Helping Kevin Gregg Understand Why He’s a Non-Roster Invite

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Interesting bit from Ken Gurnick’s piece at Dodgers.com today…

Kevin Gregg, 34, was 3-2 with a 4.95 ERA last year with Baltimore before being released in September. He can’t explain why he couldn’t land a Major League contract.

“If you can explain it, let me know,” he said. “I’ve accomplished quite a bit. The resume speaks for itself. It’s definitely puzzling. I know I’m coming off a year where I didn’t perform to my best, and I take that into account. But you have to be put in a position to succeed.”

Let’s help him out.

A good place might be with his declining strikeout rate…

gregg_k9_rate

…or that as he continually gives up more dingers, his ERA and FIP has risen to unacceptable levels.

gregg_era_fip_hr

Or maybe it’s because he’s been on five teams in the last seven years, and was cut loose by Baltimore last August — in the middle of a pennant race! — because…

Gregg said Orioles manager Buck Showalter told him he “didn’t like my style of pitching.”

…which I can only assume is the style of pitching that sees you allow 12 earned runs and 27 baserunners over your previous 11.1 innings, as Gregg did.

Maybe it’s because he lost his job as closer in 2008 with Florida and in 2009 with Chicago and in 2011 with Baltimore. Or maybe it’s just because no one wants to fist bump him.

gregg_xfipOr maybe because of the 317 different major league pitchers to toss at least 100 innings over the last two seasons, only seven have worse xFIP, as you can see in the chart at right. Of the seven men ahead of him on that list, one (Chris Young) is not currently in baseball, three (Jonathan Sanchez, Miguel Batista, Jeff Gray) are in camps on similar non-roster deals as Gregg is, one (Kyle Drabek) is a talented young player struggling to overcome injury, and one (Barry Zito) is Barry Zito. Only Logan Ondrusek, who has actually managed to keep runs off the board — I know, xFIP is a little bit of cherry-picking, because it’s not measuring actual run prevention skills — is on a major league deal.

Frankly, I can’t figure it out either. Why didn’t Kevin Gregg get a major league deal headed into his age-35 season? It’s a mystery.

303 comments
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Disgruntled Goat
Disgruntled Goat moderator

BLURGH. real life sucks ass.

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator

 @Disgruntled Goat  yeah. It's getting complicated.

Disgruntled Goat
Disgruntled Goat moderator

 @Mike Petriello it is just a really stupid idea to work five days and have two off. why on earth isn't it the other way around? we are wasting our lives. 

DBrim
DBrim moderator

@Bob Meripol @Mike Petriello @Lobo You've never been on the NYC subway during commute times, have you?

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator

 @Lobo  Sounds awful. It'd also put a crimp into time writing for here / FG / ESPN and trying to play in a band.

DBrim
DBrim moderator

@Lobo I wouldn't want to spend ~15% of my awake time commuting each day.

Lobo
Lobo

@Mike Petriello @Disgruntled That's not totally life crushing. My dad used to commute that much every day, did it for about 17 years

DBrim
DBrim moderator

@Mike Petriello @Lobo @Disgruntled I've done the 90 minute commute before and it's the worst.

Lobo
Lobo

@Mike Petriello @Disgruntled Goat Define "life crushing commute"

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Disgruntled Goat  no doubt. But we're also the kind of friends who otherwise see each other like 2-3 times a year, so if it craters, disappointing but not life destroying.

Disgruntled Goat
Disgruntled Goat moderator

 @Mike Petriello ok, i have one more, this one from experience, be careful about working with really close friends. it can work out great but there will be strains on the relationship. 

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Disgruntled Goat  Ha. I know what you mean.

 

I don't at all want to sound like I'm complaining because I know many would kill to be in this situation, but I'm in the odd spot of not looking for a new job yet having been offered two recently. One is a really large pay increase but a life-crushing commute. One is something really fun with a good friend but a pay cut because it's a start up. Or of course stay where I am, which is easy but meh.

 

Good problems to have, I know, but difficult to know which is the best way tog o.

DBrim
DBrim moderator

@Disgruntled Goat Meh.

Deuce
Deuce

Kevin Gregg has a point.  According to the Rules of Baseball, any pitcher who ever saved 30+ games in a season or was ever given the designation of CLOSER shall be consistently overpaid for the rest of his career.  

DBrim
DBrim moderator like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I just noticed that VND's profile links to the glossary definition for TLR. That's pretty fantastic.

EephusBlue
EephusBlue moderator

I still can't believe that Cappy and Harang are on the roster. I would have put money down that they would be long gone by the time ST started

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator

 @EephusBlue agreed. Figured they'd keep one for depth, but shocked everyone's still here.

Native Angeleno
Native Angeleno

 @Mike Petriello  @EephusBlue Both are too old for anyone to have jumped on them during winter. During spring, when bad arms show up suddenly and you're short one or or two starters, the Dodgers hope such teams have especially great prospects to fork over. Better than they could have gotten earlier for them, obviously or they be gone.

EephusBlue
EephusBlue moderator

 @Mike Petriello I guess this is who we got going forward. I keep hoping for a SS that can push Hanley to 3b but reality is settling in.

Mike Petriello
Mike Petriello moderator

Wow, I can get a Nissan Altima for just $199/mo in Long Island City?

Catfacts
Catfacts

Mmmm... Breakfast chicken.

EephusBlue
EephusBlue moderator like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

I like how Jake blindly accepts the help given here as truth. For all he knows we are all morons that dont know anything

BlueSteelhead
BlueSteelhead

 @EephusBlue except that we know how to do ChIP assays and use big words like phosphorylation

(VND)
(VND) like.author.displayName 1 Like

What are those things.that DNA wraps around and once they phosphorylate they are never unwrapped again?

(VND)
(VND)

Instead.I spend my free time tweeting. Fack

(VND)
(VND)

There.are so.many awesome doctors out there. I want to be one too

Shadow Commish
Shadow Commish

@lumpy space princess

Medicine

 

He completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University in 1990 and attained his medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillin 1995.[2] He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans while developing his stand-up comedy.

 

(VND)
(VND)

whaaaaaat Hahahahaha

(VND)
(VND)

was.he really a doctor?

(VND)
(VND)

is that... a picture of a physician IRL?

(VND)
(VND)

Or triglycerides*

(VND)
(VND)

this years Nobel prize!

BlueSteelhead
BlueSteelhead

I'm all about the histone modifications, that shit is sexy. Also cyclical methylation of promoter regions- hawt.