Otherwise, the pickings appear to be slim. Lefthanded reliever Ron Mahay could have some appeal here, since market prices may drive him out of Atlanta. If that happens, the Cards could sign him and move along with a proposed move of Tyler Johnson to the starting rotation.
Otherwise, the pickings appear to be slim. Lefthanded reliever Ron Mahay could have some appeal here, since market prices may drive him out of Atlanta. If that happens, the Cards could sign him and move along with a proposed move of Tyler Johnson to the starting rotation.
Yeah. That's been mentioned several times this offseason. I first heard it toward the end of last season or so. I don't know why they have this feeling about TJ; probably because he has multiple pitches.
The Johnson-to-starter thing has been mentioned before.
TJ did have that one full year as a starter in the minors, 2002, when he went 15-3, 2.00 with 132 K's in 121 IP (18 starts) for Peoria (he also relieved in 4 games).
In addition, his 12 pro games in 2001 (9 at Johnson City, 3 at Peoria) and his first 10 appearances of 2003 (at Palm Beach) were as a starter, for a total of 40 starts in his first 44 appearances.
But from mid-2003 to the present, he's been strictly a reliever - 271 appearances between the majors and minors, and only one start (and that was, presumably, a rehab start in 2007 at Springfield).
I suppose it could work.
But I wonder why they're not considering Flores as a starter - he's got far more experience as a starter, having started in 164 of his 241 minor-league appearances (but only 3 of his 222 major-league appearances). The last time he was a more-or-less fulltime starter was 2003 at Colorado Springs, when he went 10-8, 4.98. His best year as a starter was 2001, when he went 14-6, 2.78 for AA Norwich (that was the team that knocked out John Gall's New Haven Ravens from the postseason that year).
Maybe it's age: Johnson is 26; Flores is 32. Or maybe it's control: Flores did have 881 K's in 1102 minor-league innings, but he also walked 410 batters.
But still... unless they really think they can catch lightning in a bottle two years in a row, Flores would seem to be a more reasonable choice.
Jmodene wrote:The Johnson-to-starter thing has been mentioned before.
TJ did have that one full year as a starter in the minors, 2002, when he went 15-3, 2.00 with 132 K's in 121 IP (18 starts) for Peoria (he also relieved in 4 games).
Johnson was with Peoria when the first moved into the new downtown stadium a few years back. In fact, his familymembers were among the first people to enter the new stadium and won some sort of prize.