James Russell

[Transmogrified Tiger]

He gets forgotten a bit because he pitches in middle relief and he was truly awful as an emergency starter, but here's what he's quietly done this year as a reliever:

 

31.1 IP, 22 H, 20K, 8 BB, 2 HR

1.44 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 2.5 K/BB, 0.54 HR/9

 

And that brings his career numbers as a reliever to:

 

80.1 IP, 77 H, 62 K, 19 BB, 13 HR

3.59 ERA, 1.19, WHIP, 3.3 K/BB, 1.45 HR/9

 

 

It looks like his HR rate was as unsustainably bad last year as it is good this year, but either way he's managed to be an effective reliever two straight seasons. Coupled with Samardzija's emergence, the bullpen looks to be a strength for next year at the least.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If only theyd kept Chris Carpenter around instead of sending him down again for the awful John Grabow. Carpenter has stuff and he has potential to be very good, possibly a set up man. John Grabow has a few million dollars coming his way.

[Guest]

If only theyd kept Chris Carpenter around instead of sending him down again for the awful John Grabow. Carpenter has stuff and he has potential to be very good, possibly a set up man. John Grabow has a few million dollars coming his way.

They're probably still hoping to sell Grabow to another team.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If only theyd kept Chris Carpenter around instead of sending him down again for the awful John Grabow. Carpenter has stuff and he has potential to be very good, possibly a set up man. John Grabow has a few million dollars coming his way.

They're probably still hoping to sell Grabow to another team.

 

Not going to happen. This year, hes been solid at getting lefties out,and not much else, yet Quade refuses to use him as a LOOGY. I think its to late to get anything for him. If we DFA him, someone should pick him up, but thats about it.

[TruffleShuffle]

i really do not trust samardzija still. his walk rate is awful, and his ERA is good because of a low HR rate and BABIP. he's certainly not as big a joke as he was last year, but unless his command improves i can't think of him as anything more than a middling back of the bullpen guy.

[CubColtPacer]

i really do not trust samardzija still. his walk rate is awful, and his ERA is good because of a low HR rate and BABIP. he's certainly not as big a joke as he was last year, but unless his command improves i can't think of him as anything more than a middling back of the bullpen guy.

 

Samardzija's walk rate has been getting better every single month this year though. If he's a 5.8 BB rate type of guy as he has been cumulatively for the season, that's a problem. If he's a 3.5 to 4.5 type BB guy as he's been since early in the year that's a whole lot better. Of course his strikeout rate has been dropping as well, but not nearly as badly.

[TruffleShuffle]

i really do not trust samardzija still. his walk rate is awful, and his ERA is good because of a low HR rate and BABIP. he's certainly not as big a joke as he was last year, but unless his command improves i can't think of him as anything more than a middling back of the bullpen guy.

 

Samardzija's walk rate has been getting better every single month this year though. If he's a 5.8 BB rate type of guy as he has been cumulatively for the season, that's a problem. If he's a 3.5 to 4.5 type BB guy as he's been since early in the year that's a whole lot better. Of course his strikeout rate has been dropping as well, but not nearly as badly.

 

if you take his numbers since april 23rd, which is being as generous to him as possible, he has 20 bb and 41 k's in 40.2 innings. that's pretty good. so is 31 hits in 40.2 innings. my main concern is that he's only allowed 3 home runs in that time, and his IsoP is around .120, which is pretty low for a guy who's giving up so many fly balls. he should be giving up more extra base hits (including home runs) than he has been. it's not a surprise that he has a low babip during that time, since he's been fly ball heavy, but he should be more prone to the big hit than he has been.

[mul21]

 

if you take his numbers since april 23rd, which is being as generous to him as possible, he has 20 bb and 41 k's in 40.2 innings. that's pretty good. so is 31 hits in 40.2 innings. my main concern is that he's only allowed 3 home runs in that time, and his IsoP is around .120, which is pretty low for a guy who's giving up so many fly balls. he should be giving up more extra base hits (including home runs) than he has been. it's not a surprise that he has a low babip during that time, since he's been fly ball heavy, but he should be more prone to the big hit than he has been.

 

Doesn't he have a history of doing that though? I remember somebody breaking down his numbers in the minors and he had a weirdly high infield pop up rate if I'm remembering right. If that's the case, he could just be a statistical outlier in the fly ball pitcher category.

[TruffleShuffle]

 

if you take his numbers since april 23rd, which is being as generous to him as possible, he has 20 bb and 41 k's in 40.2 innings. that's pretty good. so is 31 hits in 40.2 innings. my main concern is that he's only allowed 3 home runs in that time, and his IsoP is around .120, which is pretty low for a guy who's giving up so many fly balls. he should be giving up more extra base hits (including home runs) than he has been. it's not a surprise that he has a low babip during that time, since he's been fly ball heavy, but he should be more prone to the big hit than he has been.

 

Doesn't he have a history of doing that though? I remember somebody breaking down his numbers in the minors and he had a weirdly high infield pop up rate if I'm remembering right. If that's the case, he could just be a statistical outlier in the fly ball pitcher category.

 

his pop up rate is almost 17% this year, which is higher than previous years in the majors, and his home run rate is 4.5%, which is well below his home run rate in the last two years.

 

i think he's shown improvement, but really it depends on how much he costs down the road. according to fangraphs his options the next two years could be worth as much as $6.5m (total). i don't know what he has to do to earn that money, if bonuses are involved, etc, but my point is that giving him these options should not be a no-brainer (unless they're like $1m base salary each year with $4.25m in bonuses if he wins the cy young or something)