Rotation odds and ends...

Well, that wraps up the Bonds’ rants for the time being. I must admit, I’m tempted to do a regular feature on the “worst of the web” as regards Bonds’ sentiments. I mean, I’m not real fond of the guy myself but I try to at least be rational about it as opposed to saying that man’s personality and head size deserves jail time.

But I digress.

I’ve been falling behind in my Blue Jays’ optimism posts--especially as respects the starting rotation. I haven’t covered all the potential candidates and thought I’d pick up two or three more in this post. So, without further ado…

 ERA   IP     H   HR  BB  K
4.00  162.0  192  12  12 120

How would that look at the end of the rotation?

Well, that’s Scott Richmond’s totals from 2008 extrapolated over 30 starts; now I’m inclined to think that it’s a bit optimistic but it does demonstrate how well he pitched in his short stay with the big club. He’ll get some extra work in the WBC and should be ready to go come Opening Day. He’s a long shot for the starting staff but he has shown in limited duty that he knows how to get major league hitters out--keep your eye on him.

Casey Janssen missed all of 2008 after surgery on his right shoulder after an outstanding season of setup work the season before; he’ll be 28 which is helpful in that he’s young enough to recover arm strength more quickly than he would be were he in his 30’s. He also doesn’t have that many professional innings. He was a starter in the minors, logging about a full season’s worth of innings pitched over three seasons (241.2). His peripherals are promising … well, let’s just look at them as if it were a complete campaign:

 W L   ERA   IP    H   BB  K
16 5  2.94  241.2 215  38 211

That’s a nice year--fewer hits than innings pitched, a solid K/9 of 7.86 and an absolutely stingy BB/9 of 1.42. The big question is arm strength; his career high in IP is 148.2 and that was in 2005 plus he’s coming off a major injury. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of different guys shuffled through the 4-5 spots to spread around the workload. I can’t see Janssen as a candidate to throw 160 innings next season. If he can throw strikes and keep the ball down he should be able to give league average pitching to the rotation.

In a statement that’s almost hilarious--we’re going to look at J.P. Ricciardi’s big offseason acquisition: Matt Clement. Like Brad Wilkerson before him, Ricciardi wanted to have Clement’ baby 3-4 years ago but left empty wombed and frustrated with proboscis interruptus. Well, he now has Clement in his ardent embrace having broken up with Wilkerson.

After missing all of 2007, he spent last season rehabbing in the Cardinals’ system and probably the thing that jumps out is the 13 BB/10 K in his 16.2 IP with the Memphis Redbirds in the PCL. Generally, the last thing to return to a pitcher following surgery is his command so it could be that it was just part of the recovery phase but his control has never been his strong point with a career BB/9 of 4.14. For Clement to be useful, he’ll need to throw a lot of innings but that lack of control will result in high pitch counts and difficulty in getting out of the fifth inning.

It’s doubtful he’ll be the strikeout pitcher of old but if he still has his ability to throw ground balls he could pitch to contact and let the Blue Jays infield defense work for him. I can’t see him or Maroth being with the big club come Opening Day. Clement was better than league average from 2002-04 and below it otherwise (although his 99 ERA+ in 191 IP in 2005 would thrill the Jays if he could duplicate it in aught-9). It’ll be an interesting project at any rate. For other posts dealing with Toronto’s potential starting pitching…

Pitched twaddle
Anchor…away!
Today’s happy thoughts…
Welcome to 2000-whine

This week in me…

The wrong kind of loyalty in baseball (The Hardball Times)

What are the Blue Jays hiding? (SMSN Sports)

The Hall of Fame game (SMSN Sports…poorly formatted charts--I need a shot at the content management system one day)

Best Regards

John