{"id":2959,"date":"2011-11-10T10:11:34","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T15:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2011-11-10T10:11:34","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T15:11:34","slug":"looking-at-our-minor-league-free-agent-pitchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2959","title":{"rendered":"Looking at our Minor League Free Agent Pitchers.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2971\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2971\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2971\" title=\"martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_-1024x791.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/martinJD_natsnewsnetwork.blogspot.com_.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2971\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is this the end of the road for JD Martin in a Nats uniform?  Photo via Nats news Network<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m a bit late to this topic; Work has amped up lately and it squeezes what little free time I have in the evenings to do stuff like this.\u00a0 So sorry if it feels dated.<\/p>\n<p>MLB <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/blog\/prospects\/2011\/11\/minor-league-free-agents-2011\/\">declared hundreds of minor league free agents<\/a> on 11\/4\/11, 5 days after the end of the World Series.\u00a0 The Baseball America link here has a more complete description of how a player arrives at minor league free agency, but generally speaking it happens one of two ways: either a team has kept one of its own drafted players for 6+ years but he isn&#8217;t on the 40-man, or the team signed a minor league free agent last off season and has chosen (as of yet) not to renew his contract or to add him to the 40-man.\u00a0 From the BA article, here&#8217;s our FA pitchers:<\/p>\n<p><strong>RHP: <\/strong>Luis Atilano (AA), Jimmy Barthmaier  (AA), Sam Brown (Lo A), J.D. Martin (AAA), Carlos Martinez (AA), Shairon  Martis (AA), Garrett Mock (AAA)<br \/>\n<strong>LHP: <\/strong>Oliver Perez (AA)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dcisforbaseball.blogspot.com\/2011\/11\/ranking-nats-minor-league-free-agent.html\">Sean Hogan<\/a> did a nice statistical review\/write up on this same topic earlier, posting his ranks of these FAs.\u00a0 Below is mostly cut-n-pasted from the season summary articles I did for each level, addressing each FA.\u00a0 Most of these write-ups did not factor in eligibility for ML free agency at the time and assumed (from a prediction stand point) that the team would be considering their future for 2012.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll add in a FA prediction as well.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>JD Martin<\/strong>: Outrighted before the season and then signed a  minor-league deal, Martin was AAA&#8217;s long man\/spot starter.\u00a0 He ended up  with 14 starts and pedestrian numbers on the season: 3-7, 3.93 era in 30  appearances.\u00a0 His fate was sealed in January when he was outrighted and  nobody else sniffed; he&#8217;s a soft-throwing righty who is a good AAA  pitcher until his spot is needed.\u00a0\u00a0 <em><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Outlook for next season<\/span>:<\/strong> <\/em>he could be back in the same role he was in this year, unless a numbers game forces his release.\u00a0 But the franchise seems to like Martin and he pitched well all year.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to see Martin sign with another team, given our current depth of pitching at the MLB level.\u00a0 He&#8217;s clearly not going to get another shot at the major leagues with our team.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Garrett Mock<\/strong>: started strong in AAA, then had two incredibly bad outings  and went on the DL.\u00a0 His rehab travels around the low minors became  some what of a joke, but when he returned he failed to impress, and was  DFA&#8217;d in early September to make way for 9\/1 call-ups to the majors.\u00a0  Final AAA line: 0-3, 6.28 era, 1.67 whip, 32\/24 k\/bb in 28 innings.\u00a0 His  <a href=\"http:\/\/web.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?pos=P&amp;sid=t552&amp;t=p_pbp&amp;pid=452241\">stats at all levels<\/a> are worse.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong><em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em>: <\/strong><\/em><\/span>There  are plenty of people (including me, loudly) who openly questioned why Mock occupied a 40-man  spot for so long.\u00a0 His long awaited removal should indicate the end of his future with the Nats franchise.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em><\/span>:\u00a0 I&#8217;m guessing he picks up with another team and tries  to start fresh with a new organization for 2012.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Luis Atilano<\/strong> only got 2 starts in AA and was hammered before hitting  the DL, where he remained the rest of the season.\u00a0 He&#8217;s 26 this year  and was DFA&#8217;d, cleared waivers and accepted his assignment, indicating  that he&#8217;s probably not in the future plans of the team.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: I&#8217;m guessing he&#8217;s given his release and will be a minor league free agent.\u00a0 <em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction:<\/strong><\/em> he&#8217;ll play elsewhere in 2012.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shairon Martis<\/strong> is an interesting case; he was in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/martish01.shtml\">Nats starting rotation<\/a> in 2009, and by the spring of 2011 he had successfully passed through  waivers and was on our AA squad despite only being 24.\u00a0 Not  surprisingly, he did well, posting a 8-6 record, a 3.05 era, a 1.22  whip, had 146\/39 k\/bb in 133 ip and threw a 7-inning no-hitter.\u00a0 And  this all proved, what exactly?\u00a0 As I said over and again during the  season&#8217;s rotation reviews, Martis getting out AA hitters with ease shows  us nothing that we didn&#8217;t already know.\u00a0 We need to see him at least at  the AAA level to see if he&#8217;s ever going to be the pitcher that showed  so much promise when he was promoted to the majors in 2008 as a 21-yr  old.\u00a0 There was word\/rumors during spring training that the team wasn&#8217;t  pleased with his conditioning or his work efforts, perhaps contributing  to his being essentially in the franchise &#8220;doghouse.&#8221; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em><\/span>:  He should be in at least a AAA rotation, but I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if he was  stuck in extended spring training by virtue of a numbers issue if he stayed.\u00a0 We have a lot of starters at the upper levels of our system and he would be, at best, the #5 starter in AAA.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: He&#8217;d be crazy to resign with this team; his lack of a promotion even to AAA signaled the end of his future here.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Oliver Perez<\/strong> was picked up in a relatively high-profile signing after he was unceremoniously released (with <a href=\"http:\/\/mlbcontracts.blogspot.com\/2004\/12\/new-york-mets.html\">$12M still owed<\/a> on his 2011 contract) by the Mets, who had tired of his poor  performances on the mound.\u00a0 The Nats, surprisingly in my opinion,  installed him as a starter in AA and left him there the entire season.\u00a0\u00a0  Outside of a quick DL stint he mostly pitched decently, posting a 3-5  record in 15 starts, with a 3.09 Era and a 1.39 whip.\u00a0 But, as with  Martis above, what exactly did we learn from this?\u00a0 An experienced MLB  veteran *should* be getting AA guys out with regularity.\u00a0 With the  troubles the team had with their loogy (see <strong>Slaten, Doug<\/strong>&#8216;s  inherited runners and WHIP rate on the season), I&#8217;m surprised they  didn&#8217;t try to feature Perez as a lefty out of the bullpen.\u00a0 Now, with  the season over I suppose the team has learned that Perez is now just a  mediocre AA starter.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: In my opinion Perez needs to realize he&#8217;s no longer a starter and embrace the Loogy role to continue his career.\u00a0 Will he do it?\u00a0 Ego is a difficult thing for a former successful starter.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em><\/span>:  Perez probably goes elsewhere to continue his career  on a minor league deal, looking to regain a starting job somewhere in  the MLB.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jimmy Barthmaier<\/strong> got a couple spot starts but worked mostly out of the bullpen, sporting a high ERA but good k\/9 rates.\u00a0 Same for journeyman <strong>Carlos Martinez<\/strong>, albeit without the good K\/9 rates.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em><\/span>:  Barthmaier and Martinez are org guys and may or may not return.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: looking for work elsewhere, as we have a slew of reliever-arms percolating up from the A-ball ranks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sean<\/strong><strong> Brown<\/strong> sported an ERA at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minorleaguebaseball.com\/milb\/stats\/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&amp;did=milb&amp;cid=563\">5.00 level<\/a> in Low-A.\u00a0 That&#8217;s about as much as you need to know.\u00a0 <em><strong>Outlook for next season<\/strong><\/em>: A 6-year ML FA unsuccessful in Low-A is looking at either retirement or indy ball.\u00a0 <em><strong>ML Free Agency Prediction<\/strong><\/em>: looking at the independent leagues to continue his career.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Summary<\/strong>: I&#8217;d be surprised if ANY of these guys re-signed with the team.\u00a0 Perhaps Martin and Martis are the most &#8220;desirable&#8221; arms to pursue (if the Nats pursue any of them), but both players have to see that they&#8217;re not in the team&#8217;s plans any longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a bit late to this topic; Work has amped up lately and it squeezes what little free time I have in the evenings to do stuff like this.\u00a0 So sorry if it feels dated. MLB declared hundreds of minor league free agents on 11\/4\/11, 5 days after the end of the World Series.\u00a0 The [&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":[71,80,90,99,82,74,78,375,76],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minorspitching","tag-carlos-martinez","tag-doug-slaten","tag-garrett-mock","tag-jd-martin","tag-jimmy-barthmaier","tag-luis-atilano","tag-oliver-perez","tag-sam-brown","tag-shairon-martis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","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=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}