Dana Eveland

[Terrordome666]

Anyone have a scouting report on this guy? What kind of stuff does he have? Does he have legit skills? He might end up being the opening day pitcher for the A's and was a solid pitcher before the All-Star break last year. He never really threw than many innings in a season so it might have been from arm fatigue. Looking at his numbers he seems to have control issues to some extent... but if you check his spring training numbers, he may have that under control, he has only walked 4 batters in 16 innings.

Any other info on this guy would be appreciated, maybe some of you A's fans can fill us in a bit. He went undrafted in my 12 team league, so I picked him up based on him having a good spring training.

[AussieDodger]

He has to lift up his K rate and lower his walks.
He generates heaps of ground balls, so he stays in a job, but with the kiddies nearly imminent it's just about put up or shut up time for Eveland.
I saw somewhere (sorry no link) that the A's have been trying to alter his mental approach to pitching.
Hopefully that does something.

[Terrordome666]

Doing more research on this guy, I found an interview he did where he said last year he basically wore down because he showed up to spring training out of shape. He said the difference this year is he came into ST in a lot better shape after working out most of the offseason in Phoenix with the teams strength coach. He also has worked on his mechanics to help cut down on walks.

Put him on your sleeper lists. He might be one of those pitchers that is going to be taken late if at all in most fantasy drafts.

[Ender]

He had a lot of luck early in the year though, so don't just chalk it up to being tired. 74 K, 56 BB in 113.1 IP is not what you expect to lead to a 3.49 ERA.

[SecretAgentMan]

Doing more research on this guy, I found an interview he did where he said last year he basically wore down because he showed up to spring training out of shape. He said the difference this year is he came into ST in a lot better shape after working out most of the offseason in Phoenix with the teams strength coach. He also has worked on his mechanics to help cut down on walks.

Put him on your sleeper lists. He might be one of those pitchers that is going to be taken late if at all in most fantasy drafts.

Everyone says that sort of thing after they post a bad season esp. if they are looking for excuses. Unless they come in looking like Boomer Wells or conversely stopped looking like Boomer Wells, you can usually file it with the rest of the nonsense like new stances, new pitches, new mechanics, better training coaches, etc. Sometimes they may indeed be true, but since so many players exaggerate and since it does not matter in most cases if the player does not have the skills to start off with, you can usually file it with the other factors in ST that are non-germane.