Who's Next?
(BBA's most prolific bullpenning team looks for the next Jorge Perez)
Prior to the 2035 off season, the Brooklyn Robins had only used one "game changing" PP reward under the current regime. PP were used for solely for cash, a new stadium, and a rebranding the minor leagues. The lone exception was Ramon Vasquez (9/7/6 Ratings). He was converted to RP mostly for shits and giggles and as a trial. It was an ethical decision. While it is perfectly legal and encouraged to make some lame polls and write some corny long winded articles about how great your team is even though they suck. Err, kind of like this one. Then turn around and use those points to beef up the teams work ethic, intelligence, attributes and what not. The current Brooklyn GM has always been against the gamey-ness of this process.
"We should write because we want to. Not because we have to and certainly not to spam the boards with the sole intent of making our team better."
Yet, despite this philosophy, Brooklyn sold their sole to the devil last season by converting Jorge Perez (10/7/8 Ratings) from a meddling starter to a lights out stopper. It was kind of a surprise conversion. Perez had the stamina and pitch selection to excel as a starter. None of his vitals(stuff/mov/con) were really holding him back either. He was good. But definitely wasn't great.
It was a conversion you don't see that often. Perez could have been a useful innings eating mid rotation pitcher. If you are a fan of WAR, the decision probably made no sense at all. As a starter Perez could have logged a 3-ish WAR. As a non closing RP he will struggle to get half that. Just one more example of "advanced" stats only telling you what you want to hear. All you need to do is actually watch a game and you can see he is twice the star he once was. Would you rather have 120 awesome innings or 200 meh innings?
Wait a minute... I know what you are thinking. 120 innings for a relief pitcher? Surely that was a typo right? I mean my closer only pitches 60 innings a season. Nope. Perez right now is sitting at 90 innings pitched. There are still 2 weeks left in the season. He also missed nearly 3 months of the season due to injury. Through the course of a full season, he should get about 120 innings. That has been the plan all along. Not just Perez either. Ryosei Akiyama (10/5/7 Ratings)(4 Stamina) has thrown 90 innings while missing close to 7 weeks and Bernard Keller (10/5/7 Ratings)(3 stamina) has thrown 83 innings.
That means our "Power of Three" bullpen has logged 263 out of 1354 innings. 19.4% of our total innings. With nearly 5 months of the season missed. Without doing any research I'm willing to bet that is tops in the league in back end of the bullpen usage. This puts more value on the RP conversion then was already there. We figured out a way to lessen the loss of innings while creating the maximum gain in efficiency.
So the question becomes... Who's next? Let's take a look at the short list of Robins pitchers who could be RP converted this off season. Some of them are predictable, some more outside the box, while one is down right shocking. I've included a poll to get some feedback as well.
Kidanu Cherono (9/7/6 Ratings)- At 24, it's probably doubtful that his curve will get much better. He had been horrible as a starter during his time in Nashville. I acquired him to be a long reliever. He has been bad in a short sample there as well. I think a move to the pen will make him better. But I'm not so sure he will be a difference maker. Maybe he becomes 10/7/6 with pitch ratings of 10/8. Very Ramon Vasquez (9/7/6 Ratings) esq. meh
Takeo Aoki (9/6/5 Ratings)- This one has created some internal buzz. Aoki has dominated AAA and got lit up in the BBA. His 8/7/7/6 pitch ratings are probably part of that. Pitchers who do a lot of things well, but nothing great always seem to look better then they perfrom. His 10 stamina would mean it would be 3-ish after a convert. Meaning he could still pitch 100-120 innings a year under our system. A converted Aoki might be around 11/6/5 with 10 or 11 fastball and a 9 or 10 splitter. Not outstanding, but should be pretty darn good. The arguement against it is that he is just 20 years old and already throws 100 mph. He also used to have 6 control and 7 movement(post movement crash). He could bump back into 11/7/6 on his own and become a solid BBA starter.
Juan Jose Fuentes (9/7/6 Ratings)-Fuentes was the runner up in my RP convert decision last season. I was planning on converting him up until the midnight hour and changed my mind. He is another jack of all trades, master of none. He and Aoki are probably front runners right now. Both have struggled at the BBA level, so there is little to lose and potentially much to gain.
Ken Bates (10/6/7 Ratings)- I kind of want another lefty in the back end to even it out. Bates may be one to fit the bill. Generally pitchers with high fastball/velocity ratings get the biggest stuff bump. So I could see him being 12/6/7 with a 12 fastball and 10 curve. So he has the potential to be awesome. Could be a dark horse.
Manuel Romano (10/7/5 Ratings)- After years of worrying about his changeup developing, it's actually his control that is stuck. Romano is yet to reach his full potential after over 250 BBA innings and it's a bit worry some. Control is usually the last thing to fill in so I doubt I have it in me to convert him right now.
Jonathan Frank (9/7/7 Ratings)-I like the job rubber arm Frank has done as a middle RP and am afraid to change it. His 3 rated curve probably won't help his other pitches as much if converted anyway. But on paper he looks like a guy one might convert.
Mauro Flores (10/7/8 Ratings)-There may be a mutiny if I RP convert Mauro. The obvious question is why on earth would you do that to a potential hall of fame starter? But forget about all that for a second and live in a fantasy world. Imagine if it happened. Flores stuff would be maxed out at 250 no doubt. So you are looking at a pitcher VS RHB with Max(13+)/8/8, throws as hard as anyone in the game with a maxed out 13+ slider and a 12 splitter. The guy would be frigging unhittable. And like all of these other players, would still pitch 100-120 innings a season. Not to mention... this guy on your team in the playoffs?!