[農場]Decision 2009: Dan Meyer

看板Athletics作者ThomasHSNU (mimura *^^*)時間17年前 (2008/08/28 02:04)推噓3(3推 0噓 3→)

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http://tinyurl.com/68bok9 Decision 2009: Dan Meyer By Melissa Lockard | August 11th, 2008 With the losses piling up, all that is really left for the Oakland A’s in 2008 is to use the remainder of the season to evaluate players for the 2009 campaign . Over the next several weeks, I will take a look at some of the players that the A’s will have to make decisions about before the start of next season. The first in this series will examine left-hander Dan Meyer, who made his first start for Oakland this season in Detroit on Saturday. As most of you know, Meyer was the top prospect that the A’s acquired in the Tim Hudson trade with Atlanta in December 2004. Meyer was considered one of the top young lefties in the minors at the time of his acquisition. Unfortunately for him and for the A’s, Meyer injured his shoulder in a weightlifting accident before the start of spring training in 2005. He tried to pitch through the injury and wound-up having two poor seasons in 2005 and 2006 before finally succumbing to surgery in 2006. The 2007 season was a big rebound year for Meyer. After starting the season about three weeks late, Meyer made one start with Double-A Midland and then returned to Triple-A Sacramento, where he put together a season reminiscent of his time in the Braves chain. He ranked second in the PCL in ERA with a 3.39 mark and he struck-out 107 in 119.1 innings. Meyer was given a shot to start for Oakland towards the end of last season, but his command was shaky with the A’s. In 16.2 innings, he posted an 8.82 ERA and walked nine while allowing 20 hits. Going into spring training this season, it was originally believed that Meyer was out of options, which would have meant that the A’s would have had to keep him on their 25-man roster all season or risk losing him on waivers. However, just before the start of spring training, Meyer was “awarded” another option year by baseball because he had missed so much time due to injury in 2005 and 2006. He wasn’t given much of a chance to make the A’s pitching staff during spring training and returned to Sacramento at the start of the year. The 2008 season has been up-and-down for Meyer with the River Cats. At times, he has looked like an ace, while other times he has struggled with his command. As a result, his ERA for the River Cats is a less impressive 4.48 this season. Lately, however, Meyer had been pitching much better. Over his last five starts with the River Cats, the lefty had allowed only eight runs in 33.2 innings with 26 strike-outs and six walks. That hot streak earned Meyer another shot in the big leagues with the A’s when left-hander Dana Eveland was sent down to the minors for some fine-tuning with his mechanics. It isn’t clear whether the A’s intended to give Meyer an extended look when he was first called up. He made a relief appearance in Boston the day of his call-up, throwing a scoreless inning. The next day, he was called out of the bullpen again, this time throwing four shut-out innings and saving an already tired bullpen. On Saturday, he got his first start of 2008, filling in for right-hander Sean Gallagher, who is battling a sore shoulder. Meyer wasn’t spectacular on Saturday. He allowed three homeruns in five innings against the Detroit Tigers. However, all three of those homeruns were solo shots and I thought, for the most part, Meyer actually looked pretty good against a veteran, predominantly right-handed hitting line-up. According to the radar gun on the A’s TV network, Meyer’s fastball was sitting in the low-90s consistently, which is solid velocity for a left-handed pitcher. His off-speed stuff looked good, as well. Meyer’s biggest mechanical flaw, according to A’s minor league pitching coordinator Gil Patterson (who I spoke on Saturday morning with about Meyer for Scout.com), is that he has a tendency to fail to finish some of his pitches, which causes the pitches to stay up in the strike-zone. We saw that on Saturday night on the three homeruns. However, when Meyer was finishing his pitches, his stuff was very difficult for the Tigers’ hitters to handle. He got a lot of groundballs and was able to keep the hitters off-balance, for the most part. In addition, he worked at a much better pace than he did last season and generally looked a lot more confident on the mound. Before Eveland’s struggles and Gallagher’s injuries provided an opening for Meyer, it appeared that he was somewhat of a forgotten man in the A’s system, as pitchers such as Lenny DiNardo, Dallas Braden, Kirk Saarloos, Greg Smith and Gio Gonzalez had all gotten the call to the big leagues ahead of Meyer this season. However, Meyer’s first 10 innings with the A’s may have opened some eyes in Oakland’s front office and may have earned him one last shot to stick with the team next season, either in the rotation or in the bullpen. It will be difficult for the A’s to find a spot for Meyer next season with Justin Duchscherer, Greg Smith, Sean Gallagher, Dana Eveland, Dallas Braden and Gio Gonzalez all potentially returning to the team. In addition, Jerry Blevins seems to be staking a claim for a spot in the A’s bullpen next as the team’s primary lefty (his last two appearances notwithstanding). Yet, I think it would be unwise for the A’s to dismiss the possibility of finding a spot for Meyer outright. When healthy, Meyer has shown that he has the stuff to be an above-average left-handed starter in the big leagues. At 27 years old, he may not have a 10-year career as a starter ahead of him like he appeared to when he was first acquired, but Meyer should have a good five or six years left in him. His velocity and movement on his pitches has been encouraging in his recent call-up and one would expect that the longer he remains healthy, the better he will get at being consistent with his mechanics. With September and its expanded rosters quickly approaching and with the long season seemingly starting to wear on A’s starters such as Smith, Duchscherer, Gallagher and Eveland, I think it presents the A’s an opportunity to give Meyer a few more starts before the end of the year to evaluate him for next season. At the very least, if he shows he has good stuff, Meyer may develop into a player the A’s can move in the off-season to a team looking for a young , cheap arm for their rotation. -------- '09年Meyer將out of options 他的命運是留在Athletics?Trade?上waiver? -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 203.75.237.94