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Are Hultzen and Walker ready?
Carraway was ready to move up - 0.2/1.7/7.6 slashline at Jackson for a 2.61 ERA.
In same number of innings, he's 1.0/2.4/4.9 - 3.41 at Tacoma.
I know that the paradigm of "having" to spend time at AAA is fading ... but exactly when did bypassing AAA become a requirement?
Is it at least a possibility that the hitting talent in AA right this instant just happens to be sub-par? What do the league averages show?
PCL R/G = 5.12
SL R/G = 4.12
The Southern League this year is chock full of amazing pitching lines.
Donnie Joseph (Pen/Cinci) - 13.6 K/9 -- identical to Capps.
There are currently 15 pitchers in the Southern League with K/9 in double digits with at least 25 innings pitched.
With the PCL generating a full run more offense per game ... to get a better read on where they are ... move them to Tacoma. Marquez, Vazquez and Snow are a Neopolitan triple scoop of disaster thus far.
Hey ... I was the guy down on Beavan early and advising patience with Noesi. I'm willing to accept both are reasonable candidates for a trip to Tacoma today. But, are Carraway and Erasmo ready to come up? That I'm less sure about. I'm REALLY less sure about the AA pitchers that are dominating what is likely the worst hitting minor league out there.
But, there's a lot of variables in play. You don't jerk guys around just because you can. Every promotion is coupled with a corresponding demotion. What is reasonable with Noesi and Beavan is a legit question? Not only for general fairness ... but also for their best developmental route. Same goes for Hultzen and Walker ... but that doesn't mean you pretend you aren't trying to develop guys like Vazquez and Snow as well.
The club was high enough on Snow (that does sound like a drug reference, doesn't it), that they had him bypass Jackson altogether. Yes, he's struggled in Tacoma ... but he's also managed an 8.9 K-rate in AAA over 91 innings. So, is 91 innings enough to say ... send him down to Jackson? I don't know. I do know he's having control issues for the first time ever ... which could mean they're working on mechanics.
But, if you call up the AA studs and send Snow and Marquez down (for instance), what happens if Hultzen's initial control issues resurface at Tacoma? What if Hultzen starts walking 6 a game while fanning 9 ... like Snow has been doing in Tacoma? Then what?
The development task that is perhaps the most difficult is judging not whether a player has "mastered" the current level. The larger question is whether he is ready for the next level. It's not precisely the same question.
By and large, Seattle has been superb in making those judgements. That doesn't mean things will work out 100% of the time. But if they choose Noesi over Erasmo ... they had reasons. If they promote Carraway instead of Walker ... they have reasons. And these reasons are built around understandings of the subtle differences between AA and AAA and MLB realities.
Since 2009, the club has produced practically out of thin air ... Vargas, Fister, Pineda, Wilhelmsen, Furbush ... and has progressed from having Feierabend and Cha-Seung Baek as the minor league backups to: Hultzen, Walker, Carraway, Erasmo, Capps and Moran.
If the club is choosing to be patient, I for one am going to start from a belief that these guys know what they're doing.