Fangraphs Offseason Article

[jewscott]

How about you compare Blackburn to someone that actually is not a fat sack of crap, you know like Joe Blanton perhaps? Someone that actually is a good comp for Blackburn.

Given Blanton struck out nearly two years worth of batters for Blackburn last year and has never had batters hit higher than .284 off of him (where Blackburn has had never been below .291 against), are they really all that similar?

[FrodaddyG]

How about you compare Blackburn to someone that actually is not a fat sack of crap, you know like Joe Blanton perhaps? Someone that actually is a good comp for Blackburn.

Joe Blanton - 6'3" 244 lbs
Carlos Silva - 6'4" 250 lbs.

[VodkaDave]

How about you compare Blackburn to someone that actually is not a fat sack of crap, you know like Joe Blanton perhaps? Someone that actually is a good comp for Blackburn.

Joe Blanton - 6'3" 244 lbs
Carlos Silva - 6'4" 250 lbs.

Blanton is fat, but not a sack of crap.

Also I saw Silva listed at 225 on Bbreference, that cant be right?

[Great Canadian Twins Fan]

Also I saw Silva listed at 225 on Bbreference, that cant be right?

Pretty sure that's 225 kg.

[alskntwnsfn]

I thought I remembered Blackburn using that cutter a lot more at the end of the season. Hopefully he's been working on that this winter. That could be a really tough pitch for him. Also, I think he throws harder than Silva did during the end of his Twins tenure. Appears to be a hard worker. Takes direction, etc. Twins type of player. I wouldn't be too worried about him taking innings from Perkins, Manship, or Duensing. I think he's got better stuff than those guys, regardless of what hand uses to sign his checks.

[TheLeviathan]

How about you compare Blackburn to someone that actually is not a fat sack of crap, you know like Joe Blanton perhaps? Someone that actually is a good comp for Blackburn.

Joe Blanton - 6'3" 244 lbs
Carlos Silva - 6'4" 250 lbs.

Blanton is fat, but not a sack of crap.

Also I saw Silva listed at 225 on Bbreference, that cant be right?

He's been known to be a sack of crap too. It's not like his career his a shining beacon of light - 2006 and 2008 were not exactly banner years for Blanton either.

2006 OAK 32 31 16 12 0 0 0 1 1 194.1 241 111 104 17 58 107 4.82 1.54 .309
2008 OAK 20 20 5 12 0 0 0 0 0 127.0 145 74 70 12 35 62 4.96 1.42 .284
2008 PHI 13 13 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 70.2 66 36 33 10 31 49 4.20 1.37 .246

And actually jwe, you can see that Blanton did post a Blackburn-like year at .309 in 2006.

[slpBaseb12]

I thought I remembered Blackburn using that cutter a lot more at the end of the season. Hopefully he's been working on that this winter. That could be a really tough pitch for him. Also, I think he throws harder than Silva did during the end of his Twins tenure. Appears to be a hard worker. Takes direction, etc. Twins type of player. I wouldn't be too worried about him taking innings from Perkins, Manship, or Duensing. I think he's got better stuff than those guys, regardless of what hand uses to sign his checks.

I remember that too, and he's going to need that cutter in order to get left handed hitters out. Blackburn can use his fastball to get right-handers out, but the league's lefties will eventually catch up and destroy him if he doesn't figure out how to get a pitch in on their hands.

[jewscott]

He's been known to be a sack of crap too. It's not like his career his a shining beacon of light - 2006 and 2008 were not exactly banner years for Blanton either.

Easy there. No one ever said that Blanton was an All-Star. Simply that comparing a pitcher who throws 80% fastballs/cut fastballs with zero secondary pitches to one like Blanton who throws softer but makes up for it by having a plus slider and changeup and an okay curveball isn't the right course of action.

Blackburn is fine as a back-end starter. So is Blanton. The difference is if the fastball goes, Blanton can conceivably survive it by riding his other pitches. If Blackburn's fastball goes, it's a recipe for disaster. Kind of like how Silva has been a complete disaster since his fastball left him.

[Nick N.]

Also, I think he throws harder than Silva did during the end of his Twins tenure.

It's easy enough to check these things, you know. Silva averaged 91.1 MPH with his fastball in his last year with the Twins, Blackburn averaged 90.6 MPH last year.

[TheLeviathan]

Easy there. No one ever said that Blanton was an All-Star. Simply that comparing a pitcher who throws 80% fastballs/cut fastballs with zero secondary pitches to one like Blanton who throws softer but makes up for it by having a plus slider and changeup and an okay curveball isn't the right course of action.

Blackburn is fine as a back-end starter. So is Blanton. The difference is if the fastball goes, Blanton can conceivably survive it by riding his other pitches. If Blackburn's fastball goes, it's a recipe for disaster. Kind of like how Silva has been a complete disaster since his fastball left him.

Jwe, I wasn't responding with that part to you, but to the contention that somehow Blanton isn't a slob himself in many ways.

Blanton and Blackburn have fairly similar career numbers with the exception of the K/BBs. Blackburn is a little better inducing groundballs but most of their peripherals are pretty similar. Blackburn has a little more potential bust in him because of his secondary pitches so I agree with you and Nick on that.