He was pitching hurt though according to him. Also, you keep saying that he pitches to contact, but that’s not a bad thing considering the contact he’s given up in his career. Being an extreme groundball guy is not a bad thing.

 

ok, ill give him the benefit of the doubt in pitching hurt, but he still sucked in september too, albeit in admittedly a very small sample size.  I just think the least valuable thing in the entire sport is a reliever who pitches to contact, and to give that a 2 year contract for 16 million for a small market team (who had no realistic chance to compete) is absurd.  The goal in finding relievers should be to find guys who miss as many bats as possible and walk as few guys as possible to eliminate as much as possible the chance for bad luck in the small sample size of 1 inning.  With guys who pitch to contact, even weak contact can get lucky and ruin games, which is why i dont like relievers who pitch to contact.  If a starter does it it's a little more acceptable if they can also eat a bunch of innings, but a purely 1 inning reliever who pitches to contact is not valuable and should not have ever gotten a multi year deal.

 

Also, Ziegler's career WHIP is 1.25, and WHIP is also an extremely important stat to me for relievers.  Just my preference though. He's just the exact kind of reliever I hate having on my team.

 

 

Signing a guy like Ziegler that pitches to contact and is a groundball maestro when you have one of the best defenses in baseball (if not the best) and in a pitchers park is not a bad move to make. I'm not going to argue that having a guy that K's everyone isn't better or more fun, but in strict baseball talk and efficiency and considering what we had, it wasn't a bad move. I'm strictly defending Ziegler and his career and the reasoning behind it. Not defending how close we were to contention or if it was a good deal money wise.

 

 

Signing a guy like Ziegler that pitches to contact and is a groundball maestro when you have one of the best defenses in baseball (if not the best) and in a pitchers park is not a bad move to make. I'm not going to argue that having a guy that K's everyone isn't better or more fun, but in strict baseball talk and efficiency and considering what we had, it wasn't a bad move. I'm strictly defending Ziegler and his career and the reasoning behind it. Not defending how close we were to contention or if it was a good deal money wise.

 

i can agree with that, my point is more so directed at how the marlins should be run as a small market team rather than his capabilities as a pitcher.  He's obviously an OK major league pitcher, i just think every move should be made from a standpoint of extracting as much production out of every dollar spent as possible, and signing him was a terrible use of that money as opposed to, say, going and getting another starting pitcher or finding a replacement for Hech last offseason.  Especially given that we already had Phelps, Ramos, Barraclough, Wittgren, McGowan, etc. in the bullpen already.