Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
You pretty much have to keep your powder dry to see if you'll get anything at all from Jaime Garcia.
I'd probably give Cooney one more start to see if the 87 with a rolling breaker is the best we'll get out of him. In the spring he was at 90 with much sharper breaking stuff. He also had some bad BABIP luck yesterday so perhaps that got to him. I think he's a better pitcher than the guy we saw against the Phils and someone capable of holding down the 5th spot.
If Cooney's not up for it, then I give Lyons a stab. I think he can give you a serviceable 120 innings if need be. Ideally he'd just be a replacement for Choate because Choate blows and Lyons would kick ass in that role, but he can start and do a fine job of that as well.
Meanwhile I'd be doing everything I could to keep Marco down for at least another month. A) It will allow us to save another year of service time by making up for the time he had on the MLB roster last year and B) it will give him time to develop a weapon against lefties. Fastball/Changeup pitchers can survive against off-hand hitters pretty easily. They can also get by against same-hand hitters if they're throwing 96 (that's how Wacha was so effective as a rook) but Marco's lucky to push 91 most days.
If he comes up with just his fastball/changeup, lefties will eventually start kicking his ass, IMO. I know it didn't happen last season out of the bullpen but I just don't see how a guy with nothing that moves away from lefties and not enough velocity to keep them inside conscious can sustain success against them. With Lynn already being pretty prone to getting hit by them, we can't really afford to have 2 guys that get punished by lefty heavy lineups; it makes you really susceptible to pure matchup losses in October.
He needs to be in Memphis working on his curveball or a slider. Maybe he could get by just throwing a cutter but cutter's work better up, IMO and his fastball can't function up and his changeup wouldn't work as well off a high fastball either so location would probably give the pitch away. Marco needs more work. Keep him in the minors polishing up his breaking stuff, banking innings and saving service time. Then in the summer months you can start skipping starts for Martinez and Wacha to keep their innings down and bring Marco up to take those spot starts.
If Garcia can give you healthy innings, you're just light years ahead of the game but if not, Lyons can hold down the fort until Marco is ready. And if this staff suffers another significant injury, we'll have no choice but to go outside the organization. At that point I'd go after the guy we just beat - Aaron Harang. Veteran innings eaters were going for way too much last year but maybe you could get him for someone like Rowan Wick, Steve Bean or Anthony Garcia.
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Wacha seems to have made pretty great strides with the breaking ball so far this year, so thats good to see.
I don't know what Marco profiles as. If he can develop atleast a show me breaking pitch, I think he's a potential number 2 guy. If not, fringy 4. But, I don't know that lefties would kill him like you think but, hed have to be Maddux like and stay on the black. As you've mentioned, thats alot to ask.
Losing Waino hurts, obviously from many different perspectives. But the innings is the killer. If/when they get to October, Wacha/Martinez (if he keeps his shit together)/Lynn is a pretty solid 3. I think they view ElGallo as a top of the line guy, which IMO, he is. The Taveras thing seems to really have mentally scooped him for the better.
I would obviously love to throw Hamels out there in October, but to get him, it's gonna be costing more than I'd prefer. I think you gut it out till the deadline, see then.
If you need someone before then, it's gotta be more of a vet inning eater.