When should Taijuan Walker be called up?

[wazzu31]

Jack Z, Wedge, and the Rainiers crew would all be officially incompetent for thinking somebody is ready for the majors after pitching less than 30 innings at AAA.

There is no way they're that stupid.

I hope.

Different positions but isn't that pretty much what they did with Miller and Seager?

 

[cezero]

Different positions but isn't that pretty much what they did with Miller and Seager?

Yes, different positions. It's different for pitchers. And no, neither of the kids you mentioned were called up after playing 4 games.

And as far as the kids you mentioned being called up fast, don't forget Zunino, who is not exactly shining offensively, and whose defense only compensates enough to keep his WAR at 0.5. Franklin is sinking a bit, too, and is striking out 20% of his plate appearances, including 8 in his past 5 games. I'm not down on either of them yet, but it's far too early to know what's real with these kids yet, fun as it has been to watch for a couple of weeks.

Like I said, it would be utterly incompetent to call Walker up after fewer than 30 inning pitched at AAA. Any argument otherwise is moronic.

 

[Podunkparte]

Jack Z, Wedge, and the Rainiers crew would all be officially incompetent for thinking somebody is ready for the majors after pitching less than 30 innings at AAA.

There is no way they're that stupid.

I hope.

Good God, this place really is different than ESPN.

I just liked and completely agree with one of Roe's posts!

 

[seafan]

Id call him up but im pretty sure they wont. They started him off in AA this year when he was clearly ready for AAA. They are obviously taking it slow with him. Hes been dominate in AAA but they arent letting him pitch over 5 innings, if they were going to call him up theyd be letting him go deeper in games.


On a separate note i was wondering who would still be in favor of the justin upton trade. Which included walker, franklin, pryor and furbush.

 

[Destroydacre]

Id call him up but im pretty sure they wont. They started him off in AA this year when he was clearly ready for AAA. They are obviously taking it slow with him. Hes been dominate in AAA but they arent letting him pitch over 5 innings, if they were going to call him up theyd be letting him go deeper in games.


On a separate note i was wondering who would still be in favor of the justin upton trade. Which included walker, franklin, pryor and furbush.

I was against the trade when it was going down and I can't ever see myself changing my mind on that. It would have been the Bedard trade all over again. I'm not adverse to trading guys like Walker and Franklin, but if you're gonna do that you gotta get someone better than Upton. Upton has been very inconsistent in his career and had mediocre numbers outside of Chase Field. His season so far this year has been okay, but not worth that package IMO.

 

[wazzu31]

Yes, different positions. It's different for pitchers. And no, neither of the kids you mentioned were called up after playing 4 games.

And as far as the kids you mentioned being called up fast, don't forget Zunino, who is not exactly shining offensively, and whose defense only compensates enough to keep his WAR at 0.5. Franklin is sinking a bit, too, and is striking out 20% of his plate appearances, including 8 in his past 5 games. I'm not down on either of them yet, but it's far too early to know what's real with these kids yet, fun as it has been to watch for a couple of weeks.

Like I said, it would be utterly incompetent to call Walker up after fewer than 30 inning pitched at AAA. Any argument otherwise is moronic.

4 starts for a pitcher is the equilivent of nearly a month for a position player so not exactly sure where you get your philosophy.

Well glad you aren't a gm because with your views all the young guys would be in AAA because they didn't "earn their stripes" and Walker would still be in AA because he didn't throw enough innings in Jackson to deserve a promotion.

 

[cezero]

4 starts for a pitcher is the equilivent of nearly a month for a position player so not exactly sure where you get your philosophy.

I'm pretty sure you'll never get it.

It's all good.

 

[cezero]

Good God, this place really is different than ESPN.

I just liked and completely agree with one of Roe's posts!

There are only 1 or 2 complete idiots on here. I had them on ignore for awhile, and then realized it was no big deal. They're entertaining sometimes, anyway.

Way different from ESPN, so I can actually talk about baseball instead of dealing with a never-ending stream of sub-90 IQs.

 

[dude82]

They seem to be handling Walker roughly the same way they handled Felix. That is, they fought the urge to bring him up when fan anticipation, buzz around the league and even his numbers in the minors suggested that they should have brought him up sooner. Felix dominated everywhere he went from 2003, his first year in the minors, to about two-thirds of the way through the 2005 season, when he finally got called up. Even after he got the call up to Seattle, he had innings limits placed on him and they trod carefully with him. They are doing and will presumably continue to do the same with Walker. We'd like to see him right now, obviously, but we don't need to see him right now. Besides, the M's aren't desperate for starting pitching in the same way they were desperate for hitting when they started calling up Franklin, Miller and Zunino (they couldn't have been more desperate when they brought up Zunino, which hasn't bitten them on the ass to this point, luckily).

 

[octagondd]

Walker took it on the chin last night. I want to see how he reacts for a couple starts. Shoudl be interesting. He struck out 8, but gave up 6 hits and 3 walks.

I agree with most here. Let him continue to get his work in at AAA and let him compete for a spot in ST. The only way I see them bringing him up is if the team wins 15 of the next 20 and our competition for the WC or division go in a slump. That is a lot of ifs.

I am hoping Erasmo gets us more from his slot. It may be possible to win 3 of 5 until the end of the season but alot of things have to go right for the team, including winning on the road during the brutal month of August and the tough teams we will play.

 

[hawkfan1073]

Walker took it on the chin last night. I want to see how he reacts for a couple starts. Shoudl be interesting. He struck out 8, but gave up 6 hits and 3 walks.

Yeah, he didn't have a great outing but if you look at more than just the pitching line it really wasn't THAT bad. -Of the 6 hits only one was extra bases which was the leadoff homer in the 3rd.
-The other 5 hits came in the 4th and honestly if Truinfel makes the play on the first infield single he wouldn't have given up any more runs that inning.
-Of the 3 walks, only one came around to score.

Was it his best outing, no....was it horrible, no.
Do I think he took it on the chin....no. It wasn't like his pitches were being blasted all over the park.

*I have to say I don't think they should bring up Walker this year. I think Paxton and Carraway should be given some MLB experience this year but let Walker cut his teeth a bit more and expect him to break camp after spring training next year.

 

[wazzu31]

I'm pretty sure you'll never get it.

It's all good.

And I'm pretty sure you have no clue about baseball then. 4 starts for a starting pitcher is basically a months worth of game time. 4 starts for a AAA starter is the exact equivalent of Seager play in 20 or whatever games he played at in Tacoma. Am I saying Walker is ready, I don't know he looks it. But you saying it is out of the question or "incompetence" says something bro

 

[cezero]

And I'm pretty sure you have no clue about baseball then...

k

good for you

 

[cezero]

Walker took it on the chin last night. I want to see how he reacts for a couple starts. Shoudl be interesting. He struck out 8, but gave up 6 hits and 3 walks.

I agree with most here. Let him continue to get his work in at AAA and let him compete for a spot in ST. The only way I see them bringing him up is if the team wins 15 of the next 20 and our competition for the WC or division go in a slump. That is a lot of ifs.

I am hoping Erasmo gets us more from his slot. It may be possible to win 3 of 5 until the end of the season but alot of things have to go right for the team, including winning on the road during the brutal month of August and the tough teams we will play.

Very realistic and reasonable.

I thin we all know that Walker is special. Nothing wrong with giving him another couple of months to hone his stuff, and then gleefully watch him compete for a roster spot at Spring Training in March.

 

[NWinAZ]

Very realistic and reasonable.

I thin we all know that Walker is special. Nothing wrong with giving him another couple of months to hone his stuff, and then gleefully watch him compete for a roster spot at Spring Training in March.

Agreed. He is near his innings limit anyways and I don't like when they bring up starters to get them innings in relief. They are doing that now with Maurer and I am not a fan unless they think that is his future which would be a huge disappointment.

 

[dude82]

And I'm pretty sure you have no clue about baseball then. 4 starts for a starting pitcher is basically a months worth of game time. 4 starts for a AAA starter is the exact equivalent of Seager play in 20 or whatever games he played at in Tacoma. Am I saying Walker is ready, I don't know he looks it. But you saying it is out of the question or "incompetence" says something bro

They may just want to build up his innings more gradually before bringing him up to the majors. He didn't play college ball like a lot of these other guys did, so he didn't have that innings workload built up going in. I wouldn't say that playing college ball is necessarily mandatory for players to move through the minors quickly and get called up soon after getting drafted, but it might be the case here that they want him building up that workload in the minors for a few years before they bring him up to the majors. He's still going to be really young when he gets here, so it's not like we're leaving him down there to rot or anything.

 

[cezero]

Strange that the know-nothings aren't still pushing for an immediate Walker call-up.

 

[wazzu31]

Strange that the know-nothings aren't still pushing for an immediate Walker call-up.

I wasn't calling for him to be called up. I called you out and you weren't man enough to admit you were wrong when you talked about his 4 starts and I compared position players like Miller and Seager.

 

[cezero]

I wasn't calling for him to be called up....

...I truly wouldn't mind him getting the call...

...Am I saying Walker is ready, I don't know he looks it...

Alzheimers, I'm guessing?

 

[Baseballnut77]

Strange that head-bobbers like cezero are calling people out