Official Spring Training Thread

[CyYoung31]

Done.

[striker42]

Done.

He was done before he got hurt.

[msstate7]

He was done before he got hurt.

Maybe it was him being hurt that led to that opinion.

[cajunrevenge]

People really that down on Ian Anderson?

[Carp]

People really that down on Ian Anderson?

Changing arm angles doesn't generally go very well. Not only increased health risk, but your entire pitching repertoire is affected. You have different movement on your pitches. Repeating these new mechanics becomes much harder as is consistently finding your new release point.

[Enscheff]

Yeah, original Anderson relied on perfect backspin to get the rise he did on his fastball despite mediocre spin rate. Altering that perfect backspin probably means the rise goes away. We will just have to see what the new stuff looks like, but I wouldn’t call this a good sign.

[msstate7]

Yeah, original Anderson relied on perfect backspin to get the rise he did on his fastball despite mediocre spin rate. Altering that perfect backspin probably means the rise goes away. We will just have to see what the new stuff looks like, but I wouldn’t call this a good sign.

Doesn't make sense the braves would encourage a new delivery if the results were worse than the previous, would it?

[DirkPiggler]

Changing arm angles doesn't generally go very well. Not only increased health risk, but your entire pitching repertoire is affected. You have different movement on your pitches. Repeating these new mechanics becomes much harder as is consistently finding your new release point.

See also: Soroka, Michael.

[Southcack77]

Changing arm angles doesn't generally go very well. Not only increased health risk, but your entire pitching repertoire is affected. You have different movement on your pitches. Repeating these new mechanics becomes much harder as is consistently finding your new release point.

I feel like it's been relatively common over the years for players to change up arm angle to one degree or another and there isn't much better time to do it when starting from square one after injury.

Don't really have much expectation either way but I'm guessing he's going to pitch for someone again.

[mossy]

[striker42]

Maybe it was him being hurt that led to that opinion.

Dude was a two pitch pitcher with middling stuff who was always teetering on the edge of collapse even at his best. His decline was predictable and inexorable.

Anderson needed a hammer curve to unlock his potential but his curve was laughable. He was smoke and mirrors and with a different arm slot even the smoke and mirrors will be gone.

[Hulavol]

Unless Ian has developed the “eliminator,” or whatever Rick Vaughn called it, I think his best scenario is in the bullpen -

[Southcack77]

Dude was a two pitch pitcher with middling stuff who was always teetering on the edge of collapse even at his best. His decline was predictable and inexorable.

Anderson needed a hammer curve to unlock his potential but his curve was laughable. He was smoke and mirrors and with a different arm slot even the smoke and mirrors will be gone.

^ This dude here was absolutely determined to be right about Ian Anderson no matter how long he had to wait to claim it.

[striker42]

^ This dude here was absolutely determined to be right about Ian Anderson no matter how long he had to wait to claim it.

It's less satisfying since that entire first round was a wretched.

[Enscheff]

^ This dude here was absolutely determined to be right about Ian Anderson no matter how long he had to wait to claim it.

Ian Anderson has posted a career war of 3.8 with a peak season of 1.8.

How exactly was he ever wrong? At what point was Anderson a successful #3 draft pick?

[Hulavol]

Just looking through our bullpen arms invited to camp….. we are flat out stacked. We have more good arms than we have spots. We are stacked at fifth starter too. I read that we won’t need a fifth starter until the third time through the rotation, so there’s even more time than usual to see who rises to the top for that spot if it hasn’t already become clear by the time we break camp.
There may be a better overall pitching staff somewhere else in the majors, but even if I squint I’m not sure if I can see it from here…

[cajunrevenge]

Ian Anderson has posted a career war of 3.8 with a peak season of 1.8.

How exactly was he ever wrong? At what point was Anderson a successful #3 draft pick?

The point where we were winning a WS with him starting multiple playoff games.

[Carp]

Ian Anderson has posted a career war of 3.8 with a peak season of 1.8.

How exactly was he ever wrong? At what point was Anderson a successful #3 draft pick?

2.8 bWAR in 2021. And 1.2 bWAR in only 6 games started in 2020. Seems like he was on a pretty successful path to me. Even if that path was only a No. 3/4 type of pitcher.

If I wanted to, I would make the argument that the Braves "cooked" him in 2021.

[Carp]

Dude was a two pitch pitcher with middling stuff who was always teetering on the edge of collapse even at his best. His decline was predictable and inexorable.

Anderson needed a hammer curve to unlock his potential but his curve was laughable. He was smoke and mirrors and with a different arm slot even the smoke and mirrors will be gone.

This is a laughable take.

[bravesfanMatt]

I started with less than 300 innings of mlb pitching and younger than 26 with positive success already is hardly a bust of a prospect. There are definitely some warts on him but he wasn’t horrible until his injury year. Let’s all just see how he does coming back from this.

And that whole draft sort of sucked so who would have been a realistic better pick at #3. How many in the top 15 have been better.