Cardinals Trade For a New Boyer
by Michael Riehn
Whiteyball staff
Blaine Boyer
I am a huge Brian Barton fan and was sad to see him traded away yesterday. He only hit .268 last year but this was a misleading number because he also had a .354 OBP and .392 SLG (.746 OPS). He was a perfect compliment to our left handed bats when we were facing the sinister side last year and one of the few players in the organization with the speed and on base percentage needed for the leadoff position.
Unfortunately Barton only hit .192 in spring training and a little over .100 in Memphis. We have better outfield prospects (John Jay, Darryl Jones, Joe Mather) ready to play every day in triple A and that doesn’t even include our 4 outfielders in the majors or prospects who might end up in the outfield (Allen Craig, Brett Wallace). Plus, the man turns 27 in 5 days, and that is a bit old for a prospect still in the minors. Barton has value in the major leagues, but there wasn’t much opportunity in our organization.
Who is Blaine Boyer? His upside is another successful Dave Duncan project and his downside is another bad bullpen guy. He is tools with talent, wrapped up in an enigma. In the first half of last year, he put up numbers similar to Kyle Mclellan. This is good. Unfortunately, he was even worse than K-Mac in the second half last year, and therein lies the rub. He can dial it up to 94-95 and has a nice strikeout to walk ratio. His weakness has been giving up the long ball and a very high batting average on balls in play (BABP) mark.
What is BABP?
This is a stat that measures the batting average the opposing batters have against a particular pitcher. Thus a .350 BABP is what the pitcher could give up to all batters that he faces and is mostly attributed to luck. Someone with an unreasonably low or high BABP mark over a season is probably going to regress to the mean the next year.
A pitcher is said to have some control on walks, strikeouts, whether a ball is on the ground or in the air, home runs and line drives, but he can not control what the ball does after this. A seeing eye single or a great play by the defense is not a skill that the pitcher possesses (though defense can influence BABP). Players with poor traditional statistics who have this, are great bounce back candidates for the next year. This is a good sign.
I looked up how Boyer did compared to other teams in the league last year and was surprised to see that the Cardinals destroyed him. This got me thinking about why the Cardinals would want him. Do the Cardinals already know what went wrong with him in the second half? This could be why the Cardinals wanted him and why he was on Dave Duncan’s wish list. Sometimes I think this is what gets our fearless pitching coach out of bed in the morning. He sees something in pitchers that nobody else has noticed. This in turn gives the Cardinals and advantage when facing him, but also shows them what that pitcher needs to do to correct his mechanics.
Braves Blast.com had a glowing review on Boyer during the preseason.
Blaine Boyer has been described by scouts, coaches, and teammates as a talented young pitcher with “closer’s stuff”. Boyer features a heater that pops the mitt in the mid-to-upper 90’s, and a (at times) knee-buckling 12-6 curveball. Boyer was thrust into a key late-inning role after Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano were lost to injuries, and he responded well to the challenge. Through the end of June, Boyer posted a very solid 3.63 ERA. However, after notching nearly 45 innings by the half-way point of the season, he appeared to “hit a wall”, and struggled throughout the second half.
John Smoltz is a big Blaine Boyer believer. He has raved about Boyer’s potential, and spent most of the winter training with him. And “Smoltzy” isn’t the only one ready to buy stock in the 6′ 3″ right-hander. Everyone within the Braves organization seems to think highly of Boyer. And he was rumored to be one of the pieces the Padres wanted in a potential Jake Peavy trade. With the depth of Atlanta’s bullpen this year, Boyer should benefit from less pressure and a reduced work load.
Not everything is rosy with Boyer. He had a terrible start to the season this year and his velocity has been a bit down (92 mph average), but the man has a lot of potential. In my opinion, it was a good pick up.
Filed Under: Baseball • Uncategorized
About the Author: I am a Cardinal fan, from a small town in Missouri and grew up listening to the Whiteyball teams of the 1980s (but still love the Tony LaRussa version). Currently living outside of St. Louis, I am a partial season ticket holder with a great group of friends.
I hold the position of Director of Sales and Marketing for a hydraulic press manufacturer and serve on a local youth baseball board of directors. Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/mriehn
I like the move too. Take a shot with the guy. If he has any success at all, that means he already makes more of an impact on the MLB team than Barton was going to make this year. The organization saw an issue with the bullpen, and now are making small strides to fix it… isn’t that what everyone was complaining about in the offseason?