1B.  So does Santana have a 12.0 defensive value, per fWAR? He does not. That’s because they adjust his defensive value downward to reflect that he’s playing a less difficult/valuable position. In this case, that adjustment comes out to -11.0 runs, as you can see here:   So despite apparently having a bona fide Gold Glove season, Santana’s Fielding Runs value (FanGraphs’ equivalent to dWAR) is barely above average, at 1.1 runs.    Any good WAR calculation is going to adjust for position. Being a good 1B just isn’t worth as much as being an average SS or catcher. Just as being a good LF isn’t worth as much as being an average CF. Every outfielder can play LF — only the best outfielders can play CF.  Where the nuance/context shows up here is with Cowser’s unique situation. Playing LF in OPACY, with all that ground to cover, is not the same as playing LF at Fenway or Yankee Stadium. Treating Cowser’s “position” as equivalent to Tyler O’Neill’s, for example, is not fair. The degree of difficulty is much, much higher at OPACY’s LF, and so the adjustment seems out of whack for him. That’s the one place where I’d say the bWAR value is “unfair” to Cowser.
    • Wait a second here, the reason he's -0.1 in bb-ref dwar is because they're using drs to track his defensive run value.  He's worth 6.6 runs in defense according to fangraphs, which includes adjustments for position, which would give him a fangraphs defensive war of +0.7.
    • A little funny to have provided descriptions of the hits (“weak” single; “500 foot” HR). FIP doesn’t care about any of that either, so it’s kind of an odd thing to add in an effort to make ERA look bad.  Come in, strike out the first hitter, then give up three 108 MPH rocket doubles off the wall. FIP thinks you were absolutely outstanding, and it’s a shame your pathetic defense and/or sheer bad luck let you down. Next time you’ll (probably) get the outcomes you deserve. They’re both flawed. So is xFIP. So is SIERA. So is RA/9. So is WPA. So is xERA. None of them are perfect measures of how a pitcher’s actual performance was, because there’s way too much context and too many variables for any one metric to really encompass.  But when I’m thinking about awards, for me at least, it ends up having to be about the actual outcomes. I don’t really care what a hitter’s xWOBA is when I’m thinking about MVP, and the same is true for pitchers. Did you get the outs? Did the runs score? That’s the “value” that translates to the scoreboard and, ultimately, to the standings. So I think the B-R side of it is more sensible for awards.  I definitely take into account the types of factors that you (and other pitching fWAR advocates) reference as flaws. So if a guy plays in front of a particular bad defense or had a particularly high percentage of inherited runners score, I’d absolutely adjust my take to incorporate that info. And I also 100% go to Fangraphs first when I’m trying to figure out which pitchers we should acquire (i.e., for forward looking purposes).  But I just can’t bring myself say that my Cy Young is just whichever guy had the best ratio of Ks to BBs to HRs over a threshold number of innings. As @Frobby said, it just distills out too much of what actually happened.
    • We were all a lot younger in 2005.  No one wanted to believe Canseco cause he’s a smarmy guy. Like I said, he was the only one telling the truth. It wasn’t a leap of faith to see McGwire up there and Sosa up there and think “yeah, those guys were juicing” but then suddenly look at Raffy and think he was completely innocent.  It’s a sad story. The guy should be in Hall of Fame yet 500 homers and 3,000 hits are gone like a fart in the wind cause his legacy is wagging his finger and thinking he couldn’t get caught.  Don’t fly too close to the sun.  
    • I think if we get the fun sprinkler loving Gunnar that was in the dugout yesterday, I don’t think we have to worry about him pressing. He seemed loose and feeling good with the other guys he was with, like Kremer.
    • I was a lot younger back then, but that betrayal hit really hard because he had been painting himself as literally holier than thou, and shook his finger to a congressional committee and then barely 2 weeks later failed the test.
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...