Thanks for including Patterson. He's one of the more interesting guys. When he landing in Tacoma it reminded me of Madritsch and Sherrill. You said "walks did him in" at both previous stops, but that only happened in SD, and I heard they were messing with his motion. With the Yankees minor league teams?
2006: 38.2 IP in AA, 6 hits, 10 K, 2BB per 9
2007: 74.1 IP in AA, 5 hits, 10.5 K, 1.5 BB per 9 (!!)
2008: 47.1 IP in AAA, 9 hits, 10 K, 2.5 BB
Then he got DFAed and crashed into the SD mess of 2009, where he STILL didn't get a big league chance, and basically gave two middle fingers to that season in the minors. After putting up THOSE lines in AA and AAA and barely sniffing the bigs I'd be miffed too.
Then he got his head on straight, got determined again, and did this for us last year:
8 hits, 9.5 K, 2.5 BB per nine.
The guy is a strike throwing machine with command. He doesn't throw hard, he's just deceptive as all get-out from that arm angle you spoke of and strikes out a lot of guys with normally good command.
Again, Sherrill. I don't know if a RH Sherrill can succeed in the bigs, but man, I'd sure give him a long look. The fact that he was bogarted by the Yanks but never used is not a proper assessment. They don't value minimum-wage contributors.
We should.
==Dan Cortes==
Good: Cortes has been pitching pretty much only in save situations. Either grooming or showcasing. And he is 7-for-7.
Good: Only 6 hits in 10.1 IP for .176 avg. against, and 3 ER for a 2.61 ERA.
Bad: 8 walks in those 10.1 IP vs. 7 K.
It hasn't been killing him, and Venezuelan umps are notoriously, well, not the pinnacle of the profession. So maybe he's just "effectively wild."
==Josh Lueke==
Good: Pretty much everything. Gameday sez: consistently 94-96 with the fastball, 83 change, 80 curve. The line:
10 G, 11.1 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 3 BB, 12 K for an ERA of 0.79
Recall that those 3 walks are the 16th, 17th and 18th of the calendar year in 60 appearances and 74.1 IP.
==Mauricio Robles==
Good: 1 ER in 7 appearances, 5.0 IP.
Bad: 6 walks in those 5.0 IP. With 6 H and 6 BB, he's allowed 12 baserunners in 5 innings. But only 2 have scored.
Let's just blame everything on Venezuelan umps.
==Josh Fields==
Good: 5 of his 8 appearances he hasn't allowed a run.
Bad: the other 3 appearances.
You never know what they're working on in Arizona, but the reports on Fields have been mixed to negative. Overall stats are OK, though:
8 G, 10.2 IP, 4 ER, 0 HR, 5 BB, 8 K
==Edward Paredes==
Not everyone in Venezuela is walking folks. Paredes has 0 in 7 appearances, and 5 K in 4.0 IP. Only once did he allow more than one baserunner, and that was the time he gave up his only ER.
==Scott Patterson==
We don't even know if the journeyman 6-foot-7 righty -- whose over-the-head delivery is "like a pitching machine" and makes the ball "come out of the sky" -- will be invited back to Tacoma, but he has 18 K in 17.0 IP (he's struck out a gizillion everywhere he's pitched), with only 3 walks (walks did him in in his cups o' coffee with the Yanks and Padres). He has Lara's two saves that Cortes didn't get.
Comments
I only meant that when the Yanks actually gave him a chance to face all of 7 big league batters, he walked two of them, and gave up a triple, and that was the end of his New York tryout.
You're totally right that he didn't walk many in the minors while with NYY. So his MLB line shows 6 walks in 4.2 IP, but that is not at all indicative of his overall performance.
Superb exec sum. Muchas gracias very much.
Cortes appears to have the stuff of an ace short man, but here's our shtick as to the dealbreaking BB rates.
Can't relieve with 7, 8 walks per nine.
Link doesn't work, Doc, but I agree with you - you can't come in out of the pen and walk everybody. Still Jeff Nelson walked 5 guys per 9 in his career and pitched 15 seasons in the bigs. If nobody can hit you, sometimes you can get away with it.
I don't know that Cortes has that skill, and he would be the first guy I would trade away if somebody wanted a fireballing reliever in a deal for something I really needed. "See the 100 MPH fastball? Oooooh..."
Lueke is far higher for me as far as a bullpen prospect goes.
~G
Let's give this link a try, our horror re: Cortes' motion.
Five walks a game for Nellie, as hard as he was throwing and as much as his ball moved, was okay by me...
Seven, eight walks a game from a guy who can't figure out his own motion, 'nother story as y'know...
Gotta get some semblance of a pro deceleration going, at least, and there's no reason he can't...