Checking in on Tony and Tony with Fangraphs

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 1, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

With so many writers you can almost always count on Fangraphs to have written something about someone and sure enough, they have a nice article up about the Dodgers two newest relief pitchers.

Of course, it is not pleasant reading for Dodger fans. The title is The Best Reliever Traded at the Deadline by Eno Sarris but not only did the Dodgers not acquire the best relief pitcher yesterday, Fangraphs feels they acquired the worst in Tony Cingrani.

We do have this nugget about Cingrani:

But there’s also effective velocity. Cingrani strides well compared to the shorter-striding Jeffress and Wilson. His perceived velocity is 94.5 to Jeffress’ 90.7 and Wilson’s 92.7. So the former Reds lefty with the big fastball and the long arms and the hardest slider of his career, that’s the guy that has the best velocity this season.

So while Cingrani does not throw the hardest per the gun he has the best-perceived velocity of the bunch.  That was the only good thing they had to say about Cingrani.

Onto Tony Watson. His exit velocity has been one of the best, ranking 2nd just behind Rich Hill.  He’s also the best over the past three years at strikeouts. He has a great historical record against left-hand hitters.

Facing a lefty? Tony Watson and Justin Wilson have been lights out against them for a while now.

Before even looking at metrics I was always a big Cingrani fan just from watching him pitch. He has a great fastball but the metrics clearly show he’s been very hittable, particularly the home run.  Will that change? Fangraphs says the metrics say no, I’m going to bet on some tweaks here and there since the Dodgers acquired him for a reason and bet on him being effective for us.

A year ago we would have loved to have gotten Tony Watson but a year has passed and his numbers have tumbled. Still, we got him for a reason and hopefully, the reason was simply that we couldn’t get Brad Hand.

We need one of the two to work out and we have eight weeks to find out which one or both will help in October.