The Dodgers appear to have signed their #5 starter and his name is Brett Anderson. Follow him on twitter here:
@BAnderson_30. His impending signing was initially announced by
Buster Olney on twitter:
Anderson is a 26-year old left-hander who can throw a fastball, a curve, a changeup and a slider for strikes. Originally drafted in the 2nd round of the 2006 Draft, he quickly rose up the ladder. In 2008 he was ranked the 36th-best prospect in the Major Leagues, and 7th overall by Baseball America in 2009. Unfortunately, a lengthy injury history has slowed his progress.
Go to Baseball Prospectus to see the ugly details.
Still, he remains an interesting player with significant upside potential. After all, when he's healthy, he's very good. Per
Ron Cervenka's recent story at Think Blue LA:
Make no mistake about it, when Anderson is healthy he has been quite
effective. In his career 81 starts over six MLB seasons he is 27-32 with
a 3.73 ERA – not top-of-the-rotation stuff but excellent numbers for a
fourth or fifth starter. In his 494.0 major league innings pitched he
has a K/9 ratio of 7.0, a BB/9 ratio of 2.4 and a K/BB ratio of 2.90.
But where Anderson is perhaps most effective is his ground ball rate of
55.4% (61% in his limited work in 2014).
From what I understand, Anderson still needs to have a physical performed by the Dodgers, so this is far from a done deal (especially considering his injury-riddled 2014). So, stay tuned.
For more stories about Anderson check these out:
In celebration of Anderson's arrival to the Dodgers I made the above 2 fantasy cards
for him. I used
Anderson's own avatar photograph on twitter and the 1987 Topps Baseball card
design. Which one do you like best - the normal photo or the photoshopped madness pic? BTW, I believe the photoshop pic was created by twitter user
@Dezzerrayy and subsequently adopted by Anderson.
Below are the career stats for Brett Anderson, via
Baseball-Reference:
