Chad Orvella and Andy Sisco Find Homes
In the year 2005, Chad Orvella and Andy Sisco flashed promise as two of the league’s youngest and more successful relievers.
Orvella was 24-years-old and appeared in 37 games with the Devil Rays. Two years earlier, the Rays had taken Orvella in the thirteenth round of the draft. Orvella had been the starting shortstop for the North Carolina State Wolfpack while occasionally pitching. The Rays converted him to pitching full-time and he flew through the lower ranks. In his first 85 professional innings, Orvella struck out over 130 batters. A 25 inning stint with Double-A Montgomery ended with Orvella posting a 0.36 ERA, 1.8 FIP, 12.8 K/9, and a 6.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Such success continued for Orvella upon reaching the majors. His K/BB ratio slipped under 2, but he still managed to post a 3.78 FIP in 50 innings.
In spring training 2006, the Rays and new pitching coach Mike Butcher messed with Orvella’s mechanics, attempting to make him more aerodynamic and less of base-stealers’ delight in those high leverage situations. Naturally, Orvella lost all ability to throw strikes. He’s seen 32 Major League innings since and walked 30 (one of those being an intentional walk); in his first season he walked 23 in 50 innings and he’s walked 40 in 124 Triple-A innings.
Sisco, once described as Randy Johnson’s height meets David Wells’ belly, never took precautions to hide his control problems. He just flaunted them openly while striking out more than a batter per inning. Through nearly 150 innings in the Majors, he’s averaging 5.7 walks per nine. Even still, his career Zone% is 50% exactly. Orvella’s 2006 Zone% was 47.8%. Let that sink in for a moment. The Angels have signed Orvella to a minor league deal in hopes that maybe he can rekindle what made him appear to be the Rays’ future closer way back when.
Sisco was the Royals’ 2005 version of Matt Thornton. He appeared in 67 games, posting a 3.11 ERA and a 3.79 FIP. His strikeouts slipped, his walks increased, and he started giving up homers in 2006. That’s a really bad combination, and Sisco found himself on the way out of Kansas City as Dayton Moore flipped him for Ross Gload. Sisco has pitched 14 innings in the Majors since. The Royals didn’t get a steal though, since Gload produced -0.5 WAR over two seasons in which he accumulated nearly 50% of his career plate appearances.
The Giants have fittingly signed the six-foot-ten ‘Sisquatch’ with the hope that he can climb the beanstalk.
Just more proof that sometimes the best laid bullpen dreams don’t always work out.
FYI, Orvella signed a minor league contract with the Angels.
All right, this one is pretty funny. Boston guys are the best.
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/jerry-thornton/2010/03/09/geeks-will-inherit-earth?page=full
“So as a public service to all like-minded fans, concerned Red Sox citizens worried about the direction the Nation is headed, I’d like to put my ex-Stat Geek skills to us and offer my own formula for judging all statisticians. Let’s call it the NSGR/MMUSRI (Nerdy Stat Geek Ridiculous/Meaningless Made Up Statistic Rating Index). You take any new, obscure baseball evaluation stat and you start with the weight of the guy who invented it, times how many days he’s been wearing the same “Han Solo Shot First” T-shirt, divided by how many times he’s had sex in his life, multiplied by how often his mom cooks his meals add how many days a month he sees the sun times the percentage by which he throws like a girl.”
Just the usual unfunny dronings of a guy who doesn’t understand that math can make his life better. He can’t do it and he knows he’s cool since he likes sports, so math must be for dopes.
The engineers who made his car safe? They can do math.
The doctor who keeps his family healthy? He can do math.
The guy who built the computer network that gives him a job? He can do math.
The CPA that makes sure he gets paid to sit around and write stupid crap? He can do math.
The GM that has won his favorite team 2 world championships and made them a perennial contender after decades of failure? He’s just some pasty guy living in his mom’s basement who thinks girls are icky.
Give me a f*$&in break. Ignorance does not make you cool. It makes you The Royals.
I like how it makes you a Royal.
Most doctors (the pediatricians/general medicine types) are much worse at math than you’d think. Once you pass the couple intermediate calculus/physics that’s about it for formal math education and it’s quickly forgotten because its hardly used.
The rest of your point is valid though, especially the engineers line since those are usually the kids that got crap from other kids from drawing cars and planes on a notepad during recess instead of playing ball.
The very same Mike Butcher is now Chad Orvella’s pitching coach once again, now in LAA. Huh?
The two players featured in this article, Orvella and Sisco, have a long-standing connection that isn’t even mentioned: they were both teammates at Eastlake High School (and of mine, which is how I know). When I read the headline, I figured that’s why they’re being mentioned together. Strange coincidence?
Actually Andy played at Redmond High School for his Soph and Jr years and transferred to eastlake his senior year, that was 2 years after Chad graduated. But they did both finish high school at eastlake.