I'm a bit worried about Riske

[brewtank34]

Ok...I haven't seen a thread about his production as of yet...but come on! He's makin multi millions and so far he hasn't earned $100 of his contract. Yes, I know that spring training, pitchers are supposed to work on their pitches, but at this point in the season, I was kind of hoping for more out of Melvin's prize relief pick up from last year...

So far this spring, he has shown nothing to make me feel comfortable with him coming into games. I actually feel as nervous with him coming into the game than I did with Tblow.

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but nothing has been said about Riske up until now....and I am formally putting him to the task... For the amount of money he's earning, he's gotta show me more than he has so far. He had a full offseason to heal up and so far he has shown nothing... Seriously, without looking up the data, I feel he has failded to get out of an inning w/out allowing a run...

 

Don't know about you all................. but I'm a bit worried about Riske! Your thoughts?

 

Addendum: At this point, I'd rather have Swindle and have 2 lefties rather than worry about Riske.

 

(edit: more explicative title; combined consecutive posts --1992)

[dayzedcrewfan]

I have to agree with you. With a 8.18 era, 10 runs allowed in 10 games (on 4 home runs) and only 4 K ( I know its a small sample and its spring training), it's not looking promising. And with the health concerns from last year its a little troubling. Our bullpen on paper this spring has IMO, besides Stettar and Coffey, been sub-par at best. Makes you wonder what will happen as the year goes on. Along with Hoffman on the DL. Now I know his track record for injuries is good since he's only been on the DL one other time in his career but it sucks that the second time was with a team paying him $6mil and putting its ninth inning one run games on his shoulders in a hitters park.

[RU Rah Rah]

He might work it out during the season; you never know. But I share the concerns about Riske. He basically got torched this spring, which makes me think that he hasn't really recovered from his injury. I hope it's just a delivery/mechanics thing that can get ironed out in a few games....

[Invader3K]

Save him for mop up work right now. That's about all you can realistically trust him with at this point.

[yount19.u]

I remember reading an earlier spring training blog about Riske and his struggles. They interviewed Riske and he was disappointed in his performance as well, but said he actually felt good while pitching and felt no pain. I took that as a positive as it appears he may have just messed up his mechanics while pitching injured last year. I would imagine it may take a few weeks to get comfortable throwing without having to make adjustments for an injury. Hopefully he he can right the ship soon, but at least his elbow appears to be healthy.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

I suppose that last year's injury problems, (possibly related) lack of performance, and his rough spring do justify a certain amount of concern. Short relievers are more prone than any other player to collapse overnight from quality contributors to sub-replacement level. It's not out of the question that Riske is toast.

 

Having said that, I think it's also important to keep in mind that he has a lengthy pre-Brewers track record of solid pitching (5 straight seasons ranging from above average to excellent), that short relievers are also more prone than any other player to have off-seasons (smaller sample = more variance), and that as an established mid-salary vet whose spot on the team was assured, he had little incentive to worry about anything in spring training other than getting his arm ready and staying healthy.

 

In other words, I wouldn't push the panic button just yet. I still think the smart money is on a pretty nice bounce-back year for Riske. None of the comments in this thread have been over-the-top panicky, but in yesterday's game thread, he was called "worthless", "a thorn in my side", and "an inflamed hemorrhoid" (granted, that last one was a tongue-in-cheek response to the second one) in three consecutive posts. I realize that game threads are often treated as semi-vent threads, and he was getting lit up, but still...it's only spring training, folks.

[RockCoCougars]

Don't expect much from him. For some reason he is getting a Suppan-esque free pass with a lot of people ("We knew he wasn't that good when we signed him, what do you expect? He is what he is, a major league average.....".

 

The fact is that he was downright brutal last year before his injury. He simply doesn't have very good stuff, and the only reason that he was so effective with the Royals was that he absolutely pounded the zone back then (with likely a good deal of luck factored in). Terrible signing.

[Ennder]

Don't expect much from him. For some reason he is getting a Suppan-esque free pass with a lot of people ("We knew he wasn't that good when we signed him, what do you expect? He is what he is, a major league average.....".

 

Don't see how the truth is a free pass? Suppan has pretty much been exactly what I expected and I always thought we gave him $2-3M more a year than we should have. A lot of bad pitchers got big contracts those seasons and none of them have really been worth it.

 

The fact is that he was downright brutal last year before his injury. He simply doesn't have very good stuff, and the only reason that he was so effective with the Royals was that he absolutely pounded the zone back then (with likely a good deal of luck factored in). Terrible signing.

 

I'm sure that the injuries had a lot to do with his season last year but I agree that it wasn't the greatest signing since his peripherals never supported his ERAs. He has a career LOB of 80% with pretty mediocre stuff, not sure he can be expected to keep that up year in and year out.

[NYChez]

I don't put too much stock in spring training numbers this year because - I don't know if the wind was constantly blowing out - but the offensive numbers were just ridiculous. I think our starters' slugging percentage was around .750. That's why I'm not putting much stock in Riske's inflated ERA or Bill Hall's inflated batting average. When we get into a normal environment, we'll get a better indication of how the pitchers and hitters are doing.

[brewerfan82]

Don't expect much from him. For some reason he is getting a Suppan-esque free pass with a lot of people ("We knew he wasn't that good when we signed him, what do you expect? He is what he is, a major league average.....".

I don't know why he was ineffective last year, but how can you possibly say he's "major league average" and that it was a "terrible signing"?

 

The five seasons before last year he posted ERA+'s of 119, 117, 135, 122 and 191 and has a career ERA+ of 124. I don't see how that's even close to major league average nor how that would indicate he would have a down year last year making the signing terrible.

[1992casey]

Actually, RockCoCougers didn't say Riske was major league average. He stated that others said it. He did say that Riske was a terrible signing, however.

[mls4]

Very concerned about Riske. Nothing that I can tell points to him turning it around any time soon. I'm more concerned that his contract is keeping him on the team ahead of more deserving pitchers.

 

I hope that I am wrong and he ends up being a serviceable option out of the bullpen.

[dlk9s]

The fact is that he was downright brutal last year before his injury.

No, he wasn't. He wasn't incredible or anything, but he wasn't "brutal."

[JohnBriggs12]

There's been some big contracts eaten this spring. It might be a bit premature for the Brewers to eat the $9 million left on Riske's contract, but assuming everyone's healthy, who do you drop from the roster when Hoffman comes back? If Julio, DeFelice, Coffey, McClung etc, are all performing well and Riske's not, maybe they have to consider it. After all, if a minimum wage guy like Difelice is giving you $4.5 million worth of performance, isn't that the goal anyway? Meanwhile if they are concerned about maintaining depth, we know they didn't burn the bridge with Gagne and vice versa.

 

Now that the seasons here, the spring stuff all goes away. But Riske has to use his opportunities to show he's the pitcher they gave that contract to.

[brewizard]

but assuming everyone's healthy, who do you drop from the roster when Hoffman comes back?

 

Todd Coffey - watching him pitch reminds me of the 2005 Brewers.

[endaround]

Coffey-7 good innings does not a career make But most likely DiFelice gets optioned down

[Never Outhustled]

Unfortunately, Hoffman will just replace whatever pitcher gets hurt between now and then. Such is baseball.

 

Riske wasn't a bad signing, it was just terrible luck that an extremely durable pitcher got hurt so soon after signing, and the injury might ruin his career.

 

The good news is the rest of the pen is throwing well, so Riske can be the mop-up guy until something changes.

[GormanHarvey]

I think Coffey is vastly underrated on here. Macha likes him a lot, and for good reason. He will be one of our best relievers this season

[twobrewers]

The good news is that Brewer fans (at least those who post on Brewerfan.net) understand the economics of baseball very well.

 

The bad news is that it often creates unrealistic expectations on players when they sign a big contract.

 

Riske was never a great player. He was just an above average reliever who has run into some health issues. I think calling him a "prize" free agent is a stretch. I've never expected much from Riske, so I am not disappointed. Although, I admit I like his attitude regarding his performance.

[endaround]

Coffey's FIPs:

4.07

3.89

6.02

4.97

 

 

Maybe he gets his home run rate down but I'm skeptical that after 2 bad years he'll be decent again.

[Eddiehitsthefoulpole]

I think that Riske is just not ready for the season to start. I think it is injury-related. It seems to me that he needs a couple of more weeks of Spring training. My worry with him is that, due to early season ineffectiveness, he won't become sharp. I think he gets consistent innings it will work out. I just don't see how he gets those innings. We can't let him blow games to get sharp. My other worry is Looper. He doesn't look like he is ready for Spring training to end either.

[Patrick425]

I mentioned this in one of the ST in-game threads, but Riske pitched in the 2nd to last locally televised game. I watched his pitch selection closely. I think he threw something like 15-20 pitches. The speed range on all the pitches (except one that was about 80 and appeared to be a slider or breaking pitch of some kind) was between 87-89 and they were all fast balls if I'm not mistaken. He pitched again during the last televised ST game (last Tuesday?), and seemed to mix up his pitches a little better.

[PeaveyFury]

BA: 'Riske's still not 100% at this point.'

 

Then why in the world is he out there?

[benji]

I have a feeling as soon as Hoffman is ready to come off the DL, Riske will have a recurrence of elbow pain with a 30 day minor league rehab to follow.

[RockCoCougars]

All I can say after watching him tonight is that I hope he is not used in close games. He should be strictly a mop up guy at this point.