Now, Blevins has thrown off a mound a half-dozen times since being cleared to do so, including Tuesday at the team’s spring-training complex. The forearm has responded well.
“There’s always curiosity,” Blevins said. “Something is new. I’ve got metal latched to bone in my arm. So there was definitely a bit of apprehension. But there’s only one way to find out how it’s going to be. And that’s to start throwing. Knock on wood, it’s been great so far. I haven’t had any issues. It feels really good now.”
Source: Adam Rubin, ESPN.com
Click on the link to see how an Apple product and a girl were responsible for his second injury.
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Even if he cant get through an airport with all that metal in his forearm, his getting through situational lefties in the 7th and 8th inning is a key for 2016.
You are just trying to make Brian crazy, aren’t you? That’s his button you are pushing.
You would think that just going through a successful season where we didn’t have one of those “life-saving” LOOGYs would convince people they are nothing more than fool’s gold…
I guess LOOGYs are like drugs. People think that you need them to survive. Then they realize they don’t actually help, get clean for a bit but then idiocy kicks in and they relapse.
I think there’s a difference between Terryball (all players have normal platoon splits, and all should be sacrificed to gain a platoon advantage), and having a good specialist, who is very, very good at his specialty. Blevins is the latter
In his career, Blevins has limited LHB to a .579 OPS. Meanwhile, Scott Rice limited LHB to a .536 OPS. Shoot, Eric O’Flaherty (it’s a new year and he’s no longer on the team, so I guess I’m allowed to use his name now) has limited LHB to a .549 OPS in his career.
If guys you can pick up off the waiver wire are better than Blevins in facing lefties — is he really very, very good at his specialty?
I think here is where we cue the violins and start evoking Matt den Dekker’s really, really good six weeks.
Scott Rice isn’t healthy and O’Flats failed the audition spectacularly and Edgin has never stayed healthy for a full season.
I see Blevins as an asset though I’d prefer that they got away from
the strict “one out guy” usage pattern. Alderson & Collins love their Lefties and Harper scares them silly.
I hate the expression “it is what it is,” but in this case …
No, but thanks for putting words in my mouth.
We just need to be honest about what Blevins brings to the table. He’s very good at retiring LHB. As most LH relieves are. The myth is that it’s a rare skill but the reality is that just about every LH reliever has it. If I listed the guys who pitched in 2015 with as good or better career numbers than Blevins with the platoon advantage, there would be more than one guy on the list who would make fans go, “Who’s that?” The point in bringing up Rice’s name is that he’s a guy who never pitched in the majors before the Mets gave him a chance and he was really good at retiring LHB. Much better than Blevins. Guys who can hit 40 HR in a season in the majors are rare. LH relievers who can retire one or two lefty batters in an appearance simply are not.
The problem is that Collins got Rice the platoon advantage 65% of the time – an incredibly high number – and he still wasn’t worth carrying on the roster because he was so bad against RHB. You’ve got to get those guys up to Randy Choate level of appearances versus lefties to make it pay off. But then you have to ask yourself if it’s worth carrying a reliever all year who can only pitch 30-something innings. In the last five years, Choate’s high in innings was 38.2 and that year he appeared in 80 games. Last year, on the roster all season, he appeared in 71 games and had 27.1 IP.
Blevins has displayed an ability to get RHB out. In four of the seven seasons where he pitched more than a handful of games, he held righties to an OPS below .700 and lifetime he has a .728 OPS against them. The question is why hasn’t he been allowed to face more of them? It’s no different than Bastardo. The problem is the people who have blind fealty to the role. You can shrug it off but I’m going to keep saying how the emperor has no clothes.
James, you are killing me.
If you can hold Guys to a 550 OPS, I.m not picky about where you get them…Brian, you devalued Blevins based on the fact that guys who used to be “useable” are now FA’s???
I like a Loogy when he’s actually a Loogy! Blevins 2014 has him used versus equal numbers of Batters…. 800 plus OPS to RH, 419 OPS to Lefties.
7 appearances in 2015—all RHB…a short menu and a short opportunity for use. It was all early season, so it may have evened out. I wouldn’t necessarily evaluate him on 2015.
He’s a useable guy.
I sincerely hope you wouldn’t evaluate anyone on 15 PA.
Brian……His 2014 useage: RH batters did hit him a 800++ OPS….so maybe your point would be valid???? Then again….if he replicates the 419 OPS that lefties Bowled against him, that would make him an actual, valuable Loogy.
Why are you looking at just one year? In 2013 he had a ..581 OPS versus RHB in his largest one-year sample. For his career, he has a .728 OPS against righties. Ya know, that’s not bad. He’d be a slightly better than average reliever without this over-the-top micromanaging. Instead they’ll look to load up on lefties, artificially restrict his innings and make other relievers pick up the slack.
Based on 7 outings in Spring…when relievers are laying around sucking for innings—do you assume that Collins Usage would be so LH oriented. Admittedly–it was…but that’s also a single season focus—and a 7 appearance season at that.
Is Collins statistically more prone to Loggy-Hood?—or is he just the devil we know??
I’m sure it’s on orders from above but yes, this version of the Mets believes whole-heartedly in the concept. I mean, they tried to create a LOOGY out of Alex Torres, despite all evidence to the contrary. For every Gilmartin who wasn’t a LOOGY, we’ve had seven or eight who were.