EXPECTATIONS FOR 18: Jerry Blevins

[Edgy MD]

Know what's cool? That guy warming up next to me in the morning stretching exercise? That's Matt den Deckker! Three springs ago, that guy was sent to Washington for me, and while I've pitched in 165 games for this team, mostly effectively, with a twice-broken arm in there, that guy pretty much gave the Nats bupkis. Now he's back for free — or chump change, anyhow — and I'm still banging it for the Mets.

Getting lefties out. That's my game, and I'm pretty good at it. I'm not a lost cause against righthanders either, but it's the Freddie Freemans and the Bryce Harpers I'm here to fight, often one at a time. Yeah, I may walk a few, but that's the game. You come in with the go-ahead run on second and first base open, with an all-star sluggerino at the plate, you want maybe rather miss outside the strike zone than in.

I'm lanky and a little goofy in the manner of lefthanded specialists, but I'm now coming to camp with nearly as much equity as anybody. I'm Jerry Blevins, and another year of this stuff, they'll be calling me a true Met.

[fimg=362:23dsv9sv]https://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/2017/02/09/images/mlbf_1222288683_th_45.jpg[/fimg:23dsv9sv] [fimg=338:23dsv9sv]http://dailystache.net/wp-content/uploads/080615-mlb-Jerry-Blevins-pi-mp.vresize.1200.675.high_.40-660x400.jpg[/fimg:23dsv9sv]
[fimg=350:23dsv9sv]https://content.sny.tv/assets/images/0/7/2/214882072/cuts/USATSI_9385393_q2zlvnly_mbjrzqkm.jpg[/fimg:23dsv9sv] [fimg=350:23dsv9sv]http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0331/mlb_Blevins01_bl_608x342.jpg[/fimg:23dsv9sv]

Goofy, maybe, but I bet my sizzle reel is better 'n' yours.

[youtube:23dsv9sv]eJ8Cwib9A1c[/youtube:23dsv9sv]

The past is prologue. What does my future look like? Like, my immediate future. The next eight months.

[Lefty Specialist]

Will continue to be lanky and effective. ERA around 3 and a handful of saves in the Callaway Closer du Jour system.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't even care if he's effective, as long as he's lanky!

[Ceetar]

2.81 ERA. 1.3 fWAR. 30.3 K% 10.1 BB%

71 games, 45 IP.

[Edgy MD]

Ceets knows how to put his cards on the table.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I do think that Jerry is the guy in the bullpen this year in whom I have the most faith.

[Centerfield]

I'm worried about Blevins. Lots of use the last few years.

I fear his arm falls off in May.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If his arm falls off in May, he'll go on the DL in mid-June.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Ceets knows how to put his cards on the table.

Wildly specific predictions are fun, though relievers are boring.

[Lefty Specialist]

Stay away from curbs, Jerry.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm sort of waiting for it all to go wrong for Jerry. I've been fatalistic about him for a long time prolly because everyone thinks he's super, and for his part he's proved me wrong so far.

But.

5-4, 3.01, 56 innings, 70 games, maintains his whiff rate but HRs also increase, and a few of them will hurt

[batmagadanleadoff]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm sort of waiting for it all to go wrong for Jerry. I've been fatalistic about him for a long time prolly because everyone thinks he's super, and for his part he's proved me wrong so far. But. 5-4, 3.01, 56 innings, 70 games, maintains his whiff rate but HRs also increase, and a few of them will hurt

I coulda written your post. Just when you think you could depend on Blevins, is when he sucks worse than Tommy Milone. That's the nature of the game.

[Guest d'Kong76]

The other day I was going to say hurt in May and struggles all year to return. But that's
kind mean so I'm somewhere between Ceets and LS and throw in the lanky for 2018.

[Edgy MD]

I tend to think it's hard for lefty specialists to utterly stink it up for too long. Their role is so small and specialized, and their contracts usually short enough, that if they aren't getting it done, they go from nightly appearances to shorter, less frequent, lower leverage spots, to utterly gone in a matter of weeks.

Like, does anybody know where Scott Rice is these days?

[smg58]

The Ducks didn't take him back?

Pencil me in for exactly the numbers Blevins put up last year. Not even a third of an inning different.

[Edgy MD]

His prediction was mostly kind of abstract, but I think Lunchbucket won the 2017 Blevvy thread by predicting Jerry would lead the league in pitching appearances. He didn't, but he was one off the pace set by Corey Knebel and Juan Nicasio. Nicasio did it with three teams!