Post#493 » by youreachiteach » Wed Apr 18, 2012 3:15 am
I think that jannsen, although very efficient and generally trustworthy, is a very fringy pitcher. He really has no outpitch, which is why he was relegated to the pen in the first place after blowing through the minors much as Hutchison has.
He would go to 3-2 on half the batters and even if he succeeded in getting himself out of those jams, his pitch count would be astronomical by the fifth and he'd be tired and couldn't throw the ball any more inside or he'd hit the batter.
So, the Jays put him in the pen so he could conserve his energy and hump up on his fastball. It has been effective; as Jannsen is a pitcher who tries to frame strikes and stay on the outer third or crow hitters on the inside. The problem is, even with the increased velocity, jannsen doesn't have closer stuff, and never has. What he does have is a variety of pitches he can go to and often executed quite nicely.
When he is off, which happens from time to time, he leaves pitches up and can give up homers and doubles a bit too often. This is why Farrel is reluctant to use him in high leverage situations in the eighth and ninth where the best hitters are often mounting their best comeback, hitters who can lay off jannsen's borderline pitches and make him pay if he gets in trouble. To be fair to Casey, it's usually obvious early on whether he "has it" or not, but if that is going to be a semi-usual occurrence, why put him out there against elite hitting in the first place?
Is he better than Cordero? No. And the reason is his experience in dealing with higher caliber hitters over an extended period. As you've seen, he is more an alternate closer than Casey, who has to work so fine to get his outs.
I am very aware of casey's consistency, and I know that makes him a reliable option--but I wonder what his average would be later than the seventh vs. the top of the order vs. Cordero. That would probably solve this quesiton for me (if Jannsen has better numbers, fair enough).
