El Guapo’s Second Coming?
Andrew wants me to post more, so I’ll take some time out of studying for midterms to briefly comment on the latest Red Sox signing, none other than Bartolo Colon. The contract is of the minor league variety, and if Colon makes the 40-man roster, he gets 1.2 million for one year.
To me, this is clearly a smart move for the Red Sox. With Curt Schilling’s injury, the pitching depth took a big hit, and this fixes that problem nicely. More importantly, the Red Sox are paying almost nothing in return for a pitcher who is only two years removed from a 21 W, 3.48 ERA season. It’s not that I necessarily expect Colon to pitch in the Red Sox rotation, let alone come anywhere near those numbers. The thing is though, if Colon recovers from his injury problems (he could stand to lose a little weight too) and pitches at even 75% of his previous performance, he can be a very solid major league pitcher. This is a very low risk move with the potential of very high rewards, as the Red Sox front office pointed out.
Just as a note, Baseball Reference has Colon listed at 5′11″, 250 lb. That is fat as fuck. However, as people like David Wells have shown, fatness need not preclude major league success. But a BMI like that can’t be healthy; maybe the Red Sox can get him to go on the Atkins Diet or something.
That’s it for now. Back to studying, with visions of El Guapo dancing in my head…
Fat as fuck … or fatass fuck? I’m expecting jackshit from Bartolo. He couldn’t even nail down a major league deal from the Pirates, I mean that’s not a good sign.
FYI, his PECOTA projection is this: 92 1/3 IP, 62 K, 26 BB, 1.41 WHIP, 4.77 ERA.
That’s not terrible. But PECOTA can’t account for scouting and Fatboy was throwing in the 80s in the DWL. He’ll have to reinvent himself as a finesse pitcher, which seems virtually impossible considering his, uh, lack of discipline — just look at his physical appearance — and his stuff. Pedro Martinez he ain’t.
Yeah I don’t expect much from him either. However, I think the small chance that he recovers some of his magic is worth the minimal investment. Also, if you look at his numbers from last year, he got really unlucky: ERA of 6.34 but FIP of 4.77 (exactly what PECOTA predicts).
Also, Colon might have good enough control to be a finesse pitcher. His control has actually been a strong suit for a while now. I give him a 50/50 chance of re-establishing himself as a major league starter….But then again, I’m not a scout. I guess I just have a soft spot in my heart for overweight pitchers.