...eventually, as you say. Pryor makes me nervous with his motion, but I've seen uglier from pen arms. His stuff is brutal, and we didn't pay him that money to coddle him. He's gonna get pushed.
I like Burgoon and Bischoff as well as two arms that could have a lot of helium on their rise through the minors. The Goon had a bit of an arm issue last year that delayed him but came back from it strong. Both could be in AA by the end of this year. Doesn't mean they will be, but relievers can move quickly if they show dominance.
Bischoff was either utterly dominant or occasionally very hittable. His outings were either zeros and Ks or he'd get lit up. I'm curious to see him against better breaking ball pitchers. Both guys were closers in college.
Boyce was a college closer as well for his first couple years (after elbow surgery). He started the last two, though, and likes starting better. He's done both for us, and done both well so far, but it's low minors. A 5th year senior should beat up on Pulaski. He's got some work to do still, but is an arm more in the Ryan Franklin mold.
Kesler is a fat, short RH reliever with previous arm surgery. Low 90s heat and improving breaking stuff let him wipe the floor with the NWL. That's sort of like destroying your local play-in tourney for the World Series of Poker when compared to what he'll need to do to be successful in the bigs, but it's still nice to see.
Moran is just untouchable, no matter the park so far. AA will be his big test, but I expect him to ace it and make it to AAA or even the big-leagues this year.
There are some pen arms that are gonna make a move this year, even without any starter-to-relief conversions that could make guys like Wilhelmsen into fast movers as well. We have some older returning players too, though sadly no Varvaro. I was pulling for that kid.
Our pen looks like it's gonna be white-knuckle to start the year. I'm not especially stoked about 4 or 5 of the potential members.
But help IS on the way.
~G
Add new comment
1