What the chucklenuts up in the Grading The Week office love about Bill Schmidt’s Rockies moves is the club’s ability — or is it the hope? — to see the good in anything. Take Cal Quantrill, who must’ve seriously ticked off somebody in the Cleveland front office to wind up getting shipped to Colorado on Friday for an A-ball catcher.
As a lottery ticket, was it worth a flyer for the pitching-starved Purple? Sure. Schmidt and the Rockies can sell this as giving up almost nada for a smart (ex-Stanford), courteous (he’s Canadian) veteran (he’ll be 29 next February) starter to fill out a rotation that got completely nuked by injuries last summer.
“Quan” went 23-8 and averaged 168 innings for the Guardians in ’21 and ’22 before hitting the skids (4-7, 5.24 ERA) this past season. On a macro level, it fits.
Rox brain trust see a crafty righty who’ll take the ball every five days and allow the dudes in the bullpen to play Immaculate Grid until the sixth inning when it’s his day on the bump. The peripherals, though? The peripherals see a pitch-to-contact guy who gives up a ton of contact coming to a home ballpark where contact guys, by and large, wind up getting mashed into Thanksgiving taters.
Quantrill, Rockies savior — D
The GTW posse, full disclosure, are an analytical bunch. And what the analytics say about Quantrill says a lot about what the Rockies think about analytics. (Spoiler: not much.)
To wit: The average American League opponent slugging percentage this past season was .410. Quantrill allowed a .437 clip. The average line-drive rate was 23.8%. Quan’s was 27.6%. The average strikeout rate was 23.3% Quan’s was 13.1%.
But he’s a sinker guy who theoretically throws strikes, so the Rockies squinted and saw a match.
The only catch?
They’ve got to “find” it again.
Said sinker, per BaseballSavant.com, was indeed a “plus” pitch in terms of run value (or ability to limit runs, if you like) in 2019, ’20, ’21 and ’22. However, it was Q’s worst pitch last summer, per advanced stats, while his best was … his curveball. Coors Field loves curves!
Also per Statcast, the 35 home runs Quantrill was mapped with giving up the last two seasons would be 41 dingers at Coors. Among National League parks, only Great American Ballpark in Cincy (47), American Family Field in Milwaukee (44), Chase Field in Arizona (42) and Dodger Stadium (42) would’ve seen more of his balls leave the yard. So basically, three out of the five are in the NL West. Or a majority of the schedule to come. Welcome home, Cal!
Summers at Coors are great, dude. You’ll love it. Well, except for the pitching part.
Former Buffs football coaches — B
Deion Sanders isn’t the only FBS football coach with CU ties who had a rough October. Our old buddy Mike MacIntyre, now the head man at FIU, took his Panthers into Arkansas on Saturday with a 4-6 mark following a 3-1 start to the campaign.
At the lower levels, though, the news is sunnier in Ralphie circles. A hat-tip to Darrin Chiaverini, who in his first season as a full-time collegiate head coach, has the Chaffey (Calif.) Community College Panthers 10-0 and champs of the American Metro Conference. The Panthers are slated to face Pasadena City in the American Championship Bowl on Nov. 25 in a rematch of a game played back on Sept. 30 — a 31-21 Panthers victory.
