Chasing The Storm 2049-1 Reynaldo Torres Debuts

[njherdfan]

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the 2049 season has not gone well for Seattle. Seattle's record is an abysmal 57-101. Almost nothing positive has happened. Going into this season, one thing that Storm fans had been excited for was the debut of Reynaldo Torres, Seattle's much-heralded pitching prospect. Although Torres' 2048 pitching stats in AAA Pasco weren't particularly impressive, scouts salivated over his talent; he has three very good pitches, he throws hard, and it was thought that he was ready to jump to the majors in 2049.

He started the season in AAA in 2049 and he didn't disappoint, as he made 14 starts, throwing 64 innings and posting a FIP of just about 3. At that point, all parties agreed that Torres was ready for the bigs, and Seattle's fans, who were not feeling particularly optimistic, were excited to see a top prospect make his appearance. So far, it has not gone well. In 6 starts, Torres only has thrown 26 innings, and he has an ERA of 6.92. Just to make sure you don't think that this is a fluke, his FIP is a 6.87. When looking at what's gone wrong, it's fair to say that "everything" might be the best answer. Torres has been striking out a fair amount of hitters, but he's walking too many hitters, and he's giving up a truly absurd amount of home runs; so far he's given up 9 in those 26 innings.

For Seattle fans looking for reasons for optimism, the best reason is that it's not possible that he will continue to give up home runs at this pace; instead, even a slight regression will make his FIP and ERA much more palatable. Of course, there are still a lot of questions to be answered, but at this point it's fair to say that some of the optimism around Torres' debut has gone away, as he hasn't shown enough to be a lock for next year's rotation.