What are the chances the Royals trade Barlow and sign two of these guys? Rogers, Smith, and Strahm would all be great in my eyes with the lower walk rates. I just don’t see Padres or Dodgers trading its guys but who knows. Might as well ask. Would love to see a couple sign one and pair that with trading Barlow. Would it work? Who knows, but if we are in a new age of thinking here….why not.
I'm stumped when it comes to relievers because usually whatever the royals try doesn't work. They keep going after reclamation types and it usually doesn't work out. Personally I think Barlow is on the way down. He's lost quit a bit of velocity and constantly gets himself in trouble but usually works his way out. Still he blew 4 or 5 saves this year and had something like 4 loses. That's 8 or 9 games he cost the team. To me that's not an elite pitcher. He also averages 6 home runs per 9 innings. Personally if they could trade him for some younger talent I would do that. As far as the other guys go. Let's just hope a new pitching coach can help. I think a lot of this can be fixed. When they hired Dave Eiland the team ERA dropped by nearly a run a game so it can be done. I'm also a big fan of the slider and I hate the curveball. I'm talking a Greg Holland type slider. One that comes in at the knees and hits the plate when it drops. All too often curveball get hung in the middle of the plate and get crushed. I wish bubic would try to learn how to throw a good slider and use his curveball less. He can't control it. Greinke is the only guy on the staff that knows how to throw one. So I really don't have an answer on this one. Just hope a new coach can help
Assuming Singer and Lynch have locks on two of the rotation spots, which of the remaining young starters (Bubic, Heasley, Zerpa, Hernandez, Castillo) would you guess would get put into a bullpen role in an effort to find some consistency and maybe slide to the rotation later in the year? The flexibility there in my mind makes it somewhat less important that we land a few good relievers than finding two good starters. Though of course you can never have too much pitching. Also I didn't include Kowar on that list because I assume he'll start the year in Omaha and also I don't know what to make of him at this point.
Relievers are such perishable commodities with such variable (usually short) shelf lives. A good way to lose money would be to try to predict the performance of each team's bullpen as of April 1st of each year. Along with every other day of the year, for that matter!
Will last year prove to be the best of Barlow's career? Or was it another step on his ascendancy to bullpen immortality? Is he going to get better from here? Or did he reach his ceiling and he's on the way down?
Who knows? No one can answer such questions with certainty and baseball laughs at our paltry attempts to do so.
I know that many analytically oriented folks don't like hearing such things. But that doesn't change the fact that that's how it is. Look up the word "random" and you're likely to find an image of any MLB bullpen or reliever for the past 10 decades. It would certainly not be inappropriate.
Watching the world series.... Yeah, I'd like my team to be one of the two. Still, watching real grownup MLB ballplayers playing real grownup high-level MLB genuine hardball is a rare aesthetic pleasure that I don't think is equaled anywhere else in sports.
Maybe in the final seven games of the NCAA basketball tournament. Maybe.
Possibly in a few of the Olympic sports. Possibly.
What are the chances the Royals trade Barlow and sign two of these guys? Rogers, Smith, and Strahm would all be great in my eyes with the lower walk rates. I just don’t see Padres or Dodgers trading its guys but who knows. Might as well ask. Would love to see a couple sign one and pair that with trading Barlow. Would it work? Who knows, but if we are in a new age of thinking here….why not.
I'm stumped when it comes to relievers because usually whatever the royals try doesn't work. They keep going after reclamation types and it usually doesn't work out. Personally I think Barlow is on the way down. He's lost quit a bit of velocity and constantly gets himself in trouble but usually works his way out. Still he blew 4 or 5 saves this year and had something like 4 loses. That's 8 or 9 games he cost the team. To me that's not an elite pitcher. He also averages 6 home runs per 9 innings. Personally if they could trade him for some younger talent I would do that. As far as the other guys go. Let's just hope a new pitching coach can help. I think a lot of this can be fixed. When they hired Dave Eiland the team ERA dropped by nearly a run a game so it can be done. I'm also a big fan of the slider and I hate the curveball. I'm talking a Greg Holland type slider. One that comes in at the knees and hits the plate when it drops. All too often curveball get hung in the middle of the plate and get crushed. I wish bubic would try to learn how to throw a good slider and use his curveball less. He can't control it. Greinke is the only guy on the staff that knows how to throw one. So I really don't have an answer on this one. Just hope a new coach can help
Assuming Singer and Lynch have locks on two of the rotation spots, which of the remaining young starters (Bubic, Heasley, Zerpa, Hernandez, Castillo) would you guess would get put into a bullpen role in an effort to find some consistency and maybe slide to the rotation later in the year? The flexibility there in my mind makes it somewhat less important that we land a few good relievers than finding two good starters. Though of course you can never have too much pitching. Also I didn't include Kowar on that list because I assume he'll start the year in Omaha and also I don't know what to make of him at this point.
Just curious. What's the fastest pitch you've ever thrown? I once hit 55 mph going all-out.
Relievers are such perishable commodities with such variable (usually short) shelf lives. A good way to lose money would be to try to predict the performance of each team's bullpen as of April 1st of each year. Along with every other day of the year, for that matter!
Will last year prove to be the best of Barlow's career? Or was it another step on his ascendancy to bullpen immortality? Is he going to get better from here? Or did he reach his ceiling and he's on the way down?
Who knows? No one can answer such questions with certainty and baseball laughs at our paltry attempts to do so.
I know that many analytically oriented folks don't like hearing such things. But that doesn't change the fact that that's how it is. Look up the word "random" and you're likely to find an image of any MLB bullpen or reliever for the past 10 decades. It would certainly not be inappropriate.
Watching the world series.... Yeah, I'd like my team to be one of the two. Still, watching real grownup MLB ballplayers playing real grownup high-level MLB genuine hardball is a rare aesthetic pleasure that I don't think is equaled anywhere else in sports.
Maybe in the final seven games of the NCAA basketball tournament. Maybe.
Possibly in a few of the Olympic sports. Possibly.
Nowhere else, IMO.