2038.03 On A Higher Plane Plugging more holes

[felipe]

The 2037 Wichita Aviators pitching was bad. The Aviators used a team record 22 different pitchers, including 13 different starting pitchers, plus additional innings from three different position players; (for posterity's sake, Ismael Pena, Jimmy Strambi, and Carlos Guerrero). To put that into perspective, as an expansion team in 2035, they used only 18 different pitchers; in 2036 only 15 pitchers.

So 2037 was bad. Only four pitchers tossed around 140 innings for the Flyboys; since retired Mark Watson, reliever Kid Cherono, Aldo Hes, and Robby O'Bryan. Not one pitcher surpassed 150 innings.

So there is room for improvement on the Wichita staff. Previous news releases have detailed the acquisition of starters Rin and Miura, but more bold moves have been made.

T-Bone Sanchez has joined the Aviators on a low cost two year deal. The twenty-eight year old is giving Aviator baseball people cause for alarm with his recent dip in movement, but the guy threw for 190 innings of 2.5 to 1 strikeout to walk innings with a 4.77 FIP in 2037, and has a career FIP of 4.39 with a 2 to 1 K to BB ratio; he has also thrown over 190 innings in five of his seven big league seasons.

Twenty-nine year old, Rogerio Vazquez, has signed a one year, 'prove it' deal for two million. Vazquez enjoyed a very good 2036 season for Atlantic City, but bottomed out in 2037 for the club. But, he's still young and owns a career 2 to 1 K to BB ratio, and a career FIP of 4.61. Vazquez hs three above average pitches, good stamina, but is prone to the gopher ball.

Thirty-three year old, Ricardo Ortiz also signed a one year, $2.4 million 'prove it' deal with the Aviators. Ortiz has bounced from rotation to bullpen in his career, but put up sterling numbers in 2037 for Des Moines. A career low BABIP may have helped with that, but Des Moines was putrid in 2037, so maybe its a sign of Ortiz putting it all together. He has three good pitches, decent stamina, and he's a ground ball machine. Giving up 9 homeruns in 90 innings isn't ideal and neither is his 1.5 to 1 K to BB ratio. But Wichita has employed worse pitchers in their rotation.

Collecting starting pitching from a team that went 56-106, while giving up 871 runs is a questionable strategy. But Wichita picked up a second Des Moines starter on a minor league deal, twenty-eight year old Ryan Rose. Rose started 24 games for the Kernals, going 8-11 while giving them 150 innings of 4.68 FIP. His K to BB ratio was a solid 2.5 to 1.
Rose throw hard with an outstanding fastball and good forkball and slider, but suffers from...poor movement. If things go poorly for the Aviator staff in 2038, he will likely see some action in the majors.

The other notable picked up on a minor league deal by the Aviators is twenty-three year old Luis Garcia. Garcia throws hard, he has two outstanding pitches, and has put up more than decent numbers in AAA. He actually won pitcher of the year in AAA in 2037. Garcia is a bit of a project, but it isn't too much of a stretch to see him excelling in the majors as a reliever r even as a decent starter if he ever puts it all together. At only twenty-three years old, he is definetley worth a look. Perhaps the right organisation can improve on his movement.

The Aviators did miss out on a couple of outstanding free agent starting pitching this off-season, but its easy to see the improvement and steady progress made this off-season.

[RonCo]

For some reason, I've always found it hard not to root for Ryan Rose. But now that he's signed with the Aviators I'm sure I'll find a way.