Roster moves today

[HowAboutThat]

2 hours ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

I would not put DJ over Urias. If anything, send McKenna back to the Taxi Squad. Hyde uses Urias in the late innings as a defensive replacement for a reason. Unless Stewart suddenly learned the infield...

I would be happy if Stewart suddenly learned the outfield

[HowAboutThat]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Are the two rule 5s really that good?  Do they outweigh the roster flexibility we’re giving up?  

Yes

[HowAboutThat]

57 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

That is a really odd way to describe a 28 year-old reliever with a 109 ERA+ in 123 career MLB games. He was well above average in both of his partial seasons, one of which was partial by no fault of his own and the other of which he pitched in 35 games, so it wasn't exactly a cup of coffee.

He had an ERA of 2.45 last year!

He isn't a world beater or anything, but if either of the Rule 5 guys ended up with Paul Fry's career, it would unarguably be seen as a success.

Although I agree with you that Fry is average or better, using ERA for a reliever is a poor choice of statistics. It ignores all the runs the reliever allowed to score that were charged to the previous pitcher.

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Il BuonO said:

An ERA of 2.45 in 22 IP! In his full season (66 games, 57.1 IP) it was a 5.45 ERA and 1.48 WHIP. So, not great.

But, I’ll keep an open mind. 

Sure, but to say that the full season is meaningful and the partial seasons are meaningless is silly when the partial seasons totaled 59.2 innings of 3.02 ERA vs. the 57.1 innings of a 5.45 ERA of the full season. Add in the 11.9 K/9 last year (in 22 innings!), and I think you are selling him short.

[MurphDogg]

54 minutes ago, Philip said:

Although I agree with you that Fry is average or better, using ERA for a reliever is a poor choice of statistics. It ignores all the runs the reliever allowed to score that were charged to the previous pitcher.

Sure, but I was just using it as a shorthand.

In Fry's case, his ERA isn't misleading, his xFIP is better than his ERA, and his strand percentage of 76 percent is better than the league average of around 72 percent.

[HowAboutThat]

9 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Sure, but I was just using it as a shorthand.

In Fry's case, his ERA isn't misleading, his xFIP is better than his ERA, and his strand percentage of 76 percent is better than the league average of around 72 percent.

That is meaningful information, and it makes him look better, and probably would’ve supported your argument a little bit better than ERA.

I have no problem with Fry at all. He is one of those Troy Patton guys, who wins no special accolades, but is important. I wish he could pitch two innings.

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, LA2 said:

It was only one inning, but I had the opposite impression of Wells yesterday. Consistent 4-seamer, and the slider and curve both had a lot of velocity differentiation and break and usually close or in the strike zone. There were one, arguably two strike calls he didn't get.

I appreciated his inning plan: nothing but fastballs to the first batter of his major league career Bogaerts and got him out on a 3-2 94.3 mph fastball after being down to him 3-0.

Mixed in three breaking pitches and full-count walked the next batter because the ump was inconsistent.

One-pitch fastball popout.

Lively slider and curve and five fastballs resulting in a base hit.

Two sliders for a called strike and a groundout, end of game.

So my impression was that Wells has a good repertoire of pitches and can battle. But like I said, it was just one inning against a team that was down 11-3 and batting in the shadows. We shall see, but no reason to be unimpressed.

 

From what I have seen of Tyler Wells this spring, claiming his was a steal.

[scOtt]

Just now, wildcard said:

From what I have seen of Tyler Wells this spring, claiming his was a steal.

They both looked good. After they went back to back in both of their ST debut and got LIT UP, they both pitched pretty well. Against increasingly better competition.

I only saw spotty appearance of both but their numbers looked good.

[HelenaEngineer]

6 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Are the two rule 5s really that good?  Do they outweigh the roster flexibility we’re giving up?  

I would be pleasantly surprised if they both pitch well enough to stay the whole year, but I don't see a downside to letting it play out. If I had to guess, they likely will end up with one of them making it all the way and one of them struggling enough that the roster spot requires action. As long as Tate, Sulser and Lakins have options and Harvey has injury issues, you can roll with them and see how they do until (and if) one of them shows they don't belong at this stage of their career.