Mesa

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Logan Bawcom

Q.  What is the general consensus on Logan Bawcom?

A.  That he's a reliever with a certain amount of upside, decent fastball good slider, who will likely pitch in the bigs at some point.  And who at any rate didn't deserve to make the top 20, or particularly close to it, in LAD's org prospects list.

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Q.  Does SSI vary from this consensus?

A.  Actually we'd be kind of excited about this pitcher.  It's not so much what he's done - though what he's done is consistent with impact relief in the bigs - as it is his pitching template.

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Q.  His template being what?

A.  The basic Jonathan Broxton, Craig Kimbrel type of over-the-top power reliever.

Not that Bawcom has their raw velocity, of course, but not so many pitchers really "throw downhill" in Tim Lincecum style.  Lincecum rocks back and points uphill before he does anything else ... then he sort of climbs to the peak like a roller coaster, crests at the top, and then rocks back downhill.  He comes way overhand and the result is a pitch plane that is angled sharply down.

Other pitchers who do this include Doug Fister - though he doesn't have to climb uphill first to do this - and Stephen Pryor.  Back in the day, Jose Mesa used to throw this way.  Matt Thornton does it from the left side.

It's a tough kind of pitcher for them batters to deal wit'.

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How about the bullpen? Is IT "All In"?

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It ain't easy, looking at a Yahoo.com roto base of pitchers, to suggest specific relief pitchers that --- > Jack Zduriencik could target for termination.  

J.P. Howell is a pending FA, fans 10 per game in setup, and Tampa ain't going to be able to pay a setup man $12-20M for 3-4 years.  (By way of comparison, ChiSox setup man Matt Thornton just signed for $6M per year, times 3 years.)

You hear about the Mariners trading Brandon League this year:  that's because League is a pending FA, an MLB Closer(TM), and is looking at $10M+ per year this winter.  You deal him or lose him for nothing.  Same with Tampa Bay's pending-FA relief men, like Howell.  

J.J. Putz had a big year closing for Arizona and he will be an FA.  He had an elbow flareup last summer.  What would you think of him as a rent-an-ace-reliever for one year?

Also pitching for the Rays is Kyle Farnsworth, who fanned 8.0 men last year, walked 1.9, and is a free agent this winter.  Guys like that.  Somebody with the Mariners will have a nice relief pitchers spreadsheet that they can sort by (1) CMD ratio, (2) service time, and (3) home teams' willingness to deal.

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Q.  How about giving these guys a chance, first?  One game doesn't prove that Kelley and Sherrill can't pitch.

A.  It's like with Chone Figgins.  It wasn't the two games in Tokyo, dude.  The two games merely underlined what we already feared.

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