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... actually, am considering making Erasmo the 4th member of the club, however.  Pineda and Lincecum, Seager ... hmmmmm ... whattaya think G...

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=== Picture's Worth 1,000 Words, Dept. ===

His September 30th start -- against the awe-inspiring Ranger-ripping Angel-mangling Your 2012 American League West Champion Oakland A's -- is recorded for posterity rat cheer. 

I'd watch it.  :- /  ::dennis leary::

FIRST PITCH against LH Reddick -- 82 deadfish changeup, started middle-out and high, swerved way outside and rolled off the table.  Garbage swing by Reddick, leaned wayyyy out, took the snap and accel out of his bat in an attempt to be only one mile in front rather than two, and of course pulled the head way off the ball.

It's kind of hard to get across, in words, how reluctant the batters are to cut loose with a swing after they've had the yo-yo string pulled on them quite that bad.  Billy Beane once complained sourly of Jamie Moyer, "we get better swings off Pedro than off Moyer."

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SECOND PITCH against LH Drew -- MLB hitters hate to look like Reddick does on that first pitch ... but do you know what they hate more?  Having a 37-mile-an-hour fastball thrown by them -- this latter makes them look amateurish AND feminine.*  

Moyer once said he had a career only because major leaguers REFUSE to EVER let an 87-mph fastball get thrown by them.  So what happens when you have a Moyer :- ) who throws 94 mph?  You get Ramirez' second pitch on the video, the one where Drew locks up.

The uninitiated but alert will squeak, "He didn't throw it by Drew."  Well, no.  Once it's too late, Drew would rather take the strike and hope for the best, maybe shake his head at the ump a little, versus swinging after the ball's in the mitt.

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The uninitiated and unalert will talk, this spring, about the league's adjustments to Ramirez the second time around the league.  You, the discerning SSI reader, understand that there is no such thing as adjusting to the above two-pitch whipsaw.  There is only the aggressive roll of the dice -- hoping that Ramirez will leave a fastball out-and-over.  Or the passive roll of the dice, taking cut-down swings and hoping for sharp one-hoppers through the infield.

There is no defense, real or theoretical, to Ramirez' game IF HE EXECUTES it.  This is where the cliche comes in, "The pitcher holds the ball."  He's the one who has to give the hitter an opportunity.  Ask the Rays when our ace is Felix'ing.

Erasmo throws these pitches, he wins, end of story.  And with that Greg Maddux machine-like motion, I like his chances of throwing these pitches.  Erasmo is THIS close to being an SSI Best Bet.  In a 2013 Roto draft for sure he's one of the top 20 AL starters taken.

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For the whipped cream and cherry on top, fast forward to 0:48 on the video and enjoy the slider.

If Erasmo Ramirez were tall, and cool-looking, and had been hyped out of college -- let's say he were Max Scherzer or Kyle Drabek or any Yankee -- and he executed exactly these pitches?  If the same pitches were flying out the hand of a guy who looked like, and was drafted like, Brandon Morrow?  He'd be a national celebrity.  He'd be assumed to be the next big thing.

I mighta heard it wrong.  I thought Zduriencik said, on the Hot Stove, that Erasmo was THE youngest pitcher in the majors last year.  Is that right?

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If he'd qualified, Erasmo Ramirez would have been a top-10 AL starter in 2012:

• xFIP - 10th in the league, above Lester, Peavy, CJ Wilson, Jered Weaver
• FIP - 10th again, ahead of all those guys and a feewwww others
• ERA - 9th, ahead of CC Sabathia, James Shields, etc.

No, Erasmo isn't yet one of the top 12 starters in the league.  But that's what sabermetrics was invented for, to tell you who those guys were, before the sportswriters knew it.

Each year, there are a handful of pitchers like Erasmo, kids who had a great partial season, ran BaseballHQ BPV's of 100 or so in 50, 80 innings, ran them up to the end of the year.  Last year ... Tyler Skaggs, Drew Smyly.  Cory Luebke has thrown 150 innings across a few years, has a career xFIP of 3.21.   I dunno if Trevor Rosenthal is going to start.  Patrick Corbin.

Those guys are around, but (1) I'd like to have those guys also, and (2) it's about a young pitcher's game, whether it looks well-suited to the majors long term.

Erasmo is precisely the kind of guy that you're praying your roto enemies don't know about.  People flip me any static about him being anything less than a Grade A, blue-chip super deluxe prospect, I won't HESITATE to move him into Best Best status and throw the lurkers into the Pit of Stench for the R.O.U.S.'es to feast upon.

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Be Afraid,

Young Fronk-uhn-steen

*(No offense to NCAA softball players who have quicker bats than major leaguers.)