Comments on: Whither the Younger Weaver?

By: Joe Cool

Joe Cool — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:12:52 +0000

It must be the funky delivery ?

No horizontal movement, no velocity, and pitching WAY up in the zone with no sink. I don’t get it.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:41:34 +0000

I agree with Alireza – at 27 years old, he has a lot of innings left. He may not ever reach a K/9 of 7.75 or better, but there’s no reason to think that he can’t improve his BB/9 and figure out a way to get more balls on the ground. From age 27 – 30, Wandy Rodriguez significantly improved his game and I don’t see why Weaver can’t improve. Yes, age slows players down, but pitchers peak a lot later than hitters.

By: Alireza

Alireza — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:15:58 +0000

A couple things I noticed here.

1) Weaver’s “fastball” average is 89 MPH, but that is not where his four seamer lives. That fastball is consistently in the 92-94 zone. He throws a two seamer/cutter that brings the average down.

2) Age may do Weaver well. If he figures out how to get a few more grounders, that will help.

3) A good comparable to Weaver, albiet from the other side of the rubber, would be Randy Wolf. Above-average strikeout stuff, combined with an array of slower stuff (though Weaver throws more pitches and uses his change more than his curve as an out pitch) with flyball tendencies. Weaver should be less injury prone, but he has solid third starter written all over him.

By: odbsol

odbsol — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:34:04 +0000

Being a fly-ball pitcher is fundamentally weaker than being a ground-ball pitcher, if only because less than 1% of all ground balls end up being home runs.

Great line.