Actual footage of TCRM GM at work checking Dev report and seeing his top prospects 3rd pitch finally went green.
There hasn't been too much to cheer about in Twin Cities land this season. Perhaps the penultimate sim is a sign of true change in a franchise dragged though the gutter in recent years. In the shortest sim of the season, one that the GM didn't even bother to export for because it was destined to be uneventful, Eric Brooks dominated the team news.
For starters, Brooks was named the Todd Demko award winner. While I have no clue who Todd Demko is, I'm sure he was an Outstanding Award Quality pitcher in the AA ranks. Sure, I could Google his name. But it's much more fun to try to solicite a response to disprove my belief that 2/3 of the Brewster is run by bots. Anyway, let me try to put this train back on the tracks. Brooks went 15-5 with a 2.72 ERA. Only giving up 9 hr and a 1.01 WHIP in his 7 WAR campaign.
Those are great stats if you are into math porn. But as a guy who studies the cause, rather then the effect. Ratings are more important here. Cause let's be for real for a second. Brooks was ranked the number 2 pitcher in AA this year and it was borderline service time manipulation that he was not on the big league roster this season. It's really no surprise he put up good stats.
What held him back you ask? First off, he hadn't pitched above A-ball prior to this season. Also, some of his rating weren't polished enough. His 3rd pitch in particular was still in the yellow zone. If Twin Cities we're in a playoff hunt, we absolutely would have called Brooks up and had him pitch out of the pen. But that obviously was not in the cards. Sure, we should have called him up to AAA at some point, but we felt the benefit of winning outstanding pitcher from a long term fan interest standpoint outweighed pitching meh in AAA.
The move seems to be the right one. Brooksy saw bumps to his ve-lo, stuff, and control. His movement did drop from an 8 to a 7. But that might be a lump and bump situation where he is a high 7, low 8. To expand on that, his mov VS RHB is 9 while vs LHB is just 6. In averaging 9 and 6 to get 7, the 6 has to be top of the tier. While a high 6 movement against the much ballyhooed LHB in OOTP isn't viewed as ideal, Land O'Lakes Park does nerf both average and power of lefty bats. So the high 6 then turns into an adjusted bonafide 7. It will no doubt prevent Brooks from winning a Nebraska as he will have some bat starts on the road versus lefty heavy teams but will not be red tape in his overall success.
Brooks will absolutely join the rotation early next season, if not opening day. One factor working against him is that he does not need to be rostered prior to the rule 5 draft. Traditionally teams will wait out the super two period in that spot. And since Twin Cities is expected to continue to be sub .500, there shouldn't be a rush to start his clock. So maybe a brief stint in AAA will be in order. A hot spring could easily change those plans though.
