O’s re-sign Eshelman

[Roll Tide]

Mediocre pitcher that you hope can find a niche in the pen and be swapped for something else...Anything else!

[Tony-OH]

Eshleman is a guy who was born 30 years too late. He's a Dave Johnson type guy with below average stuff who pitches with pure guile to get batters out. In this day and age, with all the statcast information to tell everyone how bad his stuff really is and with being a low strikeout contact pitcher, he really will always have to prove it on the mound.

Last year he was an effective mop up guy who can eat some innings and save the bullpen, and that's the role I think he can do decent enough at to have some value. He's not a guy you want to throw out there every 5 days as a starter because when his control is off, he's going to get hammered and he'll destroy your bullpen. Plus, he's not really a guy that should go through a lineup more than 1 or 2 times.

Last year his slider, despite still being below average in both vertical (-3.7 inches vs avg, -8%) and horizontal (-1.8 inches vs avg, -16%) movement, was the pitch he threw the most and had the most success with as batters put up just a ..193 OBA and a very good .258 XWOBA. He even got a solid 36.4% WHIF rate on the pitch, so he ended up with a goto pitch that he actually pitched off of most games.

When he sinks his 86 MPH fastball he can have some success, but not surprisingly when it doesn't sink, he gets hammered.

So basically Eshleman is a junkballing right-hander that can spot start and pitch in long/mop up duties if he makes the team. If he's in the rotation on opening day, then something went wrong. As the Rotation should be:

1. Means
2. Cobb
3. Kremer
4. Akin
5. Zimmermann

Notice I don't have Jorge Lopez in there. Lopez has had way too many opportunities at the major league level to show he can be a consistent major league starter. It's time to make him a fastball/curveball reliever and see if that roles works for him, if not, there's no room on this team for him.

[Sports Guy]

Lopez is terrible.  The idea that they are even considering him is a joke.  Just flat out laziness and being cheap.  

[Yardball85]

stud.

[Yardball85]

On 1/17/2021 at 8:42 AM, Sports Guy said:

All of these guys are garbage.  The idea that we are still adding guys like this and that they legitimately have a chance at the rotation is disgusting.

It's incredible how competing is literally the last thing the Orioles have interest in for the 2021 season.  Like, at least sort of try to win games this year?  It's not like that will derail the rebuild...

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, Yardball85 said:

It's incredible how competing is literally the last thing the Orioles have interest in for the 2021 season.  Like, at least sort of try to win games this year?  It's not like that will derail the rebuild...

It’s even more incredible that they have fooled the fan base into thinking it’s ok.

[Yardball85]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s even more incredible that they have fooled the fan base into thinking it’s ok.

Yup. Agreed.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s even more incredible that they have fooled the fan base into thinking it’s ok.

 

2 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

Yup. Agreed.

They've had a lot of help.

It isn't as if the O's are breaking new ground here.  In the last decade or so these types of tanking movements have become pretty standard in American proffesional sports.

Look at how hard the 76's tanked(three consecutive seasons playing under .250 ball) and they haven't even made a conference finals since.

[Yardball85]

2 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

 

They've had a lot of help.

It isn't as if the O's are breaking new ground here.  In the last decade or so these types of tanking movements have become pretty standard in American proffesional sports.

Look at how hard the 76's tanked(three consecutive seasons playing under .250 ball) and they haven't even made a conference finals since.

This is true.  And to this point, the hardcore tanking of the Sixers netted them two very good draft picks at the top of the draft (Embiid and Simmons) and two awful early picks (Okafor and Noel).  Being awful for good draft positioning does not always yield results.

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

 

They've had a lot of help.

It isn't as if the O's are breaking new ground here.  In the last decade or so these types of tanking movements have become pretty standard in American proffesional sports.

Look at how hard the 76's tanked(three consecutive seasons playing under .250 ball) and they haven't even made a conference finals since.

Yep...and all of those fan bases have been fooled that it must take as long as it does.

[Yardball85]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Yep...and all of those fan bases have been fooled that it must take as long as it does.

While not the best example, the Yankees "sell off" in 2016 shows that a rebuild does not need to take years and years.  They traded a huge trade chip in Chapman for Gleyber Torres, traded Andrew Miller for some good pieces, traded Beltran for Tate (which got them Britton shortly thereafter) made a few more moves, and were competitive again.  Again, they operate with different financial constraints, etc., but this is proof that a rebuild does not need to include purposely terrible seasons.

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, Yardball85 said:

While not the best example, the Yankees "sell off" in 2016 shows that a rebuild does not need to take years and years.  They traded a huge trade chip in Chapman for Gleyber Torres, traded Andrew Miller for some good pieces, traded Beltran for Tate (which got them Britton shortly thereafter) made a few more moves, and were competitive again.  Again, they operate with different financial constraints, etc., but this is proof that a rebuild does not need to include purposely terrible seasons.

Exactly...and while they operate with different financial constraints, they also had a barren MiL system at the time too.  
 

But they made the right decision to trade guys, develop what they did have well and got right back there.

[LookinUp]

I don't want to disagree about the O's approach to rebuilding with the posters in this thread. I actually think they have enough starting pitching to keep us in most games, assuming all of Baumann, Lowther, Akin, Kremer, Cobb, Means, Zimmerman, Smith, Bradish and Wells get an opportunity. I'm not saying they all stick, but I think they're good enough to be competitive. Position players are a different story.

With that said, in a vaccuum, Eshelman is a fine move. Depth guy. Mop up guy. Usually won't kill you. He's no Mike Wright. Has value at a minimum salary, but isn't in the conversation for competitiveness.

 

[scOtt]

10 hours ago, LookinUp said:

I don't want to disagree about the O's approach to rebuilding with the posters in this thread. I actually think they have enough starting pitching to keep us in most games, assuming all of Baumann, Lowther, Akin, Kremer, Cobb, Means, Zimmerman, Smith, Bradish and Wells get an opportunity. I'm not saying they all stick, but I think they're good enough to be competitive. Position players are a different story.

With that said, in a vaccuum, Eshelman is a fine move. Depth guy. Mop up guy. Usually won't kill you. He's no Mike Wright. Has value at a minimum salary, but isn't in the conversation for competitiveness.

 

All this and GOD I'm glad SG is back on the board!

[Tony-OH]

I will say watching Eshleman pitch is similar to watching a bomb squad diffuse a bomb. You hope he gets through it unscathed, but you are always prepared for it to go off.