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...and still hasn't thrown 400 innings total. He strained his shoulder twice, violated the substance abuse policy to lose a bunch of games, got tendonitis, FINALLY pitched a whole season in 2010 and then pitched mostly from the pen in 2011.
He's got a pretty decent fastball and I like his offspeed game. Mechanical issues are much easier to deal with in the pen when you only have to do one or two things, not worry about getting through the lineup 3 times. He doesn't have to be able to throw for 200 innings either.
He says he likes to start and that's all he ever did in the minors. Well...he didn't do it often. He might well turn out to be a great starter, and I like his stuff quite a bit. I'm willing to wait a little bit to see what he might do in the rotation.
But he's not good enough to keep Erasmo in the pen, IMO, nor to hold off Paxton and crew. If Vargas stays, then Noesi might best be deployed in the pen.
He'll get a couple of months, no doubt, to prove he can clean up his inconsistencies and get over the nerves.
He'd better learn fast, though - the guys behind him won't wait. Nobody's getting the 2 year adjustment plan from here out. They'll need to be at least adequate on a much faster timeline.
Though Beavan is still starting, so maybe I'm mistaken on that. We'll see how long he can cling to the rotation.
~G