Q: Who IS this guy?
A: If you want a frame of reference, think of a right-handed George Sherrill. Am not saying he's a mirror image, but it's a good way to organize your thinking. If GS52 went Shirley McLaine on us and came back as a right-handed bouncing baby from India, he'd move to the US and become Tyler Walker.
Walker is a big guy, like GS52. He short-arms the ball from behind his ear. He pitches with a high front side.
Walker has a good crisp fastball -- probably 2 mph faster than Sherrill's, which makes it equivalent, since lefties' FB's look 2 mph faster. Walker also brings a plus slider. He mixes the two very nicely, depending on plus deception to get late reactions from hitters. (Batters rely on subliminal clues to read the spin of the ball. You tell me if batters can read Walker's grip from the position in which he's holding it in the picture.)
Walker's FB-slider whipsaw works, pretty much. Walker does mix in a change as well, which a right-handed Sherrill would want to do, also.
..................
Sabermetrically, Walker fans a lot of guys but also walks too many (he isn't a starting pitcher, now, and shouldn't be walking 4 guys a game). He tends to tateritis, which is another reflection of the fact that he's kind of wild in the zone. Not "wild" in the scouting sense, but wild in the dictionary sense, unpredictable.
If you check out those bogue PLATE DISCIPLINE graphs at HBT, you'll notice:
1. Walker gets a lot of called strikes -- he freezes a lot of hitters; they watch strikes go by.
2. Walker gets a lot of swings at pitches outside the zone -- he gets guys fishing.
3. Walker also gets a lot of swings and misses INSIDE the zone, meaning that he's not just confusing guys; he's also just hard to see.
The fact that he's real hard to see doesn't mean he's a star, because he does get splashed against the fences when he makes a mistake. He's not quite as good as GS52, but it's a pretty fair way to look at him.
.
Q. Big platoon split?
A. Not really. Didn't check it, but you can bet his BABIP's were unlucky last year. He fanned more LH than RH, if I recall correctly.
Walker comes straight over the top, high front side, and those guys don't suffer vs LHP's. That's part of what Capt. Jack Sparrow was talking, you can use him in any role.
.
Q. Is he a sabermetric pick?
A. Obviously not. Those amigos who were kinda hoping we just hired Voros McCracken to GM, just got served. We mean it in a good way.
The move doesn't prove that Capt. Jack is a good ole boy, either. But the fact is, that his first move was decidedly not a sabr-find off Paul DePodesta's laptop. It was a visual-scout judgment that Tyler Walker brings the attitude, and forward growth, and versatility, that will work out well in 2009.
.
Q. Do you think he'll make a big leap in Y3 after Tommy John surgery?
A. Probably not. Fangraphs has his average velo as higher in 2007 than in 2008.
Whether that is an important piece of data or not -- I don't see a short-armer like Walker as adding a lot more velocity beyond where he's at now. Just my $0.02.
.
Q. So how good is he? What's the bottom line?
A. He's an average-solid major league short man, emphasis on K's rather than on control and command. Among the group of average-solid short men, he's a bit to the hard-throwing, wild side of the spectrum.
.
Cheers,
Dr D