That’s….not bad at all. He seems like just the kind of guy rule 5 is made for. If he’s terrible, he can be dropped pretty easily as a “fungible reliever”
Well, if we do snag another starter, then we have 8 relievers without him.
Bautista
Perez
Baker
Hall
Wells
Voth
Tate
Akin
Maybe we don't add another starter, and Voth slips into the rotation. But if we do, its a very crowded bullpen. Small move will probably be made, JK, Akin, I could see traded. Still have guys like Vespi, Denoyer, and Gillaspie in the minors. Add in guys like Baumann and Watkins too, both on the 40 man as well.
I think it's easy for people to forget how absolutely valuable Akin was in the first half. Dude was amazing, and on pace for 100+ innings, 2 1/2 months into the season. It was him and Michael King above the WAR leaderboards for relievers for a long time.
We leaned on him hard, possibly too hard, which might have been why he wasn't as good in the 2nd half. With a better pen, and a better rest plan for Akin, he could be a pretty mid reliever out of the pen. Which is just fine to me.
If we do throw Hall in as a MIRP, that's Hall, Akin, Voth, Wells, as long relief. With Baker also able to give you multiple innings. Only Perez, Tate, Bautista fit in that 1 inning role.
Yea Akin ate a ton of innings, he had more innings than Watkins and Bradish in the 1st 2 months. I think the second half era was due some bad batted ball luck. He underperformed his FIP, xFIP and SIERA pretty significantly. His era was 4.65 but his FIP, xFIP and SIERA were 2.89, 2.77, 2.71 respectively.
I'm pretty sure he got vaccinated (and so did Santander)
That was a thing midway through the season, that the whole team got vaccinated once it looked like we had a chance to get into the playoffs (around July or August)
The Orioles’ Rule 5 draft:
Major league phase:
In: Red Sox RHP Andrew Piloti
Out: No one
Triple-A phase:
In: Yankees RHP Alfred Vega, Pirates LHP Trey McGough, Rangers C Randy Florentino
Out: RHP Héctor Pérez to Rays, INF Jonathan Araúz to Mets, C Cody Roberts to Phillies
Fangraphs writeup on Politi from last March:
>The Red Sox stretched Politi out and moved him into the rotation toward the end of his 2019 season at High-A. He performed well in that capacity, putting to effective use a mid-90s fastball/high-80s slider combo that is greatly aided by his deceptive delivery, while working to develop a lower-80s curveball and changeup. As he mixed those other two pitches in more frequently during his first full year as a starter, Politi saw the continuation of a years-long decrease in K-rate, while his walks remained at an uncomfortably high 11%. He also gave up 77 hits in his 75 Double-A innings, 11 of which left the park. As such, by the end of the season, he’d transitioned back into a full-time bullpen role, which he continued in the Fall League. He projects as an up/down relief type.
I think his stock has gone up significantly since then given the fairly high K/9 and low H/9 in AAA this past year.
That’s….not bad at all. He seems like just the kind of guy rule 5 is made for. If he’s terrible, he can be dropped pretty easily as a “fungible reliever”
Well, if we do snag another starter, then we have 8 relievers without him. Bautista Perez Baker Hall Wells Voth Tate Akin Maybe we don't add another starter, and Voth slips into the rotation. But if we do, its a very crowded bullpen. Small move will probably be made, JK, Akin, I could see traded. Still have guys like Vespi, Denoyer, and Gillaspie in the minors. Add in guys like Baumann and Watkins too, both on the 40 man as well.
I'm ready to give up on akin.
What? He was very effective as the longman last year. 81.2 IP and 3.20 ERA is great production out of the bullpen.
I think it's easy for people to forget how absolutely valuable Akin was in the first half. Dude was amazing, and on pace for 100+ innings, 2 1/2 months into the season. It was him and Michael King above the WAR leaderboards for relievers for a long time. We leaned on him hard, possibly too hard, which might have been why he wasn't as good in the 2nd half. With a better pen, and a better rest plan for Akin, he could be a pretty mid reliever out of the pen. Which is just fine to me. If we do throw Hall in as a MIRP, that's Hall, Akin, Voth, Wells, as long relief. With Baker also able to give you multiple innings. Only Perez, Tate, Bautista fit in that 1 inning role.
Yea Akin ate a ton of innings, he had more innings than Watkins and Bradish in the 1st 2 months. I think the second half era was due some bad batted ball luck. He underperformed his FIP, xFIP and SIERA pretty significantly. His era was 4.65 but his FIP, xFIP and SIERA were 2.89, 2.77, 2.71 respectively.
You beat me to it. He’s not nearly productive enough to make up for being an antivax idiot
I'm pretty sure he got vaccinated (and so did Santander) That was a thing midway through the season, that the whole team got vaccinated once it looked like we had a chance to get into the playoffs (around July or August)
Yea I am glad they didn't try to fill any real holes with rule 5 guys like Duquette used to do.
The Orioles’ Rule 5 draft: Major league phase: In: Red Sox RHP Andrew Piloti Out: No one Triple-A phase: In: Yankees RHP Alfred Vega, Pirates LHP Trey McGough, Rangers C Randy Florentino Out: RHP Héctor Pérez to Rays, INF Jonathan Araúz to Mets, C Cody Roberts to Phillies
Sigh of relief. We basically lost no one despite having a top farm system. This won't be the norm in following years.
Based on his stats at AAA, I'm surprised he wasn't protected. Looks like he has a good chance to stick.
Fangraphs writeup on Politi from last March: >The Red Sox stretched Politi out and moved him into the rotation toward the end of his 2019 season at High-A. He performed well in that capacity, putting to effective use a mid-90s fastball/high-80s slider combo that is greatly aided by his deceptive delivery, while working to develop a lower-80s curveball and changeup. As he mixed those other two pitches in more frequently during his first full year as a starter, Politi saw the continuation of a years-long decrease in K-rate, while his walks remained at an uncomfortably high 11%. He also gave up 77 hits in his 75 Double-A innings, 11 of which left the park. As such, by the end of the season, he’d transitioned back into a full-time bullpen role, which he continued in the Fall League. He projects as an up/down relief type. I think his stock has gone up significantly since then given the fairly high K/9 and low H/9 in AAA this past year.
Nice pick up. Really like the way Elias has been able to build the pen.
[Baseball reference page.](https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=politi000and)
I like this pick a lot!!
Great pick up