MLBRT 1/18/2023

The questions and discussion…  

1) According to a report on CBSSPorts.com the San Francisco Giants and and free-agent pitcher Jordan Hicks have agreed to terms on a four-year contract worth $44 million. The hard throwing right-hander has been used mostly as out of the bullpen during his MLB career but CBSSports is reporting that the Giants intend to use Hicks as a starting pitcher. 

What are your thoughts on these moves… the signing, contact and the intention to use Hicks as a starter… by the Giants? Why?

During his career Hicks has been mostly used in relief with just 8 of the times he has appeared in games being as a starter… that is just 8 times he has started a game out of the 212 times he has appeared in a MLB ballgame. And all 8 of those starts came in 2022… and all prior to July of that year. So he has hasn’t even sniffed being a starter in way over a year.

Now according to what I am hearing/reading Hicks has modified his pitch repertoire from just throwing 100 mph sinking fastballs with an occasional slider to other secondary pitches including a four-seam heater and another pitch called a sweeper which I’m guessing is much like curve ball of some sort and he only uses it sparingly.

Which more or less gives him three main pitches to throw in his arsenal as a starter but in reality he will be basically be a two-pitch starter. In my opinion that isn’t enough change in his pitch selection to believe he can be a starter that goes more than two or three innings before batters figure him out, get their timing down and start clocking those pitches around the ballpark and probably out of the park.

I’ve also read that he has refined his control of his pitches and while that may be true unless he has turned into an ace command-and-control artist similar to someone like Greg Maddux or even a pitcher like Andy Pettitte… which I’m willing to bet he isn’t even close to becoming… that also is not enough to make me believe he will thrive as a starter.  

In my view the Giants might audition him as a starter in spring training camp but in the end will wind up relegating him back to the bullpen where he belongs.  

2) According to a New York news report the Yankees and free agent pitcher Marcus Stroman have agreed to a two-year contract with an option for a third year worth $18.5 million per season.

What is your opinion of this deal by the Yankees? How far does it go in fixing  their rotation which was, outside of Gerrit Cole, a significant weakness for the Yankees in 2023? Why?  

Stroman has had healthy seasons. But being real… not all that many. In fact over his nine MLB seasons he has surpassed 200 innings twice (2016 and 2017) and had two seasons where he surpassed 179 innings (2019 and 2021). Meaning half of his big league seasons have been filled with IL visits.

And his recent history shows that in 2022 a shoulder issue limited him to 138⅔ innings and in 2023 issues with his hip and then a rib allowed him to pitch only 136⅔ innings. For teams that have at least an average rotation and need just some middle to backend starters almost 140 innings might be good enough, but the Yankees rotation needs a lot more than just fillers for their starting rotation. And to be honest the problem with the Yankees starters is that it is filled with guys who have had major injury question marks and either can’t pitch through an entire season or miss the season entirely.

Stroman is just more of the same old same old with the Yankees signing starters and they still need to go out and either sign a pitcher like Jordan Montgomery or trade for Dylan Cease or their rotation will be full of holes like Swiss cheese.  

3) This is Gary Sheffield’s 10th and final try to be voted into the Hall of Fame  by the baseball writers. He got 55% of the vote last season and needs to jump all the way to 75% this time around in order to gain induction into the Hall, otherwise he falls off the ballot moving forward. History indicates his chance of being elected are not promising.

If you had a vote would you cast it to elect Sheffield into the Hall? Why or why not?

In his 22 years in MLB Sheffield compiled a slash line of .292/.393/.514 with 467 doubles, 509 HRs, 1,676 RBIs, 1,636 runs and 1,475 while never  striking out more than 79 times in any year he had more than 550 Plate appearances. He’s one of just 23 players in history to top 1,600 in both RBI and runs. 

Those are Hall of Fame worthy numbers and to me he should have been elected a long time ago.

He was named in the Mitchell Report as a player who used steroids, though he’s long publicly disputed the claim. And since the game introduced testing he never tested positive.

In my opinion that’s not enough to keep him out of the Hall but I think in this his last year on the ballot it will be enough for a number of voters and winds up keeping him from his deserved place in Cooperstown.         

4: This is closer Billy Wagner’s 9^th year on the Hall of Fame ballot…

Is this the year he makes into the Hall? Why or why not?

Wagner is 6^th in career saves (422), in addition he had a strikeout to walk rate of 11.9 and a career WHIP of .998 and an ERA of 2.31.

His WHIP is better than the greatest closer of all-time in Mariano Rivera.

And his ERA is just .10 points higher than Mariano’s… 2.31 to 2.21.

What more does he need to show to the voters that he belongs in the Hall?

5) Former Yankee Andy Pettitte won 256 regular season games and has five World Series rings yet has never garnered much attention by the baseball writers to be selected for a plaque in Cooperstown. The most votes he ever got was the 17% he received in last year’s balloting.

What is your best guess as to why that is the case?

Pettitte’s numbers are as border line as ever for a player trying to get into the Hall. His career 256 wins total is a decent amount and better than more than few Hall of Fame pitchers, but his career WHIP (1.35) and ERA (3.85) aren’t the greatest. And he was never a big strikeout pitcher, but he did compile 2,448 punch outs during his career which is also better than more than a few Hall of Famer’s.

The biggest bug-a-boo however is his admitted use of HGH… twice in 2002 and once more in 2004 to what he said was to recover from injuries.

If I had a vote he might be the tenth guy on my ballot in a thin year.

Extra Innings…