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BP Annual Player Comments

Year		Comment
2012		Entering the 2010 season, Grabow looked like a pitcher who was worthy of nothing more than an invitation to camp by some team, having posted pedestrian career numbers, lacking noteworthy stuff, and not even showing a lopsided platoon split to make him an effective LOOGY. Instead, the Cubs gave him a mind-numbing $7.5 million contract for two years. It took a front-office decapitation, but the sensation has returned, the contract has expired, and any expectation of similar remuneration is nothing but a pipe dream for Grabow.
2011		If there are so many other reasons to feel good about Cubs pitching, there's also the latest instance of Hendry's failure to properly assess market value for middling relief help. Paying John Grabow $7.5 million for two years was a bad idea, regardless of whether he subsequently got hurt. That he blew out the MCL in his left (push) knee last year just provides an excuse for a bad year before he broke down, but he wasn't being used situationally, and with a career OPS north of 700 against lefties, it isn't like he'd even be that valuable in a LOOGY role. Moving to sign Grabow to that extension in mid-November of '09 reflected a failure to appreciate where the market for filler talent had long since moved. Here's hoping the Cubs can chalk it up as a lesson learned, and count on Grabow as nothing more than an expensive second lefty before kicking him to the curb.
2010		Perhaps the most anonymous member of last year’s US entry in the WBC, Grabow is a perfectly serviceable lefty reliever, which is another way to of saying he is perfectly fungible—or at least he would be in a perfect world, but in this one lefty relievers of a certain age develop a beguilingly attractive patina that turns big-market GMs into collectors who throw unreasonable amounts of money at them. Brought over from Pittsburgh along with Gorzelanny at midseason, re-upping the usually effective but rarely dominant Grabow became Jim Hendry’s first off-season priority; the lefty was quickly re-signed to a two-year contract. He may be a safer bet as your second lefty than, say, Neal Cotts, but that doesn’t mean it’s money well spent.
2009		Here's your surprise stat from the 2008 season: Grabow finished fifth in the NL in WXRL. While the Pirates have had constant roster turnover during the past five seasons, Grabow has weathered all the storms and quietly gone about his work as a situational specialist. While he may be anonymous outside Pittsburgh, he is the type of durable lefty reliever who could command a lot of money as a free agent after this season, making him a leading candidate for ex-Piracy.
2008		When he throws strikes and attacks the hitter, Grabow can look as good as any left-handed reliever in the game. At other times, he fails to locate his pitches and begins to nibble. Grabow pitched last season with bone chips in his elbow, but was able to gut it out after spending most of April on the DL. He decided against having surgery over the winter, so the condition of his elbow will bear watching in spring training.
2007		You can make a strong argument that no team needs a LOOGY. Mike Scioscia won 92 games and a division title in 2004 without having a lefty reliever on his team. LOOGies do more harm than good because they end up facing just as many righties than lefties as a result of walks and pinch-hitters, and take up precious roster space without providing enough innings. Whether you buy that or not, a team going nowhere has little need for a specialized tactical weapon; it`s like Liechtenstein developing a SEAL team. Contenders are always on the lookout for situational lefties, though and have been known to make some spectacularly lopsided trades in order to acquire them, so that might their greatest value to a team like the Pirates, as bargaining chips. Grabow`s been in the LOOGY role for three years, and Littlefield has yet to leverage him into anything of value. Grabow`s strikeout rate spiked in 2006, but he`s not very good at retiring lefties; over the last three years they`ve hit .282/338/.440 against him.
2006		Grabow`s had two extended looks in the majors, but his fastball isn`t fooling anyone. He can`t get his heater past lefties: they`ve batted .292/.346/.462 against him, while righties have actually had a slightly harder time at .280/.361/.406. Now that Damaso Marte has been brought in to handle LOOGY duty, Grabow`s time may be up.
2005		Officially, Grabow's place in history is secure: He's the Beimel eraser. Otherwise, his future's a little less certain. He didn't thrive in a situational role, as lefties slugged nearly .500 against him. Grabow does do a good job of keeping the ball on the ground, and more hits dropped for him than you'd expect, so it's reasonable to expect some improvement. But if he doesn't start beating lefties, his career as a second bullpen southpaw will be short and involve a lot of annual migrations.
2004		The Pirates third-round pick in 1997 finally squeaked into the majors in September. Grabow was rocketing through the system when, following minor elbow surgery in 2000, he lost his command. With that problem now under control, he projects as a low-leverage lefty reliever in the majors, someone who could replace Joe Beimel as soon as this year.

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PITCHf/x Pitcher Profile

A Collaboration between BrooksBaseball.net and Baseball Prospectus - Pitch classifications provided by Pitch Info LLC

Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2024, John Grabow threw 3,895 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2007 and 2011, all of them occuring in Spring Training. In 2011, he relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (89mph), Slider (83mph) and Change (82mph).