Archive for the “Mark Worrell” Category

Around this time last year some of us were bemoaning the departure of some of our favorite Fabergé eggs. Chris Perez and then later Jess Todd went to Cleveland for Mark DeRosa. Matt Holliday was acquired for the man we affectionately dubbed the Walrus, as well as Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson. That was four of our top ten prospects going into the 2009 season, and Peterson was in most publications’ top 15-20.

I wasn’t a big fan of either trade at the moment they happened, but I gradually sobered up from my prospect fanboyism and realized that the deals, in themselves, were perfectly justifiable even if it meant putting a pretty big dent in the farm system. So far, Luhnow has done a pretty good job re-stocking the system with some potential, assuming the tops picks of the draft sign and the Carlos Matias signing is OK’d.

I thought it would be fun just to check in with some of the players and see how they’re doing for their new clubs. This isn’t to pronounce a winner or a loser in the trade, just a status update.

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Eh. I liked Gregerson, he had one of the better sinker/slider combos of anyone in the system, but the club has a plethora of right-handed relief as it is. BA rated him the Cards’ 29th best prospect. Last week, it was announced that Mark Worrell is going to undergo Tommy John surgery. So far it’s hard to like this deal from a the standpoint of a Padre fan.

Note: As pointed out by Alex, I goofed big time on my last analysis, but since I’m the godfather I’m going to take a mulligan. 23 year old C pitching prospects have a surplus value of $1.3M each. It’s that low because they have a 78% chance of busting, a 19% of becoming a contributor and a 3% chance of being an everyday player according to Victor Wang’s piece in The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2009. Khalil Greene is projected to be a 1.5 wins above replacement player, worth about $6.6M on the free agent market…the predicted free agent market that is.  It’s more like $6.15 given the amount of below market deals made this winter, perhaps even less.  Greene’s salary is $6.5M. So in the end, the Cardinals gave up $2.3M in assets and are paying an above market salary for Greene.

Doesn’t look like a win, but considering they only had to give up two older C prospects for someone who has not long ago posted WARs of 3.8 and 3.5, it’s definitely worthwhile move in my view. So far in spring training at least, Greene looks like a good bounce back candidate, both offensively and defensively.

Revealing interview with Mark Worrell by Dustin Mattison:

DM: … Has the team given you any indication of its plans for you for the future?

MW: No, they haven’t given me any indication. To be quite honest with you, I was hoping they would get rid of me. I would like to be given a fair chance. They haven’t given me a fair chance at all. Every year, I’ve put up great numbers, out battled my competition, and up to this point I have nothing to show for it but 13 days in the big league. With almost any other team, I think I would have had a real shot.

For the sake of Worrell’s sanity, I hope he is included in the deal for Khalil Greene.

UPDATE: And just as he aired his grievances 19 days early of Festivus, it turns out the trade is Mark Worrell and a PTBNL for Greene. Padres fans can click here and here to read more about Worrell. The Padres seem to have a knack for building a solid bullpen undervalued relievers, so I’m sure he will fit right in.

A great question asked by Greg in the comments:

Can someone explain why Mark Worrell doesn’t seem to be in the team’s plans? Guy’s got a minor-league career K/9 rate of 10.5. FIP last year at Memphis was 2.86. (And, of course, we know he can hit in the big leagues.) What am I missing?

The numbers present a very strong case for Worrell, look no further than his MLE-57.7 innings, K/9 10.77, BB/9 4.68, .233 batting average against, 3.19 FIP. If that doesn’t do it for you, 25.6% of the batters he faced went down swinging, the third highest rate in the PCL for relievers, behind only Jason Motte and Jason Bulger. I mean, with those kinds of results, one would think we’d be talking about him in the same breath as Motte and Perez.

The thing about Worrell is that he is such an oddball, er, um..unique. He never throws from a windup. He throws from a wide variety of arm slots and angles, but mostly sidearm when facing right-handed batters and over the top facing southpaws. He keeps his front shoulder completely closed off to the batter until his right arm forces it open. When he finishes his delivery, it looks like he wobbles off the mound. He throws two different fastballs, depending on what his opponents handedness. All of it is very quirky, to say the least.

Why I’m not shocked that he gets no love is that unless you have exceptional stuff as a sidearmer or a submariner- a real out pitch -you probably will get ignored longer than you deserve to be. Despite the numbers, by all accounts I’ve ever heard, Worrell’s stuff isn’t exceptional. His repertoire consists of an low-nineties fastball, an average slider and change. But it does plays up because of all the deception.

I certainly don’t think it’s fair that he’s overlooked. It was one thing for him to obliterate the Florida State League, it’s whole other ball of wax for him to have dominated the PCL. I don’t think he’s closer material, but he should make a decent middle reliever. One thing to note is that throughout his minor league career, he does possess somewhat of a noticeable platoon split-4.25 FIP versus lefties, 3.31 against right-handers, so he’s probably more of a situational type in the majors. That would come in handy when facing the likes of Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez late in a game, of course.

He has big league potential. I wouldn’t say you are missing anything, Greg. Worrell’s biggest problem is that he has Perez, Motte, McClellan, Franklin and Kinney all ahead of him on the depth chart. His future may lie elsewhere.

The pitching was more impressive than the hitting in Memphis. I got a chance to watch several relievers (Motte, Scherer, Worrell) as well as a couple starters (Walters, Boggs) that could play roles in the future for the big league club. I also saw my two nemeses far too often.

It’s boring out here.

They don’t blow enough games in late innings at Memphis.

They’re still learning to be major leaguers. We’ve got it down already.

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Yesterday was an ugly day for the Cardinals, losing 20-6 to the Dodgers.  My man in Jupiter described the scene as “pathetic”.  The good news is that Brian Barton continues to make a strong case for making the team.  He went 2-3 yesterday with a triple.  Colby Rasmus (who really needs a good nickname, if you ask me) went 1-2 with a double and a run, and Joe Mather went 1-2 with an RBI single and a run scored. 

 On the pitching side of the prospect ledger, Mark Worrell went one inning and gave up two hits, one a homerun, and walked a man.  His spring ERA is now at 6.00, which puts a damper on my hopes that he would make the club out of Spring Training.  Blake Hawksworth gave up three runs in two innings of work, but struck out five Dodgers. 

 Today, Clayton Mortenson started because Anthony Reyes has flu-like symptoms.  I will be in Florida starting on Wednesday, so I will be reporting back on what I see with pictures and words.