15 Key Pirates Pitchers for 2015: #11 Radhames Liz

2014 Statistics 

AA- 42 IP/1.93 ERA/2.93 FIP/7.07 SO9/2.36 BB9

AAA- 19 IP/5.21 ERA/6.46 FIP/5.21 SO9/6.16 BB9

2015 ZiPS Projections

4.13 ERA/4.23 FIP/6.35 SO9/3.75 BB9

Why the Ranking?

This ranking has little to nothing to do with Radhames Liz.  This ranking is due to my confidence in Neal Huntington, Rene Gayo and the rest of the Pirates front office.  The only true spring training battle going on right now at Pirates camp revolves around the last few spots in the Pirates bullpen.  Over the past few offseasons, the Pirates have shown the ability to find solid bullpen pieces and have created nice depth at the position.  Chances are the Pirates will be forced to DFA some of that depth before the start of the season.

Radhames Liz is not part of the bullpen battle.  He has his spot locked up with the team after signing a one year major league contract this winter.  The fact that it is a major league contract is all I needed to know in order to see that he would have a positive impact this year.  Why else would he be signed by the team.  This is not a position of need and his signing is a pure luxury.

The main attraction to Liz revolves around his fastball that has sat in the mid-90s and hit the upper-90s as recently as this winter in the Dominican Winter League.  That is where Rene Gayo saw him and stressed to the Pirates that this is someone to sign.  In addition to the fastball, Liz has throws a curve that has been described as "excellent."  Obviously there is still a lot of risk with as signing like this.  Liz has had control problems throughout his career and was less than impressive in his small sample size in triple-A last season.  However, he did see success in the hitter friendly KBO (same league as Kang) in South Korea.  Additionally, Jim Benedict and Ray Searage have been able to fix many similiar players.  That is why I feel comfortable placing Liz eleventh on this list.