Royce Ring is another known quantity.  Cut The Cards factor = 5.

We're not trying to be caustic here, but ... the fact is, if you picture George Sherrill with a very sore elbow, that is Royce Ring, exactly.

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Ring throws a very minus fastball, 87 mph when he humps up.  He throws a slurvy slurve - it kinda bloops in there.

But he does come LHP sidearm.  And he does hide the ball pretty well (not as well as Sherrill).

Ring's has one skill to shout about:  he gets super good arm action on his slurve.  SUPER good.

He's almost Paul Abbott with the parachute action he gets -- he's like max effort, almost yanks his head, the arm WHALES thru and then, pooooofffffff... the ball just kinda hangs in the air maddeningly.

A real parachute change-curve.

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The bite on the slider is only average, but he can backdoor it and drop it inside.  He's gutsy like Sherrill, will throw the dubious 87 fastball up in the zone so that the eye level confuses the hitter against the slurve.

It is not like he could surprise, IMHO, and give you a big year as a LOOGY.  The fastball just is too easy to hit.

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George Sherrill with a sore arm?  Is that something you want on your club?  Depends on how desperate you are...

Ring is NOT on the 40-man and I'd feel sour about clearing a spot for a 4.50 ERA placeholder.  But...

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Aaron Laffey?  We wrote him off, the day of.  Cut The Cards factor = 2.

In spring training, he has now pitched 6.0 full innings and his strikeouts are ... guess what?  Zero.  So we reckon that the evidence is coming in on our side, again.  "How'd ya find yourself in great position every single time?" :LT:

There's never been a good major league pitcher with no strikeouts, but it would be interesting to attempt it :- )

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