Pirates Could DFA Jose Ascanio, Call Up Lefty
by Charlie Wilmoth on Jun 6, 2011 1:47 AM EDT
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The Pirates could promote a lefty reliever, perhaps making room for him by designating Jose Ascanio, Rob Biertempfel reports:
"We might need to look at rearranging our bullpen," Hurdle said Sunday. "We face a lot of teams with a lot of left-handed (batters), and there's not as many options as I'd like to have." Joe Beimel (elbow inflammation) is on the disabled list, leaving Daniel Moskos as the lone lefty in the pen. One option would be to designate Jose Ascanio (7.11 ERA in eight outings) for assignment and call up either Tony Watson (2-3, 2.57 ERA in 21 outings) or Justin Thomas (3-1, 4.68 ERA in 24 outings) from Triple-A Indianapolis. Watson already is on the 40-man roster.
I like Ascanio's arm, but I can't complain much about designating him for assignment, given his extremely sketchy injury and performance history. There would be a decent chance the Pirates could sneak him through waivers and on to Indianapolis, which is probably where he should be right now.
Watson's numbers are better than Thomas' this year, and Watson is already on the 40-man roster, so he would be a very painless callup. If the Bucs do decide to add a lefty, I imagine it will be Watson. Watson immediately showed promise after being drafted in 2007, but he missed most of the 2009 season with elbow troubles, so he's had a long road to the majors. I'm rooting for him.
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ascanio
he is painful to watch i’d be fine with letting him work down in indy.
about brandon wood, i know he isn’t even mentioned here, but i just want to say again that i’m fine with letting him stay for a couple more weeks, he is just interesting enough to keep a spot on the roster. but ciriaco should also be optioned and and presley should be given a long serious look with jones and daiz sucking
No disrespect, but why in the world would you bring up Brandon Wood in this thread?
by Charlie Wilmoth on Jun 6, 2011 4:38 AM EDT up reply actions
We're shifting to an All-Brandon Wood Format
Focus groups show it can be nearly as successful as our previous run with an All-Lyle Overbay Format.
by matskralc on Jun 6, 2011 7:59 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Ths should help
(Sorry… couldn’t help meself)
by BlindSquirrel on Jun 6, 2011 9:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Not sure why, but I thought Tony Watson was black. Yes, that’s the level of insight you’ve all come to expect from me
Weird
Me too. On both those guys. Ike, I guess, is kind of a black-associated name (I can’t think of any white Ikes between Eisenhower and Davis), but there’s nothing about Tony Watson that says “African-American.” But somehow Travis and I both thought that.
Actually, having grown up on baseball in the 70s and 80s, during the peak era of A-A players, I’m always shocked at how white the game is nowadays. A few years ago we had, at least briefly, an all-white/Latino 25-man (or maybe there was exactly 1 black guy? don’t recall anymore). That was just crazy.
among my college students, everybody and their brother is named Isaac now
We have an award for the best majors in our department, and three years in a row one of the winners has been named Isaac; one of them goes by “Ike.” All three are white guys.
Not actually affiliated with whygavs.
by WHYG Zane Smith on Jun 6, 2011 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Ha!
I couldn’t have told you – without thinking hard anyway – what Ike was short for. I’ve known some Isaacs, but none of them went by Ike.
Anyway, sounds like Isaac is the next Zach. I hope NH compiles 3-4 SPs with that name and puts them all in the same rotation.
Asconio
I watched on DVR and was pretty certain that this was his last outing. I could see him not clearing waivers but at this point I think we need to take that risk.
Yinzers uber alles
What about a long reliever?
That is my only quibble. With Karstens in the rotation, Crotta injured and DCutch moved to the later innings we have the need. I guess we could always just stretch Mccutchen back out now that he’s not performing at the previous level. We certainly could have used one yesterday.
Another option is to bring up Burress, who is a lefty and capable of multiple innings. Everybody wins :)
What's wrong with Watson?
He’s started quite a bit in the minors before this season.
#AllTheBuntsAreBad!
Well, if we want him as a LOOGY
I don’t think that he can be expected to fill both roles – either he’s pitching 2 nights out of 3 for 1-3 batters, or he’s going 2+ innings once or twice a week. It would be a rare arm that could combine those two usage patterns.
Good point about not being available after a long outing...
but if he is used exclusively as a LOOGY in non-long relief situations (1-2 batters typically) would that really prevented him from being a available for a longer stretch?
#AllTheBuntsAreBad!
I honestly don't know
I have a general sense of healthy usage patterns for normal 1 or 2 inning relievers, but I just don’t know about LOOGYs. It’s entirely possible that a guy could throw 5 pitches, 12 pitches, 0, 8, and 40 over a series of days without ill effect, but I’d like to see evidence of it before actually advocating for it.
I realize that RPs warm up and sit down, and warm up again on the mound, so they’re actually throwing 40+ pitches in even the briefest of appearances; but by the same token, a long relief appearance would be, say, 40 pitches thrown in anger + 24 pre-inning warmups + at least a couple dozen in the bullpen. So ~90 pitches.
I almost wonder if what you do is have the guy on a regimen where he throws 50 pitches every time he’s called on to warm up (even on days when he has a 3 pitch appearance – he’d go to the indoor batting cage and throw another 15 pitches or whatever) so that his arm is used to fairly heavy usage on a regular basis. It’s just that, on some days, all of those pitches plus a couple dozen more actually are to opposing batters.
When is Ohlendorf expected back?
The way Karstens is pitching, he should stay in rotation. Ohlendorf should be the long man for a while.
I doubt anyone cares much about Ohlendorf at this point. If he gets back to contribute something positive the second half, good,
but if not, it’s just the Pirates spending $2.1 million on nothing. He probably won’t be with the club next year anyway.
パトリック
I think they're shooting for after the ASG
But no real sense of whether he’ll make it.
Certainly he doesn’t bump Karstens from the rotation when he comes back. If he’s showing effectiveness and/or Karstens flags, then maybe he gets a shot. But he’s probably behind Lincoln in terms of deserving a shot.
Ascanio vs Moskos
Anyone want to debate me now on these two.
Moskos
is doing fairly well, probably making somebody somewhere forget Matt what’shisname.
Auscanio
I agreed with originally bringing him up so we didn’t risk losing him, for all we knew he could have hit the ground running. But I think now is a good time to take that risk of him clearing waivers.
I agree with Hurdle that we need one more lefty. I think Veras is extremely effective against lefties, but he seems to be in a more defined role right now, so we need someone else up here.
I’d try Watson if it was my decision. McCutchen’s goo run is over, and he needs to be put back in that long-reliever role.
"I like Ascanio's arm"
I don’t. It’s time for him to walk the plank.
パトリック
I'm less concerned about Ascanio, Beimel, Moskos, Watson etc.
than I am about Evan Meek’s arm and his meek velocity at this point.
パトリック
should we even bother seeing Garrett Olson brought back up if Ascanio gets DFA'd?
or do we give a young guy like Watson a shot?
i have no problem with Olson, by the way.
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