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Word has it that he’s being called up
to start against the Pirates tomorrow. He could be an internal dark horse for the 2024 rotation.Drew deserves his own thread.
Word on the street is that even Chuck Norris doesn’t want to hit against him.
I guess we need to see how Rom does Monday. He was OKish but not especially great over 18 AAA starts for BAL this season. He got hit around pretty good a walked a few, leading to an elevated WHIP (1.698), but he did strike out a bunch, which I’m sure was the draw. Usually a guy who gets hit around in AAA will get hit around even more in MLB. He has looked good in two AAA starts for us, so maybe he suddenly figured it all out.
If he looks OK Monday, then we have to see if he assumes a slot in the rotation in place of somebody, or if it was one and done. We should get an idea of whether he is much of a dark horse by how he is used the rest of this year.
I’d leave Rom the heck alone while he seems to be having a meaningful breakthrough in Triple-A, but that’s just me I guess.
At any rate, to put Drew Rom into some sort of objective statistical context, these are the Davenport Peak projections for the better Redbird pitching prospects. The numbers below represent the halfway point between their projected ERAs and FIPs during the best stretch of their MLB careers.
Rajcic 3.40
Graceffo 3.49
Tink 3.68
McG 3.99
Bedell 3.99
Hansen 4.09
Mautz 4.12
Rom 4.23
Paniagua 4.37
Robberse 4.39
Roby 4.43That’s 11 under 4.50. For a bit of further context, the cubs have eight such pitching prospects in their system. Under 4.25, Cards eight and cubs six. Under 4.00, cubs have three to our five. And finally, Chicago has none under 3.75, despite allegedly having two of the top dozen pitching prospects in all of baseball according to the
expertsincompetents at Fangraphs.Bob Reed, that is a lot of work, wow. I can remember when Clay Davenport was the leading edge of Sabermetrics. What, maybe 20 years ago. Amazing stuff. For a while, several years back, I was trying to use his stuff to look at how he was projecting prospects to look defensively at MLB peak, mainly because he was the only one trying to do that in a data based way. But I eventually gave up, mainly because my eyes cross after looking at those speadsheets of his for more than 60 seconds. Recently, I did look into what he projects Jordan Walker’s peak RF defense to look like. I think it was something like -5, so pretty bad.
Bob Reed, I know you have long been a fan of Clay and his DTs and whatnot. Some years back you posted on this site a list of prospects with the higherst Davenport SLG peak projections. Several Cardinals prospects were on it, so I saved it for future reference, and then forgot about it. And guess what, I just recently came upon it on a dusty thumb drive while I was looking for some Photos from an old article I had done years ago that Brian was wanting.
As is always the case with that sort of thing, there were hits and misses, Gorman a it, Malcom Nunez a miss. I personally think Mo sleeps with a bale of Davenport spreadsheets for a pillow. I wonder if the other deadline acquisitions are favorably projected according to Clay? Probably.
With the above in mind, Rom’s call up does seem a little odd.
It must have to do with player control / service time and 40 man roster spots.
Whenever a move / non-move looks strange this has usually come into play.
Can anyone summarize why this call up is odd/strange? The Cards need a starter today because Liberatore cannot go. Rom is already on the 40-man and pitching well currently at Memphis. It seems like business as usual to me.
What am I missing here? Who would you call up to make this spot start instead and why?
P.S. Future projections are interesting, but not particularly relevant to this immediate need, IMO.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think it’s odd. It’s not like there is a better idea. But I do think people can get googly eyes over two starts which seem to be anomalous.
I missed the googly eyes part. Can’t there be any prospect discussion here without it being blown out of proportion?
We have Rom ranked as the #34 prospect in the system.
Well we already had guys who can put up an unsightly WHIP in AAA, but I get that Rom is the new toy that comes with a 40 man spot included.
As I always ask, and you rarely answer, who would you have called up instead of this “new toy” and why?
I already said his call up is not odd because there is no better idea. He could have a good game like he did in Memphis, and I hope he does. But we both know that a guy who puts up a 1.7 WHIP in AAA is going to get killed in MLB. He needs to pitch his way out of AAA before anything else good can happen.
One other item. Although he is making his debut, he had been called up by BAL earlier this year. So even though he did not get in a game, the option year was already burned. Or maybe it already was before that.
I’ve been led to believe that Liberatore can’t take his turn today because of a stiff back resulting from a weight lifting session. My first question would be whether or not he’s training for some sort of hammer throw, shot put, or strongman competition? My second would be, if not, why is he in the weight room wasting his time and subjecting himself to injury when the the age old tried and true method to increase arm strength is simply throwing the baseball? It’s common knowledge that the primary reason so many of these pitchers suffer arm problems is simply because they’re all held to ridiculously low pitch counts. If they genuinely want to avoid these countless arm injuries, get out there on the mound and throw the baseball like a pitcher’s supposed to do. Plain and simple…
bling, the earlier callup had nothing to do with the option. For Rule 5 protection, Rom had to be added to the 40-man last November. So he used the 2023 option this April. He also has options in 2024 and 2025 if needed. That should provide more than enough time for the Cards to determine what they have in him, so I don’t see his option status as a limiting factor. In fact, in this case, it was an advantage (over Graceffo or McGreevy, for example).
1tough asked:
…why is he in the weight room wasting his time and subjecting himself to injury when the the age old tried and true method to increase arm strength is simply throwing the baseball?
Liberatore is on a program set by the team to gain strength. That includes work in the weight room. Every MLB player has some kind of program these days. It is a different world from the one you remember.
Just to add a couple of points regarding Rom’s call up…. today is his scheduled spot in the MEM rotation. Sometimes that is a minor factor and he is a better choice than Thomas who pitched yesterday anyway. Its really a no-brainer.
Yeah, I’d say all of them spend a varying amount of time in the weight room and it’s probably why so many of them can’t seem to stay on the field. I’ll also say that I feel that it’s good that the team has Liberatore on some sort of a program, but from what I’ve seen that program should place it’s entire focus on pitching skills instead of gaining strength simply because his pitching skills obviously need a lot of improvement. I would have him on a program that situated him on the mound throwing the baseball instead of a program that wasted time in the form of mindlessly hoisting weights and tweaking his sore back.
Exciting time for the kid. Hope some of his friends and family can get to the park and watch him experience a dream come true.
Weight training is a good way to gain overall strength and stamina. But if you are using barbells, you gotta be careful. I have wrenched my back a time or two in years gone by. Now as an old guy I only use smaller free weights, and also do pullups and pushups. No back strain and you still get some good strength work in.
O’Neill is another guy notorious for getting back tweaks in the weight room. Ty is “brick houuuse” as The Commodores would say. I recall a time playing basketball and a guy built a lot like Ty set a pick that I ran into, and I could feel my entire spine pop as I hit him. It was like hitting a brick wall. I also had a bit of a sort neck for a couple of weeks after that!
Ny said:
Just to add a couple of points regarding Rom’s call up…. today is his scheduled spot in the MEM rotation. Sometimes that is a minor factor and he is a better choice than Thomas who pitched yesterday anyway. Its really a no-brainer.
I agree, but to clarify, the original plan was for Rom to start for Memphis Sunday. Thomas last pitched in a piggyback behind Graceffo last Wednesday, so he came back on short rest to start instead on Sunday. And Rom received an extra day, albeit one filled with travel and anticipation, undoubtedly. They changed the plan when Liberatore was hurt.
Memphis is off today, but if they stay with the same rotation, Graceffo will start on Tuesday. Of course, they could instead make one of the rehabbers, Woodford and Helsley, the opener instead.
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