Earlier this week it appeared as though Darren Oliver would be heading back to the Rangers next season, but that's not necessarily the case. ESPN's Jerry Crasnick says that Oliver is keeping an open mind about his 2012 destination, and he's drawing interest from the Red Sox and other clubs (Twitter links).
Oliver, 41, pitched to a 2.29 ERA in 51 innings this past season, striking out 44 and walking just 11. During his two most recent years in Texas, he's held left-handed batters to a .212/.250/.306 batting line with 66 strikeouts and just seven walks in 207 plate appearances. Oliver is one of the few remaining left-handed relievers on the free agent market.
Texas needs to sign one of Oliver or Gonzalez. Uehara can’t be our only option against lefties.
Jim Leyland likes to play by the numbers so he would make sense for Detroit. They could use Oliver in the seventh if it’s a left handed heavy part of the order and Dotel if it’s a right handed heavy part of the order.
He’s expensive for a guy that is only going to pitch 50ish innings, but his effectiveness is undeniable.
that sounds like a challenge! oliver was hit really hard last year (30% line-drive rate, highest in the league by far) and lucked out quite a bit (about 20% lower batting average on line-drives than the rest of the league)
his other peripherals are solid and he’s still the best lefty out there, but i’d be a little less optimistic about him than usual
No doubt the luck dragons had a major part in his success.
Well, he does have three sub-3 ERA seasons before last season to back him up… and his FIP was an impressive 2.72 last year (the second lowest of his career, only beat by his 2010 FIP)
and his ERA was 1.80 away from Texas’ hitter’s-friendly park.
(and Oliver does usually have a high Line-drive rate, 20.4% in 2010, 20% career… although, I realize that’s much lower than 30%… so maybe that is a sign)
if he were 31 instead of 41, i’d be much more comforted by his very good track record. i’m a fan of FIP and DIPS in general, but a 30% line-drive rate just cannot be ignored. here’s the 4-year trajectory of that important stat:
15%
14%
20%
29%
not enough to scare me away, just enough to make me nervous
The funny thing is when I was typing “is undeniable” I thought you would go digging into stats. I did say “his EFFECTIVENESS is undeniable”… luck is rolled into that. I wouldn’t necessarily expect him to CONTINUE being effective, and for $3M plus he is costly for a reliever. I’d probably still try to sign him up if I were the Rangers, though.
Minnesota needs his talents for the bullpen. He would single-handedly transform the Twins bullpen into something respectable. But, then again, most ANY pitcher added to the current Twins BP would do that…
twinkies have bigger issues than a left handed specialist..is Morneau coming back? Where does Mauer play? who play SS?