SB Nation User Blog: liam

College Splits

liam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:01:10 -0000

College Splits

Kent Bonham and Jeff Sackmann run CollegeSplits.com--although they don't publish their NCAA D-I data publicly, they do share their data for the first five rounds of players in each years draft.

If Scott Bittle's healthy, he's a steal in the fourth round (although the walks have to come down) and Joe Kelly has a pronounced platoon split in a small sample.

And Strasburg is ridiculously awesome.

Final 2009 Gameday Links

liam — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:52:49 -0000

Final 2009 Gameday Links

Just three days to go!

Friday, April 3, 2009
Minnesota at Pittsburgh
Washington at Baltimore
Cincinnati at Carolina
Boston at NY Mets
Chicago Cubs at NY Yankees
Tampa Bay at Philadelphia
Toronto at Florida
Detroit at Atlanta
Kansas City at Texas
Cleveland at Houston
St. Louis at Memphis
Chicago Sox at Arizona
Colorado at Seattle
LA Angels at San Diego
Milwaukee at LA Dodgers
Oakland at San Francisco

Saturday, April 4, 2009
Toronto at Florida
Pittsburgh at Minnesota
Chicago Cubs at NY Yankees
Tampa Bay at Philadelphia
Detroit at Atlanta
Boston at NY Mets
Kansas City at Texas
Cleveland at Houston
St. Louis at Memphis
Seattle at Colorado
San Francisco at Oakland
Chicago Sox at Arizona
Baltimore at Washington
San Diego at LA Angels
Milwaukee at LA Dodgers

Sunday, April 5, 2009
LA Dodgers at San Francisco

Gameday Links: Weeks IV & V

liam — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:38:07 -0000

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Baltimore at Washington
Philadelphia at Florida
St. Louis at Tampa Bay
Houston at NY Mets
Cleveland at Milwaukee
Oakland at Texas
Colorado at LA Dodgers
Chicago Sox at San Francisco
Chicago Cubs at Seattle
Detroit at Atlanta
Boston at Cincinnati
Toronto at NY Yankees
San Diego at Seattle

Friday, March 20, 2009
NY Mets at Baltimore
Pittsburgh at Boston
Washington at Detroit
NY Yankees at Minnesota
Tampa Bay at Toronto
Florida at Atlanta
Cincinnati at Houston
Philadelphia at St. Louis
Arizona at LA Angels
San Francisco at Chicago Sox
Oakland at Cleveland
Milwaukee at Seattle
San Diego at Chicago Cubs
Texas at Colorado
LA Dodgers at Kansas City

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tampa Bay at Baltimore
Houston at Toronto
NY Mets at Atlanta
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati
St. Louis at Washington
Minnesota at Philadelphia
Boston at Florida
Detroit at NY Yankees
Milwaukee at LA Angels
Chicago Cubs at Chicago Sox
LA Dodgers at Cleveland
San Francisco at Oakland
Oakland at Seattle
Colorado at Texas
Kansas City at Arizona
San Diego at San Francisco

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Philadelphia at Boston
Florida at Detroit
Toronto at Minnesota
Washington at Houston
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Baltimore at St. Louis
NY Yankees at Tampa Bay
Atlanta at NY Mets
LA Angels at Kansas City
San Francisco at Milwaukee
Chicago Sox at Oakland
Seattle at Chicago Cubs
Texas at LA Dodgers
Arizona at San Diego
Cleveland at Colorado

Monday, March 23, 2009
Detroit at Boston
Baltimore at Minnesota
Toronto at Cincinnati
Florida at Houston
NY Yankees at Philadelphia
Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh
Washington at St. Louis
LA Dodgers at LA Angels
Chicago Cubs at Oakland
Kansas City at San Diego
Seattle at San Francisco
Milwaukee at Colorado

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Washington at Baltimore
Philadelphia at Toronto
NY Mets at Houston
Minnesota at Florida
San Diego at LA Angels
Chicago Sox at Cleveland
Texas at Seattle
Colorado at Chicago Cubs
San Francisco at Arizona
Pittsburgh at Atlanta
Boston at NY Yankees
Oakland at Kansas City
Seattle at LA Dodgers

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Boston at Cincinnati
Houston at St. Louis
Detroit at NY Mets
Colorado at LA Angels
Oakland at Chicago Sox
LA Dodgers at Milwaukee
Cleveland at San Diego
Atlanta at Washington
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay
Arizona at Texas

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Florida at Baltimore
Toronto at Atlanta
NY Yankees at Philadelphia
NY Mets at St. Louis
Arizona at Chicago Sox
LA Angels at Cleveland
Texas at Milwaukee
Kansas City at Seattle
LA Dodgers at Colorado
Tampa Bay at Detroit
Minnesota at Cincinnati
Chicago Cubs at San Francisco

Friday, March 27, 2009
St. Louis at Boston
Tampa Bay at Minnesota
Detroit at Atlanta
Philadelphia at Houston
Baltimore at Florida
Colorado at Seattle
Chicago Sox at Chicago Cubs
Kansas City at LA Dodgers
Cleveland at San Francisco
LA Angels at Arizona
Toronto at Pittsburgh
Washington at NY Mets
Cincinnati at NY Yankees
Milwaukee at Texas
San Diego at Oakland

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Minnesota at Boston
Detroit at Toronto
NY Yankees at Atlanta
Houston at Washington
Philadelphia at Pittsburgh
Baltimore at St. Louis
Cincinnati at Tampa Bay
Florida at NY Mets
Seattle at LA Angels
LA Dodgers at Chicago Sox
Texas at Kansas City
Oakland at Milwaukee
San Francisco at San Diego
Cleveland at Arizona
Chicago Cubs at Colorado

Sunday, March 29, 2009
NY Mets at Baltimore
Atlanta at Detroit
St. Louis at Minnesota
Tampa Bay at Cincinnati
Toronto at Houston
Boston at Philadelphia
Washington at Florida
Pittsburgh at NY Yankees
Colorado at Oakland
Kansas City at Seattle
LA Angels at Texas
Cleveland at Chicago Cubs
San Diego at LA Dodgers
Milwaukee at San Francisco
Chicago Sox at Arizona

Monday, March 30, 2009
Tampa Bay at Minnesota
NY Yankees at Toronto
Boston at Atlanta
Detroit at Washington
Houston at Philadelphia
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Florida at St. Louis
Chicago Sox at LA Angels
Chicago Cubs at Kansas City
Seattle at Milwaukee
Oakland at LA Dodgers
Texas at San Francisco
Arizona at Colorado
San Diego at Cleveland
Baltimore at NY Mets

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
St. Louis at Baltimore
Tampa Bay at Boston
Washington at Detroit
Pittsburgh at Minnesota
NY Yankees at Cincinnati
Colorado at Chicago Sox
Seattle at Cleveland
Kansas City at Oakland
San Francisco at Texas
LA Angels at Chicago Cubs
LA Dodgers at Arizona
Atlanta at Houston
Toronto at Philadelphia
NY Mets at Florida
Milwaukee at San Diego

Any errors are due to ESPN.com's schedule, not freakin' me. There's two week's worth since I'll be at Spring Training next week. I posted the code for my script, if anyone wants it for whatever reason.

Week 3 Gameday links

liam — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:14:11 -0000

Week 3 Gameday links

Re-using the same fanshot so as to avoid clutter...

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Washington at Atlanta
Minnesota at Pittsburgh
Boston at St. Louis
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay
Colorado at LA Angels
Chicago Sox at Kansas City
San Diego at Milwaukee
Arizona at Oakland
Texas at Seattle
Japan at Chicago Cubs
Korea at LA Dodgers
Florida at NY Mets

Friday, March 13, 2009
St. Louis at Baltimore (Early game)
NY Mets at Detroit
Tampa Bay at Toronto
Pittsburgh at Philadelphia
Atlanta at Florida
Chicago Cubs at LA Angels
Oakland at Cleveland
Texas at Kansas City
Kansas City at Milwaukee
Seattle at Chicago Cubs
Texas at LA Dodgers
Chicago Sox at San Diego
Seattle at Arizona
San Francisco at Colorado
Baltimore at St. Louis
NY Yankees at Boston
Cincinnati at Minnesota
Washington at Houston

Saturday, March 14, 2009
Boston at Baltimore
Toronto at Detroit
Florida at Minnesota
Tampa Bay at Cincinnati
Philadelphia at Houston
NY Yankees at Pittsburgh
Atlanta at St. Louis
Washington at NY Mets
Houston at NY Yankees
Texas at Chicago Sox
Arizona at Kansas City
LA Dodgers at Milwaukee
San Francisco at Oakland
LA Angels at Chicago Cubs
Cleveland at San Diego
San Diego at San Francisco
Seattle at Colorado

Sunday, March 15, 2009
Baltimore at Boston
Cincinnati at Toronto
Houston at Atlanta
Detroit at Washington
St. Louis at Philadelphia
NY Mets at Florida
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay
Minnesota at NY Yankees
Oakland at LA Angels
Milwaukee at Cleveland
Chicago Sox at Seattle
San Diego at Texas
Colorado at LA Dodgers
Kansas City at San Francisco
Chicago Cubs at Arizona

Monday, March 16, 2009
St. Louis at Detroit
Baltimore at Minnesota
Boston at Toronto
Washington at Florida
Philadelphia at NY Yankees
Kansas City at Chicago Sox
Seattle at Cleveland
Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee
LA Dodgers at Oakland
LA Dodgers at Seattle
LA Angels at San Francisco
Colorado at Arizona
Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Minnesota at Boston
Houston at Detroit
NY Mets at Atlanta
Cincinnati at Philadelphia
Arizona at Oakland
Cleveland at Texas
Chicago Cubs at LA Dodgers
LA Angels at San Diego
Milwaukee at San Francisco
Chicago Sox at Arizona
Kansas City at Colorado
Pittsburgh at NY Yankees

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Baltimore at St. Louis
NY Yankees at Houston
Toronto at Philadelphia
Minnesota at Pittsburgh
Cincinnati at Tampa Bay
Atlanta at NY Mets
LA Angels at Chicago Sox
San Francisco at Chicago Cubs
Texas at San Diego
Milwaukee at Arizona
Florida at Washington
Seattle at Kansas City

(Links preceded by a '?' won't work, use the college's website instead.)

Gameday Links for Week 1, 2009 ST Thursday, February 26, 2009 St. Louis at Baltimore Pittsburgh at...

liam — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:48:45 -0000

Gameday Links for Week 1, 2009 ST

Thursday, February 26, 2009
St. Louis at Baltimore
Pittsburgh at Boston
Houston at Atlanta
Minnesota at Cincinnati
Detroit at Washington
Toronto at Philadelphia
Florida at NY Mets
Tampa Bay at NY Yankees
Oakland at LA Angels
Arizona at Cleveland
Texas at Kansas City
Milwaukee at Chicago Cubs
Seattle at San Diego
LA Dodgers at San Francisco
Chicago Sox at Colorado

Friday, February 27, 2009
NY Yankees at Minnesota
Detroit at Toronto
Philadelphia at Cincinnati
Houston at Washington
Atlanta at Pittsburgh
Baltimore at Florida
Boston at Tampa Bay
St. Louis at NY Mets
Colorado at LA Angels
San Diego at Cleveland
Milwaukee at Oakland
LA Dodgers at Seattle
Chicago Cubs at Texas
Kansas City at San Francisco
Chicago Sox at Arizona

Saturday, February 28, 2009
Florida at Baltimore
NY Mets at Detroit
Atlanta at Toronto
Pittsburgh at Houston
Tampa Bay at Philadelphia
Washington at St. Louis
?Northeastern at Boston
Minnesota at NY Yankees
San Diego at Kansas City
LA Angels at Milwaukee
Cleveland at Oakland
San Francisco at Seattle
Chicago Sox at Chicago Cubs
Texas at Arizona
LA Dodgers at Colorado
Cincinnati at Boston
Cincinnati at Boston

Sunday, March 1, 2009
Boston at Minnesota
Philadelphia at Atlanta
NY Yankees at Cincinnati
Baltimore at Washington
Detroit at Pittsburgh
St. Louis at Florida
Toronto at Tampa Bay
Houston at NY Mets
Kansas City at LA Angels
Colorado at Cleveland
Seattle at Texas
Chicago Sox at LA Dodgers
Chicago Cubs at San Diego
Milwaukee at San Francisco
Oakland at Arizona

Monday, March 2, 2009
Boston at Baltimore
?Fla. Southern at Detroit
Philadelphia at Toronto
NY Yankees at Houston
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay at St. Louis
Seattle at Chicago Sox
Texas at Cleveland
San Francisco at Kansas City
Arizona at Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee at San Diego
LA Angels at Colorado

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Cincinnati at Boston
Venezuela at Detroit
Puerto Rico at Minnesota
Canada at Toronto
Panama at Atlanta
Italy at Washington
Netherlands at Pittsburgh
Dominican Republic at Florida
Houston at Tampa Bay
St. Louis at NY Mets
United States at NY Yankees
Cleveland at Kansas City
Colorado at Milwaukee
Oakland at Chicago Cubs
LA Dodgers at San Diego
Arizona at San Francisco

Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Dominican Republic at Baltimore
Panama at Detroit
United States at Toronto
NY Yankees at Atlanta
Venezuela at Houston
NY Mets at Washington
Canada at Philadelphia
Minnesota at Pittsburgh
Italy at Florida
South Africa at LA Angels
Chicago Cubs at Cleveland
Chicago Sox at Oakland
Kansas City at Texas
San Francisco at LA Dodgers
Netherlands at Cincinnati
Mexico at Arizona
Puerto Rico at Tampa Bay
Australia at Seattle
Chicago Cubs at Chicago Sox
Chicago Sox at Chicago Cubs

From my own webpage

VEB Day at the Ballpark: Saturday

liam — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:56:28 -0000

The first-ever Viva El Birdos day at the park is this coming Saturday, May 17th, per the overwhelming will of the voting community. The pitching matchup will feature Matt Garza, who's been having serious command issues and gave up a home run to ScoRo in his last start (as of writing, he faces the Yankees tonight), against Ye Olde Makre of Wagonnes, ace of the 2008 Cardinals rotation.

First pitch is at 12:10, the weather is expected to be in the low 70s, perfect ballgame weather.

Alxfritz did all the planning for this, but is internet-deprived this week, so asked me to post the information.

We'll be spread throughout the stadium that day since we all bought our own tickets, but will be meeting up at the Broadway Oyster Bar at 736 South Broadway after the game for good times and baseball talk. (Really tempted to insert a lame "reply to this—in person!" joke here. [And did -- ed.])

If anyone wants to schedule a time for in-game meet-n-greet, feel free. I'll be watching from the Casino Queen Party Porch and probably will take a break to Gate 4 once or twice during the game.

Hope many of you can make it, tickets are still available. If you can only make it to the post-party, feel free to join us there.

Bonds' Body Armor

liam — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:22:52 -0000

There's an article in Editor and Publisher claiming that Barry Bonds' body armor actually gives him mechanical advantage(s) in addition to the protective function and that his use of the armor is cheating on a scale far worse than Sosa's corked bat (if Sosa ever used it in a game aside from the one where it broke, as he claimed). There's an estimate in the article that the armor has added 75-100 HR to Bonds total that he wouldn't have hit out without the body armor.

For years, sportswriters remarked that his massive "protective" gear - unequaled in all of baseball -- permits Bonds to lean over the plate without fear of being hit by a pitch. Thus situated, Bonds can handle the outside pitch (where most pitchers live) unusually well. This is unfair advantage enough, but no longer controversial. However, it is only one of at least seven (largely unexplored) advantages conferred by the apparatus.
...
Bonds has worn some sort of front arm protection since 1992... It seems to have remained relatively the same [ed - since 1996] until—interestingly—2001, the year of his record 73 home runs, when an advanced model appeared made (apparently) of a new material.

The article is written by Michael Witte, a "mechanics consultant to a Major League baseball Team."

Turns out that Michael Witte is a mechanics consultant for our very own beloved Cardinals, whose path to employment by the Cardinals, LLC., is described in this article from the New Yorker a year ago.

Jeff Luhnow, the Cardinals' vice-president of player procurement, admits that Witte at first seemed to have "very little credibility," but he nevertheless put him on the payroll as a consultant.

My two cents: players shouldn't be allowed to wear body armor beyond the little shin guards and Witte probably won't be employed by the Cardinals for much longer.

We're not dead yet!

liam — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:29:53 -0000

I contributed a pair of guest posts at Fungoes this week that I thought I'd shamelessly plug over here. Those of you that can't bear to wade through "Fantasyland B.S." won't find this very interesting but someone may this quick study useful.

Part I: Second Half ZiPS
Part II: How Good Must the Pitching Be?

To Summarize:

For the first one, I used the ZiPS in-season projection tool to estimate how much better the offense can be expected to perform after several players badly underproduced in the first half. The conclusion was that Edmonds, Rolen, and Kennedy can be expected to contribute at much better rates going forward, while ZiPS thinks that Duncan is playing over his head. I think ZiPS is underrating Duncan and it remains to be seen whether Rolen's shoulder responds to the cortisone shot, but Edmonds has looked great at times and Kennedy is a better player than he's looked most of the first half. The projections and Pinto's lineup toy gives us an estimate of how many runs the Cardinals can be expected to score per game this season and a total estimate of how many runs we'll score the rest of the year.

In the second post, I took the total run scored estimate down the stretch and plugged it into the Pythagorean expectation formula to get estimates of what rates the pitching and defense would need to hold opposition offenses to in order to reach win-loss targets that would put us in contention for the division lead.

The conclusion there is that the starters would have to pitch over their heads even in the case where the Cubs and Brewers collapse. They'd have to be phenomenal to catch the Brewers if they maintain their current pace and our offense produces as expected.

That's just an objective demonstration of what we already know: the season isn't quite over yet but the Cards will need to play much better the rest of the way to make it to the postseason—and they'll need to do it without Carpenter.

The next week gives us a golden opportunity to make up significant ground in the division. In the immortal words of Fezzik: "I hope we win."

PS: I'll plug Erik's guest post on Cardinal defensive performances while I'm cross-promoting: Whither the Leather.

Our Day 1 Pitchers

liam — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 00:13:52 -0000

Jeff Sackmann brought CollegeSplits.com back online in a limited fashion. The front page has links to the situational splits for all the college players drafted on the first day. Here are the pitchers we drafted—a pretty impressive bunch, really.

Clay Mortenson posted a 2.19 G:F this season, a 9.52 K/9, and allowed only 1 homer.

David Kopp: 2.63 G:F ; 7.21 K/9

Jess Todd: 2.00 G:F ; 12.71 K/9

Thomas Eager: 0.95 G:F ; 7.4 K/9

Aside from Eager (who cocked his cap for his team picture), all extreme groundball pitchers who can get the strikeout.

I'll be looking forward to seeing what these guys do against professionals come June 19th.

For those who were wondering, the Yankees took Pat Venditte, Jr. in the 45th round.

----

Updated to answer a question Danup poses in the comments regarding the average G/F rates among college pitchers, to contexualize these rates.

----

All we have available to answer that question are the figures for the players taken in the first five rounds from CollegeSplits.com. I wrote a script to read all those pitcher pages (those that end with '-p.html'), pull out the GO and AO fields, and crunch the numbers in a few different ways.

These are the results:

Ground outs: 4632
Air Outs:     3555
GO/AO:        1.3029535865
Average:      1.43645033142
Median GO/AO: 1.33333333333 (Brad Mills)
Min GO/AO:    0.612244897959 (Evan Reed)
Max GO/AO:    2.90909090909 (Chris Province)

The 54 pitchers taken in the first five rounds collected 4,362 outs via the groundball and 3,555 in the air. Dividing those totals gives you an average 1.303 GO:AO. Taking the 54 pitchers as individuals in a sorted list, the median pitcher as far as GO:AO had a 1.333 GO:AO, Brad Mills. He was picked in the fourth round out of Arizona by the Diamondbacks. Of the 54 pitchers, the one with the lowest GO:AO (the most extreme flyball pitcher) is Evan Reed, selected by Texas out of Cal Poly, where he closed for our pick, Thomas Eager. A third player (though a non-pitcher) selected from Cal Poly in the first five rounds is Grant Desme, who flies out four times for every three times he grounds out. I can't find (or am too lazy to find) detailed park factor data for Cal Poly, but I'd be unsurprised if they've got a very fast infield and a big outfield or some other combination of features that depresses groundball rates.

The most extreme worm-burner in the first five rounds of the 2007 draft was Chris Province, the closer for Southeastern Louisiana. Province was selected by the Red Sox two picks after we took slugger Kyle Russell. The 1.436 number listed as 'Average' above is just the mean of the 54 players ground-fly ratios.

To answer the question to the best of my ability: for the 54 pitchers in the first five rounds, the average G/F rate is somewhere around 1.3...

"The Missile"

liam — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:44:54 -0000

The full list of non-tendered free agents is out. Swipe Brandon Claussen from the Reds—move fast, Walt!

The talk of bringing in Joel Pineiro or even Victor Zambrano is unsettling in the current market. I'm all behind a youth-movement plan this offseason. There's no veteran #2 out there, so we should stock up youthful depth where possible and see if we can strike gold. Or at least shiny pyrite to fill out a trade package late in the season if thing don't pan out.

Below is a pasted in post from my own place about an available starting pitcher who deserves a shot and has the ability to pitch at least as well as some of the veteran names being floated around. (Tomo Ohka, rotator cuff tear and all, is a good pitcher but will no doubt be offered a contract better than the one we're giving Wells.)

I'll be interested to read what the VeB community thinks.

------------------------------------------

Compare and contrast:

4.38 ERA - 181.0 IP - 29 GS - 133:53 (2.51) K:BB - 25 HR - 6.61 K/9
4.33 ERA - 135.0 IP - 23 GS - 111:38 (2.92) K:BB - 21 HR - 7.40 K/9

The first line is Adam Wainwright's 2005 adjusted line from Dan Szymborski's MLE spreadsheet for that season. The second one belongs to his teammate, Chris Gissell. Gissell was drafted out of high school by the Cubs and left the organization as a minor league free agent after the 2002 season. He spent the next two years with the Rockies AAA affiliate, finally getting a brief and unsuccessful taste of the bigs late in 2004. He spent the 2005 season with the Cardinals' AAA affiliate. Our rotation that year was ridiculously durable and he was never needed on the major league roster. He pitched very well at the AAA level for the third straight season.

After the 2005 season, he left the US to pitch for the Seibu Lions—Daisuke Matsuzaka's team. His (incomplete) 2006 line with Seibu is here and here:

6-4 - 18 GS - 2 CG - 109.0 IP - 3.96 ERA - 85:30 (2.83) K:BB - 10 HR - 7.02 K/9

I can't find out why he pitched in so few games—I reason he didn't seriously injure himself since he pitched two effective innings in relief of rookie Hironori Matsunaga in the Lions' second game of the playoffs.

Gissell made the equivalent of $427,670 with Seibu last season. He's available and would probably be eager to get a shot at the Cardinals again, now that we've got some rotation spots to fill. We could do a whole lot worse for a whole lot more.

PECOTA projected him for a 4.57 ERA over 109 IP with 72K:34BB in 2006. Pretty damned accurate projection of his actual performance in the Pacific League. Along with the PECOTA line, Baseball Prospectus 2006 includes this comment on Gissell:

Gissell's not going to be a star, but he's pitched well in some tough parks. He throws strikes, works quickly, fields his position well, and threw 200-plus innings with a 3-1 strikeout-walk ratio in Colorado Springs. Rather than continue taking million dollar chances on the likes of Jose Lima [or $6,000,000 for Joel Pineiro — adds Liam], a club should give Gissell the ball 15 times and see what happens. Sure, he posted an ERA north of 14.00 with the Rockies in a brief stint, but who hasn't? That's like criticizing a Kennedy for being found with alcohol and a dead hooker.

I'll end this note with two things Gissell... First, lboros of VeB conducted an interview with Memphis pitching coach Dyar Miller in 2005 in which Gissell came up:

VEB: Tell me a little bit about Chris Gissell. I know he's having a great year—it seems as if he's right up there with Reyes and Wainwright in terms of how his numbers look—but he's older, been in a few organizations. What kind of pitcher is he? I don't know much about him at all.
MILLER: Well, he was a high school draft, I think by the Cubs. This is his 9th year, I think. And he's still relatively young—26, 27. He's a fastball, slider, curve, changeup guy. You know, he really pitches like I like to teach—pitches off his fastball. He locates his fastball, moves it up and down, in and away. He could pitch a whole game just with his fastball, he's so good with that. In fact, I'm trying to get him to use more breaking stuff. He pitched last night—struck out nine guys in six innings. I think he had a two-hitter or a three-hitter going in six, and then Pickering hit a two-run homer off him. So he gave up three runs in six innings and he got the win last night for us.

What's not to like?

Secondly—and I found this really funny—Chris Gissell's Hudson's Bay High School Class of '96 reunion committee was having a hard time tracking him down. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to get to his 10-year reunion since he was pitching on the same staff as Daisuke frickin' Matsuzaka.

------------------------------------------

Chris "The Missile" Gissell. Worth a shot, isn't he? I'd like to see fairly generous guaranteed-money split contracts offered to Chris Gissell, Brian Lawrence, and Brandon Claussen (who'd probably be still on the DL) to compete for those last two rotation spots with our in-house options of Wainwright, Tankersley, and Narveson. That rotation coming out of ST may not look like much but we'd have flexibility and more potential than we'd have with the other options out there.

¡Viva el Movimiento de Juventud!