Will Cobb pitch well enough to be traded in July 2020?

[DrungoHazewood]

7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I remember thinking he was going to be a stud and the steal of that trade.  I'm not sure why I thought that.

It was 2008, the year Steve Trachsel had 27 walks and 16 Ks and still started eight games.  When the Orioles acquired Mickolio he'd had a sub-3.00 ERA in the minors the last two seasons. For the O's that was like discovering plutonium by accident.

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

It was 2008, the year Steve Trachsel had 27 walks and 16 Ks and still started eight games.  When the Orioles acquired Mickolio he'd had a sub-3.00 ERA in the minors the last two seasons. For the O's that was like discovering plutonium by accident.

Dude, that seems so long ago.  I guess that really is a long time ago in some respects.

I remember Trachsel was bad, I don't remember him being THAT bad.  Yikes.  

[interloper]

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It was 2008, the year Steve Trachsel had 27 walks and 16 Ks and still started eight games.  When the Orioles acquired Mickolio he'd had a sub-3.00 ERA in the minors the last two seasons. For the O's that was like discovering plutonium by accident.

 

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Dude, that seems so long ago.  I guess that really is a long time ago in some respects.

I remember Trachsel was bad, I don't remember him being THAT bad.  Yikes.  

2.0 WAR that year!

[DrungoHazewood]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Dude, that seems so long ago.  I guess that really is a long time ago in some respects.

I remember Trachsel was bad, I don't remember him being THAT bad.  Yikes.  

Don't you remember the endless conversations between Frobby and me in '07 debating if Trachsel's '06 K:BB numbers (78 and 79) were a harbinger of doom, and then how his 69 walks and 45 Ks in '07 were a giant red flag of impending implosion?  Frobby went down swinging, almost to the end clinging to the idea that he was the world's only crafty righty, and the walks were almost on purpose.  Taunting and teasing over-aggressive batters, never giving in.

Oh those Perlozzo Orioles. 70-92 and they sign a 36-year-old starter with 4.3 BB/9 and 4.3 K/9, an 86-mph fastball, and the pace of a tortoise on Quaaludes.

[DrungoHazewood]

6 minutes ago, interloper said:

 

2.0 WAR that year!

By bb-ref WAR, which is heavily (perhaps too heavily) reliant on RA/9.  By Fangraphs he was worth 0.4 wins.

[interloper]

Just now, DrungoHazewood said:

By bb-ref WAR, which is heavily (perhaps too heavily) reliant on RA/9.  By Fangraphs he was worth 0.4 wins.

Yeah, I'm just too lazy to check fangraphs most of the time. Firing up bb-ref is a tough habit to crack. 

Still, it's enough to confirm that I remember liking Trachsel enough that he couldn't have been THAT bad. And sure enough, 140 innings of 4.5 ERA baseball feels pretty decent. It's basically what we're hoping for from Asher. 

[DrungoHazewood]

6 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah, I'm just too lazy to check fangraphs most of the time. Firing up bb-ref is a tough habit to crack. 

Still, it's enough to confirm that I remember liking Trachsel enough that he couldn't have been THAT bad. And sure enough, 140 innings of 4.5 ERA baseball feels pretty decent. It's basically what we're hoping for from Asher. 

Trachsel was an infuriating time bomb.  Junkballs all day every day.  Walk more than he struck out, and he didn't strike out anybody.  And he took an hour and half between pitches.  I have rarely been happier to see a pitcher go, and it was a miracle they got actual baseball players in return.

And then being the 2008 Orioles, they re-signed him after he pitched to an 8.00+ with the Cubs after the trade.

[Moose Milligan]

17 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Don't you remember the endless conversations between Frobby and me in '07 debating if Trachsel's '06 K:BB numbers (78 and 79) were a harbinger of doom, and then how his 69 walks and 45 Ks in '07 were a giant red flag of impending implosion?  Frobby went down swinging, almost to the end clinging to the idea that he was the world's only crafty righty, and the walks were almost on purpose.  Taunting and teasing over-aggressive batters, never giving in.

Oh those Perlozzo Orioles. 70-92 and they sign a 36-year-old starter with 4.3 BB/9 and 4.3 K/9, an 86-mph fastball, and the pace of a tortoise on Quaaludes.

I don't remember that, but it'd be great to go back and find those conversations if possible.  @Frobby would you like to come play revisionist here?

Crafty righty doesn't nearly have the same ring as crafty lefty does.  No one needs a crafty righty, no one likes a crafty righty.  Everyone loves a crafty lefty.

[Frobby]

16 minutes ago, interloper said:

Based on Eric's reports, I'm not confident in Cobb making it out of ST healthy much less pitching well enough to get traded. 

Hyde didn’t appear to have the same concerns Eric did.   

Cobb clearly was happy to be back on a mound.

He fielded a comebacker from Alberto, turned and fired the ball to first base. No one was covering the bag and he didn’t care.

It looked like two seasons of frustration were unleashed.

“He’s dealt with a lot of injuries and it’s been a tough year for him,” Hyde said. “He had a couple things that he had to deal with and he missed almost the entire year, so we’re definitely going to be careful with him, watch him closely, monitor him closely, do anything we can for him to break in the rotation and stay there and feel good for the sixth months.

“I think a guy like that, we monitor closer than others in that he’s a big part of our rotation and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to have him break healthy.”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2020/02/notes-on-spring-rotation-davis-cobb-stewart-and-more.html

[SteveA]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Dude, that seems so long ago.  I guess that really is a long time ago in some respects.

I remember Trachsel was bad, I don't remember him being THAT bad.  Yikes.  

Not only was he bad but he was SO slow working.   Painful to watch him pitch.

[SteveA]

Cobb has been pencilled in to start Monday.   That's a good sign, at least.   No vague talk about "taking it slow" and we don't see him until every other guy has appeared 3 times and then they admit there's a problem.

[interloper]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Trachsel was an infuriating time bomb.  Junkballs all day every day.  Walk more than he struck out, and he didn't strike out anybody.  And he took an hour and half between pitches.  I have rarely been happier to see a pitcher go, and it was a miracle they got actual baseball players in return.

And then being the 2008 Orioles, they re-signed him after he pitched to an 8.00+ with the Cubs after the trade.

You gotta love those times.

Did we realize then just how bad their decision making was? I don't think we did. I mean we did. But from today's frame of reference some of it seems downright insane.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

You gotta love those times.

Did we realize then just how bad their decision making was? I don't think we did. I mean we did. But from today's frame of reference some of it seems downright insane.

At least from the time I've been here I've seen a number of posters against each of the deals that turned out poorly.

 

[weams]

On 2/18/2020 at 8:44 PM, Yardball85 said:

Um... who in the world downvoted this post?  I am beyond confused why this warranted a down vote.

No one. 

[DrungoHazewood]

12 minutes ago, interloper said:

You gotta love those times.

Did we realize then just how bad their decision making was? I don't think we did. I mean we did. But from today's frame of reference some of it seems downright insane.

Do a quick search and you can find a 10+ page thread where we're debating the merits of Trachsel starting Opening Day 2008 after he'd been brought back on a minor league deal with a spring training invite.  And after he had 20 more walks than Ks in '07.  I had a post in the thread where I noted Baseball Prospectus had projected Trachsel for a 6.37 ERA in '08, worst of any projected MLB starter.

The O's did come to their senses: he didn't start until game #3.