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The Jays new acquisition is hoping it's a good thing he was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox yesterday.  He's the subject of today's POTD!

Casey Fien and catcher Gerald Laird have a chat in front of the mound at Progressive Energy Field in Cleveland August 2nd.

Tigers pitching coach Rick Knapp joins the conversation on the mound.  Fien lasted just two-thirds of an inning in relief in which he gave up three runs (two earned) on two hits and three walks while striking out one.  The Tigers were pounded by the Tribe 11-1.


Casey Fien was taken in the 20th round of the 2006 amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers out of Cal Poly where he spent his junior and senior seasons.  The Santa Rosa, California native previously pitched at the NAIA level at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa before returning home to  California to join a junior college club at Golden West.  The 6-foot-2, 195-pound righty began his pro career in 2006 with Oneonta of the New York-Penn League where he went 1-1 with a 2.74 earned run average and one save while posting a K-BB mark of 37-8 in 43 innings.  His K-BB total improved to 77-10 in 2007 with West Michigan where he won six of seven decisions and collected six saves with an ERA of 3.10 in 61 innings. 

Fien skipped past High-A ball in Lakeland to join Double-A Erie in 2008 where he racked up 12 saves while striking out 42 hitters and walking just 12 over 46 innings.  He split six decisions to go along with an ERA of 2.96.  He improved to 2-0 with a 2.40 at Triple-A Toledo while whiffing 17 batters over 15 innings while walking just four.  That performance led to Baseball America ranking him 11th among its Top 30 Tigers prospects for 2009.  Last season, he continued to get the job done in Toledo by earning a save in one-third of his 42 performances with 14.  He also compiled a sterling K-BB total of 66-15 in 58 innings while going 2-1 with a 3.41 ERA. 

Fien's dreams of making the bigs were realized when he made his debut July 26th with 2 1/3 shutout innings against the visiting Chicago White Sox with a walk being his only blemish.  His final appearance of the year saw him fire three shutout innings against the Pale Hose October 2nd.  Actually, he has been unscored upon in 6 1/3 total innings against the White Sox but he pretty much struggled against everyone else.  He was scored upon in his next three outings after his debut and suffered an extra innings loss against the Tribe July 31st.  When he was roughed up again by the Indians August 2nd, he didn't see major league action again until September.  He finished with a record of 0-1 and a 7.94 ERA with a 9-6 K-BB total over 11 1/3 innings.

The 26 year-old Fien was let go by the Tigers late last month to make room for newly acquired outfielder Johnny Damon and was claimed off waivers March 1st by Boston.  However, the Red Sox decided to set him free and that allowed the Jays to claim him yesterday.

Baseball America ranked Fien as the Tigers number 27 prospect in its 2010 Handbook.  BA says he throws a four-seam fastball at 91-93 miles per hour along with a two-seamer to achieve more sink.  He also throws a slider that is said to be inconsistent along with a below-average changeup.  The 2009 Handbook states his sinker is his go-to pitch and his breaking pitch is a slurvy offering at 82-84 MPH.    The scouting report also indicates he needs to improve his secondary pitches and refine his command.   BA projects him to be a middle reliever in the bigs.

To make room for Fien, the Jays have placed righty Scott Richmond on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from a shoulder impingement.

Fien Young Cannibal! | 9 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Richard S.S. - Friday, March 05 2010 @ 03:53 PM EST (#212198) #
Another abuse of a young arm: 16.2 IP in 2005 (NCAA) then, 99.1 (NCAA) + 42.67 (A-) in 2006.  Drafted at 22.67 years in 2006, rushed to the Majors at 25.75 years in 2009 for just 11.1 IP then thrown away.  This explains A.A.'s interest.
robertdudek - Friday, March 05 2010 @ 05:40 PM EST (#212203) #
Another abuse of a young arm: 16.2 IP in 2005 (NCAA) then, 99.1 (NCAA) + 42.67 (A-) in 2006.  Drafted at 22.67 years in 2006, rushed to the Majors at 25.75 years in 2009 for just 11.1 IP then thrown away.  This explains A.A.'s interest.

I don't see any abuse in all this. Please explain.
VBF - Friday, March 05 2010 @ 09:23 PM EST (#212205) #
#2, your photographic coverage of what appears to be every baseball player that is mildly involved with the Jays or Canada (and from various stadium's section 518 equivalent no less) is commendable and impressive.
Richard S.S. - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 03:24 AM EST (#212208) #

College and University Coaches' primary responsibility is to win, above all else they must win.  If they don't win, they don't keep their job.  Concern for a player's overwork is rarely a consideration for them.   Pitching 16.2 innings in one year, then pitching 142.0 the very next year is not acceptable.  (I consider this abuse).  Drafted at age 22, just 4 months shy of his 23rd birthday, he's called up to the majors with barely two full minor league seasons to his credit.  As is usually expected, he gets hammered - then put on waivers, twice.  This is stupid.  (I consider this abuse).

Abuse: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abuse

robertdudek - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 05:54 AM EST (#212209) #
College and University Coaches' primary responsibility is to win, above all else they must win.  If they don't win, they don't keep their job.  Concern for a player's overwork is rarely a consideration for them.   Pitching 16.2 innings in one year, then pitching 142.0 the very next year is not acceptable.  (I consider this abuse).  Drafted at age 22, just 4 months shy of his 23rd birthday, he's called up to the majors with barely two full minor league seasons to his credit.  As is usually expected, he gets hammered - then put on waivers, twice.  This is stupid.  (I consider this abuse).

We don't know the context of these numbers - was he injured the year he threw 16.2, and healthy the next? How much was he throwing on the side? Is throwing a lot of innings, relativelty speaking, even bad for you? (there is no proof that high inning counts lead to injuries).

Throwing a baseball is inherently a "dangerous" activity. No one has shown that pitching  a lot of innings (within reason) is any more dangerous than throwing less. Some suggest that its better in the long run for the pitcher not to be babied.

Yes, college coaches are motivated to win, but if college pitchers were getting injured very much more often than similarly aged minor league pitchers, don't you think there would be a huge backlash AGAINST the college coaches? Why would the best pitching prospects risk their careers by going to college?

The fact is that the hardest working college pitchers do not throw significantly more innings than similarly aged minor league pitchers (even if they did, this does not necessarily lead to increased risk of injury - see above).

College pitchers are usually drafted at 21 or 22. So Fien is not atypical. They sometimes get a call up in their 2nd or 3rd pro years if they are any good for a look see. Small sample size renders his MLB performance to date meaningless.

It is not at all a bad thing to be waived and claimed by another team. Neither is the waiving team necessarily stupid. There are only 40 roster spots and that means if a team want one player they very often have to let another one go. The two waivings are entirely independent of one another, done by two different organisations. So it can't be stupid because it was done twice, it was done once by team A and once by team B.

The things you described are not at all out of the ordinary in a baseball context. They are not in the least bit controversial.
christaylor - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 08:29 AM EST (#212210) #
"Pitching 16.2 innings in one year, then pitching 142.0 the very next year is not acceptable. "

As has been said, in this context it is almost impossible to definitively define these number as abuse. This is evil dangerous downside of taking the rule of thumb that has been named after Verducci too seriously. Obviously, I think, any pitcher with these numbers was throwing unrecorded "innings" somewhere with the same effort/intensity that was recorded in those innings.

On college coaches -- of course they ought to want win, however, from what I've read, college coaches care about their teams and any good coach ought to care about their pitchers. It is not hard to tell if a pitcher is laboring on the mount. I believe it has been conclusively shown that it isn't the number of pitches (innings) a pitcher throws but a pitcher throws when tired. This point is usually brought up within the context of the 100 pitch count limit, but anyone, but I'd assume college coaches know their players, watch them and don't want them pitching gassed. They walk out and take the ball. Same thing goes in the warm ups, if a pitcher's delivery doesn't look normal, his health probably is not normal. I believe NCAA coaches can recognize this...

Universities/colleges are usually thoughtful institutions that care about their students present and futures. I'd be careful of accusing those institutions of thoughtless abuse without knowing the exact details of the situation.
Gerry - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 09:29 AM EST (#212211) #

Some news from Dunedin:

Globe:  Walton gets call

Post: A long walk out of the shadows

Post:  Accardo pitches new storyline

MLB/Bastian: Arencibia learning

 

 

 

TamRa - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 10:36 AM EST (#212213) #
couple of thoughts on the "abuse" question:

the "Verducci Rule" doesn't apply to the last year previous but to EVER previous - so Fein's previous high was whatever he posted as a high in high school

Second, I would imagine there is a threshold that should be reached before the rule is applied - i.e. (given the rule is +30 IP) there is a qualitiative difference between jumpting from 30 to 80 and jumping from 130 to 180.



ramone - Saturday, March 06 2010 @ 11:48 AM EST (#212215) #

Very off topic but read this on ESPN.com today regarding former Jay prospect Serio Santos:

"Sergio Santos was converted from infielder to pitcher last spring, and this spring an NL scout locked him at 98 mph.  Wow.

Manager Ozzie Guillen told the Chicago Tribune, "The door is open. Whoever grabs it is going to stay." So just a year after making the position change, Santos could win a major league reliever role this season.

But as he builds up his arm strength and continues to pitch at the major (or minor) league level, the radar guns will be out to see if he hits triple digits."

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