.

Shawn Kelley has always had VERY good command of a decently-hot fastball ... but putting him at the top of this or that CMD list is going to overstate the situation, for two reasons.  

The minor reason:  the difference between 1, 5, 10 etc on those lists is going to be subtle.  It's kind of like saying Jeff Francoeur had the #2 doubles total in the entire American League last year... well, that's true, but he had 47, and then a bunch of guys better than him had 48, 46, 46, 46, 45, 45, 44, 44, 41.... and it's not like doubles, in and of themselves, are the end of the discussion.  SLG is more to the point... which brings us to

Also, the major reason ... Kelley over-challenges and his lifetime HR rate of 1.4 is entirely unacceptable, as Clint would say.  Anybody can avoid a free pass if they give in.  A very high CMD ratio that comes with this asterisk -- gopheritis -- gets heavily discounted.  If Kelley's CMD were 10:1 and his homers were below average, now we've got a conversation.

So our $0.02 is that, whether Kelley's good or not, we wouldn't make too much soup off his CMD oyster.  Dennis Eckersley he ain't.

..........

That said, Shawn Kelley has VERY good command of a fastball that (1) has good cutting action in to LH's and (2) is regaining its velo.  That cutting action, the gloveside cut, keeps LHB's off him and befuddles RHB's into the bargain.  The fastball gets up to 94 when he's healthy and a 94 fastball on the black, that little sweetie is going to protect a 4-2 lead.

Kelley is going to pitch a long time in the majors, if he stays healthy.  

He definitely needs to lose his infatuation with his slider.  He's using a 51-48 split between fastball and slider, and it's not like he's got a Jeff Nelson slider.  He's got an average slider with above-average arm action, and you coulda argue it for a 75-25 split.  Using it 48% of the time?!  

The broad point here was that Kelley is nobody to kick to the curb, and me personally, I've got to concede it's a great point.

...........

Jack Zduriencik's 40-man roster highway is turning into a serious parking lot here.  It's going to get a lot worse.  Shawn Kelley is not, it says here, going to be make the cut past a guy who can throw 100+ MPH for three full innings.

So what do you do if you can't trade him?  Good question.  Since 1977, the Mariners have always had a tall, skinny talent pyramid.  What you do with a short fat one, nobody around here has a clue.  San-Man has seen them.  Maybe he can help us out :- )

Cheers,

Dr D