Archive for Kenley Jansen

Last Wednesday night, there was a moment when Carlos Gonzalez probably thought he might be able to come up big. Down two runs with two out in the bottom of the ninth, Charlie Blackmon had managed to single off of Dodgers’ closer Kenley Jansen just before CarGo stepped to the plate, and with a man on, one swing of the bat could’ve tied the game.

Then reality set in. The count went quickly to 0-2, and in that situation, Gonzalez was likely going to strike out. That isn’t an indictment of CarGo, just a statement of fact: Jansen strikes out 42.5% of all the batters he faces, and that figure rises to almost 67% after he’s ahead in the count 0-2. After managing to take a close pitch and foul another off, Gonzalez got a rare Jansen slider he couldn’t handle:

We often get used to dominant relievers being consistently great. For the elite guys, the end of the game is almost automatic most days, and the warm and fuzzy feeling you get as a fan knowing you have proven options at the end of a game is a special one. However, sometimes we need to take a step back and measure just how ridiculous the stats are that some of these great relievers are producing.

And so we have Jansen. We know he’s great. He’s been great for a few years now; with his almost sole use of a hard cutter, it’s easy and fun to compare him to a version of Mariano Rivera. With that lofty comparison made, it might not be surprising that he’s putting together a very unique, special season.

Consider this fact: Jansen went the first month and a half of his season without walking a batter. He was injured for April, but after he debuted in mid-May, he didn’t issue a walk until June 28th. During that time, he struck out 26 batters in 15.2 innings. That’s a mind-boggling mix of dominance and control, and it’s formed the basis of what Jansen has become in 2015.

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Every year the dreaded sophomore curse rears its ugly head. Not even star shorstop Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies was immune from its influence. His sophomore season was the only time in his five-year career that he dipped below 5.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) – and it was a big dip to 0.9 WAR.

With the 2012 Major League Baseball season about to begin there is understandably a lot of excitement over some of the 2011 rookies who appear poised for a true breakout year. Let’s try and sift through some of the names and see who might be in for a big year and who might be in for a big… disappointment.

Henderson Alvarez, RHP, Toronto: I have to admit that I thought Toronto was crazy for calling up Alvarez when they did in 2011 but he did not implode as expected. The 21-year-old hurler made a successful jump to the Majors with just 88.0 innings of experience above A-ball thanks to a fastball that can tickle the upper 90s while inducing a plethora of ground balls. Alvarez survived his first tour of duty in The Show with basically a two-pitch mix (fastball/changeup) and he’s working hard to improve his slider. If he can get the third pitch working, while also improve upon his command within the strike zone, Alvarez could see a big jump in his strikeout rate.

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Ever since the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Kenley Geronimo Jansen out of Curacao in 2004, his Howitzer-like arm strength has stood out. A catcher with a burly 6-foot-6, 220 pound frame, Jansen threw out 37 percent of base runners attempting to steal on his watch in the minors. He achieved fame during the 2009 World Baseball Classic as part of the Netherlands team that toppled a Dominican Republic juggernaut featuring Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Miguel Tejada, Pedro Martinez, Ubaldo Jimenez and Edinson Volquez, among others. Jansen helped seal a 3-2 victory by gunning down Wily Taveras on a ninth-inning attempted steal of third base. Do you believe in miracles? Ja!

Unfortunately, dude couldn’t hit. The “switch hitter” posted a .257/.347/.341 triple-slash in 475 Rookie Ball plate appearances and .203/.281/.353 line in 347 trips to the plate in A-ball. Not wanting Jansen’s cannon to go to waste, the Dodgers shifted him to the mound toward the end of last season. Jansen logged 11.2 innings with Inland Empire of the High-A California League, punching out 19 batters but handing out 11 walks and surrendering six runs.

He then competed in the Arizona Fall League, where he opened eyes by popping the catcher’s mitt with 96-97 MPH radar gun readings. Jansen averaged about 95 MPH with his fastball, according to Baseball America. While he didn’t pitch much in the AFL (just 4.2 innings), he offered enough promise for L.A. to add him to the 40-man roster, protecting him from the Rule V Draft. Kenley got some prospect love, too, with BA naming him the 14th-best prospect in the Dodgers’ farm system. They lauded the right-hander’s mid-to-upper-nineties velocity and his promising, if unrefined, low-80’s slider.

This season, Jansen has spent time at High-A Inland Empire and Chattanooga of the Double-A Southern League. In 45 combined frames between the 66ers and the Lookouts, Jansen fanned a jaw-dropping 78 hitters (15.6 K/9) while issuing 23 free passes (4.6 BB/9). According to Minor League Splits, the 22-year-old’s park-and-luck adjusted FIP was 2.36. Throwing lots of high Gouda, Jansen induced infield flies 26.5 percent of the time. Jansen has tossed two innings since the Dodgers called him up on July 23rd, chucking his fastball at an average velocity just short of 95 MPH while sitting around 80 MPH with the slider.

Within the course of a year, Jansen has gone from flailing at A-ball pitching to flinging heat in the majors. As Sergio Santos and now Jansen have shown this season, the path from minor league position player to big league bullpen arm is short if you can bring it.