Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
You said he had "fringe stuff." That's not accurate if you read any of the scouting reports on him from his minor league days. A low 90s fastball with good movement - especially good late movement - is an effective pitch. He's got at least usable changeup and breaking pitches. His upside actually is that of a #3 if you read any of that stuff on him.
He's 24. A year and a half ago, he was extremely highly thought of. Generally isn't a good idea to give up on pitchers QUITE that early.
Sykes is exactly the type of person you get with a sandwich pick.
The compensation for Type B free agents, quite honestly, really isn't worth the risk of offering arbitration that is required to receive the compensation.
If DeJesus comes out like he did this season and puts up similar offensive numbers, Mazzaro and Sykes aren't enough compared to what his value would be. But if he struggles with the bat at all - or even just has a .280/10/60/80/5 campaign - it's better than the alternative.
Should have an idea by midseason how good or bad this trade was. Right now, it's too early.
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Who the hell is Sykes?
I assume you mean Marks? And no - he's nothing like what you'd get in the sandwich rounds. He's a 22 year old 3rd round pick that spent most of the year struggling in A ball. If that's your sandwich pick - fire your scouting department.
You know how you can tell that Mazzaro's stuff isn't that good? His results. Even in the minors, his groundball rate wasn't actually that good (below average, in fact).
For a guy that doesn't have any decent secondary offerings, doesn't miss bats and doesn't throw particularly hard, his groundball rate pretty much sucks. He seems to generate outs by throwing 92 mph 'heat' somewhere near the zone and hoping hitter hit the ball at someone. A 'usable changeup' doesn't come in 6 mph slower than his fastball unless the bottom drops out of it, Mazzaro's doesn't.
If he's a lefthander, he has good stuff. But as a 6'2'' righthander without a plus secondary offering of any sort, a 92 mph fastball that doesn't generate grounders is nothing. His stuff, scouting reports be damned, is mediocre at best.
His 'low 90's fastball with movement' has actually had a worse value/100 than Bannister's. That 'movement' by the way? It was almost exactly the same as Bannister's, with an average vertical Z axis of about 9.6, compared to 9.5 for Bannister (meaning that Bannister's actually has a little more drop; Lowe was 3.4 for comparison). The drop on his changeup was also the exact same as Banny's. But hey, at least he makes up for it by getting half as much horizontal movement on his slider as Bannister.
Mazzaro isn't good. He's better than Bannister only because his fastball
is about a MPH faster, so there's room for growth there. But that very same fastball was actually a less effective pitch than Bannister's was last season.
Unless Mazzaro can about 3 times the drop he had on his fastball last season, he's just another 5th starter.
Congrats. I'd have taken my chances on the sandwich pick.