Well, after much bellyaching and gnashing of teeth on Brewer social media, David Stearns finally made a move to bolster the team's starting rotation yesterday! Was it Madison Bumgarner? Or Hyun-jin Ryu? Or Dallas Keuchel?? Nope, nope, nope. It was 32 year old right hander, Josh Lindblom! Surely that will satisfy the fans on Twitter and Facebook, right? Right?? Live look at Brewer Twitter after the move was announced yesterday:
'WHO??' 'Cheapskate Brewers strike again!' 'May as well just trade Yelich at this point!'
And do you know what all of those quotes have in common? I made them up for the purposes of this blog. But also: They were the same things, that the exact same people were saying, when Stearns acquired Jordan Lyles and Drew Pomeranz at the trade deadline. The EXACT same people. Both of those moves worked out pretty well, wouldn't you say?
Like we said on the Grandal blog, and the Moose blog, I think David Stearns has earned the right to have a little space, and a little trust, in what he's trying to accomplish.
So, who is Josh Lindblom? Well, he was in Major League Baseball as a reliever from 2011-2014 (actually had a really effective year in 2012, 74 appearances with a 3.55 ERA), before spending 5 of the last 6 seasons in the Korean professional league, the KBO.
This is the same league that Stearns dipped into when he unearthed Eric Thames. Now I know what you're thinking, does Linblom have a killer Korean cheer song like Thames did:
Sadly, as far as I can tell, the answer is no. But what he lacks in kitschy fanfare, he makes up for in stats. Last year he was the MVP of the entire league, compiling a 20-3 record, with a 2.50 ERA, and 9 K's per inning. He was 15-5 the season before that. He credits his time in Korea for allowing him to, 'reinvent,' himself as a pitcher. As you can tell from the above :45 second highlight package, he looks to have developed a nasty splitter and slider.
Now, how will those numbers translate to MLB? Remember, Thames was mashing about 60 home runs a year in that league. When Eric came back to MLB, he could be generally regarded as a 30(ish) home run a year player, if given about 400-450 at bats. So, not the video game numbers he was putting up in Korea, but still, better than average, and extremely effective as a power hitting corner infielder.
My expectation would be about the same for Lindblom*. The baseball in MLB is a little different than it is in the KBO, and you have to assume the hitters in MLB are better (or least have a different approach). BUT, if he's even 70% of what he's been in the KBO, this is a STEAL. Stearns inked him to a 3 year, 9 million dollar deal, that could reach 18 million with incentives. So we've got a pitcher, who's got something to prove, with a tremendous track record in the KBO, and he's got an incentive laden contract?? YES YES YES! Did Stearns do it again or did he do it again!
*J/K my expectation is that he puts up the same numbers he did in the KBO.
PS: You know what we're going to keep track of this upcoming season? Lindblom's stats versus Gerrit Cole's. I'm not saying Lindblom is going to have a better season than Cole, but I will be interested to watch how their numbers compare, if both are healthy. If Lindblom even SNIFFS some of the numbers Cole is putting up, think about how that translates given how much less we're paying him. Cole is going to be make 1 million dollars PER START. If he makes 32 starts and throws around 100 pitches a start? He'll make roughly $10,000 PER PITCH. That's bananas! Spike a curveball in the dirt? $10K. Miss high and outside? $10K. Absolutely crazy. So with their contracts as the baseline for comparison, let's watch how this plays out.
