Another Ground Ball Inducing Red Bird…
With the departure of Octavio Dotel following the 2011 World Series Championship for the Cards, opportunity abounds in the Cardinals bull pen for 2012. Enter Lance Lynn. Lynn pitched 34.2 Innings for the Cards last year. In that span he K’d 40 batters for 10.38K/9IP. While that strike out rate is pretty special, what more impressive is that he induced ground balls 57.3% of the time. If he would have had a qualifying season, that would have been 4th best ratio in the league. Lynn comes out of the pen with three plus pitches FB, CB, and a Change. However, he features mostly a FB(73.3%)/CB(22.2%) mix. Obviously 34 innings is a small sample size, but even if his number regress a bit we are still looking at a great option as a RP. He might even get a chance at the rotation should any injuries occur during the year. He was a SP throughout his minor league career and even started 2 games last year. He is worth a late round flyer or a FA pick-up considering his profile. Should his strike out rate fall to 7.5-8.0K/9 and his GB ratio normalize around 48% we are still looking at a very serviceable pitcher with the profile to emerge as a strong option out to the pen or rotation. I’m projecting 65IP, 61K’s, with a 3.23 ERA.
Aaron Price, follow me on twitter @baseballrantman
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