SnakePit Appraisal: Mike Bolsinger

"So far from either the problem or the solution it’s hard to feel one way or the other at all about him now, or ever."

- SenSurround

Strengths:

• "A serviceable back of the rotation arm for the occasional spot start." - Jim McLennan
• "His start against the Cubs was probably one of the top-ten starting performances all season, and he was still fooling batters the third time through the order. So the potential was clearly there." - preston.salisbury
• "Has had success in the minors and looked like he could easily be a long arm in the bullpen. Just needs to adjust to hitters." - AzRattler
  
• "Michael P Bolsinger is a human being, godammit  I will not reduce him to some silly, dehumanizing numeral.  …bring on Trevor Cahill." - Diamondhacks.
• "Low expectations but I didn’t feel like he was that bad this year." - Paulnh
• "Has decent stuff and an acceptable track record as a prospect, so there’s no reason to completely write him off." - TheGoldenSombrero
• "Called up not because he was ready, but because an arm was needed. I was fairy satisfied that he occasionally showed big-league performance." - Makakilo
• "Shows some promise as a long relief/back of the rotation guy, just not with a team that has as many high-ceiling pitching prospects as the DBacks have." - TucsonTim
• "No expectations, no performance." - Sensurround
  

Weaknesses:

• "Bolsinger clearly failed as a starter." - Nonpartisan
• "Expectations were low, and his actual performance met those low expectations." - preston.salisbury
• "He sucked for the most part, but he wasn’t expected to be up in the Majors anyway." - JoeCB1881
• "I can’t see him ever truly contributing on a major league team." - Paulnh
• "He was godawful this year at the ML level." - TheGoldenSombrero
• "Bolsinger is a 4A pitcher until he can develop an effective third pitch. Does have decent control and a nice curve." - desertice
• "Not really his fault, probably shouldn’t have been up, really didn’t seem to be ready." - TucsonTim
• "No expectations, no performance." - Sensurround
  

Towards 2015:

• "Is there reason to believe he wouldn’t be good in long relief? I like him as a potential replacement for Collmenter." - Nonpartisan
• "Given we will probably need nine or 10 starters in 2015, it would not surprise me if Bolsinger was one of them." - Jim McLennan
• " I would place him on a one-year no-trade list. That would mean keeping him in the minors and giving him a chance to fully develop." - Makakilo
• "Would be ok with having him as 2015 Reno depth that may be able to provide some major league bullpen innings or a spot start." - desertice
• "I don’t think Reno is a good place to put a guy with control problems either, I’d rather stick him in AA, let him develop a third pitch and maybe build some trade value." - TucsonTim
  

The Tally:

• 5 - Highly satisfied: 3%
• 4 - Fairly satisfied: 10%
• 3 - Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied: 44%
• 2 - Somewhat dissatisfied: 37%
  
• 1 - Very dissatisfied: 6%

Bolsinger ends up with almost the same overall mark as Arroyo, which strongly suggests many people are taking expectations into account for their ratings, given his performance was certainly lower. However, this time, the votes were much more narrowly clustered, with 81% of the 117 who responded, giving Mike a 2 or 3.  Seems almost the very definition of "back of the rotation" or "cheap, but replacement level".

The leader-board:

1. Chase Anderson: 4.18 (161)
2. Mike Bolsinger: 2.67 (117)
   
3. Bronson Arroyo: 2.63 (125)