The Wright Trade, and other stupid puns
As you may notice, the title is no longer the date — I present to you, the pinnocle of innovation!
The most exciting thing to happen recently was the response to the pitching depth problem the brewers have. Chase Wright is a lefty pitcher who’s done well in the minor leagues, going 13-5 with a 3.85 ERA in between AA and AAA in 2007 and even better numbers in injury-limited innings in 2008. However, when you dig a little bit deeper into his stats, he really doesn’t have much of a chance in the big leagues.
Wright’s deeper pitching statistics that reveal his true pitching ability isn’t as good as it looks. He’s only struck out 557 batters in 795 innings while wilking 385; that’s not even a 1.5 K:BB ratio! Career 1.41 WHIP as well. The guy does not have enough talent to make a Gallardo-sized splash anywhere in the big leagues. Wright is actually famous in his limited time in the majors for giving up four dingers in a row against your hated rival. I don’t see him getting many places, but there is one stat he has that’s really good.
He’s only given up 32 HR in those 795 innings, so that means he has a really good ground ball ratio and that makes sense because his main pitches are a two-seamer and a changeup. Low home run rates and a high ground ball percent can do a good job for atoning for otherwise low-quality numbers; not only do more ground balls and less fly balls mean that hits that do get through the defense are singles instead of doubles and triples, but it keeps the ball in the park. This good HR rate is a good argument, though I don’t know exactly how far it can go to defend for the horrendous WHIP he’s displayed so far in the minors.
However good or bad he may be in the majors, he’s still a useful pickup for pitching depth. It’s already been extensively covered everywhere that we’re hanging our crutch on a guy who is coming back from his second Tommy John surgery, one coming back from a torn ACL, hasn’t pitched more than 120 innings since 2002, and a guy who has had an occasional arm problem or two during his minor league career that tend to foreshaow major pitching injuries and Tommy John surgeries. One of them will inevitably get injured or flame out, just as the warning signs should flag, and he can averagely fill out the spot left by their absence. As long as he can keep the ball in Miller Park. Don’t you think it’s weird that he gave up four home runs in a row when he was in the majors?!
Elsewhere, Ben Sheets is getting surgery and he expects the Brewers to pay for it. Needing surgery for a torn tendon for an injury-riddled pitcher is seemingly obvious, but wanting the Brewers to pay for his surgery even though he will be passed onto another team (which seems pretty obvious at this point) is taking it a bit too far, especially considering the fact that noone in this economy even wanted to sign him for two years in the first place. Think of a couple short months ago when Sheeter rejected a one-year, $12 million offer from the Brewers, and now he’s probably going to get a minor league contract because his surgery is going to have him sit out until August. Yikes. Poor Sheets.
Think of what the havoc would be if Sheets signed with the Brewers and news just came in that he’s out until August. What holes would the team be in then? Man, I’m glad Doug Melvin is a thrifty spender.