Rumor Mill f/x - Jason Hirsh?

I don't know too much on this one, but Neil at CCO reports on the Jason Marquis situation:

According to a report on Friday from the Rocky Mountain News, the Cubs are still shopping Jason Marquis and the Rockies could be a fit. XM Radio reported the rumor on Saturday and stated Jason Hirsh and another player might be involved.

Hirsh is big, 6'8", and has spent time with the Astros and the Rockies, making 29 starts and a few relief appearances in the bigs. His numbers, even in the minors, aren't very exciting. He's still young, 27 in 2009, so he may have some upside, still.

Hirsh supposedly threw up to 97 mph in college, but that velocity is no longer there. In the limited data we have on Hirsh from PITCHf/x, he's topped out at 95. And that's at a park which runs hot on the velocity (Petco) and was way back in '97.



Jason got to pitch a few times in September of 2008, and wasn't as bad on the gun as he was where he left off in 2007. Still, topping out under 93mph is no big whoop in MLB.

cfx	#	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm
CH	88	82.1	-7.8	5.3	233.4	1,115.7
CU	36	76.3	4.1	-2.5	223.8	525.7
FA	287	90.9	-5.6	9.3	210.1	1,408.3
SL	74	84.7	1.6	3.3	159.3	502.6

His stuff looks very average - but how effective is it?

cfx	#	LHH	RHH	Swing	Whiff	B:CS	ISZ	Paint	Chase	Watch
CH	88	45	43	0.466	0.415	4.2	0.273	0.102	0.375	0.292
CU	36	15	21	0.250	0.333	2.0	0.333	0.194	0.208	0.667
FA	287	125	162	0.477	0.161	2.3	0.429	0.132	0.329	0.325
SL	74	28	46	0.392	0.276	3.5	0.378	0.068	0.217	0.321
	485	213	272	0.445	0.232	2.7	0.386	0.122	0.312	0.342

This isn't a lot of data to go by, but he's not bad. The B:CS ratio seems high - but he throws enough strikes for me. I'd say the fastball is maybe a little over average and the slider a bit below. But the change-up and curveball are both pretty good - but based on limited samples, especially the curve. And he throws all pitches to both left- and right-handed batters.