Inside Pitch

This is pretty much it -- the walks are low but it hasn't been exposed as a weakness. There is really nothing in his game to date that should make one believe he won't walk, in fact if you hear the things he says, the dude is constantly talking up waiting for his pitch. He's just whomping the ball right now.

I know you're being a tad sarcastic but they are and from the perspective of organizational health, they are a world better than we were last year. What Doc is saying is they are playing to their talent level, 13-3 was an illusion and this pen is as bad as it seems. They remain an 85 team win potential team.

I've actually seen concerns about Brendan Rodger's walk rate from some, not as much about Bichette but, he's walking 9% of the time .vs a K rate of 15% as a 20 year old in AA so he's showing improved plate discipline. Anyway, Adell walking or not walking is a pretty significant deal for him, one that will help him retain value during slumps and over the course of his career. I don't think anyone is putting too much emphasis on it, nobody is writing him off but there is no denying it's the weakest part of his game currently -- it's okay to point out Superman has trouble with Kryptonite too.. It's great Marsh has taken that step forward, it will be great when Adell does, but he's not there yet and it's an area he can improve on.

Not to mention that when a backup catcher plays, he's pretty much involved in 100% of the pitches thrown.

He was one of the two pitching suspects sent packing in exchange for Greinke. In 30 MLB innings he walked 26 and stuck out 9. Career minor league BB/9 of 6.3 -- over 11 years -- K/9 rate of 6.7 in four AAA seasons.

He's close to becoming the new Jeppy.. Jepsen has all the tools to be great and every so often he would be -- then he would shit the bed and take weeks to mentally recover....

Because it's true.

You know.. I think it's fair to say it IS luck in the sense that the process points you towards guys and then you hope the volatility God's smile down on you that year. Take the two lists people have put up -- it's hard to argue that any of those guys doing completely shit are shitty relievers but.... they sure have been shitty. Again, I think our issue is that we are still feeling the effects of having had a horse-dung farm system that lacked even failed started to convert to RPs.. When the volatility gods gave us the thumbs down -- we lacked the bodies to throw in there in hopes of getting "lucky".

People here won't appreciate me saying it but -- this list and the one you responded to are pretty much why saber minded GMs have always avoided spending on the BP...

The success of the guys he picked up last year with their new teams, including the guys that we lost due to the numbers crunch argues it wasn't luck. Norris, Petit and Hernandez have all remained effective RPs this year. Kirby Yates has been otherwordly.

Sliders have graded out as the best pitch in baseball for several years.. Even in the age of launch angle.

Maybe it was cockiness -- and I agree he should have seen it coming. But I don't think he expected it to come all at once like it seemingly did this past off-season. My honest opinion is that he didn't expect the free agent freeze out to be as bad as it was and he fully expected there to be a greater choice of guys to pick up -- then there wasn't. It seemed like when everyone stopped chasing FA, they went right after BP arms. Some teams no doubt were going according to plan, I think others jumped on the bandwagon as it developed.. Epp missed the boat. I doubt it happens again.

I don't ever get tired of saying how Scot Shields ruined Angel fans' perspective on bullpens. The Angels sustained excellence was an anomaly.... but the constant in most of that was Shields... At some point the Angels will need to bite the bullet and try to sign a closer, the lone BP role that is relatively the same year in year out ... the rest of the spots will likely always be a game of musical chairs with them moving the guys pitching well in and out of roles... We just don't have a lot of choices currently.

This is likely the lone area where the guy filling out the lineup card can still have some impact on what's happening. He's the guy having to reassure them Eppler is going to do something, and the guy that has to scream the loudest that he owes it to the guys busting their asses to get them help. But, Lasagna jokes. People can mock the guy -- but he's never been shy to talk about the need for more pitching and I think given whats happened since 2011... he's talking about it more often than people here likely imagine.

I don't think it's a matter of it being okay or not, I think the situation is what it is. You watch the minors, we don't have those failed SP arms that have been in the system for years and are being transitioned to RPs to pull from. It's the one area that is still legitimately barren and it blows because it's likely the one area where teams can most easily find in house solutions. Beyond that, we both know that if he sticks to the formerly established saber mindset of how to build a BP, then you know he's likely going to stick to the process. Personally, I think there was a shift in bullpen usage and that it caught Eppler a bit flat-footed. This is painful right now, but we can only hope there is a method to the madness and we won't see a repeat of it next season.

If he was 6'4" there would be huge buzz ... it's just reality.

Indeed.. even funnier when they cast stones while living in a glass house.

That would explain a lot.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=16201&position=P#pitchvalues. Nope.

Their loss was Angels esque....

That would be incorrect..... But pretty much every mention of the Angels is accompanied by "F the Angels"...

Lookout Landing day at AW.com!

Them...

How did it go? The kids that came into our office absolutely cleaned up... I checked the KK website and I guess they are called BOGO cards.

Krispy kreme does some cool school fundraiser stuff.... I forget what I paid but it was a plastic card with puncholes for a dozen donuts once a month or for ten dozen total with the purchase of a dozen... Pretty much everyone in the office bought a few of them.