POTD Josh Kinney, RHP - the Bad
Q. He looks all right to me. Why does he have only 70 IP at the age of 33?
A. Supposing that Josh were the second coming of Luke Gregerson, Carlos Marmol or Jeff blinkin' Nelson for that matter, he still would have had an easier time getting on to the U.S. womens' gymnastic squad than into MLB(TM).
He has half-a-dozen 230-lb. weirdnesses to him, any one of which bought him a heapin' helpin' o' trouble with the establishment:
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1) His money pitch is not a fastball. "By not an out pitch," we mean that his fastball is too slow, too straight, and too wild for right hand setup. Do you know any RH setup men who use an offspeed pitch as their #1's? Well, Lucas Luetge is an example of a slider-first and slider-last pitcher. Lefties get free passes on a lot of things.
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2) His delivery looks like two cats fighting. No, not that kind of cat fight. He takes that big tummy and keister and dips it comically low - he could win some meatball sandwich bets in the gym - then short-arms the ball through (??) and finishes with a unique arm-back-leg pretzel. By "unique" we mean unique, unique not just in the dictionary sense but in the scientific sense. Saturn is a unique planetary body, and Josh Kinney's followthrough is a unique sports motion.
Pro scouts and managers are not known for favoring amateurish pitching deliveries.
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3) Not only is the delivery unfamiliar, but as a second issue: there are lots of flaws in the delivery, too, such as a hop up on the left foot almost as Kinney lets the ball go. Kinney walks people. Pro scouts and managers are not known for favoring unnerving pitching deliveries.
Really not even trying to go for a weak joke here: the delivery reminds of George Sherrill, if Sherrill were pitching in front of a mirrored bar window about four hours into the evening. A delivery born to cause agonizing pain, both for himself and for people standing twenty yards away with sticks.
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4) Kinney's body is not acceptable to a lot of pro scouts and managers.
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5) The few times Kinney has gotten a chance, he's had unlucky ERA's and, of course, all the stuff above is not going to inspire people to look past the ERA's. Last year, for example, Kinney got a "chance" and racked up 10.2 strikeouts, 3.4 walks, and 0.5 walks ... but his ERA was an unlucky 6.62.
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6) etc.
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Q. So if there is a commodity that the market is biased against, is it likely to be priced too high or too low? .....
A. Seeing a situation like this, Dr. D's eyes glaze over. It's like spotting something marked Bijan in a thrift store. The friendly neighborhood cashiers probably were pricing it with the same gun used to stamp the Towncraft sweaters, so you'd better take a long look.
There's a full disclosure due at this point. Dr. D has been known to go rushing out of the stores with $5 Bijans before he has checked them over for moth holes...
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For part 2 see next post -