From indians.com

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade but I'm not nearly as optimistic at this point. Sowers:

1-Has pitched less than six inning in each of his last two starts.

2-Gave up a season low in hits in his last start, with 4. In only 5.2. Including that outing, he's given up 69 hits in 9 starts. Ugh. And, there aren't really bad outings to throw out. There all pretty bad. That's 69 hits in 58 innings. His walks are down, but if you add them in, he's got 83 baserunners in 58 innings.

That's a WHIP of 1.4, which isn't too great for a major league pitcher. And he's in AAA.

3-Still doesn't strike many batters out; he's had some games with high totals, but has also had games where he struck out 3, 2, and 2 batters.

Look, I think he's making some progress but I still think he's a long way from being an effective major league pitcher. My fear is that he's doing what he did last year, which is out thinking AAA batters and pitching to contact. He can't rely on batters to create outs for him. He's got to do it himself, in my opinion.

And he has to be able to go at least 6 innings in minor league games. If he's throwing that many pitches (and I don't know-he could be on a count but that seems crazy) to AAA hitters, than he's likely to get eaten alive in the majors.

So, yeah, there's some progress. His ERA is down some. But for every step forward (his complete game on 7-20), there seems to be a step back (his early exits his last two starts).

Part of what I'm trying to say, is that run prevention isn't what I want to see from Jeremy. He's show he can do that at AAA. He needs to get away from contact, to both be able to go deeper and have less baserunners.

I will give him a lot of credit for lowering his walks. He appears to be making real strides there.

93 (6.2 IP 6 ER)
101 (7 IP 5 ER)
108 (6 IP 5 ER)
113 (9 IP 0 ER)
95 (5 IP 1 ER)
101 (5.2 IP 1 ER)

I'd say there's a happy medium he still has to find between going deep into games and keeping the ER down. But I'm happy with the progress he seems to have made, especially keeping those extra-base hits to a minimum.

Jay and I had mentioned in the past that Sowers is young enough where a reasonable increase in his K rate would't be impossible for him to achieve.  Does that mean he'll become the next Moyer?  No, but Moyer and others like him are certainly showing that you don't need great peripherals in order to survive and thrive at the ML level, and last time I checked, Sowers' fastball is anywhere from 88-91 MPH, about 5-7 MPH faster than Moyer's fastball.  Is Moyer's offspeed stuff better?  Yes, but I wouldn't say it's as good as Santana's, or even Sabathia's offspeed stuff.  I really can't say that any of Moyer's pitches are stellar or excellent - a bit above-average at best, maybe, but not at the level of Santana's or Sabathia's changeup, nor the level of a Carmona sinker, etc.  That's why I don't think Sowers improving in the mold of Moyer, even if not as good as Moyer, is that unfathomable, which is why you don't give up on him that quickly unless some deal that's an obvious improvement comes along.  

If a great deal comes along for Sowers, sure, you'd consider it, but just giving up on him because his peripherals aren't that strong at age 24, after not even half a season at the ML level and barely half a season at AAA, when he had a 7.65 K/9 IP rate at AA before that half-season at AAA when he didn't have much time to adapt and make adjustments, another point Jay and I have have brought up in the past, that would not be wise in my opinion.

I'm sorry for the rant, but it baffles me a bit that some of you guys are ripping on Sowers so much.  Heck, Moyer improved himself into a quality pitcher, and he was considerably older than Sowers when he did so (in his early- to mid-30s.)  Why can't Sowers improve enough to be a useful ML pitcher at age 24, especially when he has shown signs of good command before, and his pitches aren't that much worse than Moyer's, who really does not have a great pitch, per se, but keeps hitters off balance by changing speeds and outthinking the hitter?  Isn't that what Sowers did when he was going well last year?  Why do people doubt he can make the adjustments to do it again with more development in his approach, command, and pitches?  

SSS understood, his K/9 IP rate at AAA Buffalo has already increased by over 0.50 K/9 IP in the few starts he's been down there compared to last year.  He needs time to work on things and develop - after all, he wasn't in the Indians' farm system that long, especially when compared to our other pitching prospects who reportedly have better velocity and stuff than he has (Miller, Lofgren, Smith, Laffey, etc.) - think Sowers might have been rushed a bit?  I think that's a reasonable conclusion, and not enough of a reason to just get rid of him without getting something of good value for him that will definitely improve us.  If that deal doesn't come along, you don't trade him for "something" just because of weak peripherals at age 24, after only having 1.5 Minor League seasons before making his ML debut, and a successful one at that.

Plus, didn't we hold onto guys like Guthrie and Davis for longer periods because of better stuff and projection, yet did they perform as well as Sowers did at the Minor League level, even though they had better stuff?  All the more reason why you don't trade Sowers unless it's an obvious improvement for us, not just for "something."

Just my 2 cents - again, sorry for the rant - no offense intended to anyone.  :-)  

Obviously, it's way too early to give up on Sowers; if Moyer can make some adjustments and improve in his 30s, why can't Sowers in his 20s?  Moyer's never had great stuff either - he's just learned how to use it in a way that can baffle hitters.

I'm not saying Sowers can duplicate it, but the possibility certainly exists, enough so where giving him away wouldn't be wise in my opinion.  If it's a trade that will definitely help us and it involves him, certainly you'd consider it, but I wouldn't give him away for "just anything."  Like I said, he was a bit rushed through the Minors, faster than any of our other pitching prospects, even though arguably they all have better "stuff" than Sowers has.  Shouldn't we see if all he needs is to catch his breath and figure things out before we think his usefulness is gone?  He is only 24 after all.

Heck, I'd think Lee would be the likelier one to be traded in the offseason, and since he has a "track record," I'd think you'd be able to get something more of value for him than you would for Sowers at this point, and being that Lee is older, all the more reason why I'd have more doubts about Lee finding what he "once had" compared to Sowers figuring out how to best use his stuff in order to regularly get ML hitters out, something he hasn't figured out yet, in addition to refining his pitches and approach further, which would certainly seem possible being that he is only 24-YO.

Just my 2 cents.  :-)

Andrew - first, no, you yourself did not say to trade "Sowers for anything" - I'm sorry if I implied that.  However, some are making it sound like we should trade him off for whatever half-way decent piece we can get - at this point in his career, I think it's too early for that.

2.  When I made that comparison to Moyer, I didn't mean that it will take Sowers 10 years to figure out how to throw like Moyer; I meant that his style of pitching and the way he has to go about attacking hitters is pretty much what Moyer has done, and that's probably the best way Sowers will be able to succeed at the ML level.  My point is, if Moyer could figure out in his 30s, don't you think Sowers might be able to figure it out sooner?  

If I recall correctly, Moyer's pitching style was vastly different between his 20s and 30s; he didn't really learn how to use his stuff effectively until he got to Seattle when he was in his 30s; when he was with the Cubs and with Baltimore, from what I understand, his whole method of getting hitters out was considerably different, a main reason why he was so inconsistent and really nothing like the pitcher he's been with Seattle.  If Sowers understands that he has to take a similar approach to what Moyer is doing now at this point in his career, he might be able to come close to duplicating Moyer's success at an earlier age.  As I've already mentioned too, Sowers does throw his fastball a good 5-7 MPH harder than Moyer does, so Sowers' fastball can conceivably be used more as a weapon than Moyer's could, which should only help him become that type of pitcher sooner than Moyer did.

That's all I was saying - that's why it's too early to give up on him for "something" unless it really upgrades us, but for some marginal veteran reliever or some veteran bench player who's a marginal upgrade, for instance, I say, "no deal."

And no offense, Laffey was a HS pick, and spent more time in the Minors than Sowers did (a lot more time - 4.5 seasons compared to Jeremy's 1.5,) so while Laffey was younger than Sowers debuted, Sowers would have had to debut immediately after he was drafted to be the same age Laffey was - no college pitcher does that nowadays, even Mark Prior didn't.

And also, it seems to me there are far more college pitchers that take longer than 1.5 seasons to make the Majors than those that take fewer than 1.5 seasons.  A's RHP Joe Blanton (58 G) took over 2 seasons.  LHP Barry Zito (31 G) took the better part of 2 seasons as well.  While Mulder (24 G) and Hudson (49 G) only took 1.5 years, keep in mind that most soft-tossers will take longer to adapt to the Majors than guys who can throw regularly in the low- to mid-90s, like the four mentioned above.  

Other examples:

LHP Cliff Lee took 2.5 seasons (58 G,) and I think most thought he was on the fast track when he was going through the Expos' system.

RHP Jeremy Guthrie took 1.5-2 seasons (55 G) to reach the Majors, and he clearly wasn't ready when he was called up.

Just because Sowers has hit a roadblock doesn't mean he can't adapt and overcome it - he's 24-YO!  I still say his 1.5 seasons (42 G) was a bit fast, especially for a guy with his profile.  Sowers wasn't "slow" by any means as you're implying.  Give him a chance to catch his breath and see if he can't adapt.  Looking back over those names I mentioned, their first season or two in the Majors weren't exactly smooth sailing either, and they had better stuff than Sowers had.  Sowers' struggles right now should hardly be surprising, nor insurmountable to overcome due to his age, work ethic, and the speed at which he was brought up, which arguably was too early based on his peripherals, despite the stellar ERA and W-L record.  

Just my 2 cents.  :-)