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Can Starters Thrill on the Hill?
The GM Talks Bikini Baseball
As usual for us, spring training is a hard time to get a handle on what our baseball club is really doing. There are so many guys in camp, and they all get their shots to play. That’s maybe even more the case when it comes to the team’s starting rotation this year, which has a motley crew of candidates. There are legitimately as many as nine arms that could be in this race, and a multitude of configurations that manager Richard Lawson could set them in.
That’s by design right now.
We’re not a team that can afford to go out and flash cash all the way down our roster, so having roles set in stone is difficult. I’m also deeply aware that a 162 game season is more than a bit of a meat grinder. I like having a variety of guys who can start games. I also note that we’ve done our best to put our guys into positions where they can win, so in a pinch I like to have a variety of pitchers around to play games of mix and match.
So, anyway, let’s take a look at the guys.
So, who’s going to start, right? The team only gets 27 roster spots. Which of these guys are going into the rotation? The truth is that I don’t know. We’ve got a few options will give to parse down the candidate list soon. And we’ll have some juggling to do with the rest of the roles on the team. How many bullpen arms do we thing we need right away, and all that.
Maybe we’ll petition the commish for a 35-man roster, and keep them all?
Wishful thinking, I know.
Anyway, my real view is that it's likely that every one of these guys will start games for us this year. I'm not sure when, of course. But I like them all in spots. It wouldn't shock me at all to see a bit of a shuffle between the rotation and the pen, and between Bikini and our AAA team in Pasco.
Time will tell, though. The next ten days will come faster than we think.
The GM Talks Bikini Baseball
As usual for us, spring training is a hard time to get a handle on what our baseball club is really doing. There are so many guys in camp, and they all get their shots to play. That’s maybe even more the case when it comes to the team’s starting rotation this year, which has a motley crew of candidates. There are legitimately as many as nine arms that could be in this race, and a multitude of configurations that manager Richard Lawson could set them in.
That’s by design right now.
We’re not a team that can afford to go out and flash cash all the way down our roster, so having roles set in stone is difficult. I’m also deeply aware that a 162 game season is more than a bit of a meat grinder. I like having a variety of guys who can start games. I also note that we’ve done our best to put our guys into positions where they can win, so in a pinch I like to have a variety of pitchers around to play games of mix and match.
So, anyway, let’s take a look at the guys.
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Felix Vidaca (8/7/7/6/7) – We signed Felix to a $60M deal in the off-season, then immediately put his 33 year old backside on a firm no Long Beach Water diet and gave him a 24-hour security detail. We’ve dallied with the idea of putting him into the stopper role rather than the rotation, and I suppose that’s possible. I mean, don’t be surprised to see him fall into the role for a bit if we need him to. He excelled there for some time in Sacramento. But mostly I think he’ll sit in the #1 slot, at least for a while.
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Samuel Nebraska (7/7/8/6/5) – Sam has long been the Grand PooBah of the Bikini rotation, but with Vidaca coming in, he can take a step back this year and pitch out of the #2 slot. Or not. I know everyone is thinking Felix might run as a stopper, but really Sam Nebraska—who has a Platinum name in the BBA, right?—is as well equipped to succeed as a stopper. He’s young and he’s good. His injury history is positive. He started 35 games last year, so he’s a guy who wants the ball. I haven’t made any real decision, yet, but with all the guys we have right now, it might be worth a shot. I’d love having him on the mound whenever the game was on the line.
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Armando Rodriguez (5/7/7/6/5) – Rodriguez started fifteen games for us last year, and the results didn’t really pass the eye test in a lot of ways. A record of 3-7, with a 5.20 ERA will do that. He kept the ball in the park, though, and his walk rate and FIP were solid. Perhaps the biggest number on his table was the .336 BABIP he allowed, which goes straight to the club’s defense. Our defense should really be better this year. That’s one of the reasons I gave him a cheap extension, so fingers crossed. Regardless, he’ll be in the mix simply for his quality as a southpaw. Sometimes you just need to start a lefty, and he’s a pretty fair one.
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John Parrish (5/6/7/5/7) – A lot of Bikini fans expected to see John pitching in Bikini last summer, but they had to wait until the fall. At 28, it’s probably time we give him his chance, especially if Nebraska goes to the stopper role. The fact is that he’s proven everything he can prove at AAA. I’d like to have seen more success when he came up last year, though. So we’ll see. Is he the guy who tossed a 2.70 ERA in a cup of coffee in 2057, or is he the guy who lobbed a 7.30 grenade during a similar stint last year?
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Fransisco Ortiz (5/7/8/6/6) – Francisco went 10-8 last year, with a 4.35 ERA and an 86 FIP-. Not bad for a guy on a “show me” contract. Arguably our best pitcher, and certainly good enough to pick up another this year. Ortiz is another guy that our horrid defense could have been an issue for. His BABIP was .322 (vs. a league average of .287). I like him a lot because no matter how much we try to get him out of the rotation, he always just there and always just pitching himself back into it. He’s sitting with a 2.53 ERA in the spring. Expect to see him again in the summer. If the gloves help him, you might see a sudden arrival, too. That would be fun.
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Jayden Nicholls (5/6/7/5/5) – Another guy who fails the eye test but has just pitched whenever we’ve asked him to. He threw 145 league-average innings last season (finishing 10-6, 3.71). That can be valuable if they come from the back end of the rotation. At question is whether he can duplicate that .271 BABIP. He keeps the ball on the ground. I’ve said before that the gloves will be better in 2059, if so maybe Nicholls will be okay. Jury is out, of course, but he’s a great guy. Everyone is rooting for him.
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Norberto Garcia (7/5/5/4/5) – Garcia has grown from the cantankerous kid who came to the team on his last shot to prove he can pitch with the big boys, into a veteran hurler who still throws like he’s got a chip on his shoulder. He shocked the world last season by stepping out of the bullpen and being successful while starting 16 games. He’s a lefty with a deceptive slider/sinker combo that he can throw all day. His ability to control the running game is one of those silent things that sets him apart, too. I mean, what’s not to like? He says he likes starting. I don’t think that’s his natural role, but as a lefty with that track record I’m sure he’ll get a chance. At least in spots. Like Grand Dad said, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
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Mahmut Binark (5/5/5/6/4) – To be clear, I have no idea where Mahmut is going to wind up. He’s has been a highly anticipated debut for seasons, and yet can’t seem to get over the hump. He’s clearly got the talent, but will he ever grow into it? We sent him to SKilllz Skool over the offseason, and it’s hard to say anything changed much for him. And yet, he’s shown brilliance when he pitches. Should we bite the bullet and just put him out there to see if we can jumpstart the kid’s development? I don’t know. He’s got room to grow. If he uses it, he’ll be a star. If not, he’ll be finding a new life sometime soon. That’s baseball, really. Sometimes there’s no telling until you can tell.
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Enrique Aguilar (7/6/5/6/7) – Enrique has been the anti-Nicholls in that everything about him screams “star pitcher” but the results mostly say “holy crap, what were you thinking!” He’s started. He’s relieved. Neither result has been particularly exciting. Here are some numbers over the years: .307, .320, .320, .426, .333. Those are his big league BABIP numbers for the past five seasons. Is it defense? I mean, I know we were bad last year, but has the glovework been that bad in this franchise for that long? Or is it him. Boy, oh, boy, the scouts all want to say it’s glovework.
Maybe we’ll petition the commish for a 35-man roster, and keep them all?
Wishful thinking, I know.
Anyway, my real view is that it's likely that every one of these guys will start games for us this year. I'm not sure when, of course. But I like them all in spots. It wouldn't shock me at all to see a bit of a shuffle between the rotation and the pen, and between Bikini and our AAA team in Pasco.
Time will tell, though. The next ten days will come faster than we think.
