Luis Imodian, right-handed reliever extraordinaire, looks like a stud. He stands 6’9” tall. He throws a heavy sinker that feels like hitting a bowling ball. His sweeping slider is equally difficult to elevate. What’s not to like?
Luis Imodian
When Bob Breum saw him on the waiver wire last June, he immediately picked up the phone and called the Rosenblatt front office. He didn’t want to risk losing Imodian to a team with a higher priority claim. He arranged a trade. Imodian was his! Erik assigned him to AAA Ottawa, where he made 20 appearances with a 2.08 ERA (187 ERA+) and 1.15 WHIP.
But almost as soon as Imodian got off the plane, Bob Breum realized that Imodian wasn’t quite the pitcher he had thought he was getting. He didn’t regret the transaction, but it seems that Imodian’s two pitches are not particularly effective against left-handed hitters. In fact, much less effective, which was odd because he has a normal delivery. He isn’t a sidearm guy. But for some reason left-handed batters didn’t roll over the sinker and chase the slider like their right-handed counterparts.
When Opening Day approached, Erik Breum contemplated his side of the roster. He had agreed to an 11-man staff to allow for a platoon strategy but that meant that he had no room on the staff for specialists. Last season he had carried Luis Manuel as a left-handed specialist (1.71 ERA / 1.00 WHIP) but he no longer had that luxury. Neither Manuel nor Imodian would make the reduced staff, and both were out of options. Unfortunately, by the time that he reached this conclusion, it was too late to shop them around. Both hit the waiver wire.
In a reprise of the previous June, Bob Breum found himself on the phone discussing a waiver trade for Imodian but now the roles were reversed. It was Cape Fear on the line, expressing shock that Imodian had been waived and eager to secure his rights in a trade. A deal was struck, and just like that, Imodian was gone as fast as he had arrived. He could only hope that his left-handed hitters would get a crack at Imodian someday…
