{"id":221,"date":"2011-02-14T10:42:22","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T15:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2011-02-14T10:42:22","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T15:42:22","slug":"syracuse-2010-pitching-season-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"Syracuse 2010 Pitching season in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the first in a series of articles reviewing the 2010 Nationals minor league affiliate pitching staffs.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll post one a day for each of our levels starting with AAA and moving downwards.<\/p>\n<p>AAA baseball rosters are unique among the affiliate teams.\u00a0 By and large AAA rosters are not filled with a team&#8217;s burgeoning drafted talents; instead, AAA rosters are often storage lockers for &#8220;spare parts&#8221; for the major league roster (backup catchers, utility infielders).\u00a0 Even more so, the AAA roster (in terms of pitchers) usually contains the last few guys cut from the MLB roster and\/or relievers who couldn&#8217;t make the grade in the majors.\u00a0 Certainly Syracuse&#8217;s pitching staff fits this bill, and had a ton of player movement (up and down) during the season.\u00a0 Lets talk about where we landed at the end of the season:<\/p>\n<p>(age is as of 12\/31\/10)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>AAA Starters by Performance<\/strong>: Chico 27, Arneson 26, Kown 28, Martis 23, Mock 27<\/li>\n<li>(<strong>rotation order<\/strong>: Chico, Martis, Arneson, Mock, Kown)<\/li>\n<li><strong>bullpen<\/strong>: Bergmann, Wilkie, Severino, Balester, Carr, Bisenius<\/li>\n<li><strong>spot starts<\/strong>: Mandel (demoted from starter)<\/li>\n<li><strong>promotions<\/strong>: Olsen, Slaten, Storen, JDMartin, Peralta<\/li>\n<li><strong>9\/1 callups:<\/strong> Balester, Maya, Bisenius<\/li>\n<li><strong>up-and-back:<\/strong> Bergmann, Chico (from AA), Stammen (and back), Atilano (and back), Severino, Balester<\/li>\n<li><strong>demotions<\/strong>: Spradlin, Zinicola, CJames, Kown (and back), MacDougal (and back), JJones, Garate<\/li>\n<li><strong>dl<\/strong>: English<\/li>\n<li><strong>cut\/released<\/strong>: MacDougal, Villone, ABrown<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Starter Review<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shairon Martis <\/strong>was the only rotational guy to spend the entire season in  AAA, having lost out on the 5-man battle for the big club in spring  training.\u00a0 <strong>Chico <\/strong>came up after a few AA starts and got one spot start in the majors but was never seriously considered for either the rotation out of 2010 spring.\u00a0 <strong>Arneson <\/strong>came up after some impressive AA performances and slotted into the AAA rotation nicely.\u00a0 <strong>Kown <\/strong>spent the season going up and down from AA to AAA and looked halfway decent in 11 starts for AAA.\u00a0 Lastly <strong>Mock <\/strong>just returned from the DL and made a couple of starts for Syracuse late in the season, replacing the spot that was occupied by <strong>Zimmermann <\/strong>on rehab and <strong>Maya <\/strong>on &#8220;extended spring training.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Among those who didn&#8217;t end the season in the rotation but who gave Syracuse a number of starts: <strong>Mandel<\/strong> was put into the bullpen to aid in his conversion to a reliever, as has been done this year already with the likes of <strong>Stammen<\/strong>, <strong>Balester <\/strong>and other organizational arms.\u00a0 Syracuse had no less than 23 guys make starts, a fantastically high number.<\/p>\n<p>2011 Outlook for the 5 starters at the end (in order of 2010 performance).\u00a0 All #s listed are for this level only.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Matt Chico<\/strong>: 6-7, 3.73 era, 1.33 whip, 69\/34 k\/bb in 115 innings.\u00a0 (he also made 5 similarly run of the mill starts in AA before getting moved up).\u00a0 He&#8217;s still coming back from surgery technically, but a full season with mediocre minor league numbers combined with his advancing age (he&#8217;s 27 now) makes his prospects of ever contributing at the major league level slim.\u00a0 He did feature nicely in his spot start this year and he did have a halfway decent 2007 season before getting hurt, but Baseball is a results oriented business and his aren&#8217;t cutting it.\u00a0 <strong>2011 destination<\/strong>: Still in the AAA rotation but only because he&#8217;s a lefty.\u00a0 He has already been removed from the 40-man roster.\u00a0 He may lose out a rotation spot to one of the up and coming guys and languish as a middle reliever until cut loose as a minor league free agent.\u00a0 His time as a prospect is probably over.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Erik Arneson<\/strong>: 6-8, 3.95 era, 1.29 whip, 70\/31 k\/bb in 107 innings.\u00a0 Arneson also had 13 appearances in AA before getting moved up.\u00a0 Arneson&#8217;s numbers in AAA were just about identical to Chico&#8217;s.\u00a0 Arneson&#8217;s problem is that he&#8217;s not a overpowering guy; 70ks in 107 innings against weak AAA competition is not what the team is looking for.\u00a0 He&#8217;s 26 this year and will turn 27 during spring training next year, putting him as already being &#8220;old&#8221; for the level.\u00a0 He&#8217;s already survived one rule5 draft, which officially makes him an organizational player.\u00a0 <strong>2011 destination<\/strong>: AAA rotation or moved to the bullpen.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Arneson, he&#8217;s not really a prospect anymore, he&#8217;s not a candidate to compete for the 2011 MLB bullpen (right handed harder throwers with more MLB-ready stuff like Balester and Mock make more sense) and there&#8217;s starters in AA that need to move up.\u00a0 His status may depend on the 2011 major league rotational battle, and whether or not guys like Stammen and Mock continue to be starters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Andrew Kown<\/strong>: 2-4, 3.48 era, 1.34 whip, 41\/16 k\/bb in 62 innings thrown mostly in AAA starts (11 starts in 15 appearances).\u00a0 Kown also had 15 starts in AA Harrisburg putting up similar ERA and k\/9 numbers.\u00a0 <strong>2011 destination<\/strong>: cut or released from the Nats organization.\u00a0 Kown is right handed, turned 28 already and spent half the year in AA.\u00a0  There&#8217;s just not going to be enough room on the AAA roster next year to  keep a non-overpowering right hander around.\u00a0 Plus he&#8217;s a minor league free agent and unlikely to be re-signed with a bunch of AA arms coming up.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shairon Martis<\/strong>: 8-7, 4.09 era, 1.42 whip, 99\/60 k\/bb in 152 innings.\u00a0 After making the 2009 rotation out of spring training, Martis apparently showed up at 2010&#8217;s spring training out of shape and he never really got considered for the rotation.\u00a0 He labored in AAA all year and never really was in the mix for a call up.\u00a0 <strong>2011 destination<\/strong>: he&#8217;s already been DFA&#8217;d from the roster, the team apparently deciding that they had seen enough of Shairon in his 5 years here.\u00a0 It is possible he stays with the team and tries to earn his way back into the mix.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Garrett Mock<\/strong>: 1-1, 4.09 era, 1.27 whip in abbreviated AAA stint.\u00a0 Mock was quickly demoted after a horrific MLB start (he pitched 3 1\/3 innings, walked 5 guys and let another 4 get on base).\u00a0 Soon after he was diagnosed with an odd neck injury (odd for baseball players), which cost him the season.\u00a0 Luckily for the team it also saved them on Mock&#8217;s last option, so he will live on in the organization.\u00a0 He has always had a live arm, and guys who throw mid 90s get chance after chance.\u00a0 <strong>2011 outlook<\/strong>: Mock&#8217;s LAST chance to make the team as a reliever is probably 2011.\u00a0 If he doesn&#8217;t stick this year, he&#8217;s out of options and will have to pass through waivers in 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the first in a series of articles reviewing the 2010 Nationals minor league affiliate pitching staffs.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll post one a day for each of our levels starting with AAA and moving downwards. AAA baseball rosters are unique among the affiliate teams.\u00a0 By and large AAA rosters are not filled with a team&#8217;s burgeoning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minorspitching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}