RealGM

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 6:02 pm**

With the Jays lacking experienced starting pitching for 2010, are they giving any thought to using Tallet as a starter again?
-- Scott B., Thunder Bay, Ontario

Due to injuries and a lack of depth, Tallet made 25 starts for the Blue Jays last season. This spring, the lefty will likely enter camp as a reliever -- the role he's known for the bulk of his big league career. Should anything go wrong in the rotation, though, Toronto knows it has the flexibility to use the versatile Tallet as a spot starter. As things currently stand, it's unlikely that Tallet would be in the Opening Day rotation.

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/ar ... p&c_id=tor

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 6:11 pm**

I hope not. Rather have the young guys pitch.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 6:46 pm**

Won't happen unless it's a spot start or emergency start. Jays are in rebuild mode, so they'll need to throw the kids out there, unless they somehow all show they really aren't ready for the big show.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 6:50 pm**

No. /thread

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 7:09 pm**

starting to get into baseball again and was wondering if anyone knew the right stats to look at

guessing there are better ones now than 'era'

same for hitters. Is ops the best overall stat? what are the drawbacks, like maybe it favors power hitters or something

thanks in advance if anyone takes the time

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 7:20 pm**

I really hope not. I'm okay with him being an emergency or spot starter but I definitely don't want him in the rotation.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 7:28 pm**

Even if you have a solid rotation they say that every team should have at least 8 MLB quality starters ready on a moments notice due to injuries and ineffectiveness. And with all the injury prone starters and uncertain young guys on the Jays, we'll probably need at least 10 if not more.

So while I wouldn't expect to see Tallet in the rotation come April, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he got a few starts again this season.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 8:59 pm**

Tallet will probably handle long relief with Hayhurst or Zancola with the occasional emergency start if the starter goes down last minute. That's his role until Downs gets traded. Then, he'll be the situational lefty.

In other words, Tallet won't be a permanent starter next year. If any of Romero/Richmond/Rzep/Morrow/Cecil go down, there will be Purcey, Ray, Mills or Drabek next in line. Let's not forget Litsch, Marcum and McGowan are due back sometime in 2010 too.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 9:34 pm**

ansoncarter wrote:starting to get into baseball again and was wondering if anyone knew the right stats to look at

guessing there are better ones now than 'era'

same for hitters. Is ops the best overall stat? what are the drawbacks, like maybe it favors power hitters or something

thanks in advance if anyone takes the time

If you need a composite stat for pitchers, I recommend FIP. Nothing about pitching is that simple, but it attempts to tell the story of what pitcher would do with average fielders. Looking at stats like WHIP, K/9, BB/9 or HR/9 all together can also get you a good picture..

OPS has a problem where it basically favours avg over OBP. A single, counted through both obp and slg, gets double the weight of a walk in OPS, while the actual value of the difference is figured to be more like 1.2 times. Despite that, if you use OPS+ (found on baseball reference), it is still a really good stat. OPS+ normalizes for parks, and normalizes to league average. So a player with 100 OPS+ is a league average hitter, as long as he is in a league average park.

Runs created (found on fangraphs) is a really good measure for hitters, though kind of hard to understand/quickly interpret. RC+ is to runs created as OPS+ is to OPS.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 10:26 pm**

thanks M.E.

starting to get hooked again, mostly from the stats stuff. Thanks to the halladay trade and reading up on prospects from all the organizations (ours seem mostly meh. Plus the guys we got from halladay are sort of meh. Wish we'd forcussed on getting one amazing prospect instead of 3 good ones)

and reading up on our team, kind of surprised by Aaron Hills ops and ops plus. Thought he was an elite bat but he's kind of ordinary (compared to elite hitters, not other second baseman)

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 10:56 pm**

I'm kind of surprised that Tallet made it to 25 starts, and I'd be even more surprised if he got there again. Moreso than last year, this season is about giving ABs to the young arms to see what the team has. I think he'll be that sport starter type of guy along with Richmond, but considering how many young arms this team has, you could argue that every start one of those guys makes is a lost opportunity for player development.

Posted: **Wed Jan 6, 2010 11:37 pm**

ansoncarter wrote:thanks M.E.

starting to get hooked again, mostly from the stats stuff. Thanks to the halladay trade and reading up on prospects from all the organizations (ours seem mostly meh. Plus the guys we got from halladay are sort of meh. Wish we'd forcussed on getting one amazing prospect instead of 3 good ones)

and reading up on our team, kind of surprised by Aaron Hills ops and ops plus. Thought he was an elite bat but he's kind of ordinary (compared to elite hitters, not other second baseman)

Well there's your problem right there. Pedroia won the AL MVP in 2008 with a 122 OPS+. You can't compare the hitting of middle infielders with the hitting of people who field like Grimace would.

Posted: **Thu Jan 7, 2010 1:48 am**

I meant I thought his bat was elite regardless of position. I read about him in the papers last year and they made him sound like he was one of the best hitters in the league

and he was near tops in home runs in the american league whenever I looked at it, so figured he was a freak. But he just a freak for a 2nd baseman. Which is awesome but not truly freaky

Posted: **Thu Jan 7, 2010 3:29 am**

Ya, Hill is simply a very good 2nd base. His homers are likely a bit of an illusion, as he had the same total number of extra base hits two years back. Some of those will almost certainly go back to being doubles next year. He also doesn't walk quite as much as you would like. But he should continue to be a top six or eight 2b for the length of his contract. Given that 2b is probably the deepest position in the league right now, that's pretty good.

Posted: **Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:03 am**

Tallet is the perfect Middle Relief pitcher. (Well, for us)

Romero
Marcum
Litsch
Morrow
McGowan

Also, have Mills, Cecil ready to go incase something happens

Posted: **Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:35 am**

OldNo7 wrote:No. /thread

+1

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Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

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Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?

Re: Should Tallet be included in the starting rotation?