Kenta Maeda Is The Impact Pitcher You Were Waiting For

[Penthang]

I think the front office has given the coaches a great staff to work with in both the regular season and the post season…now it’s on Baldelli, Johnson, and company to get the most out of them. I honestly don’t feel like a mid season addition from outside the organization will be necessary, Hill is that guy.

[wabene]

This whole notion of a number one starter is funny to me. Talking the, say top ten starters in MLB is one thing, that might be an ace. Number one starter could mean the top 30. If that were the case there are many ranking systems and you find Berrios around 24 often, so a low number one. Then you can find Odo, Pineda, Hill and Maeda all in the two range. It could then be argued we have potentially one number one and four number two's. This is overblown, of course, but my point is this is a good staff, people. An improvement over a staff that ranked 3rd by WAR and 4th by FIP in all of MLB last year. If Hill can be pitching by August and we aren't killed by injuries the Twins are formidable and deep. That depth could be used to pace the staff. This team was hollowed out by the time it played the Yankees who had just gotten to full strength. With a little better infield defense Berrios and Odo looked pretty good against the evil empire. Add Donaldson and his defense while allowing Arraez to focus on 2nd base and we could be on to something.

[Brock Beauchamp]

While it's easy to get sucked into the concept of "impact" and look at the likes of Zack Wheeler (and don't get me wrong, I think he's a better pitcher than Maeda going forward), both Wheeler and Maeda have a career FIP of exactly 3.71.

[DocBauer]

I agree with the premise that Maeda makes and impact, but I stop short of any hyperbole he is a potential #1. I think that's ludicrous to even suggest.

 

He pitched just shy of 180IP and won 16G his first year in LA and has put up consistently good numbers across the board in his 4yrs there, including K's, WHIP, etc. He was very much a part of the rotation in LA. A rotation that ranks as one if the best on one of the best teams in all of MLB. From everything I have read or listened to, the reason he finished the last 3 seasons in the pen was because he was needed there and could really help. And he did.

 

Berrios is clearly our #1 and the only thing stopping him from being considered an ACE has been some 2nd half faltering. To be fair, in 2019 he rebounded after a rough stretch. Something he really didn't do in 2018.

 

Oddo is a 5-6IP starter, but so is most of the league these days. And he is borderline dominate for that 5-6 stretch. The Pineda we saw from June 1st last year might have been even better than Oddo.

 

Without improvement, simply pitching as they did in 2019, I'm not sure I could say which of Odorizzi, Pineda or Maeda would be our #2-3-4. I am also not saying that any of them are necessarily Greinke level. But they are all 3 really good SP.

 

Rank Berrios how you will. Hopefully, by the end of this year we can ALL agree he's a true #1 and he has a signed extension. But IMO, the Twins follow him up with 3 straight guys who are at worst #3 options who all pitch like a legit #2 some if not most of the time.

 

If we get half a season of the Hill that he can be, has been, we have a dangerous mound weapon to add in July. (I'm sticking with a July prediction to full health, velocity, control, etc).

 

"Impact pitching" is/was perhaps a poor choice of words. Semantics. At no point was anything said about adding a $300M pitcher, or sending 4 top 20 prospects to some team for a proposed ACE SP. Nor has any such pitcher been moved this offseason. (Or been made available).

 

The Twins HAVE made impact moves to their staff. It just may not be the impact player some dream of.

[Nine of twelve]

I choose to be optimistic. Here's our shut-down rotation (in alphabetical order) from August through the end of the season: Balazovic, Berrios, Maeda, Odorizzi, Pineda. No weak links. No true aces (given Balazovic is very young), but nobody wants to face us in a 4-game series. Or a 7-game postseason series. With our batters I'd gladly send any four of these into the postseason against any team in MLB, even the Dodgers.

[stockdogg]

Maeda's postseason numbers look promising.  But nothing about his numbers suggest that he is much more of an upgrade than Kyle Gibson, the last few years.  Hopefully his slider and BA against hold up well in a league full of hitters that have limited experience with him.  But I kind of chuckle at the idea that he is the "impact pitcher I have been looking for". I hope and pray to be proven dead wrong.

[cletus141]

 

Berrios threw 88 pitches to get through 4 innings, giving up 8 base runners (one on an error), and 3 runs, 1 earned. Did he embarrass himself? No. Nor did he pitch anything close to "well" if the objective is to beat a team who will be throwing Cole against you.

 

Yeah, but how many of those pitches were because of the errors?  He wasn't exactly "sharp" that day, but we was still putting NY hitters away with less than his best stuff.  AND you could argue that they pulled him early at 88 pitches.  He might've been fine for another inning.

[jkcarew]

 

Yeah, but how many of those pitches were because of the errors?  He wasn't exactly "sharp" that day, but we was still putting NY hitters away with less than his best stuff.  AND you could argue that they pulled him early at 88 pitches.  He might've been fine for another inning.

The inning in question went single, single, line-out, double, walk, ground-out (error trying to get a double-play), K. So, zero to five extra pitches depending on whether you want to assume a double play on the ground-out. He wasn't good. James Paxton handed his bullpen a shorter game that Berrios did his bullpen. And Berrios won't be matched up against James Paxton the next time the Twins play the Yankees in the post-season.

[cletus141]

 

The inning in question went single, single, line-out, double, walk, ground-out (error trying to get a double-play), K. So, zero to five extra pitches depending on whether you want to assume a double play on the ground-out. He wasn't good. James Paxton handed his bullpen a shorter game that Berrios did his bullpen. And Berrios won't be matched up against James Paxton the next time the Twins play the Yankees in the post-season.

 

still that inning would've been fine without the error. His other 3 innings:

K, BB, K, 2B, GO

K, BB, K, GO

1-2-3 (foul out, FO, K)

 

Telling me that he didn't have any more in the tank?  And who cares who he matches up against? The offense has to do their part regardless, which is why they don't figure into ERA.  And don't the 2 unearned runs assume the double play?