We have some great readers and commenters - to name a few, Jimmy, Texas Gus, Gary, Zozo, and Remember 1969, the latter of whom recently has penned some articles for this site.
We couldn't do it without you guys.
Jimmy posted a blurb with the name of one pitcher who I forgot about, who had actually slipped my mind in all (and there have been a lot) of the off-season player moves - Jerad Eickhoff.
The former Phillies hurler may well be a long shot, and why not...he's had injuries (finger numbness, bicep tendonitis) that limited him to 5 innings in 2018, none in 2020, and a rocky, shortened season in 2019.
A few things about him caught my eye, though, that gave me some glimmer of hope that maybe he will have something useful to offer to the Mets in 2021.
1) He always has given up a lot of homers (70 in 440 career innings is A LOT), but 40 of the 70 came in his band box home park in Philadelphia and "just" 30 on the road in roughly the same amount of innings road vs. home. Thirty is still high but pretty close to an average MLB pitcher's HR-allowed rate.
2) He actually started out 2019 very well until, I assume, the wing started to get sore.
His first 5 outings in 2019, he allowed just 5 runs and 18 hits in 30 innings and fanned 31. Shades of, I dunno, Greg Maddux? I know, crazy, but Maddux wouldn't have sneezed at such numbers - at least not if he wasn't wearing a mask. (You ever notice that pitchers maintain 60 feet, 6 inches of social distancing?)
After that early success, Jerad's 2019 entered a rapid descent into the realm of brutal: 32 runs allowed in his final 28 innings, with his last MLB outing that season on June 16.
I have no expectations that he will help the Mets in 2021 - but those first 5 outings in 2019 are an indicator that he could, if healthy, be a useful contributor at some point.
So I am glad I was reminded about Jerad, and we'll see soon enough if there is still any usable fuel in the Eikhoff gas tank.
I'm guessing he will have to try to resurrect his game in AAA, and stand ready for the phone to ring. Time will tell.
9 comments:
Again, and I'm sorry to beat a dead horse, but as a so-called "depth" piece (cough, cough), it is reasonable to hope that Eikhoff could give the Mets 2-3 credible, professional spot starts if needed. Especially as a different sort of slowball, crafty guy that batters don't typically face.
As a rule, I don't hold out much hope for sore-armed RH pitchers who can't break 90.
Interestingly, what I've read is that he's recently shown fairly remarkable uptick in his spin rates, and that's what has kept some teams interested. Not the results, but the analytics (like McWilliams, too).
"Depth" is great -- so long as the Mets don't get hit hard by injuries and actually have to pitch these guys. Yamamoto, same thing. At that point, my guess is the praise won't be quite as effusive. It's a long drop from deGrom, Carrasco, Stroman to our vaulted "depth." Maybe that's why it's called depth? It's way down far below . . .
I do think Lucchesi looks like he could be a legitimate long man, #5, spot starter. Of course, when the Padres made big moves to upgrade, he's the guy they let go. Maybe they know something?
And I might be alone in this, but I was surprised and impressed by Oswalt. He never excited me coming up. But Corey gave the Mets one or two surprisingly competent starts before the injuries. I don't see him as being any worse than Eikhoff, etc.
If Mets stay reasonably healthy, the depth is great. If not, we're cooked. Just like last year.
Jimmy
Agreed - if we need to tap into too much "depth", as in 2020, it may depth-charge our season again.
Eickhoff is the type of guy best suited to be pitching for a Baltimore, short of major health improvements translating into pitching improvements like in early 2019. I wasn't holding my breath for Matz, and I won't be holding it for him.
Oswalt will become successful as soon as he becomes an ex-Met, I'd imagine. His Mets' career highlight so far to me was his 2 HR game in AA. He needs MLB highlights that are greater than that. But, by Mets' recent low sub players' standards, his Mets' career fill-ins of 3-4, 6.19 isn't all that bad.
Nice piece, Tom. To me, the idea behind starting pitching depth is to just give you a chance to survive a handful of starts and maybe convert some to wins. I'm curious to see Yamamoto, however. He seems like an interesting potential backend starter
Mike, your lips to God's ears on that one. Historically, we've had a lot of hope for back up guys like that in February that plunges during the season - may 2021 be 100% the opposite and these guys make us smile.
Tom thanks for the comment. To me the biggest difference is starting pitching by far as we replaced total incompetence in both the front office (Jeffy) and every pitcher not named DeGrom, Peterson or Diaz. We almost have to better by default as your articles so succinctly ( hey guys cool word eh?) put it. Hey if we had only resigned Wheeler we would have been in the playoffs so another bonehead decision but thank God a different era not error is finally upon us.
As a side bar here just the thought that faith in the FO has done a 180 and we are now expecting moves to made when and if necessary is still something that will take me some time to ajust to but be assured I will. Insert BIG SMILE FACE HERE.
Gary, Cohen would not have let Wheeler walk unless he absolutely wanted out. Instead, Wilpon would have signed Eickhoff equivalents to be SP-4 and SP-5. Eickhoff may shock us all, but to expect that (a Wilpon type gamble) does not pay off often. Bartolo was older than the oldest guy in the majors is now - they got lucky with him. Many times, they were unlucky.
Wheeler signed 5/$118 contract that was pretty extravagant at the time.
I mean, there was no way the Wilpons were going to sign him. Thus forcing Brodie's hand to TRADE for Stroman, costing the Mets potentially valuable prospects.
Personally, Wheeler's injury history gave me some pause. I was always a huge fan. But a long contract came with some risk. I believe I would have done it -- but not without some pause. With Cohen's money, those decisions become easier, but not necessarily automatic.
Jimmy
Eickhoff certainly had a forgettable performance yesterday in spring training game # 2.
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