Comments on: 40-man, Player by Player: R. Rowland-Smith

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:31:22 +0000

The reason RRS was in the minors so long was because he was getting nothing on his pitches. He was low-mid 80s with the heater until something clicked in his last two AAA starts, then they called him up. Discounting his first start of the year, we had “normal” Hyphen with the Mariners last year. Velo was down with Tacoma.

By: harrison

harrison — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:13:30 +0000

Being recently infatuated with the Cliff Lee = RR-S comparisons (yes, i’m late to the game) I wanted to do some review read somethings here…

Anyways you pointed out his velocity was down but according to fangraphs his average velocity on a FB last year was a bit faster. Coming in at 89 vs. 88 in 2008. I am not trying to nit pick rather curious did he come back last year with increased velocity after the injury? Fangraphs as shows that his fastball was more valuable over 9/IP than in previous years.

I’m feeling more and more confident that this is “hyphen’s” year

By: section331

section331 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:35:48 +0000

I edit a lot too; and most of what I write could rightfully be considered fluff. But it’s focused and honed fluff, dammit!

By: maqman

maqman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:13:48 +0000

A good piece Jon, thanks. I’m still a bit surprised to see an Aussie in MLB. I lived down under in 1976 and 1977 and traveled all over the country and can’t recall anyone ever even mentioning baseball. I do recall the World Series only got 3 or 4 column inches in the Melbourne daily newspaper, about as much as the Super Bowl. Obviously things have changed. (You start to notice that after your clock passes 73.)

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:12:18 +0000

And normally I would try to hack it down a bit because I imagine that, like me, people are turned off of long posts, but given that we’ve still got 24 players to go I wanted to move on.

Ian Snell!

By: Conor Dowley

Conor Dowley — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:08:00 +0000

I have the same problem, only I look at my 2000 words, think most of it is Crap, then hack it down to 1000 or so.

RRS is a pitcher who has always struck me as someone who could be a Petite-lite if things work out. Word of his developing cutter only strengthens that thought if the cutter sticks in his repertoire. This will be more interesting than usual to follow for the rest of Spring Training, to be sure.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:58:39 +0000

I think that’s how it goes. If I know what I want to say, I can get right to the point. If I’m unsure of what route I want to take, I’ll ramble for nearly 2000 words.

Hmm..

And onto the next!

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:57:37 +0000

You are correct. I can’t believe I left this out!

By: Coug1990

Coug1990 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:59:54 +0000

Jon, thanks for the article. My favorite part was, “As far as Spring Training stories go, the ones about a pitcher experimenting with a new pitch aren’t much lower than the ones about a player showing up to camp in the best shape of his life on the fluff-o-meter.”

I remember when Brett Boone said that he got laser eye surgery and could finally see the ball again. He was positive that he was going to have a comeback year. I am not sure what he came back to, but it was not good baseball.

By: section331

section331 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:03:23 +0000

For someone who was complaining that you were having trouble figuring out what to say, you sure spit a lot out here.
I actually got pretty geeked to hear he was trying the cutter out again, especially after having read a little about Lee’s in the Mariner Annual. I do hope it sticks. And yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s Bard – the only other catchers we have that wears hockey-style gear is Quiroz and Oliveros, and that guy doesn’t look like either of them.

By: Slurve

Slurve — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:42:40 +0000

While his Kper9 might be low his Sexinessper9 is amazing.