I didn’t think Ely would be as durable as he has demonstrated, and thought his future was in the bullpen as a late innings guy. Ely is a VERY entertaining pitcher to watch. He’s a fierce competitor and demonstrates it on the mound, but at the same time keeps his composure. Miami (Ohio) U has produced a few early round draft picks in recent years (Keith Weiser, Matt Long, Connor Graham), but Ely is the best. Clearly, he’s not a top flight pitching prospect, though. His delivery might lead to injury down the road, his curve can be inconsistent, his velocity could be better, but for a salary dump trade, the Dodgers did alright.

A third pitch would be huge for John Ely I absolutely agree with you that running through a big league line up with two pitches would be a huge challenge and after time hitters could catch on more easily. But as I said in the article…Dodger stadium is only going to help him.

I’ve read scouting reports that say Ely has flashed a good curve ball at times. But it’s an inconsistent pitch. At least we know there is some ability there to drop a curveball…

Perhaps Foulke did throw harder during his White Sox years but dating back to 2002 his average fastball was 87.6 mph. And while his velo tapered off towards the end of his career he was still throwing 87-89 mph during his banner years in Oakland and Boston.

Here’s Zavada’s MiLB domination stats …

Note: In 07 he was out of baseball, fulfilling a promise made to his recently deceased father, to graduate from college (His personal story is a tear-jerker, if oneis interested in reading about it).

’08 (A) — 35.1 IP – 6H (Yes, 6 hits) – 1 HR – 5 BB – 54 K – 0.31 WHIP
’09 (AA) — 17.1 IP – 10 H – 2 HR – 7 BB – 18 K – 0.98 WHIP

I was a little frustrated with Baseball Prospectus’s comments which (to me) almost seemed to write him off as a bad joke including “video game numbers” and a “bugs bunny change-up”, but then insinuating he would not be any good in MLB.

’09 (MLB) — 51 IP – 45 H – 5 HR – 24 BB – 54 K – 1.35 WHIP

As a “2-pitch guy”, he was able to keep a decently high K/9 rate, but his WHIP jumped up quite a bit, as did his HR/IP rate, primarily due to being a “Fly Ball & K pitcher”. Ely should do perhaps a little better with the high GB%.

I know Zavada was mostly effective versus RHBs as a LHP, primarily because the CH is more effective against opposite handed batters. I know he introduced a CV as a 3rd pitch with marginal success, but is also working on a cutter to use against LHBs as to feature somethng that runs “into the hands of RHBs”.

So, Ely could be effective as a RP, but he does likely ned to develop a pitch that moves “away from the sweet spot”, such as a cutter that runs into the hands of LHBs, and get his FB to run into RHBs.

I don;t see too many guys that are able to run through a lineup 3 times with just using 2 pitches.

If memory serves me, Eric Gagne was a very successful 2-pitch minor league starter, with 2 pitches that were “very highly rated”.

At the MLB level I think you need a 3rd pitch, specifically something that moves horizontally, if not more than to “show something”. Ely’s K/9 is pretty good, but his MiLB WHIP is 1.29, and that likely goes up in MLB, which could be problematic.

• White Sox right-hander Jon Link, acquired from San Diego in 2007 for utility man Rob Mackowiak (by the way, the idea of giving up anything of value for Mackowiak confuses me profoundly), showed a 91-92 mph fastball with a plus slider that had a hard break I can only describe as “fast.” If nothing else, Link can miss bats in the big leagues with that pitch.