The Jays have a one-year agreement with left-handed reliever J.P. Howell

[souvlaki]

What's with us and JP's??

It never ends well.

[TholesWeirdEye]

If he can be anything like the years previous with the Dodgers this is a steal.

[GodDonaldson]

I like Howell.. He is a slower version of Zach Britton.. He has a sinking fastball in mid to high 80s with decent breaking ball like what Cecil had.. Good signing

[Ray]

Exceptions don't make the rule.

 

 

He'll be pitching 1 inning at most, if not used exclusively against lefties. It'll be fine.

[GodDonaldson]

Rosenthal reporting that we will be taking a look at right handed relief pitchers for around the same price. Stills lots of names out there:

 

Aaron Barrett (29)

Matt Belisle (37)

Joe Blanton (36)

David Hernandez (32)

Luke Hochevar (33)

Tommy Hunter (30)

Edwin Jackson (33)

Kevin Jepsen (32)

Seth Maness (28)

Peter Moylan (38)

Jonathan Papelbon (36)

Yusmeiro Petit (32)

Sergio Romo (34)

Fernando Salas (32)

Joe Smith (33)

Carlos Villanueva (33)

Chien-Ming Wang (37)

Tom Wilhelmsen (33)

Jerome Williams (35)

 

Anyone interesting in the $3 Million range?

 

Hochevar or David Hernandez would be decent

[King]

Rosenthal reporting that we will be taking a look at right handed relief pitchers for around the same price. Stills lots of names out there:

 

Aaron Barrett (29)

Matt Belisle (37)

Joe Blanton (36)

David Hernandez (32)

Luke Hochevar (33)

Tommy Hunter (30)

Edwin Jackson (33)

Kevin Jepsen (32)

Seth Maness (28)

Peter Moylan (38)

Jonathan Papelbon (36)

Yusmeiro Petit (32)

Sergio Romo (34)

Fernando Salas (32)

Joe Smith (33)

Carlos Villanueva (33)

Chien-Ming Wang (37)

Tom Wilhelmsen (33)

Jerome Williams (35)

 

Anyone interesting in the $3 Million range?

I like Fernando Salas.

[Ray]

Wilhelmsen would be decent.

[TheHurl]

 

Uh..

 

BP is not exactly strict on hiring it's regional writers.

[Terminator]

What's with us and JP's??

It never ends well.

 

Riccardi and Arencibia, anyone else?

[Boxcar]

Rosenthal reporting that we will be taking a look at right handed relief pitchers for around the same price. Stills lots of names out there:

 

Aaron Barrett (29)

Matt Belisle (37)

Joe Blanton (36)

David Hernandez (32)

Luke Hochevar (33)

Tommy Hunter (30)

Edwin Jackson (33)

Kevin Jepsen (32)

Seth Maness (28)

Peter Moylan (38)

Jonathan Papelbon (36)

Yusmeiro Petit (32)

Sergio Romo (34)

Fernando Salas (32)

Joe Smith (33)

Carlos Villanueva (33)

Chien-Ming Wang (37)

Tom Wilhelmsen (33)

Jerome Williams (35)

 

Anyone interesting in the $3 Million range?

 

I'd love Aaron Barrett. Belisle, Blanton, Hochevar, Maness, Romo, Jackson, Petit are all quite intriguing.

[Boxcar]

Riccardi and Arencibia, anyone else?

 

Morosi

[jays_fever]

Romo would be a nice add, probably will cost around 20 M though

[RealAccountant]

So this is the current bullpen

 

Osuna

Grilli

Biagini

Loup

Howell

Sparkman

Bolsinger/Floyd

 

Average at best. We would be 18th according to FG, Between the Brewers and the Whitesox.

[Terminator]

Morosi

 

Ah yes, official Blue Jays clickbaiter.

[BTS]

Not enough love for Joe Smith.

[King]

 

56 people and counting responded to the poll in 15 minutes. Retweet fellas

[Terminator]

I'd love Aaron Barrett. Belisle, Blanton, Hochevar, Maness, Romo, Jackson, Petit are all quite intriguing.

 

Yeah Barrett looks pretty legit.

[glory]

It's fairly cheap and a one year deal. Nothing to complain about.

[Abomination]

Romo would be a nice add, probably will cost around 20 M though

 

Romo would be awesome, but yeah, I don't expect him in that price range.

[Captain Adama]

Not enough love for Joe Smith.

 

For real, had injuries last year, but otherwise a sinkerballer machine that averaged a mid 3 xFIP over the last 4 years.

[King]

 

56 people and counting responded to the poll in 15 minutes. Retweet fellas

111 votes. Wow!

[Jonn]

It's a one-year deal so nothing to get that upset about but nothing to be thrilled about either. So meh.

[Brownie19]

Aaron Barrett looks like a great guy to target. The Nats are signing anyone and everyone to a minor league deal...why did they let this guy go?

[TwistedLogic]

 

Uh..

 

Well... he's right? He's talking about what they actually did. He isn't saying Howell is better than Cecil going forward. Howell's actual results are nearly half a run better than Cecil's since 2013.

 

RA9-WAR has them even over that time.

[TwistedLogic]

Aaron Barrett looks like a great guy to target. The Nats are signing anyone and everyone to a minor league deal...why did they let this guy go?

 

Had Tommy John (September 2015), then fractured his elbow before returning from Tommy John (July 2016), then refused a demotion to Syracuse (November 2016) and became a free agent. He could still end up back with the Nats.

[THANOS]

I hope Chris Smith outpitches Loup. I really like him as a LH option for me.

[GD]

Well... he's right? He's talking about what they actually did. He isn't saying Howell is better than Cecil going forward. Howell's actual results are nearly half a run better than Cecil's since 2013.

 

RA9-WAR has them even over that time.

 

Why are you looking at RA-9 rather than FIP over a 205 IP sample

[Grant77]

I like this signing. He's a great fit and a great value. If we can get another RHP setup guy to complement Grilli, the bullpen will look pretty solid.

[Muck Bartinez]

Well... he's right? He's talking about what they actually did. He isn't saying Howell is better than Cecil going forward. Howell's actual results are nearly half a run better than Cecil's since 2013.

 

Why are you looking at RA-9 rather than FIP over a 205 IP sample

 

I'm guessing since RA9-WAR is based on run prevention, which would be considered "results", while FIP is based on peripherals which is a better stat for predicting. Since he clearly stated he doesn't think the two pitchers are similar going forward, I think he just meant that an argument can easily be made that Howell has been better than Cecil over the stated time frame.

[GD]

I'm guessing since RA9-WAR is based on run prevention, which would be considered "results", while FIP is based on peripherals which is a better stat for predicting. Since he clearly stated he doesn't think the two pitchers are similar going forward, I think he just meant that an argument can easily be made that Howell has been better than Cecil over the stated time frame.

 

Just because FIP has predictive value does not make it a predictive stat. It is descriptive. Their strikeouts, walks, and home runs actually did happen, and are much more indicative of their skill than RA.

 

That is why we have FIP WAR. It doesn't mean "this is what his WAR should be;" it represents his actual WAR.

 

That is also why we don't have xFIP-WAR. Because xFIP is a predictive stat that did not actually happen, while WAR is a descriptive stat of what did happen.

 

 

 

tl;dr FIP is a better predictor, but is still a better measure of "results" than RA, especially over a small sample. Although none of them are necessarily "good" for evaluating relief contributions