Yesterday we learned that the Yankees are still considering Kevin Millwood to help round out their rotation. The Bombers might feel compelled to boost their starting five, even after bringing Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon aboard recently. They could also afford the veteran’s $4-5MM price tag – something that other clubs are hesitant over.
The Indians have long been linked to Millwood but would prefer to bring someone in on a minor league deal. A $4-5MM deal would be too rich for their blood but as time passes one has to wonder if the right-hander’s camp might be willing to take less. The 36-year-old also hasn’t ruled out a return to Baltimore and MLBTR’s Ben Nicholson-Smith recently wrote that it would make sense for teams like the Royals, Rockies, and Mariners to join the fray.
SOX.. then they could trade DICE-K for sure
A healthy Dice-K will go a lot further than a healthy Millwood.
I liked Millwood in Baltimore. He started strong and ended strong. He was just injured and really bad in the middle.
But besides that he was a mentor to a few of the young pitchers. Matusz especially raved about what Millwood taught him.
I think FIP was kind to Lackey last year simply because the Green Monster was even kinder. His HR% went down last year but every other peripheral was worse. His B/9 and H/9 were an all-time high and his K/9 were the lowest since 2004. A few more of those doubles of the GM become HRS and his FIP balloons.
Former Brave, where else? Kansas City. Besides, they need someone who resembles an opening day starter.
Well you know WAR can’t be all that accurate if it lists Felix Hernandez behind Lee and Verlander last year. On Baseball-Refereneces WAR, Hernandez was 1st, where he belongs. I should start using B-R more than FanGraphs for WAR.
more valuable according to what stat? WAR?
We are all of course entitled to what stats we want to use, but if you don’t mind me giving my personal opinion of it, and I’m not saying you’re wrong of course, I find FIP almost as useless as W-L
To the guys defense, I don’t think he was saying that Garcia was better than Lackey. I think that what he was saying that Garcia wasn’t THAT much worse as a #5 options as Lackey was as a #3 option (Keep in mind that despite the results, Lackey was brought in to slot behind Lester and Beckett).
He probably would’ve been better served simply leaving Lackey’s name out of the conversation though.
As for Milwood, I honestly wouldn’t mind bim coming in but not on a guaranteed spot. I would rather commit to Nova (or another rookie like Noesi or Phelps) having a guaranteed (in-house thinking, not public declaration to the players), than to guarantee anything to Milwood.
CC, AJ, Hughes and open comp between the rookies + one of Milwood, Garcia, Colon. Yanks need to field a strong as possible rotation but we also need to start graduating and mixing in some of the young arms who’ve shown they have nothing to prove @ AAA anymore. We don’t have any glaring weeknesses, position wise, so either we use the prospects to acquire an elite or FOR arm or give them a chance, a little at a time.
Well to be fair to Lackey, that was his first full season as a part of an AL East club. It’s not an easy transition. Garcia will pitch well, but as a back end guy pitching well is a 4-4.5 ERA.
So you agree with FanGraphs WAR and say that Lee and Verlander were better than Felix last year? Okay.
Isn’t TZ a stat for fielders?
So you’re saying Lee should have won the AL Cy Young and Verlander should have came in 2nd? lol
Verlander beat Felix in nothing. (unless you’re a huge fan of W-L lol)
Felix
IP- 249.2 (led league)
ERA- 2.27 (led league)
K- 232
WHIP- 1.06
Verlander
IP- 224.3
ERA- 3.37
K- 219
WHIP- 1.16
Sorry but Felix 2010 > Verlander 2010
Well, he has the ability to mix his pitches. I think he’ll be an effective piece for the Yanks all season.
Based on what? He seemed perfectly healthy last year.
HR/9 they both had 0.6
K/9 was 8.8 to 8.4 for Verlander
Why not look at BB/9 while you are at it? 2.5 to 2.8 for Felix
K/BB- 3.31 to 3.08 Felix
Dude, you are not going to win this at all.
The argument was who had a better year and was more valuable. I’ve provided multiple stats to show why Felix is. You’ve only showed me K/9 and HR/9 (which are equal at 0.6, although I don’t know the exact decimal point of it)
What’s wrong with using ERA by the way?
Because it doesn’t “penalize” a pitcher for allowing hits he gives up except HR’s. Is a pither responsible for all hits he gives up? Of course not, but if you want to use K’s and BB’s as key stats which is what FIP does, I can assure you not all K and BB’s are created equal especially with some of the worst umpiring we’ve had in years.
Actually, it looks like he was using Lackey as more of a direct comparison, basically stating that Garcia really wasn’t any worse than Lackey last year (Rotation spot aside), which is untrue.
Forgive me on the “nothing” part, but you still have yet to tell me YOUR case on why Verlander > Felix.
And tell me why, without using WAR.
B-R WAR shows Felix led the league. Why should I exclude that and use FanGraphs?
“When looked at closely, he actually pitched fairly similar to John Lackey of the Red Sox but for (of course) far less $”
I could be wrong, but I saw it as more of a comparison as to $$$$$$ vs production.
Either way, Gacia would be looked at as a #5 starter and the expectations are obviously much lower. If he can deliver 150 IP and a FIP around 4.50 then he would be considered to be effective. Now, AJ on the other hand, needs to deliver far better than that because of what he’s getting paid and what’s was expected of him.
So in your opinion, the pitchers with the most strikeouts and fewer walks are the best pitchers in baseball?
I have no idea what rWAR is by the way.
But FIP really does ignore a lot. Especially in a park like Fenway where HRS turn into doubles and parks like Petco where HRS turn into long flyballs.
((13*HR)+(3*(BB+HBP-IBB))-(2*K))/IP + constant
I think that logic suggests that you take any stat w/ a grain of salt.
I’m not arguing Lackey’s effectiveness, although I think Fenway’s GM kept a lot of HRS in the park for him, thus aiding his rather low FIP.
I wouldn’t say that Garcia “barely passed” as a #5. It’s a small sample size but he did farely well vs AL East teams in 2010 and he pitched in the worst park for a flyball pitcher last year. Factor in that he was recovering from a major injury and it’s not unreasonable to think he might match or exceed what he did last year.
18 qualtiy starts (6 IP, 3 runs or less) out of 28 is pretty good for a #5 guy earning nothing.
I know. Spent the better part of this winter trying to forget. Thanks for nothing.
Right and when you factor in that his home park was rated the worst for pitchers (by HR/G rate) in 2010 then it stands that there shouldn’t be a huge difference on his HR/FB rate. He will face better hitters in the AL East but I don’t think it will effect his FIP tremendously. I also think the Yanks have a better OF defense than the White Sox had as well.
Gardner @ 22.3 UZR vs Pierre @ 13.4 UZR
Grandy @ 5.3 UZR vs Rios @ 3.3 UZR
Swisher @ -1.4 UZR vs Quentin @ -22.9
Also, think the Yanks are better in the IF except for SS.