Signed to a minor league contract this off-season, veteran left handed pitcher Eric O'Flaherty could add some competition for this years Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen.
Over the last few seasons, one of the strong points for the successful Pittsburgh Pirates teams have been their bullpens. Pitching coach Ray Searage has been able to successfully piece together the right pitchers to come in relief of the starting staff. Whether it was success from guys like Joe Biemel, Joel Hanrahan, Jason Grilli, etc... we have seen the bullpen be the key factor to winning ballgames.
Over the off-season, the Pirates signed another intriguing name to add to their mix of players fighting for bullpen positions. Eric O'Flaherty has been in the league for 11 years and has a long track record of success coming into this season. Last season was the worst in his major league career as he had an 8.10 ERA in 41 games combined between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Mets. He also struck out 21 batters in 47 innings of work.
However, do not let those numbers fool you, O'Flaherty has had much success over his major league career. In those 11 seasons, O'Flaherty has a combined 3.24 ERA and going back before last season his ERA was never above 3.04 from 2014-2009. He is most noted for his time with the Atlanta Braves where his ERA hovered in the 2.50-2.00 range. O'Flaherty's best season was back in 2011 when he had an 0.98 ERA in 71 games pitched.
O'Flaherty does a nice job of keeping the ball in the ball park which is key for any relief pitcher. He has a career 0.51 HR/9. He also does a nice job of striking batters out. He's not a guy who is going to light up the scoreboard, but he does just enough to get by and get big league batters out. He has a 6.85 career strikeouts per nine inning ratio.
Finally, O'Flaherty knows how to keep runners off base. Last season he walked 18 batters in 30 innings of work, the worst ratio in his career. Prior to that he walked only 4 batters in the 2014 season. He had some control issues last season, but working with pitching coach Ray Searage should prove helpful for the 31 year old.
One problem with O'Flaherty is the number of pitches per inning he throws. Over the course of his career, he has averaged 16.1 pitches per inning. as a one inning guy out of the bullpen, you generally want to throw about 7 to 10 pitches an inning. O'Flaherty works up near the 20 pitch range and that is when the arm generally tires out. Working on throwing more strikes will help with this as well. Over the course of his career he has thrown 62.7 percent of his pitches for strikes. If he can get that number up to about 70-75 percent that will greatly limit the number of pitches he has to throw per inning.
Overall, I like the O'Flaherty signing. It gives the Pirates another left-handed option to work from in the bullpen. The only two left handed pitchers on the active roster vying for bullpen spots are Tony Watson and Kyle Lobstein. Adding O'Flaherty to that mix adds both some more competition in spring training and a chance for some veteran presence on this Pittsburgh Pirates team.
I feel that O'Flaherty has a good shot at making the Pirates bullpen this season. It will be a battle between him and Lobstein for that last spot in the rotation. If O'Flaherty can show that he can perform at the level he did prior to last season he could be a great addition to this Pittsburgh Pirates team.
Pitchers and catchers reported on Friday and the team is currently hard at work in Bradenton, Florida. With a little more than one week remaining before the first spring training game, O'Flaherty and the rest of the Pirates pitchers and catchers have plenty of time to get ready before the season begins. Baseball is just around the corner, and for the Pirates, it promises to be one full of excitement.
"Whether it was success from guys like Joe Biemel, Joel Hanrahan, Jason Grilli, etc..." Were you going for the "J" theme here? Lol. Seriously, you could've found someone a little better than Biemel to mention here.
ReplyDeleteAlso, something that you didn't mention but helps strengthen your argument, is the catcher that O'Flaherty will be pitching to. When he was in ATL, he pitched to McCann, who was an excellent pitch framer. In PIT, it's the same thing with Stewart and Cervelli. A great pitch framer can make an average pitcher look excellent. NYM and OAK don't have catchers with top pitch-framing skills.
I expect O'Flaherty to start at AAA and see what he can do down there with Diaz and, if the results are promising, come up mid-May to early June as a bullpen reinforcement. Hurdle and Huntington do like to mix up the bullpen to keep people healthy and limit the pitches thrown.