Pulling for Dan Meyer

For the most part, being a sports fan means following and rooting for a particular team.  But sometimes, it is also fun to follow and root for particular players, players that might not ever even play for your team.  You might pull for them because of the particular style that they have, or they grew up in your hometown, or just for the simple reason that they stand head and shoulders above their competition.  It can any number of reasons.

One player I always follow and root for is David Eckstein.  He's 5'7''.  He's reported to be 165 pounds, but my suspicion is that he only reaches that weight while holding a bat (with the donut-weight on it).  Somehow, I can relate to a guy like that.  Another player I follow is Dan Meyer. Way back on July 24, 2004, when this space was in its infancy (which isn't to say I have matured since then), I wrote:

I couldn't help but smile when I read Jayson Stark's latest Rumblings & Grumblings when he discusses the Braves need for some left-handed help in the bullpen: 

"But if they can't make a deal, they might promote prospect Dan Meyer, who rolled up 101 whiffs in his first 80 innings at Double-A and Triple-A."

 In March, two of my best friends and I took an extended weekend in Florida to catch several spring training games and we managed to exchange a few words of encouragement with Meyer, a fellow JMU alum.  Several times he called us "sir", which had both an impressive effect and a depressive effect at the same time.  The moment reminded me quite a bit of a book I read last year as I was closing out my twenties, The Day I Turned Uncool, and I thought, "When did I become a 'sir' to professional baseball players?"

At any rate, good luck making "the show" Dan, and Go Dukes!

And so, ever since Meyer was traded over the winter to the Oakland A's in return for Tim Hudson, I've been both impressed and a bit disappointed.  One the one hand, since the trade, Billy Beane, the general manager of the A's, has continuously said that having Meyer in the rotation will allow the A's to get younger (not that Hudson was old, when Beane says "younger", what he means is "cheaper") without sacrificing much production.  And so, while I was disappointed to see him leave the NL East where I would get to see him pitch against the Phillies quite often, I was glad that a fellow Duke was going to be a significant part of the A's rotation, something he was not guaranteed to be with the Braves.

And then I came across Rob Neyer's article entitled "History Doesn't Favor Meyer, Blanton".  What?! But Rob, he's my boy (well, one of them anyway)!  What are you saying Neyer?!  I read on as Neyer laid out the reasons for his thinking, and I found that, as usual, he had some good points.

After examining the statistical records of nineteen pitchers over the last decade that had similar careers to Meyers at this point in their careers (ranked as a top ten prospect by John Sickels and at least 100 IP at either the AA and/or AAA minor league level in the season for which the ranking was earned) and of those, fifteen pitched in the majors the following season, compiling a collective ERA of 4.71.  And of those fifteen, only five actually logged 100 IP in the majors that season.  And of those, only two had good rookie seasons -- Matt Morris and Roy Oswalt.  Hmm.  Not good odds.

But, there are several reasons for hope and Neyer points out two.  For one, Meyer has an incredibly good strikeout/innings pitched and strikeouts/walks ratios.  Also, Meyer had a lot of success at the AAA level, something many of the other pitchers Neyer compared him to did not.

However, there is one other reason for hope.  On several occasions I have heard people in baseball say, "Billy Beane is almost always a step ahead of everyone else."  And most recently, I have heard someone specific say it several times, someone that I wouldn't think would even acknowledge any of Beane's success over the last four or five seasons: Larry F. Bowa.

That's right, Larry Bowa.  Seriously.  In a recent interview with Billy Beane on XM Radio, Bowa praised the A's roster guru and expressed a great deal of optimism in the changes Beane has made in the Athletics rotation.  And in my mind, if Bowa is optimistic about Meyer's chances, well then so am I.