Matt Eddy of Baseball America brings us minor league transactions for October 3rd to 9th, the first full week of the offseason for most clubs. Here are a few notes of interest from the latest series of minor league moves across the league:
- Many familiar names have been granted free agency, including Ian Snell, Cla Meredith, Micah Owings, Fernando Nieve, Dan Meyer, Ryan Garko, Mike Jacobs, and Jason Bergmann.
- The Royals released reliever Matt Herges. Herges didn't reach the majors this season, but had a solid year in 2009, recording a 3.38 ERA in 30 games between Cleveland and Colorado.
- Yordany Ramirez, a long-time minor league outfielder, was re-signed by the Astros. After struggling as a hitter in three Triple-A seasons, the 26-year-old is being converted to pitching.
wow. Some of those guys aren’t nothings. Nieve, Snell, Meyer, Bergmann, and and Owings will be signed and are bounce back candidates.
It’s really interesting how nowadays pitchers are successfully turning from hitters to pitchers. Tony Pena Jr., Sergio Santos, Carlos Marmol, and Brian Anderson are some other guys. I expect Ramirez to be good.
The desperate search for pitching depth is leading organizations to try and convert just about every flunky hitter with a plus arm into a pitcher. Kenley Jansen and Jason Motte are two other fairly noteworthy converts who’ve had major league success of late as relievers. Of course, for every one successful conversion there are about 10 or so that don’t pan out, which would be the more likely outcome for Ramirez, Anderson, and Pena Jr (and perhaps even BA’s # 24 prospect Casey Kelly). Some other minor leaguers who are in the early stages of being converted into pitchers: Jonathan Arias and Ogui Diaz (SEA), Lendy Castillo (PHI), Jorge DeLeon and Ebert Rosario (HOU), Matthew Morizio (KCR), Sean Shoffit (TOR), Brad Corley (COL), and Van Pope (released by ATL). In recent memory, the most well-known veteran MLB pitchers to have made the successful conversion include the likes of Troy Percival and Tim Wakefield (the oddest historical example, as he definitely did not have a plus arm; the convert-a-position-player-to-a-knuckleballer move did not pan out for Lance Niekro and ATL last year, even though he had knuckleballing in his genes).
Don’t forget Michael Thomas.
Also keep in mind that kenley and Jason were former catchers.
That’s how Percival started out too. It’s not a shock to see a lot of former catchers on the list (an “arm” position). I was surprised though to see that Marmol actually played more OF than C, as I had always heard only of him being a catcher.
Its also interesting how hard these guys throw and their K rates. Were not talking about these guys turning in to Jake westbrooks for example.
Owings for Dodgers LF :D
Owings would bat behind Adrian Gonzalez in San Diego.
I would love to see Owings on the Pirates.