John Sickels on Yovani Gallardo

[Mass Haas]

Noted Minor League aficionado John Sickels with his take on Yovani

[bsglorydays]

I'm not quite sure how Sickels came to the conclusion that Yo will be an ace early in his career and then morph into merely an innings eater in the not-so-distant future. The only reason he gives is concerns that Yo could have weight issues to deal with. Of course, in the comments section following the article, Sickels does admit that it is more of a "gut feeling".

[KCBrewerfan34]

Are there any examples of a pitcher losing it when he's 25-27? Maybe Gooden. Odd assessment of YG IMO. I will say I think Sickels is one of the better guys out there who does this stuff.

[Fear The Chorizo]

the same has been said of Oswalt and Pedro - his analysis of expected slow regression as Yo ages has more to do with him not having the prototypical size that power pitchers possess. I think Yo is a different type of pitcher than that, and if he loses a couple of mph off his fastball as age wears his arm down, his secondary pitches and command are still good enough to be more than an innings eater.

[MillerParkSouth]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/tom_verducci/02/05/verducci.YAE/index.html

 

Tom Verducci also thinks that Yo is at a risk for breaking down. The name he brings up in comparisson is not one I wanted to see: Fransisco Liriano.

[Ennder]

Gord Ash pointed out that Verducci missed 12 IP in the playoffs in 2006 so Gallardo actually only increased 21 innings last year.

[homer]

I thought it was percentage increase in innings pitched not total innings increased.

[RyDogg66]

Gallardo will be an ace for the next 5 years and then taper off? Sounds perfect to me. We wont be able to afford him in 6 years anyway. A dream scenario for the brewers.

[logan82]

Gallardo will be an ace for the next 5 years and then taper off? Sounds perfect to me. We wont be able to afford him in 6 years anyway. A dream scenario for the brewers.

That's what I was thinking, except we have him for 6 years still.

[1992casey]

MPS, Tom Haudricourt is reporting that Gord Ash refutes Verducci's claim. Verducci's raw data on Gallardo was wrong.

[logan82]

Probably wrong of me, but I chuckled a bit at Tom H's dig at Vargas.

 

If you have a bunch of low pitch-count innings, it's certainly not as burdensome as a pitcher who might throw 125 pitches in five innings (as Claudio Vargas often does).

[SmartBall]

I think the IP concern is valid with young pitchers until they hit their later 20s and have steady workloads, but I really can't complain at all about the way the Crew handles most of their young pitchers. The bigger question with me is Sickel's projection. Yo is a bigger bodied guy but I hadn't heard any of the weight stuff before and he doesn't appear to be fat, just broad. If anything, I would think that would make him more durable. I guess my question is, has this always been a concern with Yo that I missed or is Sickels just grasping at straws so that he isn't projecting Yo as the second coming of Nolan Ryan. I mean if any pitcher all of a sudden blows up they will get worse but I don't see why this would be more likely with Yo than with anyone else.

[Bring Back the Stein]

The good and scary thing about Gallardo is we haven't seen his best stuff yet. He's already pretty mature in terms of pitch selection, but he's going to get even more precise. On another note, does anybody think that Gallardo's delivery is like Liriano's? I don't and wasn't that the knock on Liriano? Who knows. Gallardo's itty-bitty by comparison. That said, both have the ability to make hitters look really, really bad.

[Oldcity]

Gallardy may not be a very big pitcher, but he definitely isn't small like Oswalt or Lincecum. There are indicators that Oswalt may be wearing down somewhat. I don't really see why he'd say that about Gallardo, who has three inches on Oswalt. Just seems like a blind guess.

[TooLiveBrew]

Gallardo's itty-bitty by comparison. That said, both have the ability to make hitters look really, really bad.

 

Do you mean his delivery is 'itty-bitty by comparison'? Liriano's not really tall, either.

[Bring Back the Stein]

You're absolutely right. Yo's listed at 6'1. Liriano at 6'2. I guess his motion is different or I drink too much.