Juan Rincon DFA’d

To make room for Dontrelle Willis the Tigers are sending out Juan Rincon.  Rincon pitched his way onto the team with a very good spring, but with a rough start to the season the Tigers deemed him most expendable. Brandon Lyon has been just as bad, but he’s owed more, and frankly has been better in recent years than Rincon and therefore has a better chance of contributing.

Given the fact that Ryan Perry threw 42 pitches tonight, I thought that was a signal that he was going to be optioned down. Instead he just won’t be available for a couple nights.

14 thoughts on “Juan Rincon DFA’d”

  1. Why would they send Perry down when he is sporting one of the best ERAs in our pen, only trailing Zoom and Seay?

    Besides some walks he has been good and effective.

  2. He also has a strikeout an inning. Although his WHIP is terrible I’d much rather it be that, than his ERA.

    Mike how in the world can you justify demoting him to AA with his ERA?

    It isn’t like our pens ERA is 1.00. Many guys have struggled far worse than he has.

  3. Sorry it didn’t work out better for Rincon. Perhaps we’ll be able to hold onto him and he’ll have a chance to contribute later this season.

    How about a Dontrelle post to generate some chatter, Billfer?

  4. David,

    You’re right that some in the pen have struggled worse than Perry, so it doesn’t make sense to send him down unless there’s a better alternative.

    OTOH, I think there’s been plenty of discussion here on how ERA is an incomplete metric, especially where relievers are concerned. His FIP is significantly higher, and his ERA will likely rise if he keeps issuing free passes and his WHIP stays where it is while posting a LOB % of 68.2.

    I think I’ve reached my acronym limit for the day.

  5. The fact that Perry can miss a bat works in his favor. And I’m not really sure that sending him back down is going to benefit him at this point, anyway. This is what he is, for better or worse.

  6. To me that argument is like saying player X’s slugging% will likely fall because his batting average is too low. If he can’t get enough hits his slugging% is bound to fall.

    Um, no it isn’t. Look I’m not saying there is no chance, but I think it is far from a must. Just because Perry is walking guys doesn’t mean he is giving up runs, or is going to.

    A lot of the times he buckles down. And the most important point (like I already said) is we don’t have a bunch of guys that can post that type of ERA

    Who’d you rather see on the mound in the 7th or 8th of a tight ballgame? Nate? Rincon?

    After Zumaya and Seay he has been our most effective late innings reliever.

    ERA is very useful. The only thing I think it has trouble telling (WHEN the sample size is small) is the consistency. By this I mean if the guy has pitched 9 innings and his ERA is 5 you don’t know unless you look at game logs if he got lit up one or two times and blew the game(ie Miner), or if he has been mediocre every other time out. (ie Rincon)

    Yea too many acronyms makes what you write harder to comprehend. Then again Loon(I think it was Loon?) was razzing me last year for writing in bullet point style. I say do what you like and if people don’t want to read it, nuts to them. It is nice to keep it pretty informal anyways.

  7. David,

    As I mentioned, I don’t think Perry should go to AA. There’s no clear upgrade to Perry that seems ready, he’s definitely better than a lot of the other guys in the pen, and I don’t think there was much talk of demoting him to begin with.

    However, comparing ERA to slugging % seems apples/oranges to me. Yes, a player who had a high batting average (but only hit singles) could maintain a consistent slugging % if instead of getting 2 hits for singles, he got 1 hit for a double. ERA on the other hand is affected by several factors, outside of the pitcher (park size, team defense, etc.). So when there’s a noticeable difference between ERA and FIP (which tries to isolate the pitcher), you’ll tend to see the ERA move towards the FIP.

    I’m not saying that Perry is bad, or that ERA doesn’t mean anything. I’m just saying that between the baserunners he allows, and his strand rate, I wouldn’t count on that ERA staying as low as it is.

    Thanks for the writing tip, I’ll be sure to try to CAPS and bold more too.

  8. Yes I realize that you didn’t want to demote him, it was Mike. Yes I agree, I highly doubt they plan on demoting him anytime soon. Leyland even said as much last night post game, when he said he wanted to stretch him out by letting him go 1+ innings.

    Slugging% isn’t affected by park size or opposing team defense? Lets ask Mauer or Sizemore 😉

    Plus ERA (as the title suggests and I’m sure you know) takes out unearned runs; our team defense has for the most part looked pretty good. Inge, Santiago (Everett at times), Polanco, Laird, Grandy, Thomas (Raburn at times) get to a good amount of balls. I’m not too worried.

    Also, while you could call small sample size, his ERA for this month is 2.70 so far vs 3.52 last month. If we look at trends that means blah blah blah.

    The reality is, in my opinion, we are going to have to watch him for more than 15 innings to know how good he is and how he adapts. Heck we’ve been watching Bonderman forever and he is still pretty young and adapting.

    At the moment I know he has some great stuff and has been able for the most part to out pitch most of our other relievers. Demoting him now is downright foolish.

    Hey whats wrong with caps and bold? iTZ bEtAh thn tAkn lYke thS riiiiiiiiiiiiiGht? 😉

  9. The one who is going to have at least one good full season before he turns 40 😉

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