Friday, December 3, 2010

What Jose Lopez is Worth

And here I figured we would be getting a bucket of piss.  It looks like this guy even has all of his appendages.

In fairness to Chaz Roe (um, really - how rad is the name Chaz?), he's actually moderately interesting, which is a stunner of all stunners as a return for Jose McFatkins.

Roe isn't a baby, but he's still young at 24, he was a first round pick (well, 'sandwich pick') in 2005 and he's had some success in the minors. He's also struggled too, which would explain why he just got traded for someone who looks about as comfortable at the plate as Pat Buchanan at a Gay Pride rally.

He made 20 starts at AA in 2009 and posted a 3.15 ERA, gave up fewer hits than IP, and had a K/9 rate around 6.  At AAA, his ERA went up to 5.98, gave up piles of home runs, and generally seemed to stink.  But pitching at Colorado Springs can do that - even Ubaldo Jimenez sucked horribly in two seasons at AAA Colorado Springs.  Roe's strand rate was just above 60% and his batting average on balls in play was .367 - neither of which are very realistic. 

His fielding independent pitching ERA (FIP) was 4.36 in at AAA while it was 3.92 at AA.  There wasn't a huge change in his effectiveness as a pitcher, so don't get too worked up about those ERA stats you're seeing in the Times that the Canadian blog dude who won't vote for Edgar Martinez for the HOF is lamenting.

M's will probably let him start in Tacoma and see if anything starts to simmer.  Roe could be helpful down the road and then again he might not be at all.  But a warm body for Lopez is more than I expected.  Good on you, Jack. 

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