It’s not sexy, but is Ross Stripling a good fit?

[Frobby]

I’ve been advocating that the O’s need to sign at least one pitcher who is clearly better than Kyle Gibson this offseason.   But I’m starting to wonder if taking a calculated risk on a guy like Ross Stripling is better than overpaying for some of the bigger fish.  Stripling has been mentioned in a lot of other threads, but we really haven’t drilled down on him.  

Stripling has a career ERA+ of 109, and was at 129 last season.  The main reason for the uptick was improved command, as he walked only 1.3 per 9 innings, compared to his career average 2.1 (which is still very good).  He feels like a guy who might have had a breakthrough that will last.
 

The biggest “con” for Stripling is he’s not a workhorse.   He’s never thrown more than 134.1 innings in a year, and he’s always been a starter/reliever combo guy rather than a pure starter.  He’s made 104 starts and 100 relief appearances in his career.   Last year was his heaviest load, 24 starts and 8 relief appearances equating to 134.1 innings.  

But, maybe that fits with our needs.  We’ve got quite a few guys who are starters, and Means coming back in the second half some time.   Maybe all we really need is someone who can make 20ish solid starts, and has flexibility to pitch out of the pen, too.  

Gibson 32 starts

Kremer 28

Bradish 28

Rodriguez 25

Stripling 20

Means 12

Hall 12

Voth 5

Other options: Wells, Zimmermann, Watkins, Rom, Baumann

That feels like plenty of starters to get us through the season.

Aiming too low?

 

 

[RZNJ]

Aiming too low!

[Sports Guy]

K rate is subpar, doesn’t miss many bats and the stat cast numbers are pretty mediocre.

[eddie83]

10 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

K rate is subpar, doesn’t miss many bats and the stat cast numbers are pretty mediocre.

How does Wacha compare to him?

I know his K rate is similar. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by eddie83

[HakunaSakata]

1 minute ago, eddie83 said:

How does Wacha compare to him?

I know I'm oversimplifying a bit, but Wacha feels like an overpriced version of Stripling. The only difference is Stripling seems like a bigger injury risk. In general I personally wouldn't even consider any SP with a sub 9 K/9 because their margin for error is just too small. For context, Wacha's career K/9 is 7.97 and it was 7.53 last season and 7.35 the season before. Hard pass. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by HakunaSakata

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, HakunaSakata said:

I know I'm oversimplifying a bit, but Wacha feels like an overpriced version of Stripling. The only difference is Stripling seems like a bigger injury risk. In general I personally wouldn't even consider any SP with a sub 9 K/9 because their margin for error is just too small. For context, Wacha's career K/9 is 7.97 and it was 7.53 last season and 7.35 the season before. Hard pass. 

Feels like to me those two are more of the help you get through the season type arms. Bassitt/Eovaldi have the upside. I know Eovaldi has the injury risk and his K rate was down a little.  
 

I would take either over nothing…but not really like what I want. 

[Pickles]

I think you might be on to something here.

That got Gibson for the stability and innings.  And they needed that.

Now perhaps they target upside.   Of course, any target would have significant warts, most likely an injury history/lack of dependability.

I could see a move like that making a lot of sense.

[interloper]

I don't hate it. 

I'm in a place where I've made my peace with rolling with the current rotation, so if we add another SP, I'd want it to either be Bassitt or a guy who doesn't cost a pick. Stripling appears to have more upside than Syndergaard. 

[interloper]

36 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Aiming too low!

At this point, the only two aiming high guys are Rodon, who will get an insane albatross contract, and Bassitt, who is going to have a ton of competition because his contract will be viewed as much easier to swallow. 

Of course, there's the trade route, but it's hard to even speculate on that at the moment. 

[Sports Guy]

10 minutes ago, Pickles said:

I think you might be on to something here.

That got Gibson for the stability and innings.  And they needed that.

Now perhaps they target upside.   Of course, any target would have significant warts, most likely an injury history/lack of dependability.

I could see a move like that making a lot of sense.

This thread is about Stripling..not upside.

[wildcard]

42 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’ve been advocating that the O’s need to sign at least one pitcher who is clearly better than Kyle Gibson this offseason.   But I’m starting to wonder if taking a calculated risk on a guy like Ross Stripling is better than overpaying for some of the bigger fish.  Stripling has been mentioned in a lot of other threads, but we really haven’t drilled down on him.  

Stripling has a career ERA+ of 109, and was at 129 last season.  The main reason for the uptick was improved command, as he walked only 1.3 per 9 innings, compared to his career average 2.1 (which is still very good).  He feels like a guy who might have had a breakthrough that will last.
 

The biggest “con” for Stripling is he’s not a workhorse.   He’s never thrown more than 134.1 innings in a year, and he’s always been a starter/reliever combo guy rather than a pure starter.  He’s made 104 starts and 100 relief appearances in his career.   Last year was his heaviest load, 24 starts and 8 relief appearances equating to 134.1 innings.  

But, maybe that fits with our needs.  We’ve got quite a few guys who are starters, and Means coming back in the second half some time.   Maybe all we really need is someone who can make 20ish solid starts, and has flexibility to pitch out of the pen, too.  

Gibson 32 starts

Kremer 28

Bradish 28

Rodriguez 25

Stripling 20

Means 12

Hall 12

Voth 5

Other options: Wells, Zimmermann, Watkins, Rom, Baumann

That feels like plenty of starters to get us through the season.

Aiming too low?

 

 

Bradish is ready to get 30-32 starts.  Grayson only gets 25 starts if some of them are as an opener.

At some point the O's will be better with Wells or Watkins in the rotation and them adding a reliever or two.

[Aristotelian]

He's pretty much the lowest of what's out there that I would consider an upgrade over internal options. There is a very good chance someone like Bradish or Voth would outperform him. I wouldn't hate it but I wouldn't like it either. 

[Moose Milligan]

Eh, meh.

The hard thing here is that the Gibson acquisition is being looked at as the move to calibrate all other rotation moves off of.  Stripling by himself would probably be just ok.  With Gibson?  Like I said, meh.  

[tabletop]

2.92era last year as a starter. Projected anywhere from 2/18 - 3/30. That seems like it could be a pretty nice deal for whoever ends up signing him.

[interloper]

19 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

He's pretty much the lowest of what's out there that I would consider an upgrade over internal options. There is a very good chance someone like Bradish or Voth would outperform him. I wouldn't hate it but I wouldn't like it either. 

Voth seems to get a lot of trust around here, but I'm not sure there's much justification in saying Voth would outperform Stripling. Voth threw the best 80 innings of his entire career, and did so with a FIP almost a full run above his ERA, and a 7.8 K/9. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by interloper