Pedro Strop was part of the trade that sent Scott Feldman over to the Orioles. While the "big prize" in that trade was considered to be Jake Arrieta, there's a great chance that Strop is going to provide more value going forward. He had a rought beginning to 2013 before he was traded to the Cubs. What's Strop likely to be?
Pedigree
Strop was signed by the Colorado Rockies as an amateur free agent all the way back in 2002. He was 17 at the time, and toiled in the DSL all the way until 2006, as a 21. Bred as a reliever, Strop made his way to AA as a 23 year old (in 2009) and ended up to Texas. Baltimore claimed him in 2011 after Texas dropped him on waivers, and he more-or-less instantly became nails, posting a 0.73 ERA in his small sample size in '11 (12.1 innings), and was incredible in 2012 (66.1 innings, 2.44 ERA). The great 2012 season masked an average FIP of 3.59, and in 2013 luck reversed course and slammed him with a 5.40 ERA off of a 4.41 FIP to this point (and 7.25 ERA and a 5.51 FIP with the Orioles). He was thrown in the Arrieta/Feldman trade, and ever since he's been filthy.
Pitch Selection
Strop has 2 pitches, with a 13 mph difference or so between them. He throws a fastball around 60% of the time, and it's fast. In 2013, his average velocity is 95.6 this season, and that's typical of Strop throughout his career. His success with the fastball came in 2012, when he finally started to get some run on it (it was very straight early on), but it's a flat fastball which leaves him prone to more than his fair share of line drives. He throws a slider 30% of the time, and it's really pretty effective as a change-of-pace pitch. It goes around 82 mph and has started to run in on lefties fairly well. Unfortunately, it's a Marmol-variety of slider that doesn't spend much time actually in the strike zone. He baits batters fairly well, and they aren't going to make contact, but he's got the chance to walk 3 straight batters every time he comes out. The other 10% are a split between a different fastball and a changeup which he rarely throws. His changeup is terrible and has been for years.
Stuff
Strop has always been a TTO guy. In his career, his K rate is 22.1%, his BB rate is 13.1%, and his HR rate is 2.2%. While his ERA has always been wildly different, his SIERA hasn't; it's mid-3s every year. His BABIP hovers around .270 – .280 in the past 3 years, which makes sense to me given the movement and velocity of his pitches, but his strand rate was awful with the Orioles last year (61.1%) and insane with the Cubs (100.0%). He's been hit-lucky in Chicago so far, as well, but he's also had a 1.22 FIP. I don't expect his K and BB rates to stay at 37.0% and 7.4%, but he should settle in nicely as the years pass.
Summary
The lack of a true 3rd pitch means that Strop only has value as a reliever, maybe as a closer or fireman potentially. He's 28, so he's not old or young, but the Cubs have team control until 2018, when he'll be 33. Strop's ceiling is as a closer (that probably walks too many to be dominant), but when his fastball loses a few miles or if his control slips even further he'll be out of baseball. I think he's got a chance a to be a cheap 7th inning or setup man as the most likely scenario, and that's a fine return for Scott Feldman all on it's own (a guy anyone could have signed for a reasonable amount this offseason). Perhaps it's not the sexiest get for a pitcher at the trade deadline, but Cubs fans should definitely remember the pain of a poor bullpen.
Comments
Apparently Tom Tunney is melting down right now.
MylesQuote Reply
I’m still surprised that Hendry got Archer in exchange for 1 year of Derosa
NateQuote Reply
GWQuote Reply
Don’t recommend Google Translate for translating, sillies.
Do recommend it for parsing foreign language websites while trying to hunt down a data point(s).
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ GW:
Does Cubbie Julie have a press pass?
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Why?
/not Twitter-enabled
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
GWQuote Reply
Suburban kid wrote:
Some meeting about the buildings, he’s yelling at people and “going off-script”
MylesQuote Reply
@ GW:
OK.
I assume the removal of the picture is simply a metaphor describing the doneness of the speculative deal, and they don’t literally run straight to the press room photo gallery as a deal is made, even when the team is out of town.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
When I worked at McGraw-Hill, I had a project where I was supposed to coordinate the Spanish translation of a math book. I was in someone’s office and she pointed out the Spanish versions of the books, but couldn’t remember which one was the math book. I picked the one that said Mathematicas Diarias. They were then very excited that I could speak Spanish.
joshQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
I’m honestly not sure.
GWQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Maybe the clubhouse guy does it. Hell, maybe Jed does it.
joshQuote Reply
Unless there’s some rule you can’t have a pic of a player up if he’s on another team, I can’t for the life of me see this team racing to take it down. Surely there are other phone calls to make more important than to the guy who takes pics down.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
Given how tradition laden baseball is, I would buy this as literal.
joshQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
This is a sport that suspends Jonathan Singleton 50 games for weed while not giving the smallest shit to people throwing baseballs at each other’s heads.
MylesQuote Reply
GW wrote:
Kip DynamiteQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
Bill Clay?
Kip DynamiteQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
Speaking of mundane logistical baseball phone calls, I found it interesting when Samardzija said he hadn’t really talked to his agent recently, except for “bill paying calls and insurance-paying calls.”
I had no idea that it was part of an agent’s job to remind baseball players to pay their bills. Unless it was his agency fee, but that’s probably all automated.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Kip Dynamite wrote:
I spent a weekend at a combat ranch. You know where they shoot red paint, but it sounds stupid to you.
Hans GruberQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
They take care of pretty much everything for a lot of guys, mostly because a lot of them aren’t particularly well-prepared to operate as adults in the real world. My father used to do investments for ballplayers back in the day, and told me once about a guy who had failed to cash his last four paychecks because he was trying to avoid making alimony payments. It might not sound smart to let your agent handle all of your financial affairs, but these guys fail pretty miserably at doing it themselves more often than not.
uncle dave on the goQuote Reply
Cubs baseball and Die Hard references…….I love it.
MuckerQuote Reply
@ uncle dave on the go:
Makes sense that they need help, but I guess I would have expected them to have personal assistants or business/financial managers/advisors that handled operations and maintenance of the gravy train, rather than their agent.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Yeah, on the one hand that would be smart, but on the other it’s one more mouth to feed (so to speak). I really don’t know if an agent would give you a better deal if you didn’t have them take care of stuff like that for you. I’m guessing no.
uncle dave on the goQuote Reply
Suburban kid wrote:
Bill ClayQuote Reply
uncle dave on the go wrote:
Bill ClayQuote Reply
uncle dave on the go wrote:
Bill ClayQuote Reply
The last two might be my favorite.
Bill ClayQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Agents thrive on personal relationships, though. He may well just be a broker, too. Plus, we’re talking about a guy who has been a cash cow since he signed. Your Henry Blancos may not get quite as much facetime.
joshQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
I this is Scott Boras, remember to pay your water bill and you have two books to return to the library by Friday.
SSQuote Reply
On the one hand, I’m disappointed that an article about Pedro Strop does not mention Pedro Strop, or even really the Cubs, in the comment section. On the other hand, there WAS a Hans Gruber sighting.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
article? This site has articles?!?!
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
I read it for the pictures.
uncle dave on the goQuote Reply
josh wrote:
Bill ClayQuote Reply
new shit
GWQuote Reply