So, You'd Trade Morrow for League ... again?, 2
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Re Brandon League, Mojo likes what he sees:
Contrast Brandon League:
Cooler tattoos,
Better control, League can paint the corners when he wants, and can throw his sinkerball for a strike.
Good stuff too, He hits 98 on the radar gun, has a good sinker ball, and has that fork thing as his offspeed pitch.
Has thrived in Seattle, with 3.42 and 2.82 ERAs while pitching high leverage innings for the lowest run scoring and most disappointing offenses in history.
Does not whine, Last year, he never whined, that we know of, during all those 1-1 and 0-0 tie games where he pitched his heart out for at least two innings, and the Mariners lost anyway.
Did not whine, when he was behind the DA even though he had better stats.
Did not whine, when he was moved to closer, and had added pressure.
Is an all star.
Will be traded next July for Jesus Montero, Mike Trout or someone similarly awesome, OR
Will sign with the Mariners as the closer of the future for a hometown discount, OR
Both.
Sometimes we need to count our blessings. League is one of them.
STIPULATED THAT, objectively speaking, this guy has been closing games ... and closing them with great tempo, attack, and attitude ... and that his stuff is super-elite. He gets ahead in the count, too.
I would counter that 6.3 strikeouts is definitely not closer material -- neither is his sky-high 3.73 lifetime ERA. His lifetime FIP of 3.99 is terrible for a late-inning reliever making big money.
I'm biased here, because I can't bear to watch the man pitch. It's a personal bias of mine that I don't want to be around people who talk "AT" you rather than "WITH" you.
League, refusing to think on the mound, refuses to include the hitter, catcher, or coaches in the conversation. That can do nothing but make him worse, and in fact it has made him worse, MUCH worse than he should have been as a baseball pitcher.
He's about as reliable as Aardsma. Which is fine compared to Chris Ray, but not so fine compared to a real closer.
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I should acknowledge that League's mental problems lower his effectiveness from "should-be star" to "actual fairly-good reliever." His stuff is just so sensational that it braces up his floor -- you still want him on your ballclub.
You guys want to enjoy the tats and the "you can't touch this" attitude and the machine-like predictable Clubber Lang onslaughts, who can blame yer.
...
OBF:
BTW I was trying to look up team DER to see if the blue jays have a terrible defense and I couldn't find it, can someone provide a link?
Fangraphs > Team Totals > Fielders allows you to sort by UZR/150 ... the Blue Jays are middle-of-the-pack.
Baseball Prospectus > Statistics > Team Defensive Efficiency again puts the Jays solidly middle of the pack, at .708.
Morrow's BABIP this year is fine, up a little maybe at .310, but the real issue is his strand rate. He's stranded only 63.2% of all baserunners, with 70% being the norm.
Is Morrow uncomfortable in the stretch? That would be a little odd, since he served 3 years' apprenticeship as a reliever.
Still, his numbers are somewhat off in the stretch, and visually to me he looks far more comfortable from the full wind. This probably does play into that "bully" factor where he enjoys life when things are going great but tends to wish he weren't there, when they're going less well.
I wouldn't exaggerate the factor -- he's been pitching with runners on base since ... well, since he's been pitching. But I'd agree that Morrow has some work to do, before he can reliably "bear down" when the going is tough.
.
Or not,
Dr D