What's On

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

MAKING THE PITCH: San Diego Padres

Felipe M

Even though the season has started, it's still early enough to take a quick look at the rest of the pitching staffs.


To take a look at an elite pitching, check out our preview of the San Francisco Giants.

And unfortunately, we now have to cover the San Diego Padres.

2013 Pitching Projections
Player
Team
K/BB
K/9
BB/9
H/9
WHIP
HR/9
Clayton Richard
San Diego
2.09
5.02
2.40
9.57
1.33
0.92
Edinson Volquez
San Diego
1.77
8.55
4.82
8.40
1.47
0.90
Huston Street
San Diego
5.20
10.64
2.05
7.16
1.02
0.82
Andrew Cashner
San Diego
2.60
8.91
3.43
8.23
1.30
0.94











Andrew Cashner was an interesting name to keep track of during the spring because many were hyping the idea that he would find himself as part of the rotation.  Unfortunately, it took him a while to recover from a thumb injury and was able to pitch again on the last week of spring training.  Not much time to prove yourself.  The Padres sent him to the bullpen to begin the season, but still would like to see him start.  How a young pitcher is supposed to become a starter by spending a majority of his time in the bullpen is kind of confusing (reminds me of the situation that Drew Smyly is with the Tigers), but he is definitely a name to keep an eye on for the remainder of the season.  

The other pitchers that pitched for a majority of the spring to beat out Cashner for a rotation spot are so bad, that I'm not even going to mention them here.  Waste of time, space, and money (for those of you that have league fees to pay).

As you can see Edinson Volquez is a very overrated player.  Yes he can strikeout a lot of hitters, but has averaged a BB/9 of 5.27 in the last two seasons.  Where have I seen this before?  Oh yes, it was back in 2008 when the fantasy world couldn't get enough of Volquez's hot start that year with the Reds.  And even then he was still giving up 5+ BB/9!  Nevertheless, there are still fantasy owners who go as far as consider Volquez as a keeper league pitcher.  Some people just don't learn and some players just never improve.  It's been four seasons all ready; if you can't control your walks now, I doubt that there's any hope left for him to improve his game.

Here's another overrated player: Clayton Richard.  Richard highly depends on finesse to get by ball games, but a high WHIP and a relatively low K/BB (Joe Saunders have very similar numbers to Richard.  He too is not worth your time) does not make a fantasy pitcher.

The one silver lining that the Friars have is Huston Street.  He is fully capable of being a top 10, if not a top 5, closer.  Of course, injury concerns will always follow him, but I always seem to have Street on my team(s) so if you have a chance to get him, by all means do not hesitate.  

It's going to be a long year in San Diego.

More MLB content is available here.

For more on Edinson Volquez from back in 2008, click here.

1 comment:

Begum Monju said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.