The Cleveland Indians signed an unlikey starting pitcher, bringing in Kyle Davies to a minor league deal with no major league spring training invite.
Davies, 30 has had big league stints with the Braves and Royals. He made 12 starts in the Twins’ minor league system last season while recovering from shoulder surgery.
(photo courtesy of wikipedia)
Since debuting in 2005 with the Braves, Davies has thrown 768 major league innings with below average peripherals, poor controllable skill stats and below average run prevention rates. He has a career 6.4 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9, and a 39 percent groundball rate. He doesn’t miss many bats, exhibits sub-par control and struggles to keep the ball on the ground. If he pitches at the major league level, the Indians speedy outfield could help him in this area.
He stranded runners at a meager 67 percent clip, which hurt mightily given his 1.62 WHIP and .318 batting average on balls in play. Plenty got on and plenty came around to score, translating to a 5.59 ERA. Though his xFIP and SIERA were better — they are identical at 4.91.
Since 2007, the year he was traded to the Royals, there are 83 pitchers to throw 600+ innings. Davies has the sixth lowest WAR (5.6), the worst ERA (5.40), third worst SIERA (4.87), fifth highest BABIP (.313), second worst WHIP (1.58) and second worst strand rate (66.8 percent).
Needless to say, the Indians needed starting pitching depth and signing Davies brings the club that much closer to achieving that goal.
Can he be this season's Scott Kazmir?
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