Tom Milone needs to be on your Radar

[Lintyfresh85]

Can anyone pull his numbers to compare his called strike 3 to swinging strike 3 strikeouts? I think that woud give a good indication to if it's his command that strikes guys out or it's his stuff. Because he does strike a lot of guys out.

Last four games 39 K's.

31 swinging
8 looking

[NJ Ave]

At age 22 when he played his only half season in high-A ball, Andy Sonnanstine struck out 75 and walked only 7 in 64 innings throwing his featherballs. Overall he struck out 8.2 per 9 innings in the minors. In the majors he's struck out 5.9 per 9 innings in his career.

Kirk Saarloos had a 101-23 strikeout to walk ratio between double-A and triple-A at age 23. He's struck out 4.4 hitters per 9 innings in the majors.

Look at the list the leaders in strikeout to walk ratio in the minor leagues from 2000: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/leader.cgi?type=pitch&year=2000&sort_by=strikeouts_per_base_on_balls

It's littered with guys whose stuff and command was good enough to fool minor league hitters, but would never get major league hitters out.

[daveb32]

Last four games 39 K's.

31 swinging
8 looking

Would that be about average for most pitchers? Below? Above?

[daveb32]

Kyle Drabek named EL pitcher of the year.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100827&content_id=13987376&vkey=pr_milb&fext=.jsp

[Lintyfresh85]

Milone finished third?

People must be really unimpressed with his stuff.

[Potomac Cannons]

Just looking at the stats I'd have gone Owens, Milone, Drabek in that order.  Either way Toronto, Pittsburgh and the Nats all have a AA stud coming along (and we have Meyers there who had foot problems this year and is likely the better prospect).  Milone is a year older than Drabek and Owens as well.

[daveb32]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Milone flew under the radar for most of his career. You have Drabek who was taken in the first round & was a part of one of the biggest deals this decade. I like Milone's numbers more than the other two, but he kind of put up those numbers a lot quieter.

On a seperate note, I have Drabek in my keeper league so it's good to hear my prospects are doing well!

[YanksFanDC]

anyone remember Jimmy Key?   Lefty, soft-tosser who was very good for about a decade. 

How can you keep a guy in the minors who just gets outs? 

[Potomac Cannons]

anyone remember Jimmy Key?   Lefty, soft-tosser who was very good for about a decade. 

How can you keep a guy in the minors who just gets outs? 

Easy.  He's 23.  It was his first year a AA.  Why not give him a full season, including playoff experience, when he doesn't have to be added to the 40 man roster until the 2011 minor league Rule 5 draft?  I'm sure he'll get a solid look in spring training, start the year at AAA, and if he keeps dominating move to the front of the line of pitchers to call up whenever performance or injury dictates.

[Potomac Cannons]

I just got around to looking at the major league equivalence for Milone.

It projects (167 IP) out to 3.77 FIP, 1.23 WHIP, 6.74 K/9 (right about league average), 1.94 BB/9, and 0.81 HR/9.  That's right, better than average FIP and WHIP along with a K/BB ratio better than 3/1.

Here's hoping for a dominant year at AAA (at age 24) and a potential #2/#3 SP showing up in 2012 along with Stras and JZ.  Add in that he's a LHP and that starts to look really good.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Look at who the first two guys mentioned by Carson Cistulli in attempt to identify "notable" minor legaue ptichers to watch for next year.  No big surprise given where this is posted at one name.  As for the other, well, at least Felipe had a career, if not with us.

Yesterday, in these electronic pages, I discussed briefly the significance of the offseason to the baseballing enthusiast — namely, as a time both to (a) process the season that was and (b) begin to acquaint oneself with the season that will be.

Over the next four or five months, we will be treated to a surfeit of data: projections (dependable and not so much), roster and depth-chart changes, rumors, etc.

In fact, some of the aforementioned data has already been made available. Almost two weeks ago now, beloved Pole Dan Szymborski released for the public’s consideration the minor league translations (zMLEs) that inform, in part, his ZiPS projection system. Though, as Szymborski shouts at the top of his lungs, the numbers are subject to all manner of caveat, they still provide an interesting point of departure for developing ideas about players come 2011.

Here are five notable pitcher zMLEs, with notations of varying helpfulness. As to what constitutes “notable,” there’s no hard definition, but I’ve generally looked for pitchers with more than 10 starts and have omitted more well-known prospects — like Jeremy Hellickson or Travis Wood, for example.

Ages are as of today, October 28th. FIPs are approximate; pitchers, ordered according to author’s whim. Five hitter zMLEs will appear in this space tomorrow.

Name: Daryl Thompson, 24, RHP
Organization: Cincinnati Level: Double-A
Actual: 51.0 IP, 12/12 GS/G, 9.18 K/9, 1.94 BB/9, 0.53 HR/9, 2.63 FIP
zMLE: 46.3 IP, 12/12 GS/G, 7.38 K/9, 2.72 BB/9, 1.17 HR/9, 4.31 FIP
Notes
• Was 0-5 with a 3.71 ERA despite those fine peripherals — which, that makes him a good buy-low candidate so far as investing one’s affections goes.
• One thing about him: his groundball rates have tended to be in the mid- or high-30s, which is quite low.
• One other thing about him: he had shoulder surgery last season and pitched less than 30 innings in 2009 as a result.
• Also missed time in 2010 with shouder tightness and the like.
• Is pitching for Peoria in Arizona Fall League as we speak. Literally, right now. Believe me!

Name: Tommy Milone, 23, LHP
Organization: Washington Level: Double-A
Actual: 158.0 IP, 27/27 GS/G, 8.83 K/9, 1.31 BB/9, 0.57 HR/9, 2.57 FIP
zMLE: 151.3 IP, 27/27 GS/G, 6.78 K/9, 1.84 BB/9, 1.01 HR/9, 3.92 FIP
Notes
• Is a “soft-tossing lefty,” according to John Sickels.
• Has an “excellent changeup,” also according to John Sickels.
• Will likely someday own Boston-area watering hole and install former pitching coach as bartender.
• Will also marry Mary Steenburgen, probably.
• Actually, just checked: already is married to Mary Steenburgen. My B.

[Sharp]

Wow... Milone's walk rate is that good?  We definitely need to give him a look then, despite all our AAAA guys this franchise does not have any good contact pitchers.  By which I mean contact pitchers who hate walks with a passion.  Livo and Strasburg are both pretty good at avoiding walks, but Livo is kind of old and Strasburg is more about not letting the batter make contact at all so he's out of the discussion.

[Lintyfresh85]

Heh.

I beat Fangraphs to the punch.