Tony Sipp

I decided to do some research on Tony Sipp after somebody posted on Rotojunkie that along with Fernando Cabrera, he's a possibility to take over as the Cleveland closer if Joe Borowski is injured or ineffective. I hadn't heard Sipp's name before, so I had to look up his minor league stats. I'm not actually sure that Sipp is even going to have a place in the Cleveland bullpen , but the poster was right about one thing - he should be immediately effective (although a little wild) when he gets his chance in the majors. At Akron last year (AA) he struck out 80 and walked 21 in 60.1 innings. Those are the statistics of an excellent prospect, and even if you assume that skipping AAA would lead to a relatively large drop in his K/9 rate and an increase in his BB/9, both should remain good enough for Sipp to hold his own against major league competition.