2040.7 Somebody Has To Start

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2040.7 Somebody Has To Start

Post by ae37jr » Thu Sep 26, 2019 4:55 pm

Somebody Has To Start

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New team captain Andre Georges says all the right things... even if he is full of shit.

It's hard to believe that just 3 seasons ago the Brooklyn Robins had one of the best rotations in the BBA. Then the fire sale happened and the ashes and burnt smell still lingers on to this day. As we've talked about previously, this rebuild has gone at light speed on the hitter end. The pitching end, not so much. This isn't just a Brooklyn problem either, it's a BBA problem. Good starting pitching is about as common as seeing a white elephant playing checkers with a rainbow unicorn. Pitchers around the league are developing a lot slower then the hitters, lumping more, and are at greater risk of long term injuries.

So with money to spend this winter, the Robins knew they would have to overpay to get some good starting pitching. Though not everything went according to plan as not that many good starters were available and many of the ones that were refused to talk to Brooklyn. So the team had to call an audible and over pay for mediocre pitching. On paper this unit does not look good. But these guys are 10x's better then what we had last year and least year we almost snuck in the playoffs.


NameAgeTOVRINJSTUMOVCONFBCHCBSLSISPCTCCKCVELOSTMG/F
André Georges31R55Normal657---8--86-99-101 Mph7NEU
Elwood Blues33R45Durable7569758-----99-101 Mph7NEU
Félix García25R45Normal8359689-----99-101 Mph6GB
Carlos Rodríguez 30R45Durable6468656-7--697-99 Mph6NEU
Juan Rodríguez21L45Durable766-9--8-8--97-99 Mph6GB
Chet Dickinson22L40Normal7269109------94-96 Mph11NEU
Andre Georges enters the season as the teams defacto ace. Heading into the expansion draft, the Robins knew they needed to work all avenues to bring in pitching. So they circled Georges as a guy who was a team captain and could fill out a mid-back slot in the rotation. A deal was worked out and Andre was in hand early in the off season. It was a great start. Until nothing better was found and he became the number one starter. Never the less Georges is a veteran pitcher who should give the team 150-170 innings of positive results. He might even surprise some people and have a solid season as some of his abilities are accentuated by existing strengths of the team.

After striking out multiple times with free agents, Brooklyn went on tilt and gave Elwood Blues a 2 year $16 million contract. That is an AAV two and a half million more then he has ever been paid in a single season. You know what though.... in this market that is probably a good deal. Many teams who needed pitching were shut out and left with piles of unused money. Brooklyn over paid a bit for a contract they can get out of after this season if something better comes along.

Blues as a talent is ok. He'll eat some innings and keep your team in the game. Notice I put injury proneness on the chart? This is extremely huge for starting pitchers. They get hurt more then anyone so Brooklyn always overvalues it. 3 of our 5 projected starters are durable while the other two are normal. I'd rather have a 7/5/6 pitcher make 32 starts then a 9/9/9 pitcher who makes just 2. So like Georges, I think Blues will have an ERA north of 4. He'll have positive WAR and hopefully knock a few innings off the front of the game.

Félix García was a pleasant surprise last season. I expected nothing from him and got 20 really good starts. Maybe a couple of bad ones but not many. So he earned the benefit of the doubt for 2040. I can't get too excited over him because I think it was just a career year. We shall see.

Carlos Rodríguez also had an out of nowhere season. Nothing spectacular but 118 innings and 2.6 WAR works for me. I'm wondering if this was just luck or partially due to usage. Both Garcia and Rodriguez had extremely short hooks. I believe most of the season I had them capped at 40 pitches. This looked very odd to see two pitchers with a combined 4.7 WAR only go 1-7. But nobody really cares about wins and losses anyway right?

Rounding out the rotation is young Juan Rodriguez. J-Rod could end up being the best of the group by seasons end. This is truly the strength of this staff. What they lack in ability they make up for in depth and durability. Rodriguez will have his starts cherry picked and likely match up against left heavy teams.

Dickinson along with several bullpen arms round out the rotation. Brooklyn intends to mix and match the back end based on opponents strengths. So we could see 15-20 starters used by years end.
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Re: 2040.7 Somebody Has To Start

Post by crobillard » Thu Sep 26, 2019 5:13 pm

It’s nice to see Juan Rodriguez develop into something useful. I always used spot starters as a way to help keep everyone fresh, but I might journey into spot starting for the first time this year. Rodriguez is going to be great in that role. I look forward to seeing what he can do.

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