Day 120

Rotoworld reports that the Brewers recently engaged in discussions regarding Lohse, but seemed content to initially give their younger pitchers a chance.

 

it is getting late.  loshe is going to have to lower his asking price.  boras clearly isnt getting anywhere with his bluffing.  if i was loshe i wouldnt be happy.  this is the second time in his career that this has happend.

artie_fufkin wrote:

APIAD wrote:

it is getting late.  loshe is going to have to lower his asking price.  boras clearly isnt getting anywhere with his bluffing.  if i was loshe i wouldnt be happy.  this is the second time in his career that this has happend.

Yeah, but he also got ~$20 million for those two years he sucked and/or was hurt. I'm just sayin' ... 

 


That is true.  Loshe's last contract was signed before the season ended tho.  I was talking more about his offseason moved.  Boris' I mean.  Thinking back to Loshe's first contract with the Cardinals.  This offseason and even alittle bit of how he, imo, misjudge jeff weavers career.  i dont follow all his players at all but it seems if i were a mid market pitcher i be scared to have him in my corner.  if he cant find a sucker you might be in for a long ride.  however he does normally find suckers.  i wonder how loshe feels being told he was getting a big contract this offseason by his agent and now he is sitting at home.

Ouch. Mark Prior signed ahead of Kyle Lohse:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/03/reds-sign-mark-prior.html

"Of course, if he had done that and gotten shelled I guess that wouldn't have helped the cause much."

Yes.  Boras needs to sell Lohse on performance over the past year, which was excellent.  No reason to blow that.  Can't say as I can predict what will happen, but I cannot recall a season when demand for starting pitching did not grow.  I don't know if it's ever been done, but I think it is at least possible that Boras holds him back until July, when the price for a good starting pitcher is a handful of prospects.  If no one offers Lohse a competitive 3-4 year deal, why not wait?  It's hard to believe someone won't be willing to pay up by July.

Lohse did right by us and I wish him well.  He deserves at least as lopsided of a deal as Suppan got.

It sounds like Texas has renewed interest in Lohse after Martin Perez broke his arm.

Rotoworld reports that Lohse is still seeking a 3 year deal with a significant AAV.

APIAD wrote:

Lynn got shelled again...just saying.

 
He needs to put the weight back on. Seriously. He should start every morning with a dozen doughnuts. And not the regular honey dew kind. The high-calorie fancy pants kind with the frosting and sprinkles.

APIAD wrote:

you cant drop weight that fast and get stronger.  you just cant.  

 
I disagree AP.  Before I was hired and sent to the police academy, I dropped nearly 50 pounds (from 287 to 239) in about 6 months.  Not only was I in much better shape from a cardio vascular standpoint, but I was significantly stronger when it came to things like bench press, pull ups and squats.

Not saying that's the case with Lynn, but it isn't impossible.

I can't get freaked out about Spring Training numbers.  The fields in Florida don't play anything like major league ball parks, and as fans we have no idea what sort of approach a player takes into a spring training game.  Scott Rolen used to say he rarely swung at a pitch in spring training because he knew he could hit, he wanted to use the spring to see as many pitches as possible to get his timing down.  And there are times a pitcher will want to work on a particular pitch, so he might  throw 15 straight curveballs or changeups which wouldn't happen in a game.  I remember a couple of years ago Garcia was brutal in the Spring (his ERA may have been over 10).  Then the season started and his ERA was under 2, two months into the season. 

I'm not saying the entire process is meaningless.  I haven't seen a single pitch.  If Lynn has lost significant velocity, that's a concern.  But I'm not sure you can really tell that in early March when pitchers are just starting to loosen their arms.

"If Lynn has lost significant velocity, that's a concern."

That's the part that's worrying me. All your points about ST are valid. But I didn't see Lynn working on a new pitch or wind-aided popups finding the gaps. He looked like a guy who was struggling with location and had to hump up just to blow a 90 mph fastball by Matt Den Dekker in order to get out of a jam.

forsberg_us wrote:

FWIW- the P-D story on Lynn's outing says he threw more sinkers than normal because he's trying to get comfortable with the pitch in order to shorten innings and keep his pitch count down once the regular season begins.

 
OK. Maybe this is a little too existential, but is a sinker that doesn't sink still a sinker?

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

FWIW- the P-D story on Lynn's outing says he threw more sinkers than normal because he's trying to get comfortable with the pitch in order to shorten innings and keep his pitch count down once the regular season begins.

 
OK. Maybe this is a little too existential, but is a sinker that doesn't sink still a sinker?

if so i have a fastball id like to shop around.  it is pretty unimpressive.  
 

Rangers are apparently close to signing Derek Lowe.