Danny Hultzen Feels Like He Has A New Arm

[cezero]

Im not completely sold on Elias yet believe me I hope he turns into a solid pitcher for us but I wouldnt be surprised if he has a slump sophomore year. Im actually excited to see hultzen pitch you guys need to cut this guy a break this man was looking like cliff lee in the minors and was on his way up before he went down with his injury

2 years ago, hultzen's numbers were actually better than walker's when hultzen got hurt and walker got called up. if hultzen hadn't gotten hurt, he would've been called up either before or at the same time as walker.

pretty amazing if you actually take the time to go back and look at their 2013 minor league stats.

i'm fully sold on elias as a staring pitcher. what he can do to lefties with that curve is tear-inducing. we'll see if he does well enough to be #5 to begin the year.

 

[NWinAZ]

Elias throws too many pitches for my liking. He is at 100 in the 5th. Needs a better 'out' pitch because batters foul off a lot of his pitches and run his pitch count up fast. He does have a MLB arm though.

 

[wazzu31]

Elias throws too many pitches for my liking. He is at 100 in the 5th. Needs a better 'out' pitch because batters foul off a lot of his pitches and run his pitch count up fast. He does have a MLB arm though.

That is realistically my only concern with Elias, he showed so much potential with his stuff last year and his composure was something you just don't see from rookies, even Felix would get rattled. When he struggled last year, to me, it wasn't even that batters had figured him out in the way I feel they have with Kuma, it was more of him trying to be a thrower and not a pitcher.

 

[NWinAZ]

Could be true. Hope he isn't another Dave Flemming.

 

[unlvmariners]

To me Elias showed a lot last season. He pitched very well. I think he seems like the kind of player that will get better with time. I think he ends up in AAA this season which I don't think will benefit him very much it may end up hurting him in the long run.

 

[NWinAZ]

Here are my issues with Elias;

1- Too many pitches for outs.
2- Only 12 starts out of 29 did he go 6 innings or more.
3- Only twice from July on did he pitch 6 innings. 0 times more than 6 (12 total starts)

Roenis Elias 2014 Pitching Gamelogs | Baseball-Reference.com

Has potential and showed MLB promise at times but needs to get more consistent with better control.

 

[cezero]

not bad for the first season in the bigs after skipping over AAA entirely

 

[NWinAZ]

ya but he was 25 and played in the cuban leagues a few years back so he was basically pro level. not knocking him, just not sold on him outside of being a number 5 sp at this point. want better.

 

[cezero]

true

 

[Anointed One]

Rumor's were that when Hultzen was drafted, he's was a Major league ready as anyone could get as a rookie in the minors... I was bumbed out when he got hurt because all I could think about was the "Little Unit", Ryan Anderson... Glad to see Hultzen put in the work to make himself available in '15... He's pitching well and things are really looking up for him... Going to be very tough for him to crack our lineup... Only way I see him moving up is an injury or one of our starters don't live up to expectations... All in all, great to have strong prospect ready to make the jump to the majors...

 

[NWinAZ]

I would be shocked to see Hultzen before September if at all. He needs to build up innings and it would be tough to do in Seattle unless he is pitching out of the pen which I am not sure M's want to do. See pluses and minuses with that.

 

[unlvmariners]

Here are my issues with Elias;

1- Too many pitches for outs.
2- Only 12 starts out of 29 did he go 6 innings or more.
3- Only twice from July on did he pitch 6 innings. 0 times more than 6 (12 total starts)

Roenis Elias 2014 Pitching Gamelogs | Baseball-Reference.com

Has potential and showed MLB promise at times but needs to get more consistent with better control.

All valid points, can't argue with it. Those reasons are also why I think he benefits from playing time against ML hitters opposed to AAA. On the flip side is the other guys on the pitching staff and its hard to say what happens with Paxton or Walker over the course of a full season of starting since we haven't seen it but I guess this is as good of time as any to find out.

Like I said I think Elias is in AAA to start and he should be the first call if someone goes down. Just because I don't think AAA benefits Elias much I also don't think it benefits Walker either. It is nice to have a backup option like Elias who has a full season under his belt if someone goes down then we shouldn't skip a beat with the starting rotation.

 

[NWinAZ]

Agree with what you are saying and I also have little faith Paxton and/or Walker stay healthy all year. I hope they do because it would be fun to see what they can do for us. Elias is a good insurance piece and we could do a lot worse than him as a #5.

While I agree the minors don't offer a lot for Elias, I do think him being there will help him work on his mechanics though which I think is his biggest problem. He has the stuff no doubt.

 

[NWinAZ]

 

[cezero]

Thanks for the update, NW.

It's amazing that Hultzen has been out all of this time, and he and Walker had very similar numbers right when Walker got called up and Hultzen got surgery.

Since then, Walker's only made a little over 20 starts. Crazy how delicate pitcher health is.