I have high hopes for Maitan, but the international market is dicier than the stateside element of player acquisition. I always have Jackson Melian flashbacks whenever top drawer international prospects are discussed.
As per the Sano comparison, Sano obviously wasn't fully developed physically as a 16-year-old because he goes 260 now. The thing with Sano is that he can really hit and hit for power. He has a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, but he hurts the ball when he connects. He needs to lose about 20 or so to find a defensive position and stay healthy. If the Twins could dump Mauer, Sano would play 1B because that's his likely position down the road.
jpx7 (06-21-2016)
If you stipulate qualified starters only you're limiting your sample size so much that 30 pitchers is actually pretty substantial. A 3.5 ERA would've put him at #33 out of 77 qualified pitchers last year, which isn't bad but is firmly middle of the road. Add to that the injury risk and declining IP/GS and you have a solid 3/4 starter.
He is an injury risk. As is any pitcher, especially those that already have had TJS. I just think the notion that he's some subpar pitcher when is healthy is absurd. He has good stuff and was dominating before he went got injured. Why it's hard for some to see that is beyond me.
jpx7 (06-21-2016)
jpx7 (06-21-2016)
And his IP/GS has fallen each of the past 3 years, so he may or may not pitch enough innings to qualify going forward.
I don't disagree that we could've gotten more for him at the time he was traded or that the trade has turned out very poorly, but I really don't see how you can put him higher than a #3. When he is on the field you get good-but-not-great pitching, but he has displayed increasing difficulty with going deep into games, and is an injury risk on top of that.
There's never been a less interesting debate than whether a pitcher is a number 3 or number 4. Honestly, I don't even think there's a difference to be honest.
Why is there conversations pages and pages of what spot in another teams rotation Alex Wood is?
Thread: International News, Rumor and Signing Thread
CJ9 (06-21-2016), KB21 (06-21-2016), Preacher (06-21-2016), tomahawkchop (06-21-2016)
I would say there is quite a huge difference between Wood's 3.24 FIP and Wislers 4.61 FIP. Don't get caught up in ERA. Wisler has an advantage of 70 points in BABIP against that is helping close the gap significantly. Wood has been substantially better and it's not really close.
50PoundHead (06-21-2016)
FIP is great and all but actual production is what actually counts and has to be factored in. Wisler is allowing less base runners. I won't get caught up in the joke that fWAR for pitchers apparently is (the one that has Julio a whopping .2 wins better than Alex Wood - which is rather ridiculous). Wisler is able to get deeper into games on average as well, which is something that also matters to me. I'm sure if Wood were working into the 7th on the reg he'd have higher ERA and FIP than he currently does, but routinely getting yanked before the 7th has likely helped him.