The Gas House Gang

MLB.com’s latest is on the Cardinals bullpen.  Matthew Leach seems a little optimistic about the Cards pen.  I wasn’t really optimistic about the Brandon Looper signing.  He was hit hard pretty while pitching for the Mets last year, and he’s never been the big strikeout guy that you’d expect from a former closer.  And while Ricardo Rincon will make a nice left handed specialist, even he’s been shaky the last two seasons.  He was good against lefties, but he was hardly lights out.

There’s even some concern about Isringhausen.  Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA gives him a very high 64% collapse rate.  He only has an 8% breakout rate and hiss median VORP is only 8.8.  What’s also interesting is even at his 90th percentile, he doesn’t reach the 22 VORP that he’s had the last two seasons.  I’m curious to see what Will Carroll has to say about him once the Cards Team Health report comes out.