Greg Paulus To Syracuse?!?!?!

OH MY GOD. THAT IS AMAZING. Wait. Never mind.

Word out of ESPN is that he is 95 % going to Syracuse. I hesitate because how the heck is he 95 % sure of where he is going? Who out there is looking for a scoop and hedging their bets (Psssst, Joe Schad, stand up).

But seriously, this move wouldn't be bad at all for Syracuse. Paulus was the Gatorade National Player of the Year when he was at Christian Brothers Academy (Yep, in Syracuse) and he could be helpful to newly anointed starter (Redshirt Frosh Ryan Nassib). But, Cuse fans need to keep their expectations low, as Paulus hasn't played QB in 4 years. He would also be stepping into a situation where he has skill-position talent (Delone Carter and Antwon Bailey (The ND killer as he is more commonly referred to...) at RB and the return of the great Mike Williams to lead an underrated WR unit) to utilize, but the o-line isn't yet a D-1 caliber line. This line struggles to pass protect (ask poor Andrew Robinson) and while I like where the offense is at this stage (a lot of quick passes and screens to not have them protect long), Paulus will need to be in midseason form at the beginning of fall practice to compete for the job. Worst case, Paulus comes to Cuse and can't unseat starter Nassib. Best case, Paulus starts and leads us to a bowl game.

Here's hoping he does it and leads us to a bowl game.

Relief Pitcher Check

For those of you unaware, I am author of a long study evaluating the regression of relief pitchers (and for those of you that do know, it is growing, I am currenly adding specific pitch type and a completely redone disabled list database). Anyways, I identified my top 5 candidates for regression according to the evals and here they are with a quick stat check and my reasoning:

Luis Ayala: Posted 2nd highest Days of Rest score in his career in 2008 and has regressed each time he has posted a qualifying Days of Rest score.

8 Appearances, 1-1, 6.48 ERA. 13 H, 2 BB, 6 K, 8.1 IP

Dennys Reyes: The last time he was worked as hard as he was in 2008 was 2006. In 2007, he regressed greatly.

9 Appearances, 0-1, 3.18 ERA. 3 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 5.2 IP

Brad Lidge: Qualified under 4 criteria in 2008, as well as the 3-season Total IP for 2006-2008. The last time he qualified under these criteria (2006), he suffered regression the next year.

8 Appearances, 0-1, 8.22 ERA. 10 H, 3 BB, 9 K, 7.2 IP

Pedro Feliciano: Qualified under the Days or Rest criteria in 2007 and showed regression in 2008. For 2008, he qualified under 4 criteria, including an even greater number in the Days of Rest evaluator.

9 Appearances, 0-1, 4.76 ERA. 5 H, 2 BB, 8 K, 5.2 IP

John Grabow: Qualified for the +/- Pitches category in 2006 and regressed in 2007. In 2008, he has qualified for the +/- Pitches in addition to the +/- Inning category.

7 Appearances, 1-0, 0.00 ERA. 7 H, 3 BB, 8 K, 7.1 IP

Updates as actions warrant on these 5 pitchers.

Studs, Duds and The In-Between

With my job allowing me to watch hours and hours of baseball, I plan on relaying the studs, the duds and the in-betweens of players I have seen. I will start with what I recall from this week, but I plan on keeping you in tune with everything I have watched/done.

STUDS:
Rich Harden: Dude is still disgusting with his fastball, changeup, slider trifecta. If he stays healthy and is able to limit his pitch count to pitch deeper into games, he may contend for a Cy Young (way to go out on a limb there TK)

DUDS:
Micah Owings: I was watching the Reds broadcast of this game and the announcers were talking of how he was an off-speed pitch away from being a good major league pitcher. This left me thinking: What game are you watching? Owings is a drastically different pitcher from when he was drafted. Once able to sit in the high 90's, Owings has been reduced to a low 3/4 release RHP who sits in the high 80's. The problem? The control issues still linger. He appears to be trying to get by with a decent cutter, but I have live scored 2 of his starts this season and he is lucky to still be a Red. Look for him at a AAA ballpark near you soon.

Matt Harrison: This one-time top prospect has struggled recently. Forget the W-L records. He is a fringe average major league pitcher. With a fastball barely breaking 90 (and huge command issues to boot), his quality changeup can't get a chance to get started. Needs to start figuring something out before the likes of Holland (more on him below) and Feliz start passing him by.

IN-BETWEEN:
Derek Holland: Needless to say, I was psyched to be scoring the game where this highly touted prospect made his debut. After suffering through the likes of Matt Harrison, I was rewarded by this FLAME-throwing LHP. Holland came in and was pumping 97 mile per hour fastballs (according to MLB Gameday) like it was his job (b/c, well, it is). Very nice arm action and the dude actually had command to. But, while his fastball is definitely plus, this kid wasn't ready for the bigs (don't let the stats fool you). Holland threw only 3 breaking pitches (I thought 3 sliders, another thought 2 sliders and a change) and only one looked at least average (a sick slider to strike out Aaron Hill). Kid needs to develop his off-speed stuff, and if that happens, he will be a # 1 or # 2 starter. However, even without it, a LH that can throw 97 out of the pen tends to have a long career.

Dave Bush: Yes, I charted his near no hit game. No, he wasn't dominant. A pitcher with good fade to his 2-seam fastball that sits in the high 80's, he rarely is. He throws 5 pitches (and may I add, it is SO much fun to try and distinguish between his cut fastball and his slider) and seems to have pretty good command of them all. My issue was when he missed, he missed up. Ryan Howard could have had 2 bombs in the game, but hit loud fly outs to CF. Don't get too excited and think he has finally turned the corner. While Bush is one of those whose peripherals look like he should be much better, he is a comfortable # 3 starter who will be right around a 4.10-4.50 ERA.

Tonight is the Colorado-Dodgers game (my live score assignment) with an expected pitching matchup of finesse LHP Eric Stults and sinkerballing RHP Aaron Cook. My thoughts on them (and maybe even some hitters) when I return.

April Recollections

It has been a whirlwind first month on the job. For those of you who don't know and have stumbled here, I am a 22 year old working an internship in Coplay, PA for a company called Baseball Info Solutions. They provide a lot of different statistical analyses and all sorts of other stuff to major league teams, fantasy baseball websites and superfans that have millions of dollars (Yes, Rob Neyer is one of many clients of this company).

My main job is to score live baseball games as they occur (Oh, but this is ENHANCED scoring) and then chart games the next day.

The enhanced scoring lies on the principles of John Dewan's Fielding Bible, which is one of the many innovative things BIS (short-hand, get used to it) has come up with and is available at a store near you. We have 53 defensive misplays that can be assigned to a given play. These plays aren't errors, but they are, well, misplays. Everything from misplaying a ground ball, to losing a ball in the sun, to deferring to another player, to a bad throw, it's in there. But, because they are equal opportunity, we also have about 25 GFP's (Good Fielding Plays) that can also be assigned on any given play. These range from a diving play to get a guy out, diving to keep a ball in the infield to a great scoop and anything along those lines.

Any questions about the happenings at BIS? Let me know.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I have decided that I have nothing else to do and figured I would do a blog to keep everyone up-to-date on players I have watched and any happenings occurring in PA. This blog will talk about everything baseball that I feel is appropriate, as well as Syracuse stuff and maybe some personal stuff.

Who knows?