This bit from the Kyle Stark interview should have gone in Part I, but I totally missed the end of his answer as I was hunting around for another question to ask, and when I listened to the recording, it turned out to be pretty provocative. So I got in touch and followed up. Here's the entire exchange. Part II will go up on Sunday-ish as planned.
What's going on with Tim Alderson mechanically, where is his velocity right now and what are you working on with him?
Tim is ... The bigger picture is, he's in the process of finding himself, and is going through part of these guys' career as they ascend up to the big leagues is figuring out becoming a professional, and that's figuring out what's important for them, who's important for them, how they're going to work through things. And so Tim's in the process of doing that. He's taken ownership of this, and so there's some things he feels strongly about that he's going through, there's some things that we continue to offer our two cents and help guide him through this. But the body's in shape. He's trying to figure out whether he can get back to what he was in high school. His body's different than it was then, so I don't know that that's possible, so he's trying to find something that will work for him now. So he continues to work through that. The velocity is not where it was in high school. It's better than it was to finish [last season]. But it's also early in the Spring - he's had one outing, and we'll see, over the next three weeks, where it ends up at.
You probably can't say where he'll be assigned yet, can you?
No, not at this point. I think some of it will depend on role, and some of it will depend on level.
[Are] you implying he might be used in a bullpen role?
He’s competing for a starting rotation slot. We’ll see how it shakes out. Obviously, if he does not earn one of those spots, then he would shift to the bullpen.