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Q. How tough to fix Erikkk's mechanical problemos?
A. Assuming that weird motion is not a response to pain, probably it would be quick and easy. It's not like Erikkk never came over the top before. He dominated his whole life by doing that.
This is about 10 degrees off subject, but you remember how effortlessly the Royals fixed Gil Meche, by getting him to land on the ball of his foot and to throw offspeed stuff. You remember how easily the White Sox fixed Matt Thornton, by getting him to sink his weight a bit and not "teeter" down the centerline. Some of these fixes are a two-bullpen thing.
Just like the Royals reclaimed Meche's talent, and the Sox reclaimed Thornton's talent, somebody could grab ahold of Erik Bedard and reclaim a rotation ace in a real hurry.
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Q. Supposing that you did fix him. Would he be worth the aggravation?
A. Well, it's been 2006-07 since he posted 5-WAR seasons. But pitchers are up and down. If you looked it up, I'm sure you could find any number of pitchers who went five years between 40-50 run seasons - especially those who had injury years in there. That's why teams keep chasing the super-talented has-beens; they want that one pennant.
On the M's own club, for example,
Kevin Millwood has been like that, racking up 45-60 runs above average (1999, 2002, 2005, 2009) and then going two, three, four years with problems before surfacing again to have a 50-RAR season.
Kelvim Escobar went deep-sea diving to obscurity several times, surfacing to stardom when the stars aligned.
Kenny Rogers, remember how he had some 60, 80 (!) RAR seasons spliced around 5 RAR seasons?
Brad Radke, Derek Lowe, Bartolo Colon ... well, now we know about Colon.
David Cone's an interesting comp. His arm always hurt... at ages 32-33 he walked a lot of guys, and his 7-WAR season at age 34 came out of nowhere.
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Q. Does Erikkk have to post 5.0 WAR to be worthwhile?
A. Asked and answered.
One "hero" role for Erikkkk would be a la David Cone's role in 1996: save his bullets for September, throw five awesome games down the stretch, and win for you in the playoffs.
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Q. Would Erikkk come to Seattle?
A. It seems like the only place he's ever been happy. You can bet this is the first place his agent called.
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Q. How about as a reliever?
A. I've always fancied Erikkk as an elite reliever ... the one org that might be able to talk to him sweet, really play the violin, hey dude here's how you make $3M the next few years and maybe $10M a year later on, how about if you blow people down out of the pen?
When right, he's got Jamie Moyer command of the fastball and the curve detonates both LH and RH batters. And for his career he has absolutely no 1st-inning splits at all. He's not one of those "get him early or not at all" types; Erikkk is ready to go from the first pitch of the evening.
He wouldn't respond well to being hurried up into the game, but then neither did Arthur Rhodes. Both men were tweaky and both need a slow warmup. That didn't mean Arthur wasn't worth the effort...
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Q. Leaving the M's where?
A. They're Bedard's preferred destination. They have a good selection of recovery strategies available to them, and they've got an investment made - the investment of all the personal attention, 2009-11.
Dr. D would love to see it. Which is, coincidentally, when he'll believe it. :- )
BABVA,
Jeff