Luis Ayala pitched relief for the Minnesota Twins and Florida Marlins in 2009, and currently is a free agent. Luis is an example of how Tommy John surgery sometimes fails a pitcher. Ayala’s strength his first three years in the majors was his superb control. He allowed just 1.6 walks per nine innings during that time. With a fairly low strikeout rate, the low walk total made up for his allowing one hit per inning, a .266 opposition BA. He suffered an injury during the 2006 World Baseball Classic and needed Tommy John surgery. When he returned in 2007, both his BB and K rates were up, but his ERA remained good. That changed starting in 2008.
He never quite got the control of the strike zone back. Over the last two seasons, he walked 3.0 batters per nine. There’s nothing wrong with that, but with his low strike out rate, those extra runners started scoring more on hits (which also went up). It looks to me in trying to get back to his extremely low walk numbers, he started putting more balls over the plate that batters could hit.
On top of that, he developed an attitude that didn’t sit well with the Twins and was very unhappy with the way the Marlins treated his release.
It’s fairly clear Ayala needs to get back to his low walk ways to be successful again. I would have thought Minnesota was the perfect place for a pitcher like that. He strikes me as someone who might fit well with the Athletics, both in philosophy and ballpark, or with the Cardinals where Dave Duncan and Chris Carpenter can work with him.
Posted by David Pinto at 2:18 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
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