Rudy Pemberton said:Rubby was good early on, but was mediocre for the final three - four months. His peripherals were just as bad as the much maligned Workman. Rubby is probably the most promising of the guys who started the year at AAA, but I think it's premature to consider him a lock for the rotation.
(For additional context...he allowed a 293 / 349 / 465 batting line against- compared to 263 / 333 / 415 for Workman. He had a 2.51 ERA in 32 May - June innings, and a 5.32 ERA in the 69 innings after that.
He had really strong #'s with RISP, which helped his overall performance, but don't know how sustainable that kind of split is. Most guys who give up a 800+ OPS with middling peripherals won't last long as starters.)
Couldn't that at least be partially explained by his innings workload though? In 2013, he only threw 91 innings total. Last year that moved up to 161. Looking at his Fangraphs chart, his velocity pretty clearly waned in August and September, which can't be too surprising for a guy who missed all of 2012 and then was eased back into pitching last year.
I agree that some of the shine for Rubby came off last year, particularly his swing-and-miss ability as a starter, but I think he's shown enough to warrant a starting spot next year. His stuff from a scouting perspective at least looks like the stuff that can/will translate eventually, similar to Webster and Joe Kelly. Of those three, probably only one of them totally figures it out, but at least they have stuff that can translate, vs. a guy like Workman who simply lacks a true out pitch.