Is Jon Rauch Trying To Emulate Byung-Hyun Kim?

by Marc Fournier on Apr 22, 2009 2:54 AM EDT

I don't understand how a player can lose it like he has. Although, I'm fairly confident that we all remember when Byung-Hyun Kim suddenly fell off of a cliff.

So anyway, we're here to discuss all things Rauch. Where do you think he'll end up? How long are you betting on him to stay on the roster? What specifically have you noticed about his pitches/ the way he pitches (your own speculation)? Will he recover? What's up with those tattoos?

Spit it.

Mr. Jon Rauch

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You're maligning Kim here, very badly

He blew up for two games in NY, but came back to get 36 saves and post a 2.04 ERA for the Diamondbacks in 2002, fully meriting his All-Star appearance. Rauch hasn’t shown himself remotely capable of emulating Kim: to “fall off a cliff”, you have to show a level of performance to begin with. Since coming from Washington, he has thrown 29.1 innings and allowed 37 hits, 13 walks and 25 earned runs, for an ERA of 7.57.

I’ll maybe see if I can find some pitch F/X data for him tomorrow evening, that might shed some light on what has happened, but it’s too late for me to start fiddling around with that right now. :-)

"Win, or die" -- Marquise de Merteuil

by Jim McLennan on Apr 22, 2009 3:03 AM EDT reply actions

I suppose

I was really just referring to the fact that Kim disappeared from the radar – similarly to what is happening to Rauch right now. Your statistics back up this logic.

After 2003 Kim never had an ERA less than 4.86 and his average over the next four years of his career was 8.89. Ergo, he fell of a cliff and hasn’t been seen since, and I feel that Jon Rauch is about to fall as well.

Wear your own fur.

by Marc Fournier on Apr 22, 2009 9:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Now THAT

makes a lot more sense to me.

Insert witty and/or humorous signature here.

by DbacksSkins on Apr 23, 2009 10:24 AM EDT up reply actions

not too much to discuss

We cant even compare him with Kim.

Rauch just sucks, badly.
He needs a change of scenary, maybe go to triple-a or back to the “Natinals”.
I remember him clocking 93mph, hitting the corners of the strikezone, etc
Now hes got no stuff, his breaking pitches dont break at all and his fastball has no movement.. do I need to say something about poor location too?
we need to get rid of him, I dont care if he ends up saving 30 games for another team, but with the dbacks, hes a lock to suck forever.

Wikipedia is accurate. (citation needed)

by Muu on Apr 22, 2009 3:22 AM EDT reply actions

Have to agree with the previous comments.

BK Kim got a bad rep with the Dbacks when he gave up a couple runs in the WS. And then, after throwing 60 pitches the night before, Brenly brought him back and he gave up more runs. He had an awesome 2002, though, and in his case, it WASN’T just a question of the ASG manager loading up on his own players. He was legit. (Altho, since he played in Arizona, he almost certainly wouldn’t have gone otherwise)

Rauch is just terrible. He’s inexplicably become completely worthless since leaving Washington — and I doubt that even RFK Stadium and Nationals Park were that pitcher-friendly. Even compared to Chase.

But, I do agree. It might REALLY be worth it to just cut Jon Rauch.

Insert witty and/or humorous signature here.

by DbacksSkins on Apr 22, 2009 4:32 AM EDT reply actions

He's trying

to emulate BHK’s performance in New York in ’01.

Other than that, he’s emulating Edgar Gonzalez on a bad day. The only place he can pitch right now is a home run derby.

Seriously though, send him down, get Vasquez or someone up (not Buckner). If he figures out how to keep the ball down, or God forbid, miss some bats, great. If not, cut him. Or trade him to Florida for Bonifacio, he’s hitting .600.

Oh, wait, not anymore. Sorry.

by paqs on Apr 22, 2009 6:18 AM EDT reply actions

Just an amateur look at Pitch FX

I took a look at his first appearance last year and his first appearance this year, and there are some differences.

Velocity: His fastball velocity was actually higher this year, averaging 90.5 mph vs 89.5 mph, and touching 92.6 vs 90.8.

Movement: This is where it gets interesting. Based on 1 appearance only (I’ll have a deeper look in a minute) he lost 6 inches of horizontal movement and 2 inches of vertical movement on his fastball!!!!

Another think I see, and you’ll have to take my word for it because I can’t be arsed to save and rehost the images, is that his strikes from last year were not at the heart of the plate, like this year, and his balls from last year are relatively close to the plate, whereas his balls this year are a foot off the plate and of course, no one will swing at these.

I’ll see if I can expand my sample size a bit.

by paqs on Apr 22, 2009 7:01 AM EDT reply actions

All right

After a cumulative look at last season and this one:

Velocity:

His fastball averages 90mph this year, down from 92 last year. This is worrying, but I should note that two years ago he averaged 90.5mph and that was his best year. Also, he averaged around 90mph for the first month of last year as well.

Movement:

He lost an inch of horizontal movement and 1.5 inches of vertical movement on his fastball, while his slider moves the same.

I’m no expert, so I can’t tell you if that difference is enough to make him suck, so draw your own conclusions.

He was poor for us last year, but at least his K/BB was 2.44. This year, it’s 0.75.

by paqs on Apr 22, 2009 7:31 AM EDT up reply actions

BTW

All this data is courtesy of FanGraphs and BrooksBaseball

by paqs on Apr 22, 2009 7:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Rauch has allowed runs in all but 2 appearances this year. Naturally he’s brought into a winnable 1-run game, too. I think he needs to be shut down for awhile. Either he’s hurt physically or mentally. I’d rather take chances on young kids from AA or AAA.

~Tommy~

by sb24ws2005 on Apr 22, 2009 9:51 AM EDT reply actions