Peter Bryant - The 35 Year Old (FA) Virgin

[agrudez]

Throughout his 12 year career, Peter Bryant has defined the term 'good #2'. For his first few years in MAD and his last few after, he may have been the rotation's best arm, but he never truly ascended to that 'ace' status we often debate - for either side of that debate. He also, for a large portion of his MAD career, lived in the shadow of Kooijman - overtly while the youngster was pitching and covertly after his tragic CEI. His short-ish stint in HI saw him playing second fiddle to one of the league's best, Jose Olivarez and his even shorter time in HSV had him behind the GM's Southpaw obsession, Luis Freitas.

Now, at age 35, and having experienced some ratings decline, Bryant finds himself hitting the FA market for the very first time - a feeling of being 'unwanted' no doubt permeating his psyche. With a career 3.61 ERA and 45.1 WAR, he has an outside shot at HoF consideration if he can continue to pitch at a high level for a few more seasons - even with missing nearly 3 aggregate seasons of his prime due to injury. But even in a league utterly devoid of pitching talent, Bryant himself is skeptical of the type of interest he'll drum up.

"I've never been here before. Never thought I'd be here at all, tell you the truth. But I've seen these stories play out before. 'The old guy on the decline' hitting the market... sure, he gets picked up eventually, but not at the number he wants to be. Not at the number he deserves."

Throughout his career, Bryant has made his name on keeping the ball inside the park - with an impressive career .512 HR/9. He has also seen himself on the top 10 leaderboards for that metric a whopping 8 times throughout his career - including ranking 2nd overall in the league as recently as the 2025 season. So, even though he has lost a little velocity and a bit more than that in control, Bryant is still supremely confident in his abilities.

"Not many guys can spin the ball like me. Everyone gets excited by hitting triple digits and 'blowing guys away', but what really wins games is keeping the ball down and inside the park. And even now I'd put myself up against anyone in that."

And Bryant, indeed, has every reason to have faith in that statement. The +cutter is still there. The 74% GB rate is still there. The movement is still there. The only thing that isn't still there is, perhaps, the most important thing - a contract.

[nerfHerder]

Always liked Bryant. He clearly has slipped a little, but should get a shot somewhere.

[Lane]

That's a helluva GB rate. If he keeps that up he could certainly have some very productive years with the right defense behind him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk