Too Many Starting Pitchers: Which Of Nestor Cortes & Aaron Civale Should The Brewers Trade?

[CheezWizHed]

After all, why bother with a thorough physical exam unless the team wants to know exactly what they’re working with and whether their reputed pitching development program will get the best out of his arm.

This seems like a silly argument.  If you are getting someone in a trade (especially a big trade for Williams), you want to make sure they are healthy. Period.  Doesn't matter if you plan to trade him or not. 

The worst thing you could do is trade for damaged goods and have your next trade partner find it and decline a trade. 

[Brian]

23 hours ago, Team Canada said:

Yeah, I'm going to need like 9 starters before I say we have too many starters.

LOL, I agree 100%, with the pitching shortages we had last season having an extra is a no brainer to me. 

Who says some can't work out of the pen because most our starters can't even finish the 5th inning. 

[Sugarrayray]

15 hours ago, Terry said:

So...a starter with a 4.06FIP and 3.72xERA is bad nowadays I see. There's absolutely no reason not to try stretching him out at spring training if he's fully healthy. He already showcased his ability to produce whiffs and groundballs and that his ceiling is probably the same as Peralta's, If we're seriously considering going deep in the playoffs, we're gonna have to give him a chance and hope it works.

Edit:
And I don't think the team had ever considered him as a DFA candidate. Yes he had command issue, but this year's early-on disatrous control issue mainly stem from his arm angle change that he's not accustomed to initially after the injury. Not because of the role he's in. 

Out of all the Brewer’s crop of ten or so starting pitchers/depth/shuttle guys, there aren’t too many that have benefited from a move to the bullpen more than Ashby. Even in 2022, he was far better in the bullpen, where he can avoid the big inning that has plagued him for most of his career.

A lot of guys improve in the bullpen because their stuff plays up, but Ashby’s stuff and velocity are great when he is healthy, no matter the role. Whether it’s mental or he just physically wears down by the third or fourth inning and loses control, his command issues pop up a lot more when he’s starting.

Furthermore, he is just downright dominant out of the bullpen in multiple situations and can give a couple innings as well. He’s had a long, arduous path back to health and performance - why mess with that when he finally settled in to a dominant role at the end of last season? The risk seems pretty great.

Essentially, I just think they have a lot of other guys they can start who are a) more dependable in a starting role, and b) don’t have as great a risk as Ashby seems to have. A full season of what he did out of the bullpen last year would be downright awesome right?

 

 

 

[Terry]

8 minutes ago, Sugarrayray said:

A lot of guys improve in the bullpen because their stuff plays up, but Ashby’s stuff and velocity are great when he is healthy, no matter the role. Whether it’s mental or he just physically wears down by the third or fourth inning and loses control, his command issues pop up a lot more when he’s starting.

I won't deny that, but his numbers between starter and reliever back in 2022 weren't even that far off if you dig into statcast numbers.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=&hfAB=&hfGT=R|&hfPR=&hfZ=&hfStadium=&hfBBL=&hfNewZones=&hfPull=&hfC=&hfSea=2022|&hfSit=&player_type=pitcher&hfOuts=&hfOpponent=&pitcher_throws=&batter_stands=&hfSA=&game_date_gt=&game_date_lt=&hfMo=&hfTeam=&home_road=&hfRO=&position=SP&hfInfield=&hfOutfield=&hfInn=&hfBBT=&hfFlag=&pitchers_lookup[]=676879&metric_1=&group_by=name&min_pitches=0&min_results=0&min_pas=0&sort_col=pitches&player_event_sort=api_p_release_speed&sort_order=desc&chk_stats_slg=on&chk_stats_xslg=on&chk_stats_woba=on&chk_stats_xwoba=on&chk_stats_swing_miss_percent=on#results

A dominant reliever is certainly nice, but a potential mid rotation is definitely better. If he's fully healthy, I'm almost 100% certain they will start him in spring training and see what happens.
 

[RWeeksFan23]

if you think we have too many starting pitchers NOW... just wait till we sign Sasaki!

[Scooterfletcher]

Mark has tons more money than yall think.   We don’t ever ever ever need to shed salary from the contracts we dish out.   Blasphemy and this idea in particular would be bad for the 25 brewers.

[brewmann04]

Keep them all NEVER have enough pitching