An Aaron Laffey Comparison
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 2, 2011 5:24 PM PST
in Seattle Mariners Stats
Email
PrintAs valued commenter Teej remarked in the thread below, Aaron Laffey is kind of like Horacio Ramirez. How kind of like Horacio Ramirez is he? Let's compare Laffey to Ramirez at the time of his trade to the Mariners.
First of all, they're both six foot-ish lefties. Laffey works off a high-80s sinking fastball, a mediocre slider, and a mediocre change. Ramirez worked off of a high-80s sinking fastball, a cutter, a mediocre slider, and a mediocre change. Ramirez had a more interesting repertoire, but it's close. Ramirez's arm slot was a little higher.
And as for performance:
| Laffey | Ramirez | |
| K% | 11% | 11% |
| BB% | 9% | 9% |
| GB% | 52% | 50% |
I'm not saying Laffey is doomed to have as lousy as Mariner career as Ramirez did, and it's not like Laffey is being automatically inserted into the starting rotation as Ramirez was after costing us a big talent, but, you know, yikes.
58 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Go away for a little while, come back, and you're the cock of the walk
by Teej on Mar 2, 2011 9:45 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Enjoy your spotlight now.
Because the season’s starting and that means the Return of the Chinn is upon us
Few things trouble me like being reminded of Horacio.
Damn you Laffey, if for nothing more than this.
At least we didn't trade a good player for him.
Or maybe better yet we’ll get Rafael Soriano from another trade!
You got slurved!
From LGT...
So there are a lot of us over at LGT who are actually big Laffey fans. Not because we think he is a great pitcher or are deluded about how good a pitcher he has been for Cleveland, but there is just something about him that is likeable. He was never that highly regarded a prospect, but always had above average GB-rates. The assumption was that as he progressed through the system, better hitters would take advantage of him. Instead, in 2007, he dominated AA and AAA, raising his K-rates, improving his control and maintaining his GB-numbers. Basically, exceeding expectations for his ceiling considerably. This led to a big league promotion and an improbable role in the Tribe’s 2007 playoff push. Since then he has bounced between the rotation and the bullpen, always somehow managing to fill in where needed despite his marginal arsenal of stuff. At times, like May 2008 (5 GS, 34 IP, 0.79 ERA), he has actually put together sustained periods of decent pitching. Last year he bottomed out, at times not able to get his FB above 85 mph, but still managed to stick it out in the big league pen. He is quite possibly a major arm injury in waiting, or just a fraction away from a complete collapse, but he is a pretty likable player. Also, his DP-inducing ability is easy to like.
I remember I kind of wanted him way back in 2007 or 2008
Since then I’ve just come to confuse him with the rest of your soft-tossing lefties. Any explanation for what’s happened these past two years?
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 2, 2011 5:44 PM PST up reply actions
Not really
His velocity came back a little bit at the end of last season. The official word from the club was “shoulder fatigue.” I think we all assumed there was some sort of underlying injury to his elbow or shoulder. He said in the first week of camp he was feeling great.
by APV on Mar 2, 2011 5:46 PM PST up reply actions
hmmm
Maybe Jack’s replacing RRS, since we don’t really have a likable, kinda crappy lefty starter at the moment. Is Laffey on Twitter too?
(Garrent Olsen doesn’t count)
Not sure
If I remember correctly, though, a number of our commentators friended Laffey on Facebook back in 2006 and 2007 when he was a no-one in the minors. The story of his first big league promotion was first reported when one of our guys saw him update his status on facebook.
by APV on Mar 2, 2011 5:50 PM PST up reply actions
Can one of them tell him to shave the goatee?
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 2, 2011 5:51 PM PST up reply actions
Part of his charm
..along with those GIDPs. Prior to last year, he averaged more than 1 per appearance. We took to just calling them Laffeys, even if he wasn’t the pitcher.
by APV on Mar 2, 2011 5:53 PM PST up reply actions
Well then here's to blaming Aaron Laffey for Jack Wilson's next strained hamstring
by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 2, 2011 5:54 PM PST up reply actions
Great, then you can trade him to us
We’re moving all our assets from soft-tossing lefties to almost, but not quite good middle infielders
by APV on Mar 2, 2011 5:56 PM PST up reply actions
Remember when we had Matt Lawton for a week?
Good times.
Tangent: Lawton! Everything about Lawton's last few years was Mariners-related!
Lawton was teammates with Bradley (Mariners!) from 2002-04. Right before ’05 Lawton was traded to to the Indians from the Pirates in exchange for Arthur Rhodes(Mariners!). Halfway through ’05, he was traded to the Padres for Jody Gerut (Mariners!). 3 weeks later, he was traded to the Yankees, and hit his 1st home run as a Yankee against the (Mariners!).
He signed with the M’s before ‘06, who released Guillermo Quiroz to make room on the roster. Lawton only made it through 11 games before retiring. Of course, Quiroz made a triumphant return to the M’s organization in 2009.
I am going to come into your house at night and rec up the place.
No way man. Those days were too dark.
Dawg! He put da team on his back!
Think about that last player that Z acquired who had two a's in a row in his name
David Aardsma. I think it’s safe to say Zduriencik has struck gold.
by Dewey N on Mar 2, 2011 6:04 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
Maybe he's gonna be better now that he's healthy
2007-2008 he had decent walk rates and good groundball rates. In the minors he had decent walk rates.
2009 Missed 41 games (oblique injury).
2010 Missed 38 games (left shoulder injury)
If he can stay healthy, maybe his walk rates will go back down. If he can get sub-3 BB/9 he probably becomes a useful SP. If his groundball rates come back then that’s a bonus.
Hopefully Lawson is as worthless as the FO thinks he is. I don’t have any problems getting rid of him since he just feels like minor league filler to me.
Plus a SP (possibly…) under team control until 2015 isn’t a bad thing.
I feel for Mariners fans.
This guy looks solif filler for a building team or a injury insurance player for a better team. It is a pretty decent deal inthat it gives the M’s someone who can maginally help for someone that wasn’t needed. It is a good basic, if not spectacular move
I hope that this trade is the front ofice honing their skills because sometime in the near future they’ll probably need to trade Felix Hernandez. Please not to the Yankees or red Socks
Just a genius at large
"You can make something fool proof but not damn fool proof"
Dwight Eisenhower
You shut your mouth!
Writing from beautiful Yuma, AZ
by Ballard Erik on Mar 2, 2011 6:26 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Considering Jeff's two posts on him already, we understand what we're getting in Aaron Laffey.
Your compliment towards us for a “decent”, “basic” move for someone who can “marginally help” reads as being awfully condescending, by the way.
Additionally, it’s insulting of you to suggest that the team will need to trade their best pitcher in the near future. The Mariners are in the rebuilding, and the consensus is that we will be ready to compete by 2012.
Maybe you meant well with your post, but if so, please take into future consideration that it read as though it were written by a concern troll.
by katal on Mar 2, 2011 6:40 PM PST up reply actions 7 recs
I feel you man.
I’d much rather trade Felix to the argyle Socks. Although you’d definitely have to worry about getting a player with a checkered background from them in return.
by ThomasG on Mar 2, 2011 7:13 PM PST up reply actions 12 recs
This is odd.
What does honing front office skills have to do with trading Felix Hernandez? Anyone from Andrew Friedman to Steve Phillips could trade Felix Hernandez if they were running this team right now because all you need to do is know how to make a trade.
Why do you hope that this trade is a warm up for a Felix Hernandez trade? If you want Felix on your team, wouldn’t it make sense to hope the front office sucks at evaluating talent so that they can make a bad trade? More importantly, why would the team need to trade Felix Hernandez? Bear in mind that forfeiting 3 more years of team control simply because the team is not planning to contend THIS year is not a valid argument.
Why do you feel the need to tell us that you feel for Mariner fans? All that happened today is that the team traded for Aaron Laffey. All this thread is about is continued discussion of what Aaron Laffey brings to the table. No one is grieving over anything here.
by ThundaPC on Mar 2, 2011 8:56 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
The only possible explanation is that the M's need to trade Felix and are desperately searching for a replacement ace
Laffey is an ace in the making.
I am going to come into your house at night and rec up the place.
Laffey Stuff
Laffey is a guy who relies on a low BABIP for success. He also has a problem with control as is evident by his BB/9. He is also tempremental, as if an error is made behind him he has a tendencey to implode. So, basically, Laffey can succeeed if all the right conditions are met. Last year he also got lit up by lefties, which was a little suprising, as he hasn’t had problems with lefties in his career.
You, Sir
Have an apt name.
Any pitcher who throws at a batter and deliberately tries to hit him is a communist. -Alvin Dark
Thanks Ben
but don’t let the user name fool you. Usually, I am very positive (fighting the negative). I just call them the way I see them.
As far is a supposed tendancy to implode when errors occur
That would seem to me to probably be more about the fact that he’s a very marginal pitcher with very small room for error. He’s barely able to survive giving the other team three outs per inning, so it would stand to reason giving them four or more is definitely going to cause bad things to happen. So, probably nothing to do with personality or being temperamental, just that he’s not very good. Though, either way, it amounts to the same thing as far as the results go, I suppose.
by TIFO on Mar 2, 2011 10:12 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
At least it's a 25 year old guy who never topped AA that we gave up
Instead of an established and dominant Major League pitcher. So in this instance, I don’t think it’s a bad trade in this instance. Hell, who knows – maybe he undergoes some sort of magical transformation and becomes quite decent and we don’t get another HoRam.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Lookout Landing
Related FanShots on Lookout Landing
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
- Benches clear at Fenway as Red Sox-Rays rivalry heats up
- Keeping good company: Albert Pujols becomes fourth-youngest player to hit 450 home runs
- Giancarlo Stanton misses cutoff man, and Logan Morrison is thankful he did (Video)
- Snoop Dogg delivers memorable first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field
