Lookin at the Lefties Lately

[mth123]

One area that is a burning need in baseball is left-handed pitching. Currently the Reds have no starters who are left-handed. They do have 2 relievers who are doing pretty well in Bill Bray and Jeremy Affeldt. Affeldt is a free agent after the season and may be a candidate for a mid-summer deal. The Reds have some needs and a lefty arm that a contender thinks can pitch late out of the pen might be able to bring in some talent. We just saw Danny Rae Herrera and I was impressed. Should the Reds have a need, Herrera would be a decent choice to call-up again. But what if he's a mirage? Is there anyone else down there? The Reds have a number of RHP who might be able to help out if needed (Thompson, Belisle, Roenicke, even Coffey) but what of the left side? Could the Reds pull the trigger on an Affeldt deal to acquire help in the OF, SS or C? Is there depth if Affeldt or Bray go down? Is there a LH alternative for the rotation?

Below is a table of the Reds' LH depth, showing how they have performed recently (last 10 appearances). In the case of Wood and Valiquette I used the combined season's stats since they only had a few appearances at their new level and I was too lazy to do a lot of math.

Name	        Age	Level	Games	IP	ERA	K	BB	K/9	BB/9
Matt Maloney	24	AAA	10	59.66	4.07	57	18	8.60	2.72
Adam Pettyjohn	31	AAA	10	62.66	4.31	32	19	4.60	2.73
Daniel Herrera	23	AAA	10	11.00	2.45	6	4	4.91	3.27
Tyler Pelland	24	AAA	10	8.00	7.88	11	9	12.38	10.13
Pedro Viola	25	AA	10	9.66	4.66	13	8	12.11	7.45
Ben Jukich	25	AA	10	65.00	2.63	55	27	7.62	3.74
Lee Tabor	23	AA	8	9.33	1.93	8	6	7.72	5.79
Travis Wood	21	AA/A+	11	58.66	2.45	54	26	8.29	3.99
Alex Smit	22	A+	10	55.33	2.77	47	27	7.65	4.39
Camilo Vasquez	24	A+	10	23.66	1.90	23	8	8.75	3.04
Phil Valiquette	21	A-/A+	19	30.66	2.93	39	11	11.45	3.23
Jamie Arneson	22	A-	10	22.33	8.06	19	22	7.66	8.87
Joseph Krebs	23	A-	10	12.66	4.87	11	5	7.82	3.55
Jeremy Horst	22	A-	10	18.00	4.50	13	10	6.50	5.00
Steve Otterness	23	A-/A+	8	11.00	5.73	9	9	7.36	7.36

The biggest surprise for me was Lee Tabor. Anyone have more info on him? The Dayton team looks kind of weak. Time to give Lotzkar (maybe the best LH pitching prospect in the system) a chance IMO.

[OnBaseMachine]

Lotzkar is right handed.

[mth123]

Lotzkar is right handed.

Your right. Baseball Cube shows that he bats Left Handed and I read that one wrong.

Other guys I have down as lefty that I think deserve a shot ahead of the guys on Dayton are:

Tzu Chiu, Travis Webb and Drew Bowman.

Bowman had a couple of good appearances earlier, Chiu was pretty good at Billings last year and Webb showed some flashes last year. Any idea why those guys aren't pitching? Is Webb injured?

[dougdirt]

I believe Webb had Tommy John surgery this spring. Bowman, I can't say.

[mth123]

I believe Webb had Tommy John surgery this spring. Bowman, I can't say.

Makes sense. I hadn't heard about the TJ. He was pretty decent last year.

Any idea why Chiu is still being held back?

[dougdirt]

Makes sense. I hadn't heard about the TJ. He was pretty decent last year.

Any idea why Chiu is still being held back?

Billings likely.

[mth123]

Billings likely.

I assume so. Why not Dayton? Not enough innings on his arm for a full schedule?

[11larkin11]

I assume so. Why not Dayton? Not enough innings on his arm for a full schedule?

If I remember correctly, Chiu is very very young?

[mth123]

If I remember correctly, Chiu is very very young?

He's 20. Born 9-14-1987.

[camisadelgolf]

Tzu-Kai Chiu goes to school (on the Reds' dime, I believe). Andrew Bowman is not injured. Webb had Tommy John surgery.

[RedsManRick]

Disappointed to see how few guys have good control (under 3.0) or who miss a lot of bats (over 8.0). Not a great sign for their future major league prospects.

[dougdirt]

Disappointed to see how few guys have good control (under 3.0) or who miss a lot of bats (over 8.0). Not a great sign for their future major league prospects.

Pretty much minor league wide for lefties. Quality left handed starters are very rare.