| By Jason A. Churchill |  | By 02-23-2011 |
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The following 6 comment(s) for this article are shown below:
| 1. By: dewey on 02-24-2011 00:46:54 Jason do you think any of 16-30 have a chance to be every day guys our starters our closers? Second question why has the talent in baseball as a whole gone backwards? |
| 2. By: Jason A. Churchill on 02-24-2011 00:57:30 Every day players? Probably not, though a few have an outside chance such as Castillo, Choi. Starters? Just a few maybes such as Shipers, Campos. Wilhelmsen has the stuff right now to pitch the 7th inningg. I think Burgoon could be a 7th or 8th inning guy, but no, no closers in this group. Just some short relievers and platoon types. The system is a bit top heavy right now. |
| 3. By: rocketdawg31 on 02-24-2011 15:00:54 Jason, I'm wondering what you think about something. It's about the lasting bias towards smaller pitchers. When I was a kid, there was a Mariners prospect named Jim Converse who could throw really, really hard. He topped out at about 95, IIRC. Jim Converse was only 5'9", and seemed to get stuck as a "bullpen arm" sometime in the high minors. Now, I like 6'5"+ horses on the mound as much as anyone- but is the proof really there that a pitcher of that height is going to be less susceptible to injury (i.e. "more durable"?)? The human arm isn't designed to throw a baseball as hard as you can 85-120 times in a day. So, every single person who does so takes the same fundamental risk. Now, we have Robles, who, if he were even 6'1" we'd have him right up there with Pineda as a starting pitcher candidate. Instead, Robles is 5'10" and if he wants to be a starter in the higher minors/the show...he's going to have to prove time and again he can do it- every step of the way. Why? Ron Guidry was 5'9" and threw as hard as anybody in his time. Billy Wagner, Pedro Martinez... I also have this friend who's 5'8" (he says 5'11" on his license! Which would make ME 6'5"..I'm NOT that tall.)...but I've seen him out-drink, out-move, out-stamina, out-everything guys that had 5 or 6 inches on him (he reaallllly shoulda played baseball, just a gifted athlete). Also, I had a friend I played high school ball with- he was 5'11". Righthanded, though. Threw 87-88, kept his stuff in late innings. I'm sure he could've been drafted if he'd been a lefty that size. Robles and now Jordan Shipers are always going to face the 'yeah, buuuuuut he's not 6 feet tall' bias. My question to you is: if you're a GM, does it matter to you? Is there legit reasoning for there to be a bias in place, or is it something that eventually should fall by the wayside completely? |
| 4. By: nighthawk180 on 02-24-2011 16:58:32 I know Im not Jason but I have a thought on this subject. Im not that tall (5'6 to 5'7 on a good day lol) and I have been told my playing career that if I was four + inches taller I would have gone to college or drafted or whatever. I pretty much stopped growing at 13 but at that age I was one of the taller kids I played with or against. I was always small until the age of 12, 13 and there after, but I always had to fight my way through the crap about not being tall enough. My senior year in high school after the season I was messing around with a couple of friends and one had got his dads new radar gun and we all took trys to see how hard we could throw. Mostly my friends had a hard time hitting 80 mph but I sat mostly 82-84 and hit 86 a couple of times. Not that great but for a lefty and not tall no one would look at me. Shortly after I fell in a good paying job right out of high school and gave up the dream. Biggest mistake of my life but hindsight 20/20. As far as the injury concerns go I like to think of it as leverage and torque the smaller person has to use in order to throw the ball that hard and consistent. For instance think a catapult the bigger the weight and catapult the less effort to throw just as far. Just like you said everyone has so many pitches and then its over. Just my thoughts. |
| 5. By: Rudolf on 02-24-2011 19:06:00 Just wanted to say that was a heckuva chat last night. You guys stuck around to answer the chirping of the crickets. Top notch effort, guys! |
| 6. By: Jason A. Churchill on 02-24-2011 23:29:31 Thanks, Rudolf! rocketdawg, Size helps a pitcher's projected durability, in-game, in-season and over the course of his career. There are exceptions to every rule, and that rule is no different, but there aren't many smallish pitchers, under 6-feet, that are true top-flight arms for a long period of time. The smaller frame simply breaks down quicker. Tim Lincecum is awesome, but part of the reason the next five years might go to Brandon Morrow -- might -- is because Lincecum's frame isn't likely to hold up. Maybe he's another exception, but generally you bet on the stronger, bigger player with similar physical tools. Lincecum has a high-effort delivery - he needs it, his natural weight won't allow for anything less if he wants the velocity, the arm speed that is critical for his changeup. Whereas bigger pitchers get what scouts like to call "easy velocity." And Pedro, while he was great for a time, hasn't been great since he was 33, and most in the game believe he was one of those on some sort of substance to help his arm recover between starts. It's not a coincidence that he fell off pretty hard when the league installed punishments and publicizing positive tests. Wagner was a closer, however. Not the same. |
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