Sorry to be so long in posting, but my story has been lost by the server TWICE and it put me in a VERY BAD MOOD!!!!!
Well, spring training is underway.
I have no news, except that Brad Ausmus is SO important to this team, Jeff Bagwell is working on changing his swing (which I told yall about a few months ago) and Adam Everett is working New Duties In The Infield, like going to the pitchers mound to calm him down if he needs it. Oh yeah, Andy Pettitte ended his pitching session one minute early – he felt he had enough, but he’s gaining strength in his arm. After 23 pitches. Oh yeah, and Carlos Hernandez is looking better than he did last year (well, anything would be an improvement…) and Pete Munro, Carlos Hernandez and Tim Redding didn’t look real too good (i’m shocked, SHOCKED) yesterday… And if Tim Redding ain’t startin, he wants to be departin.
Looks like Chris Burke might could be splitting time with Biggio at second – grapevine has Garner hopelessly in love with Tavares and his steals and a “lock” for starting CF. Which would put Lane in right (fine with me – he’s a decent glove) and Palmeiro in left until Lance comes back (fine with me – I’m tryin to be an honest girl here…) Don’t you just LUV rumors?
What do I WANNA know?
Everything that ain’t no one gonna tell.
Like, has Brandon Duckworthless learned to pitch? (doubt it) Taylor Buchholz (doubt it) and Why on EARTH has Ezequiel Astacio even made the top 100 prospects on anyone’s list? In fact, our farm system got a grade of D in the Lindy’s 2005 scouting report. We had only three prospects in Baseball America’s top 100, and one of them is Mitch Einertson, down in rookie ball.
Big Deal.
I absolutely refuse to talk Yankees, Red Sox or roids.
So, let’s talk scouting. First, Lindy’s thinks that Roy Oswalt will win the Cy this year. Bout time.
I was curious to see how scouts rank the major league pitchers.
Scouts grade players like this:
7.5 – 8.0 Franchise pitcher/player
7.0 – 7.5 could be #1 starter/closer for most ML clubs
6.5 – 7.0 could start for most clubs – could be #1 for many ML clubs
6.0 – 6.5 could start for majority of clubs. could be #2 or 3 for most clubs
5.5 – 6.0 could start for many clubs. could be #2 or 3 on many clubs
5.0 – 5.5 could start for some clubs – could be #4 or 5 on most clubs
4.5 – 5.0 could, um, fill an important role on many clubs. #5 starter
4.0 – 4.5 bench warmer (my words)
In my opinion, the top 10 NL starters are:
Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens, Jason Schmidt, Mark Prior, Oliver Perez, Ben Sheets, Jake Peavy, Tim Hudson (low K rate and all), Carlos Zambrano and Javier Vasquez. Not necessarily in that order. Boy it looks funny not to have RJ on that list, doesn’t it…..
In Lindys’ opinion, Roy, Roger and Schmidt are 7.1, Sheets, Prior, Pedro, Smoltz and Hudson are 7.0, Mulder is 6.9 and Kerry Wood is 6.8.
- I can’t understand rating Smoltz so high, because he hasn’t started in 5 years and there is a REAL big difference between being good for 3 hitters when your team is winning and no one is on base and dealing with 7+ innings, and in my opinions, a top notch starter should be good enough to average at least 7 IP/game. I don’t think Pedro was a top 10 pitcher in the AL last year – too many walks and HR – but, he might could be a LOT better this year, not having to face that Yankee line up a zillion times. No other NL team hs a lineup close to the Yankees, sorry to say. Mulder too, might could improve last year for the same reason, but there is NO way I think he’s better than Oliver Perez. I do want to remind everyone who checks the numbers that Perez pitched for the PIRATES and to consider run support and gloves.
So who’s next?
6.7 – Beckett, Carlos Zambrano, Oliver Perez
6.6 – Pettitte, Burnett, Carpenter, Peavy
6.5 – J. Vasquez, Russ Ortiz, Milton
I guess Beckett is STILL getting props from the WS, Ortiz and Milton from their W/L records.
6.4 – Benson, L. Hernandez, B. Lawrence, Penny
6.3 – Wolf, Morris, Maddux, Odalis Perez
6.2 – Thomson, Hampton, Jerome Williams, (note Wade Miller is here on the AL list, WELL ahead of Munro, Redding or Hernandez…..)
It is interesting that the scouts rate pitchers on “mound presence” -I guess, how bad they LOOK, not how bad they throw. Seems to me if I was hitting, I’d be a LOT more scared of a pitcher who looked like Richard Simmons and threw like RJ than a pitcher who looked like RJ and threw like Richard Simmons. So I’ve never really understood this particular category…..
Closer rankings:
7.4 – Gagne
7.2 – Lidge, Billy Wags
7.1 – Trevor Hoffman (who, by the way, throws in the low 80s and 70s – it ain’t the heat, it’s the motion…)
7.0 – Izzy, Looper (I’m serious), Mesa and Benitez (the Giants be prayin)
6.9 – LaTroy Hawkins (I’m personally hoping the Cubs believe this)
6.8 – Kolb, Mota (remember he never has closed and see the line above…)
6.6 – Greg Aquino (Dbax), Otsuka
6.2 – Chad Cordero, Luis Ayala
6.0 – Chacon (um, I think he’s a LOUSY closer, but hey, he has good stuff….)
6.5 – Graves, Alfonseca (who hasn’t closed for a few years)
Why does good “stuff” and good “mound presence” combines with lousy results rank so well with scouts?
