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If you, for some reason, badly want to understand Roenis Elias? then we can recommend a single article to yer.  Here y'go amig -O.

Elias has ... wait, had.  At last sight. 

• Three strikeout pitches
• A baseball fearlessness that comes only after "fighting alligators for survival"
• A strong taste for throwing the ball at, errrr in to, batters
• A calm spiritual center
• Ten wins at the major league level, in his rookie season

What Roenis Elias did not have, at last sight, was

• Any ability to throw his curve without telegraphing it
• Any ability to avoid a Brandon League-magnitude predictability problem
• Feathered command in the zone

Jeff Zimmerman did a sparkling job of demonstrating, through F/X, what the eye saw from the CF camera:  that Elias' curve was simply easy to decipher at the 10- and 20-foot points out of his hand.  

And making it worse, Elias pulled the League shtick:  when ahead in the count he threw his curve 73-89% of the time.  Grrrrooooan.  Well, it shows good instincts.  Some kids slobber over the chance to throw a high heater with two strikes.

.........

This makes sense.  The aikido cross-cultural principle is, "Keep your own balance before you try to take another man's."  With Roenis Elias we were talking about a AA pitcher.  

Do you think a AA pitcher has mastered the final pieces of the deception puzzle?  He's just trying to keep the slurve in the zone.  He's too busy to think about making it look like a fastball.  How can you think and hit at the same time?, Yogi sez.

Overall it was just a still-life photo of the differences between AA pitching and MLB pitching. Granted, Elias' stuff and moxie were so extra-class that he won his 10 games.  

But this is what a GM goes through when he plumps for a AA player.  You know going in that there are going to be times you facepalm.  You hope the talent times overbalance the "Welcome to the League, Boy" times.  That would be the way with D.J. or Kivlehan in 2015.

.........

Those last two innings on TV this week?  What did we see?  Personally, I had a considerably tougher time "seeing" the curve out of his hand.  Take it for what it's worth.

The 73-89% curves when ahead in the count?  Dr. D would legitimately assume that the M's brain core would deal with that.  If they didn't, I know a website that would quickly scream "BLOODY MURDER DIAL 911" and that has, in the past, shown a tendency to stop the major gaffes that leak through.  The wonders of the internet.

But yeah.  You'd think the M's would be on the pitch count thing, would you not?

..........

Elias as #7 in the bullpen? 

You get your absolutists who think "if a young player isn't starting, he needs reps in the minors."  They are, of course, ignoring every MLB star who ever came up in a limited role.  But okay.

For me, I think an Earl'ing of Elias or Taijuan would actually help deal with arm tenderness long term.  Elias has had some too.  Why take your youngest pitchers and quota them out at 200 IP?

But best of all is Krueger's suggestion that in the bullpen, Elias would be loose, free, and aggressive.  That has the ring of truth.  Maybe Krueger has watched some baseball ....

You lose David Rollins and $25K or whatever.  What's more important?  Elias or 25 grand?

Elias for #7,

Dr D