The M's call up Vasquez and give him a spot start, presumably as a thank-you and message to the Rainiers who have been good actors all year.
We couch potatoes don't worry much about players as people, but Jack Zduriencik does. I approve of this.
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Sabermetrically, this pitcher don' cut it. At least in SSI's funhouse-mirror interpretation of sabermetrics.
His weapons template is that of Jamie Moyer or Jimmy Key or John Halama or somebody like that, but his minor league results are not what such a pitcher would need to possess in order to hope to pitch well in the American League.
For this kind of pitcher, 5 strikeouts in AA tend to imply --- > 3 strikeouts in the AL. It doesn't work. Danger Will Robinson.
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Jack Zduriencik's fondness for low-velocity LHP starters/swing men begins to look like a real negative from up here in the peanut gallery. We hope that the isolated Jason Vargas "jack"pot isn't going to cause us to throw bad money after good, for the next several years...
Good Ole Boyz have a lot of baloney dumps, but SSI doesn't put "Pitchability" in that category.
"Pitchability" isn't a catch basin for "SP's who perform better than they should." It's the idea that some pitchers, like Brandon League, talk AT the hitter -- simply grabbing the ball and throwing it, believing that their own skills render others' irrelevant.
Other pitchers, like Jered Weaver or Cliff Lee or Erik Bedard, have a hair-fine feel for when they can take liberties with the strike zone and when they'd better be careful. They know when they'd better keep the ball on the hands or miss inside. They know when a batter is pumped up and they'd better pull the string.
Is "pitchability" real? I don't know - why do older batters walk more? Does experience, having seen the situation before, play no part in the outcome of a given sports contest?
"Pitchability" refers to a man's ability to out-think the situation. It's not only a real part of sports; it may be the most important part of sports.
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There's no harm done by giving a nice young kid a taste of The Show, we presume. The question is why Vasquez ahead of somebody else, say Tom Wilhelmsen or Scott Patterson. Vasquez looks like an evolutionary dead end in a minors system otherwise teeming with life, yet here he is, first one into the biosphere.
Jack Zduriencik is apparently advertising that Anthony Vasquez has serious pitchability. He'd better have. Based on sabermetrics, SSI odds are 20:1 against Vasquez ever making 30 starts in anybody's rotation.
We'll see if Vasquez' head compensates for his arm.
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BABVA,
Dr D
...if Jamie Moyer had the same stuff that he had in, say, 2003, for his entire career...would he have fanned more than 5 or 6 guys per 9 in A, AA or AAA? I am wondering whether some pitchers see their K rates stay the same or go up in the big leagues.
I agree, Tony Vasquez doesn't have a lot of stuff. That's okay...if he can hit the mark with his pitches, think his way through at-bats, and otherwise survive as a #5 starter.
We have two classes of pitcher heading for Spring Training with a chance at the bigs next year: The Pitchability arms and the Stuff arms.
The Stuff arms are Paxton and Hultzen. The Pitchability arms are Beavan, Erasmo, Carraway, and Vasquez.
The tweener is Furbush, so I'm curious to see what we do with him.
But right now I wouldn't be surprised to see ALL the pitchability arms get a shot at a start through the end of the year with September callups.
It'd familiarize the coaching staff with all the options for the #5 slot in the rotation, and it thanks them for doing a good job, as you said. It's a public acknowledgement of the fact that Vasquez (for instance) has ascended 5 levels of pro ball in 2 years with good success, so they gave him a start at his 6th level.
By 2013 I would think the Ms have Paxton and Hultzen both fitted for teal...but injuries happen, and there are 5 spots to fill.
Right NOW the rotation of Felix / Hultzen / Pineda / Paxton / Vargas looks fabulous in the mind's eye, but Vargas is a FA after 2013 and guys do get sore elbows from time to time.
Carraway, Erasmo, Beavan and Vasquez - and maybe Furbush - are trying to crack the rotation or at least be on standby in case anything untoward happens to our "preferred" rotation of Stuff Pitchers (and Vargas). Same thing Pineiro and Franklin were trying to do when our Stuff Pitchers named Meche and Anderson were Option A to come out of the minors and lead us to the playoffs.
I love our current Option A, but calling up Vasquez and the rest is giving the staff and the FO an early preview of Option B so that in the middle of a tight division race next year they can make the right call. Every little bit of info helps.
And player rewards are good for the psyche too. ;)
~G
Since he, famously, went through a complete transformation around the age of 30. This was after the Cubs tried to flush him out of baseball and offered him a coaching job...
Had you taken the MLB All-Star Moyer and put him in the minors, I'm sure he'd have run Doug Fister type stats, 7+ K, 1.0 BB, that kind of thing.
As y'know, some pitchers see better peripherals in the majors, but IMHO they aren't generally Doug Fister soft-tossing types. More likely they're guys with electric stuff, a la Pineda or Lincecum, whose dominance is being partially camoflaged by (relative) incompetence around them, especially from the umps...
"He didn't make the mistake of forgetting the scrubeenies. He'd walk up to one and say, 'Hey, stay sharp. We're going to need you down the stretch and you're going to win this thing for us.' "
Y'never know what your needs are going to be, a short ways down the road. You can't just ignore the guys who aren't getting any press :- )
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On another note, I saw the PI site opine that Jason Vargas was a non-tender (!) for 2012 ...
It seemed a few years ago the M's started stockpiling soft southpaws. I just checked MLB and hope the best but glad there is a growing lineup of pitches with stuff from both sides.