The site in Dyersville, Iowa, where the move “Field of Dreams” was filmed has some new owners. And the couple is planning on building a youth sports complex on the property. But to do so, they need a little financial assistance.
Enter Jeremy Hellickson, a native of Des Moines, Iowa.
KWWL in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is reporting that Hellickson will invest in the project…
The regular season starts in a month and we now finally know that Major League Baseball will add a second Wild Card team to each league this season. That means, there can potentially be three playoff teams from the AL East. And that is exactly what would have happened in three of the four previous seasons.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Perfect games! Five 20-game winners! Three Cy Young Awards!
OK, easy now. The Rays have a fantastic rotation. One of the best in the big leagues. But let’s see if we can come up with a more realistic idea of what to expect, who might improve, and who might actually take a step back.
To get a sense of just how good each pitcher has been, and where they might be headed, let’s use Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP). In short, FIP is what a pitcher’s ERA might have looked like if they had pitched all of their games in an average ballpark with an average defense. In the long run, FIP is a better indicator than ERA of how good a pitcher is, and how well they will pitch in the future.
Let’s take a look at the year-by-year FIPs for each of the Rays six starting pitchers. Red lines indicate when the pitcher was promoted to the big leagues (approximately).
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Don’t get too caught up in what FIP is versus ERA. Rather, look at: 1) how consistent is the pitcher from year to year, even from the minors to the majors; and 2) keep in mind that average in 2011 for AL starting pitchers was about 4.08. Notes and thoughts can be found below…
Notes on the above charts…
In the latest, “Joe Maddon will sign an extension soon, we swear” story, Marc Topkin reports that the two sides are closing in on a three-year extension.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Stuart Sternberg was on hand Saturday night to accept Joe Maddon’s Manager of the Year award and Jeremy Hellickson’s Rookie of the Year award. Sternberg, showing his lighter side, joked that he drove down from posh Westchester County because the team couldn’t afford airfare for Maddon and Hellickson. He also said that the awards would later be put up for auction to help pay for Carlos Pena’s new contract.
Here is the video…
Jeremy Hellickson joined the folks at his hometown paper in Des Moines and took some questions from fans. You can see a complete transcript at USA Today.
The biggest news from the chat was when Hellboy was asked about his favorite pitch…
my favorite pitch is the cutter ive been working on for a few years now that will start working here soon… and that is also the hardest to throw
Our biggest concern with Hellickson in 2011 was that he appeared to get too fancy around the strikezone. Rather than depend on hitters swinging-and-missing, he was trying to hit the corner with every pitch. And as a result, the number of walks he allowed soared. And to us, that seemed to show that Hellickson had lost a little confidence in his ability to attack batters.
Hellickson also struggled against lefties in 2011. His xFIP versus left-handed batters was more than 2.00 higher versus lefties (5.76) than righties (3.62). To show you how bad that is, consider that Andy Sonnanstine had a better xFIP versus left-handed batters (5.64) in 2011.
According to Pitchf/x data, Hellickson threw just 37 cutters (1.3% of his pitches) last year. If the cutter can become a regular part of his arsenal, he could help correct both problems, as the cutter is a pitch that is designed to miss the sweetspot and often jams lefties.
Here are the rest of the highlights from Hellickson’s chat… Read the rest of this entry »
Last week we expressed some concern over Jeremy Hellickson and the 24 percent increase in innings pitched he had last season over the year before. When young pitchers show that large of an increase in workload, there is some evidence to suggest that they are more at risk for a down season or even injury.
And now Tom Verducci confirms our concerns expresses similar concerns.
Verducci lists Hellboy as one of 14 young pitchers on “The Red Flag List.” But he does note that the Rays did a good job of taking care of their young starter…
The Rays have their own rule of thumb. They generally prefer to bump their pitchers’ workload by no more than 20 percent annually. (Price took a playoff-influenced 36 percent jump in 2010 and saw his ERA swell by 0.77 last year.) For Hellickson, the 20 percent rule would have meant an increase of 31 innings, so he was not far off their target, even with a pennant race and the postseason (one start lasting four innings) influencing his work. The Rays also did a good job finding him extra rest in between starts. Beginning in late May, Hellickson pitched on the fifth day only six times in his final 21 starts.
There might actually be another reason to be concerned with Read the rest of this entry »
One of the biggest concerns with young starting pitchers is their workload and easing them into a 200-ip season. The Rays typically prefer to limit their starters to a 20 percent increase in innings from one season to the next. If a pitcher exceeds that mark, they could be at a higher risk for injury or just a tired arm in the next season.
Last year, we saw the red flag with David Price, whose 221.1 innings pitches in 2010 was a 36.1 percent increase over the 2009 season. And while Price’s FIP improved from 3.42 in 2010 to 3.32 in 2011, his ERA ballooned from 2.72 in 2010 to 3.49 last year. Was he just unlucky? Maybe. But Price also showed that at times last year, he tired late in games.
So let’s take a look at how much the pitcher’s were used in 2011 and if there are any red flags…
Maybe the most important thing we see in this table is that the Rays big-6 starting pitchers (David Price, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, Matt Moore) are all free to throw Read the rest of this entry »
ESPN.com has released their annual list of the top 50 players 25 years old or younger. And the Rays two big rookies are both on the list.
Jeremy Hellickson, 24, who won the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award is number 42. And Desmond Jennings, 25, comes in at number 15.
On Jennings:
He finally stayed healthy in 2011 and shined in his first extended big league stint. (Although staying healthy for a full season might have led to fatigue that caused him to hit .160/.258/.245 in September.) Even with that final month, Jennings hit 22 homers, drew 76 walks and stole 37 bases in 585 plate appearances across Triple-A and the majors, while playing above-average defense in center (in Triple-A) and left (in the majors)…His ability to adjust to soft stuff away was particularly impressive. He’s not far from his ceiling — a solid-average glove, OBP in the high .300s, 20-25 homers, and 30-40 steals.
On Hellickson:
The AL Rookie of the Year won it largely because of performance in basic stats; he got a huge boost from Tampa’s defense this year, which resulted in a low batting average on balls in play and thus a low ERA…That said, I think Hellickson can boost his strikeout rate going forward and rely less on his defense. He’s already got the command and the out-pitch changeup, but needs to tighten his curveball, and has a cutter he barely used in 2011. He doesn’t have ace ceiling but could easily pitch up to the standard Tampa’s defense helped him set this year.
That’s all nice and everything. But why the hell is ESPN.com still using the old Devil Rays logo (see image above)?
Jeremy Hellickson was named the top rookie in the American League this season. Hellickson received 17 of 28 first-place votes and was named on 24 of the 28 ballots. The Rays Desmond Jennings finished tied for seventh with a single third-place vote.
Hellickson is the second member of the Tampa Bay Rays to win the award, joining Evan Longoria, who won the award in 2008. He is also just the second starting pitcher to win the award in the last 30 years. Justin Verlander also won the award in 2006.
Hellickson went 13-10 with a 2.95 ERA (4.44 FIP). He struck out 117 batters and walked 72 in 189.0 innings. The Rays won 16 of the 29 games he started.
Here is a full breakdown of the voting…
