Why I’m Not Dropping Kendall Graveman … Yet

Kendall Graveman just had a very bad major league debut. If you were like me and bought into the sleeper hype—which with Graveman started as soon as the A’s acquired him from him Blue Jays in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson to the land of Molson and denim—you might be feeling a little sheepish right now. I went so far as to start him in a DFS, though as Chad Johnson pointed out, it was somewhat slim pickings yesterday.

Given the lack of any track record, this bad start was probably enough reason for many fantasy owners to jump the Graveman ship. While I can’t say that I blame such owners, I can say that I am refraining from dropping Graveman in the leagues in which I own him.

Why? A deeper look at his line for the day (.357 BABIP; 43.8% GB%; two homers on six fly balls?) made me want to take a closer look at the start, so I watched the condensed game on MLB.com. What I saw was enough to convince me to give Graveman a couple more chances.

Here’s what I saw:

First Inning

• Lead-off walk to Leonys Martin. The only walk that Graveman surrendered.
• Single. Solid single by Shin-Soo Choo, though not especially hard struck.
• Error. Errant pick-off throw to second base leads to runners at first and third with no outs.
• Error. Weak grounder to third baseman Brett Lawrie; throw home is in plenty of time, but a little low and dropped by Stephen Vogt.
• Single. Soft liner by Prince Fielder scores another run.
• Single. Seeing-eye variety by Ryan Rua loads the bases. Still no outs.
• Sac fly by Mitch Moreland. Third run of the inning.
• Odd ground-ball double play ends inning.

Third Inning

• Out. Soft liner played nicely by Sam Fuld.
• Pop out in foul territory by Fielder.
• Single. Two-out dribbler by Rua extends the inning.
• Home run. Moreland goes oppo on what was a decent pitch down and away. Barely hit off the top of the wall in left-center. Mark Canha (playing left field) didn’t give up on it.
• Ground out ends the inning.

Fourth Inning

• Hit by pitch. First pitch of the inning plunks Rougned Odor.
• Single. Carlos Corporan reaches safely on another seeing-eye grounder.
• Home run. Choo hits one out on a pitch that was down in the zone. From the looks of it, Choo thought it was an out, but the wind was blowing out to right-center at O.co and (once again) the ball just barely hits off the top of the wall.

And that was all for Mr. Kendall.

What I saw was a lot of balls that were not struck very hard going for hits, and a couple of decently located pitches that turned into just-enough homers, probably aided by the wind. There were a couple of errors, and a couple of ground-ball singles that non-Marcus Semien shortstops probably would have turned into outs.

Now, I am not a pitch expert, and I didn’t watch every pitch he threw in this game, so I don’t know if he was hitting his spots or not, or if his velocity or movement was very good. His two-seamer was 90-91 on the pitches that I saw. He only walked one guy and generated a lot of grounders, which is what he is known for, if he is known for anything. So he made good on those things, at least.

I’m not saying that Graveman is going to be an ace. Hell, I’m not even saying that he’ll be worth rostering in mixed leagues a week from now. What I am saying is that if you read/saw/heard something about Graveman this spring that made you like him enough to draft him in one or more of your leagues, don’t let this bad start make you forget what you read/saw/heard—revisit it, maybe, but don’t forget it. For me, Graveman’s leash just got shorter, but he’s not in the doghouse just yet.