Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Knee Deep in the Dead






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"The revamped bullpen looks great, leading MLB with 32 strikeouts compared to just 10 walks (two intentional). Strangely, the most significant contributions have come from holdovers Shawn Camp, Jason Frasor and Marc Rzepczynski." Some genius, ESPN Power Rankings.
Well that was unpleasant! 7 walks is no fun, nor is it anything worth dwelling on. Hoisting blame onto the manager seems easy enough though I can't entirely fault him, Octavio Dotel's ROOGY status notwithstanding. Walking 7 guys — seven SEATTLE FREAKING MARINERS — falls on those futilely hurling the pitches.

With that blame in mind...umm...wow...I knew this wouldn't be easy but..ummm Dave: we need to talk.

Look, Dave, Davey, bubby, you know nobody supports you like I do. I take lumps for you, I kill my credibility for you. I stumped to make you the freaking closer! Unfortunately, the time has come for you to go.

When Brandon Morrow is due to return to the rotation, this team has a difficult decision to make. Considering their ongoing infatuation with a pitcher best described as liquid, Jo-Jo "Loud Outs" Reyes is likely to lose his starter's role. He, like you, is out of options. He, unlike you, walks fewer than 12 guys per 9 innings. Pretty much making you the odd man out.

Perhaps you can go and live with the nice family on the farm. Perhaps another family in the neighbourhood sees the good in you. Me, I'm done. I hope you figure it out one day, that you realize gigantic left-handed dudes who throw 95 don't really need to do much else. Either way Davey, it's been a slice.

17 comments:

  1. Does Jack Z have any more high ceiling pitchers that he has abused bouncing back and forth from the starting rotation to the pen?

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  2. If only. Maybe he'll give Brandon League back.

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  3. This sadded my face :(

    But you're right. Purcey for Pineda!

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  4. I can't shake the feeling that Cecil might see Vegas due to Farrell's "no loyalty" take and AA's "options are everything" stance.

    Where he'll get pounded, destroying his confidence altogether, lose his mind on twitter, and never get back to where he was.

    But maybe this is just last night's shitshow talking. I hope.

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  5. I should have a post on Cecil for later today. Hopefully.

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  6. Cecil's an interesting case. I know he looked impressive in Toronto last year, but man, does he worry me these days. As much as he used to be a big prospect - he also used to strike people out, a skill that he's completely lost in the Major Leagues. As nice as that win total was last year, it's hard to shake the feeling that the Cecil we've seen in Toronto is no more than a 4th or 5th starter - and from what we're led to believe, those guys don't belong in Toronto when it's time to contend.

    Not that I'm writing off Cecil or anything like that. But perhaps it's better to send him down to the minors - hey, send him New Hampshire if they need to - and maybe he regain what he used to have?

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  7. You know, if I wasn't lazy (or at work), I'd go through my own archives to find the point where I started to worry about Cecil. But I know it was last season. This "new" lack of velocity doesn't strike me as being all that "new". Without any empirical evidence whatsoever, I recall raising concerns about this in the second half of last season.... which I probably attributed to just wearing down. Fuck.

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  8. One Cecil-related thing which strikes me now, though I didn't make anything of it at the time, was an Anthopoulos radio bit from the Spring, even before, I think, all the velocity issues came out. The host was asking Anthopoulos about being confident with the pitching going into 2011. He said that he found it hard to be confident about players, especially pitchers, unless they've had at least two good years. By name, he said that he's confident about Romero, but Cecil not so much.

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  9. I can't understand why anyone with a day job east of SK would stay up a minute after the Patterson bomb. 7-0. Nothing good can possibly come of staying up at that point.

    I figured Fangraphs would have our odds at about 97% for winning that game. Good enough for me. 6 hours sleep here I come.

    Clearly, anybody who stayed up to watch that game should not be critical of the manager's moves. kettle meet pot.

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  10. Re: Cecil -

    This is the earliest we've "seen" him with the big league club - the previous 2 years he started in the Minors to be called up (on April 23 and May 5 in '09 and '10 respectively).

    Perhaps this diminished early season velocity isn't anything new at all, hence the organizations's lack of (outward) worry.

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  11. Good point Kevin A.

    More disturbing from Cecil was the movement on his pitches in his last game. Check out the horizontal movement vs speed graph from his last game. Ugly.

    But we have to remember he spent most of the winter lying in the Kansas woodlands preying on momentarily-live game. He needs to work out some of the stiffness.

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  12. How did your post on Purcey become a worry-fest about Cecil? Cecil is what he is, but it might be good to remember that pitcher progression is rarely a straight line on the graph. Pitching mechanics are very touchy, Cecil could be an arm angle/landing spot from getting that out pitch back. He has thrown 7 innings of perfect ball in the last calendar year. Slow down.

    Purcey is a little different, seeing as he's had every opportunity to throw strikes, and hasn't really locked into anything. It will be sad to see him go, but I think you're right Drew, the time has come, to say fair's fair.

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  13. Ughh!!! Was that necessary Greg? How am I going to get that shit out of my head for the rest of the day?

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  14. The Jays under Anthopoulos seem to want to do the right thing by players- and perhaps putting Purcey through waivers would be the right thing. At the moment, it seems like the complete lack of trust Farrell has in him only compounds his lack of confidence. He may still have value, but he isn't going to find it with the Jays. He'll probably be claimed by another team, and given a chance in a new situation, which is probably a better situation for him.

    With a long pen, there is always room to hold someone like Purcey. But there is only upside if you give him the opportunity to work things out- which Farrell doesn't seem willing to do.

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  15. Anddddd.....he's DFA'd. Player to be named later, here we come!

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  16. I'm too young to die.

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  17. No, David, no you're not.

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