Can he stick this time?

Welcome back to another in our weekly hunts for the potential hidden gems in the game, the ones that could help push your team over the line, or warn you about ones that could push you over the edge.

This week, we have a new outfielder roaming the outfield in Canada. Will he be a boon or a bust? Over in the National League, the desperate would-be contending Brewers are turning to a reliever to save their rotation. Can he?

Seth McClung, Starting Pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers

That’s right – starting pitcher Seth McClung. Not that he has started yet this year, or any time recently. That is not how it was supposed to be though, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays drafted him in the fifth round in 1999 as a starter, and for the longest time they had every intention of that indeed being his role.

His short-season debut that year was a horrific joke, but he got things going quickly in 2000, starting out with Hudson Valley 2-2 with a 1.85 ERA in eight starts, with 38 strikeouts and only 17 walks. Promoted to Charleston to finish out the year, McClung would continue to pitch strong, posting a mark of 2-1 with a 3.19 ERA, striking out 26 and walking 19 in 31 innings.

With the control numbers not exactly as good as they should have been, McClung would return to Charleston to open 2001. His numbers this time around were much better, as he was 10-11 with a 2.79 ERA, and he struck out 165 and walked only 53 in 164 1/3 innings. Now that is a ratio one can get behind.

McClung would start out 2002 in Bakersfield, but he would not stay there long, making only seven starts, wherein he was 3-2 with a 2.92 ERA and 48:11 in 37 innings. Promoted to Double-A, his success would not be repeated, as he 5-7 with a 5.37 ERA. In 114 innings, McClung struck out only 64 while walking 53 times.

Somehow, despite that ineffectiveness, the Rays decided that McClung was major league ready. This is why they have been so bad for so long. McClung would spend much of the year on the disabled list, but when he was healthy he would make 12 major league appearances, five as a starter, and he was 4-1 with a 5:35 ERA, with 25 strikeouts and 25 walks. Rushing him was far from a good idea.

2004 would be spent battling back from injuries, and he would split time between Double-A (1-1, 4.73 ERA in three starts) and Triple-A (11 relief appearances, 2-1, 3.29 ERA). 2005 would see him back and forth between two levels again, only this time Triple-A and the majors. His Triple-A numbers were very good, as he was 2-0 with a 3.93 ERA in six games, three as a starter, but he was horrific in the majors, going 7-11 with a 6.59 ERA in 34 appearances, 17 as a starter. In 109 1/3 innings, McClung would strike out 92 and walk 62.

2006 was a mixed bag. McClung would again start the season in the majors as a starter, and saying his results were putrid would be an understatement. Sent down to the minors, it was not so much as a demotion as a conversion, as he would return to finish out the year as the closer.

He would rack up six saves too, entering spring training the following year as the presumptive closer. Only, it was not to be ­– Al Reyes had been far superior in camp, so the Rays instead sent McClung to the minors to work on his control. It was a mixed bag – on one hand, he was 1-5 with a 1.99 ERA in 40 appearances; on the other hand, though, he struck out 68 and walked 53 in 58 2/3 innings. That won’t cut it.

The Rays had felt enough was enough at this point and dealt him to the Brewers for Grant Balfour. McClung would report to Nashville, where he was 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in five appearances, three as a starter, with 25 strikeouts and only five walks, and he would finish the year in Milwaukee’s pen, going 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA and 11:5 K/BB ratio.

That brings us to this year, where he has been used solely as a reliever thus far, and he is 1-1 with a 3.54 ERA in 11 appearances. Over 20 1/3 innings, McClung has struck out 20 and walked 13, with the opposition hitting .205 against him.

Now, due to the failure of Carlos Villanueva to effectively stay in the rotation, McClung gets another chance at the rotation. Will he stick this time around? He is just barely 27, so while it seems like he has been around forever, he is far from old in baseball terms – if anything, he is just entering his prime. The potential has always been there, and it is clear that the Rays damaged him by rushing him. While it is not a very safe gamble, the possibility of success is definitely here.

Kevin Mench, Outfielder, Toronto Blue Jays

We are going to be brief here. Mench has assumed a starting role with the Blue Jays, but I am not going to go all through his career looking for signs of potential success here – there are none.

Mench’s career year came back in his first full year in the majors. That year, Mench hit .279 for the Rangers with 26 home runs, 71 RBI, and 69 runs scored. The following year, he would hit 25 homers, but his average would take a hit – down to .264 – while he drove in 73 RBI with 71 runs scored.

It has been downhill since then.

Mench had knocked out 12 homers and was hitting .284 when the Rangers dealt him to the Brewers. Of course, he had done those numbers in 87 games, and the trade had occurred on July 26 – clearly, as usual, he had missed serious amounts of playing time to injury. After the trade, he would appear in 40 games, but his performance for the Brewers in that time was horrid, with a .230 batting average and just one home run in 126 at-bats.

He would spend all of 2007 with the Brewers, and put up equally pathetic numbers, when healthy, as he hit .267 with eight home runs, 37 RBI, and 39 runs in 288 at-bats – again, he could not hang around without injuries if he tried.

The Brewers were done with him, and they cut him in the offseason. He returned to the Rangers, but they wanted nothing of him, leaving him in the minors until the Jays bought him. Since then, he has appeared in nine games for the Jays and has maintained a comfortable sub-Mendoza batting average.

There is nothing here. The fact that the Jays signed him and are giving him at-bats is a sign of how desperate and pathetic general manager J.P Ricciardi has gotten of late. There is no reason you should follow his lead.

Last Week Revisited

Last week, we looked at Chan Ho Park and Matthew Joyce. Park was knocked out of his first start after just four innings, as he allowed three hits, two walks, and two runs (one earned), while having already thrown 82 pitches. He will not work out in his return to the rotation.

Joyce meanwhile has gone 3-for-13 with a pair of home runs since then. Sure, the average is not great, but it is a pair of home runs.

That wraps this week – next week, more treasures!