This year's Saints team has been carrying 3 pitchers that have provided a couple of interesting juxtapositions. Charlie Ruud, Tanner Scheppers, and Kerry Lightenberg all represent a different version of the independent league pitcher.
Charlie Ruud vs. Tanner Scheppers
Charlie is 5'10" and 150 lbs. officially. I'm not entirely sure he's that big. He's a local college graduate and a seminary student.
Tanner is 6'3" or 6'4" and 190 lbs probably. He's a former MLB draft pick who refused to sign and will probably go in the top ten picks on Tuesday. (ok, so he went #44.)
Tanner will probably start out in AA ball and depending on the team could be in the majors when rosters expand at the end of the year.
Charlie will probably never be signed by an major league team - even to a minor league contract.
Right now, Charile is by far the better pitcher. Charlie's fastball regularly hits 92-93. Tanner's regularly hits 98. Charlie has had to learn to pitch because he can't just blow people away. Charlie is also maybe on his way out. Just watching him this season, he's not as sharp as he has been in the past.
Lightenberg is of course on the other end of his career. He was an All-Star caliber closer. He's now trying to get back tot he bigs. He can't dominate people like he did with the Braves, but he's clearly a better player than 95% of the people in the league.
Scheppers has moved on, Rudd is probably thinking about winding down and Lightenberg is looking for a couple more summers in the sun.
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