It’s Ryne Harper’s Turn for a Call to the Pen

Prior to the start of this season, Ben wrote a piece lamenting reliever Ryne Harper’s seemingly endless condemnation to the world of Double-A ball despite posting good numbers throughout his minor league career. While not receiving an invite to the big league club’s spring training, Harper was nonetheless promoted to AAA-Tacoma (LL Bump? MY COLUMN), where in 16.1 innings he’s given up four runs and twelve hits, for an okay-ish FIP of 3.73. His BB/9 of 5.40 is yucky, but influenced by one rough early-season outing he had where he walked three batters in one inning; expect that number to regress back to his career average of about 3 as the season continues. The real impressive number, though, is his strikeouts: he has 21 of them, good for a K/9 of about 12. Furthermore, Harper has an ability to deliver multiple innings when necessary; in 9 of his 12 outings for Tacoma, he’s pitched more than one inning. He can also work in a fireman role, and has collected a save and two wins on the season This past Sunday he closed out the game for the Rainiers, getting the final four outs; he needed just eleven pitches, ten of which he threw for strikes. The only real blemish on his record this year, aside from the walks, is a slightly inflated HR/FB total, because he gave up a homer to Sacramento’s Orlando Calixte in the middle of a rough stretch he had towards the end of April, where he gave up runs in three consecutive appearances. Since then, he’s snapped back into form, and has given up no runs and just one hit in his last four appearances, while striking out four. He has recorded at least one strikeout in every appearance he’s made.

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