Cole Sands Has Been Weirdly Good

22 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

Well - he's paid to be a professional pitcher, so shouldn't the expectation be that he should be good?  

Sure but hitters are paid too..

Like @nicksaviking, I had hope that one of Winder or Sands would make the transition to a solid, quality pen option who could be that 8th man who wasn't just an innings eater who could "take one for the team", but a valuable 1-3 IP pen arm who could really contribute vs sitting on the bench for 10 days at a time...like last season.

But like ALL THINGS, with less than a month in to the season, let's pump the brakes a little on his potential greatness in the pen. The BAPIP is absolutely going to come back to earth, but that doesn't mean some of his other peripherals have to come down as well, or not appreciably.

His curveball has always been a really good looking pitch previously. So I'm really surprised he's used it so little at this point. Surely he and the Twins don't suddenly not trust it. Does he just know it's there if he needs it? Is he just concentrating on his splitter and cutter since they are working and he wants to continue being more "familiar" and comfortable with them?

Still only 26yo, I can see the idea of him moving back to a rotation option at some point, especially if the curveball is still there. It's a very "Tampa" kind of move, similar to journeyman and former Twin Zack Littell, who bounces around, changes his mix, and becomes a decent #5 SP option. IF the sweeper and splitter continue to PERFORM, and the curveball is STILL THERE, I can see a reasonable chance that Sands COULD get another rotation shot. But keep in mind that his FB is higher now in the pen and would probably drop a MPH or two back in the rotation. How does that affect his cutter and splitter? Sands is not OLD. He's just not a 30yo journeyman who's overcome injuries and reinvented himself as a pen arm. But sometimes, a guy just ISN'T a ML SP. And I'm not dismissing the idea that a return doesn't have some merit. But his FB is playing much better in the pen. He's got a pair of new pitches that, so far, look really good. We often talk about dialing down a pitchers repertoire to be more effective in the pen. And it's usually true.

But what's wrong with a guy who can throw 94 consistently for 1-3 innings with 3 solid secondary pitchers...who can't maintain velocity more than that...who could be an IDEAL 8th man in the pen? Every 2 or 3 days he's available for 2-3 IP to bridge a gap on a good day, or a bad day. If Sands turns in to that, as he's looked so far in SSSS, it's a huge win.