No Puns About Van Every Position Please
Prior to this season, I remember seeing Wade Boggs and Josh Wilson pitch an inning of relief each. That’s it. Never before had I discovered the pleasure(?) of seeing a positional player pitch in a game. Earlier this year Nick Swisher did the feat (and turned himself into a cult icon in New York) and last night, Jonathan Van Every gave it a go. Bonus points go to Van Every, since Red Sox manager Terry Francona decided to flip Van Every and the current pitcher, Javier Lopez, meaning Lopez had to go to the field after getting touched up a bit.
I must say, there was something poetic about Lopez having to chase down a double in the gap.
The plan was to look at Van Every through PItchFx, but naturally GameDay encountered a few glitches during his appearance, all but wiping that idea out. Only five pitches were recorded, each registering as a fastball. It seems 81 miles per hour is where Every topped out, while sitting around 78. His “change-up” actually got nice break towards lefties, but as you would expect the command isn’t there.
For Van Every, this is another feather in his cap in only his 16th major league game. The only reason he’s even on the Red Sox is thanks to injuries to Rocco Baldelli and Mark Kotsay.
Ignoring big-named players (for health reasons) and Rick Ankiel (for mental health) which positional players do you think would make the best relievers? Who would throw the hardest? Who would make Daniel Cabrera look like Johan Santana?
Joe Mauer
Obviously has a cannon, is very smart, has a pitchers build, and most likely would have the command to be a very good reliever. Too bad though, someone of his talent is never going to get the chance
Oops, I see that you said no big named players now.
Being I am a twins fan I am going with a twins player. – Nick Punto
Nick punto would grit his way through the inning. I picture him throwing a sidearm knuckleball or something stupid like that.
My first response would have been Ichiro, but he probably qualifies as “big name,” so I gotta think Carlos Gomez would be interesting to watch on the mound.
Gomez on the mound would be a latter-day Mark Fydrich, may he rest in peace.
Tony Pena, Jr. pitched last year, and if I remember correctly he was consistently in the low 90’s with some movement. As Joe Posnanski pointed out, imagine how well he’d do if he was actually trained and conditioned to pitch.
On a similar note, Rafael Furcal is always praised for his arm strength. But with his recent track record of injuries, I’m not sure I would risk putting him in as a pitcher.
Also, nothing against what Jason said, but I’d have to wonder how catchers would fare as emergency pitchers, since the throwing motions are so different.
He couldn’t possibly pitch much worse than he hits, maybe Pena should think about pulling a reverse-Ankiel.
Pulling a Motte you may say? The Cardinals flip everyone from position player to pitcher and pitcher to position player.
Following the Twins OF, Cuddyer could make a decent pitcher. There were always stories of him teasing the (actual) pitchers, so it would be fun to watch him try, anyway.
First off Ichiro has been begging the Mariners for some pitching time but he is a big name player. That guy has a cannon and I don’t think anyone would be surprised if he pitched well. I mean, what can’t the guy do?
I am not sure what counts as a “big name” so I will name a couple and hopefully one will fit. Hunter Pence, Ryan Church, and Brandon Boggs.
I read last season that Brandon Inge has a 95 mph fastball.
Probably Matt Wieters, though he isn’t in the big leagues yet.
He was a closer at Georgia Tech for his first season and part of this last season. I think he threw in the mid-90s.
Buster Posey was FSU’s closer and threw in the 90’s as well.
Adam Jones.
Jeff Francoeur comes to mind. He has a cannon, but I doubt he would know where its going.
watching swisher pitch was one of the funniest things i’ve ever seen in baseball. no one is ever gonna top that. right, gabe kapler? lol.
Yuniesky Betancourt. The man’s sheer power of belief that every pitch is a strike would endow him with command.
Not really. He’d probably just be confused why the umpire was letting each batter walk to first base after every four pitches.
“But that pitch was at his ankles! That was clearly a strike!”
Brandon Inge would come out blowing his fastball past everyone.
I’d bet that Mark Reynolds would look about like Daniel Cabrera.
Johnny Damon would be hilarious. Like Jamie Moyer … but without the fastball.
I think Damon will have success if he throws close to 70 mph with his fastball.
Who would make Daniel Cabrera look like Johan Santana? My vote would be Vlad. Dude has a cannon, but he routinely fires the ball 20 feet too high. But it would be fun to watch and I don’t think anyone would be digging in at the plate.
Most success would be someone that was considered a very good pitcher, but was ultimately developed as a hitter. Someone like James Loney, who supposedly most teams liked better as a pitcher.
I was going to suggest David Ortiz, but Johnny Damon is even more fun. Juan Pierre would be another fun one.
Carlos Quentin … anyone who gets beaned that much would come out looking for revenge!
I want to see Adam Dunn pitch. Paul Bunyan himself casting a shadow over the plate.
Oh, and I’d like to see David Eckstein pitch so I could re-live some little league memories.
Would they let him pitch from forty-six feet?
I hadn’t seen Eckstein play in a while, because I tend to not care too much about the sort of team that would feature him as a regular. I watched the Padres play the Dodgers last night, though, and little Davey rainbowed a throw from about halfway between first and second. I’ve never seen a major leaguer do something like that.
Unfortunately most of the players best suited for relief are catchers… and they can’t throw to themselves…
I say let Gabe Kapler pitch next time Tampa faces the Yankees. He should have a shot at revenge.
I’d like to see Alfonso Soriano throw a few. He’s always on top of the list for baserunner kills in Left, though obviously he’s a big name.
Continuing on the Twins theme, Delmon Young has a cannon I’d like to see in action as well. And I wish they had a clone of top prospect Aaron Hicks so that they could develop one of him as a pitcher and another one as an outfielder. He was actually scouted as a pitcher by a lot of teams and supposedly has 95 MPH heat and a hammer curve but he wanted to play everyday so he’s in the outfield instead.
Not sure if he’s a big name or not but Tulowitzki can hit 94 on the gun when he’s throwing across the diamond.
id love to see how fast mekly cabrera could throw, hes got a cannon for am arm
I’d like to see Yunel Escobar throw an inning or two. He has one of the strongest throwing arms in the game, probably the best arm on a shortstop. I think he could really dial it up there, and he might even have decent command.
Tulowitzki has a heck of an arm. I seem to recall Rollins having pitched and played a position in high school, although I don’t know what kind of velocity he had.
If we are doing SS then I’d have to go with E. Aybar on the Angels. Rocket Launcher.
Of course, he probably couldn’t throw the ball over the plate and would probably drop the throw back from the catcher.
I’d also lobby for Yuni, just because he’s on an AL team, and pitching would keep him from holding a bat.
Ichiro did take the mound in an All Star game in Japan 1996, with two outs in the 9th, to face Hideki Matsui. Unfortunately,
things got a lot less interesting pretty quick. But he did pitch (the actual at-bat starts around 2:20 in that video, though Ichiro’s warm-up pitches are interesting — he has a sleeve-tugging ritual when he’s on the mound, too — even if he looks like Brent Lillibridge’s baby brother).
As for non-big names… a fair number of players apparently fool around with a knuckleball — if nothing else, if can liven up boring throw-and-catch drills. I’d take whichever position player on the team throws the best one of those. At worst, he gets rocked; at best, you get some Ks (and a lot of passed balls), but there’s very little chance he hurts himself.
BTW, if we’re talking about non-pitchers pitching, does Carlos Silva qualify?
another name to add to the list b/c of arm strength should be Jose Guillen. He’s paid starting pitchers money already.
Yadier Molina is the most obvious answer. Strong arm with incredible accuracy, and lauded for his work with the pitching staff since he was a 21 year old rookie.
Cody Ross pitched against the phillies last weekend. he gave up an infield single to jayson werth and that was it.
i want to rafael furcal pitch. he was rumored to get it close to 100MPH. he would probably scare the hell out of the hitters. who wants to get hit by a 100MPH fastball?
Yeah, there was some article somewhere last year that Brandon Inge was a freak athlete and had a mid-90s fastball.
Bobby Abreu. Imagine how comfortable he’d be without all those walls around.
I’ve heard B.J Upton threw in the low 90’s in high school. He’s way too valuable to expirement with as a pitcher though.
jose reyes,rafael furcal, hanley ramirez -with good control i would actually really like to see them pitch
It would be hilarious to watch Juan Pierre’s paper arm get lit up on the mound. Jimmy Rollins has a surprisingly strong arm for a man of his size. I’ve seen him throw enough lasers off his back foot to suspect he could easily top 90 from the hill. As for control…well he’s pretty accurate to first.
Pierre might be better than you think because every pitch would be low and noone would be able to get the ball out of the infield.
Pretty accurate to first = flat fastball that gets hit a mile.
yeah Joser, all throws from the infield miraculously defy the laws of physics, fly straight, and would be infinitely hittable. Here’s a tip: Accuracy has nothing to do at all with ball flight. Another tip: Virtually every throw on the infield tails enough so that the fielder has to allow for it when aiming.
I’m not sure the ball would get to the plate if Pierre was pitching.
0This might date me, but the most6 classic hitter being used as a pitcher in baseball was jose Canseco. He blew out his arm throwing a knuckleball!!! and missed the rest of the year.
I think somebody with a cannon arm who does nothing else well would be the obvious sort to focus on here. So…Delmon Young?
But he has “undeniable potential.”
I picture Adrian Beltre throwing flat-footed and side-armed with decent tailing action on a high-80’s fastball. No windup. No stretch. Just chucking it.
Speaking of the Jose Canseco period, I still haven’t seen a SS who could match the cannon of Shawon Dunston. Picture pre-surgery Rafael Soriano at SS.
But Beltre would make that throw by falling away from it, which would make staying on the rubber problematic. Seriously, he’s better at throwing to first while his body is falling towards the 3rd base dugout than anyone I’ve seen. It would be pretty entertaining seeing him go over the back of the mound, though.
Wily Mo Pena
I know he’s a big name, but Nick Markakis was a star pitcher in college IIRC. southpaw as well.
Raul Ibanez. Just look at the movement on that breaking ball.
Lyle Overbay would be interesting- a very strong arm, and a demeanor that leads me to believe he would have poise and wouldn’t panic.
OK – ones I’d like to see (probably not good)
Manny Ramirez
Prince Fielder
so yeah, basically anyone who weighs >200 lbs and wears pajamas on the field (look at Manny, you’ll get it) would be hilarious.
e.g. CC Sabathia
oohh… like to see him at short or something…
Chuck Knoblauch – what % would go 60 feet?