I was going to do a starting pitcher today, but I received my Baseball Prospectus in the mail last night. I flipped through it and used it to play a drinking game. Every time they wrote something making fun of how Brian Sabean builds a team, I’d take a shot. It was a lot of fun.

After waking up in a bird sanctuary in Alameda, hitchhiking home, and throwing away my vomit-encrusted clothes, I was able to read some more of the book. I stopped at the Sergio Romo write-up. His comparable pitchers, according to PECOTA:

Usually, PECOTA will spit out a guy like Al Bumbry right after a Grady Sizemore comp, which makes sense when you consider all of the possible career paths a young player can take. Tim Lincecum’s comps are very unflattering, for example, because young pitchers are young pitchers are young pitchers. So I was stunned that Sergio Romo’s comps were all relievers who sustained their effectiveness for a long time. It’s a chunk of optimism nougat in our chocolate bar of prognostication.

I’ve already delivered a sonnet to Romo in the past, so I don’t need to do it again. But I want to. The dude’s fun to watch. Five hundred and twenty-two arm angles. Seventy different pitches. A suspicious moustache. His much-maligned velocity was actually 88-92 mph with his sinker, not the 85-mph meatball that we were told he threw in the minors.

I’m in. I’m a fan. He’ll be the most effective reliever on the team this year. Sure, Affeldt’s a good pickup, Howry’s luck should turn around, and Wilson is the closer, but I’m all about Sergio Romo.

Sergio Romo

IP: 78
ERA: 2.59
K: 84
BB: 21
HRA: 8
Suggestion for a nickname: Romotron 2084

This is probably as goofy optimistic as I’ll get with these projections, but they aren’t that crazy. Don’t worry. Gloomy pessimism is sure to follow. But I’m giddy about this here Romo guy.