… stRangers 2
A long way (literally), in a short time, from Los Cardenales

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Roenis Elias

It is mystifying to Dr. D, why the TV crew is AS down on Elias as they are.  They grumbled, yet again, for an hour and a half about Elias' (admittedly) naive pitch sequences.  Then they tossed a pitchout to (left hand pitcher) Bill Krueger in the studio...

1) Bill reminded them, politely, that Roenis Elias happens to be a rookie left hand pitcher.  As compared to (say) Tyler Pike and his 6.44 ERA in AA, Roenis Elias is rather ahead of the normal learning curve.

2) Krueger also reminded us that Elias has excellent "mettle," reinforcing this by pointing out that Elias gets into trouble but then he comes back to finish innings.  Great point, lefty!

3) Finally, Krueger insisted that Elias has the "special" arsenal to go with the mentality -- excellent lefty hook, very live fastball, developing changeup.

There's a story about how Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood went in together to read for an acting part, back in the 1960's.   "You can't act," the mogul told Reynolds, "And your Adam's Apple sticks out too far," he told Eastwood.

On the way out, Reynolds needled his chum:  "I can learn to act.  But good luck learning to get rid of your Adam's Apple."

Roenis Elias can, and will, learn the finer points of MLB(tm) pitching.  Does he merit a bit more patience on this subject?  Lighten up, boyz.

.......

SSI definitely understands Blowers' frustration:  early in the year, Elias had a signature attack based on the inside fastball.  Roenis Elias had put his personal fingerprints on the concept of starting pitching, and it looked impressive, and now he's lost that coherency.  Blowers is right about this.

Couldn't agree more with him, either, that Elias does some truly mindless stuff on the mound ... it's 2-2 and Elias wastes a pitch.  Now he's 3-2 and his back is to the wall.  Elias has, it seems, ZERO sense of thinking two moves down the road.

Krueger, however, kicked the can down the field:  of course it's easier for Elias to throw to the glove side of the plate -- that is due to his mechanics.  But Elias needs to advance his game.  

.......

Don't undersell Elias' problemos.  In Thursday's game, he got one (1) swing-and-miss the entire evening.  You do get growing pains from a AA pitcher.  Elias is doing this, growing while in pain.

.......

From a saber standpoint ... Roenis Elias has 8.0 K per game, 3.5 walks, and 0.9 homers as a rookie.  Next year's BaseballHQ Forecaster is going to say what, about a rookie LHP who does that?

Buy, buy, buy.  That's a lot better than Gio Gonzalez' rookie year.  You could look it up.

There can be no doubt about where Roenis Elias stands, in the big picture.  He is poised to launch a career that could easily wind up with 100+ career victories.  No small find, gentlemen.

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Chris Young

Tomorrow's news today, babe.  SSI declared, a few days ago, that in MLB(tm) you are honor-bound "to dance with the ones who brung ya."  Lloyd McClendon, however is a "you can kiss my keister" manager, which muddied the water on the usual Entitled Vet conventions.

The resolution?  McClendon fired a warning shot over the bow of U.S.S. Young.  Chris Young sat down and talked McClendon out of pulling the plug, but ... McClendon put on the snake eyes and warned him, Earl Weaver style, that he would do what's best for the club.  Points for being straight with your players.  McClendon's high-integrity, kiss-my-grits style is coming up roses everywhere.  Life is a gravy train with biscuit wheels, Lloyd.  Ride along and sop.

Any bets whether Taijuan is the first reliever into the Young game?  The bottom line:  Young is pitching for his job, next start.  

That'll do for us too,

Dr D

 

Blog: 

Comments

1

Young was always scrapping together a "career best-like" year, at least in terms of ERA+.  But he had done it with a weirdly unimpressive FIP and very few K's (in '07 he struck out nearly 9 guys a game!).  The great question about Young was just how far he could carry the guise......before his numbers normalized.  He made it further than almost any of us would have imagined.  In a 3.5 or 4-man playoff rotation, Young isn't included.
What I love about Elias, beyond his developing and impressive stuff, is his makeup.  He appears to be pretty unflappable and basically without fear.  He just doesn't seem to pitch scared.  I like that.  It is a rare commodity for a rookie.
In many ways he's kinda what we wanted Hultzen to be as a rookie:  A lefty with stuff and guile.  Barring injury, he will pitch in the bigs for a long time.  if we were to include Walker in a swap for a MOTO bat next spring, I would be increasingly comfortable with that just because of the presence of Elias. 
As we look to '15 there are 3 positional question marks remaining.  Ironically they are the three "mashing" positions; DH, 1B, RF. 
Morrison and Saunders stand at the head of the line currently, but neither is a lock.  Morales has moved well back in the line.  Romero will get a look-see.  Deej and Kivlehan are longshots, but closing fast.  Kelly is a maybe.  And then there is the trade market.
Betcha we grab someone over the winter, someone not named Morales, btw.

2

Couldn't agree more amigo.
There isn't any question that he has a repeatable game -- move the "sneaky" fastball vertically instead of horizontally, go for skyballs, pitch ahead in the count -- but to me it's still smoke and mirrors.  (There's some question whether he's a weirdly great fit for the Safeco ballpark.)
I am also very dubious about letting Chris Young into an Angels' series, when the choice is Felix-Paxton-WBC-san and then Elias or Taijuan Walker...

3

He just doesn't get fazed by men on base, or by getting behind on the scorebord, or by getting taken deep, or by awesome lineups ... you can't chase him out of the strike zone.
That's a rare, and special, quality.  I could work wit' dat...

4

And Morales responds to my (near) death knell with two taters.  Boy do I know what I'm talking about.....

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