Improving On 86 Wins Through Pitching

In that order for starting pitching.

Curious to see how our new GM’s career as a reliever will mold his approach towards acquiring them. He just watched Arizona rebuild a bullpen in one offseason without any marquee names so I’d hope he doesn’t follow in Tony’s footsteps of assuming that if they cost $5 million a year, they MUST be good

not the starting pitching

Aw, who am I kidding? One doesn’t start a post with “I hate to nitpick, but…” unless one intends to nitpick.

I would submit that Santana’s and Takahashi’s seasons were not at all alike. Yes, they put up some similar numbers…but Santana was a starting pitcher. A reliever with an ERA+ of 111 and WHIP of 1.22 just isn’t cutting it. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Now, as for the potential signees…

Heath Bell: not leaving San Diego. He’ll either accept arbitration or sign an extension there.

Wilson: will get a lot more money than he’s worth. Whatever team signs him will wind up wishing it had signed Kuroda, Buehrle, Oswalt, Harang or Saunders (if non-tendered) instead. Or, dare I say it, Yu Darvish.

Aardsma: hasn’t pitched since 2010, won’t pitch for the first part of 2012 (Tommy John surgery). Pass.

Kuo: Steve Blass disease; also just had his 5th elbow operation. Pass.

The Angels definitely need at least one starting pitcher, and that’s assuming nobody gets traded. If they deal Santana, as some have suggested, they’ll need two. I say with extreme confidence that the team will not go to spring training expecting to fill out 3/5 of its starting rotation with some combination of Chatwood, Richards, Williams and Bell.

The Angels could do a lot worse than add Dotel as a middle reliever; however, it’s my understanding that he never signs with contending teams, just gets traded to them at the deadline. He’d need to sign with, say, the Orioles or Nationals, then get traded here.

Atlanta just dealt Lowe to make some room in their incredibly deep rotation. Hanson & Beachy are the 1-2 punch which leaves Jurrjens, Minor, Vizcaino, Delgado, and Teheran battling for the final 3 spots.

I know Alex Gonzalez is a free agent to-be and admittedly I don’t know much about SS depth in Atlanta’s system. Perhaps they have someone ready to step into the role. If not, Aybar would be a pretty tasty option for them as they are unlikely to go out and spend big cash on a Reyes or even a Rollins.

I don’t necessarily want to trade Aybar, but both him and Kendrick are in walk years and if you look at next year’s free agent class they are likely going to be the top guy at their respective positions. I know there is hope Segura will be ready by 2013 but he can’t play both positions and there doesn’t appear to be anyone else in our system that will be ready to step in by then.

Perhaps instead of signing a #4 starter this year, we trade Aybar for a young and controllable SP from Atlanta and use the money we were going to spend on a starter to lock up Howie long term.

Of course this would leave a void at SS for 2012 which would mean signing a veteran to a 1-year deal to split time with Maicer. (Furcal?)

This is just a knee-jerk post. I may be overlooking something significant, but it seems like one possibility.

CJ is going to be too expensive now that CC is off the market. I’m betting the Nationals pull another Werth contract on him.

For starters, I’m not too enticed by most of the other options. I’ve never really been a big fan of Oswalt. Saunders and Harang aren’t more than average and can be downright terrible for significant stretches. Dipoto should look at the import options this year with Darvish, Iwakuma and maybe Wada (in that order). There might be some interesting relief options there too.

I think Yu Darvish would be a terrific sign. He has a larger build than most of his peers, so he doesn’t scare me like most other pitchers from Asia. He definitely appears more legitimate and the stats back him up.

At least not at a price the Angels can afford to pay.

Hopefully they are solid moves that can propel us back to the playoffs. Cuz I don’t think we want to wait another year to not make the playoffs.

Is an NL only pitcher. He had a WHIP of at least 1.43 in his last 2.5 years with the Halos, failed to have a K/9 above 5 and walked at least 2.8 bb/9 in this time period.

I honestly don’t see how he would be an upgrade over Jerome Williams, Chatwood and Richards. If we could get him for a 1 year/$5 million deal he would be nice to have as a #5 — just don’t pay or expect anything more.

This Minnesota beat writer thinks there is a good chance Slowey is non-tendered by the Twinkies (http://atmlb.com/tphYoS) [all the way at the bottom].

Slowey pitched 60 innings this year in a hybrid starter/reliever role. He was rocked for a 6.67 ERA but that’s thanks to a .330 BABIP (.307 xBABIP) and an INSANELY low strand rate (58.3%). His FIP/xFIP/SIERA were 4.47 / 4.36 / 4.30.

His secondary stuff just wasn’t there this year resulting in career high contact rates allowed and career low swinging strikes/K-rate. A quick look at his PitchFX reveals his slider and curve ball were both very flat compared to previous years. I don’t have an answer to why but it’s hard for me to believe this 27 year old simply lost his “stuff.”

He’s relatively young, sports a career 6.67 K/9 and miniscule 1.42 BB/9 for a remarkable 4.70 K/BB (I’m biased towards K/BB… I HATE walks). In the two seasons he was a full-time starter he pitched about 155-160 innings and produced a 2.2 and 3 WAR seasons. Relatively nice upside for a guy that should come much cheaper than some of the other arms being considered.