Sonnanstine to be called up next week?

by Havok1517 on Jun 1, 2007 3:33 PM EDT Comment 19 comments

"According to the St. Petersburg Times, the Devil Rays may call up Andy Sonnanstine from Triple-A to start Tuesday against the Blue Jays.

He would replace either Jae Seo or Casey Fossum in the rotation, and the Devil Rays may also call up J.P. Howell to grab a starting spot. An extreme control pitcher with outstanding minor league numbers, Sonnanstine is like a slightly poorer man's Kevin Slowey and could good value in AL-only leagues eventually."
Source: St Petersburg Times

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anyone is better than Seo

by Bravesin07 on Jun 1, 2007 3:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd be shocked

if he wasn't starting on Tuesday for the Rays.

by Tyler on Jun 1, 2007 3:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

UGH

WHERE IS NIEMANN?? IF HE ISNT NEXT AFTER SONNANSTINE I WILL BE FURIOUS lol

All hail Lincecum...the Expedition Sorcerer!

by realityconquest on Jun 1, 2007 4:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Niemann

isn't coming anytime soon. I think he's close to ready, and could learn a lot from being in the big leagues, but he only threw 78 IP last season and his career high innings count is 134 and that was in 03. His arm isn't ready for a full season in the big leagues. You can't have him up in the show and on innings limits and pitch counts. He needs to build up his arm in the minors. It's all about health with him and the DRO is going to be careful.

by Tyler on Jun 1, 2007 4:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

:( oh cmon derek

way to be a realist, whatev bro.

All hail Lincecum...the Expedition Sorcerer!

by realityconquest on Jun 1, 2007 7:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Knee man!

Plus he's averaging barely over 5 innings per start against AAA hitters, he isn't going to get the call-up until he gets consistent enough to go deeper into games.

by Jim Wisinski on Jun 2, 2007 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

nice!

It's going to be fun having these two debut right around the same time.

by limozeen on Jun 1, 2007 4:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Sonnanstine and Slowey

Yep. And there's a good chance that Sonnanstine will have the better rookie season, though Slowey's certainly getting more attention.

by FI on Jun 1, 2007 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

meh

I'd put my money on Slowey, but Sonnanstine is more than capable. There's a "good chance" simply because there are two of them, they are comparable, and one of them has to do worse.

by limozeen on Jun 1, 2007 8:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

rationale

My thinking is that Slowey could very well be the better pitcher in the long run. Right now, however, Sonnanstine has more experience and the better present off-speed stuff.

by FI on Jun 2, 2007 9:01 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Slowey vs Sonnanstine

They aren't really comparable. I've watched both guys pitch at least 3 games each.

In terms of stuff, Sonnanstine's offspeed stuff is far better than Slowey's in my opinion.

I'm watching Slowey right now and I'm not impressed at all. Nothing he throws offspeed is throwing hitters off their game.

I think both will be effective MLB starters, but IMO Sonnanstine's ceiling is more of a #2 and Slowey's ceiling is more of a #3.

Sonnanstine has two pitches with great movement in his slider and changeup and if he ever gets the splitter back into his repertoire then he'll be a complete pitcher. He also gets more velocity separation than Slowey from what I've seen.

For this year, Sonnanstine has more professional innings and experience but I think they will end up with similar numbers. I expect Slowey to have the lower walk rate and Sonnanstine to have the higher strikeout rate.

Not a knock on Slowey, but I'm getting sick and tired of seeing Sonnanstine being described as a "poor man's Slowey" when Slowey has done nothing and has nothing that trumps Sonnanstine in any way, shape, or form.

If Slowey was a Rays pitching prospect and Sonnanstine was a pitching prospect in Minnesota, I have a feeling the consensus would be that Slowey was a poor man's Sonnanstine. How fickle.

Rays in '08.... Free Andy Sonnanstine.

by youALREADYknow on Jun 1, 2007 11:13 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

haha

cant wait to see how those 8 HR in 70 AAA IP translates to major league lineups

by PooNani on Jun 2, 2007 9:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

context

Eh, Slowey's as much of a flyball pitcher. And Sonnanstine's HR rate has only been slightly higher across AA/AAA despite playing in much more HR-friendly home parks.

by FI on Jun 2, 2007 9:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

HR/9

HR/9 alone is a pretty useless stat.

If you're not walking guys and you aren't extremely hittable, chances are that you're giving up a lot of solo home runs.

Jamie Shields gives up a ton of HR's too... I don't think the Rays are complaining about it right now.

Sonnanstine is pretty much a flyball guy who only gets in trouble when he gets into hitters counts and/or leaves fastballs up in the zone. He has rarely done either in AAA so far and I don't expect it to happen drastically more often in the majors.

Talking about Slowey, I can't wait to see how having 1 effective pitch translates to the majors after teams see him the first time. I don't think he'll have any problem the first few starts, but eventually guys will figure it out.

Rays in '08.... Free Andy Sonnanstine.

by youALREADYknow on Jun 2, 2007 10:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you know

It really hurts your credibility with me that you predict success with the Rays guy and basically predict an incredibly, incredibly similar prospect (in fact, just about the only similar prospect besides Yusmeiro Petit, and he had a 3.something career minor league ERA, that I can remember) to crash and burn.

Just because you like one player more than another, you don't have to hate the other. You Rays dudes constantly do this (reference LONGORIA >>>> ALEX GORDON!!!). But of course, it's probably everyone else's fault, because you all have a huge persecution complex too.

by limozeen on Jun 2, 2007 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Come on

Bringing up the Longoria v. Gordon. They're very similar prospects. I think Longoria is at least on par with him. I never predicted Gordon to crash and burn, and I think I brought up pretty valid points that they have very similar ceilings.

For the record, I think Sonnanstine is going to be exactly the type of pitcher yAk predicts Slowey is going to be. A high 4 ERA guy that can eat innings. A very valuable player, but no where close to the player his minor league numbers suggest he should be.

by Tyler on Jun 2, 2007 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

similar prospect?

Do you just look at statlines and make predictive statements based on them?

I ask because it seems that's what the majority of this site is.

WHEN (and only when) someone comes with an opinion after actually watching guys pitch, take it at face value.

I gain no pleasure by saying Sonnanstine is a different pitcher than Slowey. It's simply the truth. They have similarities, but the glaring difference to me AFTER WATCHING EACH GUY PITCH MULTIPLE TIMES is that Slowey doesn't have a truly effective offspeed pitch while Sonnanstine has TWO.

If you don't believe me, watch them for yourself and find out the same thing.

I also don't see anywhere that I predicted Slowey to "crash and burn". If predicting a mid-high 4 ERA in a rookie season is crashing and burning, then a lot of guys would love to crash and burn. Jamie Shields, for one, crashed and burned last year by that definition. I think he's alright with it now.

All I said was that Slowey is a one trick pony right now and it shouldn't take long for the league to figure it out. Once they figure it out, expect the HR's to begin and expect the hit rate to jump a bit. It doesn't mean he won't be effective, because he has a great fastball and guys who can locate the fastball wherever they want will always have success in baseball.

Rays in '08.... Free Andy Sonnanstine.

by youALREADYknow on Jun 3, 2007 1:37 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No question

that Sonnanstine and Slowey are different pitchers, and the comparison isn't exactly appropriate.

Sonnanstine's likely, IMO, to have some difficulty adjusting to the majors, because his fastball doesn't overpower anyone, and when his location is off (as it was Thursday night against Ottawa) he's going to give up lots of hits. Eventually, I think he'll be a good pitcher, but not a front-end-of-the-rotation guy. Hammel and Niemann have more upside.

I don't understand why Howell and not Hammel, frankly. Howell doesn't impress me at all.

Mike Emeigh http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/minor_key/

by MikeE on Jun 3, 2007 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs