Luke Bard

[Pablo]

So, I was listening to Fangraphs podcast "Effectively Wild" from last Saturday, and towards the end the name "Luke Bard" caught my ear. Seems that through last Friday (obviously excluding the Boston Massacre Tuesday) Bard had the highest average spin rate on a 4-seam fastball in the major leagues. Now, we all saw his meltdown Tuesday, and ya gotta wonder "are we seriously going to keep this Rule V guy on the roster all year?" 

My question, then, is this. Obviously he's a work in progress; but peripherals like this indicate he might really be a diamond in the rough. Do you stay the course, suck it up, and keep him on the roster for the duration? Or do you feel that in this, a hopeful post-season year, every roster spot is critical and we can't waste one on a project?

My current feeling (subject to change), is that every team needs someone to 'pitch out the string' in a blow-out win or loss. Keep him around the bigs where he can learn from the best, don't use him in high (or even medium) leverage situations, let him mop up and learn on the fly, and maybe, JUST MAYBE be rewarded with a quality starter. 

[TroutField]

He had been pretty solid before that blowout the other day. We really don’t have options right now down in the pen. Paredes is about the best we have down in AAA

[totdprods]

I think he's worth keeping around despite the meltdown, but the pen overall has been so strong we simply may not have room for him. Ramirez, Wood, and Alvarez have all been solid, and our only optionable reliever (Middleton) has pitched way too well to bump him to SLC just to save an arm. 

[Angel Oracle]

3 hours ago, totdprods said:

I think he's worth keeping around despite the meltdown, but the pen overall has been so strong we simply may not have room for him. Ramirez, Wood, and Alvarez have all been solid, and our only optionable reliever (Middleton) has pitched way too well to bump him to SLC just to save an arm. 

Ramirez and Alvarez finally had their first struggles of 2018 yesterday.   Then again, they simply caught what the rest of the team has.