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Tuesday, January 26, 2010Oakland A’s Sign Ben SheetsPosted by Tommy Rancel at 6:52pmIt's tough enough to analyze pitchers from one year to the next. Analyzing a pitcher who hasn't thrown a major league pitch in over a year is that much tougher. Yet here we are talking about new Oakland A's starter Ben Sheets. After sitting out the 2009 recovering from an elbow injury, Sheets has signed with the Oakland A's on a one-year deal that figures to pay him upwards of $10 million dollars. The A's are taking a calculated gamble here. Any time we talk about Sheets the injury question is in play, but for now I'm going to just go off of what we know. When healthy, there is no question that he possess top of the rotation, 4-5 WAR stuff. Similar to the Matt Holliday trade of a year ago, if the A's aren't contending mid-season, I could see Billy Beane flipping Sheets to a contender for even more prospects. Career wise, he strikes out over seven batters per nine while walking under two. He has been prone to the long ball at times, but that's what makes Oakland the perfect choice for him; especially considering the reported alternative of signing with AL West rival Texas. A pretty neutral pitcher for the most part, Sheets has had fly-ball rates in the 40 percentile in each of his last four seasons. Add in a career HR/FB of 9.5% plus a career HR/9 of 1.01 and choosing to pitch your home games in the pitcher friendly Oakland Coliseum over the home-run haven in Arlington seems like a wise decision. Also keep in mind the spectacular A's outfield defense that employs three center fielders in Coco Crisp, Ryan Sweeney and Rajai Davis and we have an excellent pairing of abilities. It's fitting that the Oakland mascot features an elephant because I've been ignoring the injury elephant in the room. Anyone expecting 200 innings from Sheets is being unreasonable. He has not hit the 200 innings mark since 2004 and over the last four seasons has averaged about 150 innings per. I think this is a fair bench mark for Sheets considering the A's medical staff think he's healthy enough to sign. I don't know if Sheets can be considered a "sleeper" due to his past success, but all things considered he is likely to have a really good season (health assumed) by the bay without the draft hoopla of a Zack Greinke or Felix Hernandez. Reports out of Oakland say that Manager Bob Geren has already tapped Sheets for the A's opening day start. With a 1-2 punch of Sheets and Brett Anderson, the A's just made the interesting AL West even more intriguing. Tommy Rancel is the Editor-In-Chief of DRaysBay as well as a contributor at Beyond the Box Score
Tommy Rancel said...
Don’t worry Paul. Sheets’ surgery was handled by my teams (Rays) medical director, the world famous Dr. Andrews. Joking aside Sheets should thrive in that ball park. I’m excited for A’s fans. Posted 01/27 at 09:26 AM
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“I think this is a fair bench mark for Sheets considering the A’s medical staff think he’s healthy enough to sign.”
Hah, the A’s medical staff. If anything their clearance of him concerns me. I’m joking, of course, and as an A’s fan, delighted.