Now that the Milwaukee Brewers have signed left-handed reliever, R.J. Swindle, to a major league contract, let's analyze what he brings to Milwaukee's bullpen.

If you are one to judge potential solely on stats, Swindle will certainly satisfy with his production in the minor leagues.  Last season alone, the southpaw posted a 1.53 ERA in 53 innings between both Class-AA and Class-AAA for the Philadelphia Phillies organization.  He also racked up 67 strikeouts, while only allowing 8 walks all season.  That is a very Mark DiFelice-esque 67/8 strikeout-to-walk ratio.  The stats get even better when realizing he only gave up a single home run all year.

Everything sounds great.  The guy has stellar numbers, yet Milwaukee was able to sign this guy to a league minimum contract with relatively no competition.  What's up with this?  Teams like the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Philadelphia Phillies have either released R.J. or simply chose not to resign him.  Why?

The answer is that teams tend not to believe in or have desire in pitchers who do not throw their four-seam fastball faster than 84 MPH on a very, very good day.  R.J. also has a curveball that ranges between 51-55 MPH.

Understand now?

R.J. Swindle throws five different pitches -- a fastball, cutter, slider, curveball, and changeup.  As stated above, his fastball ranges from about 81-84 MPH, his slider about 64-68 MPH, and his curveball about 51-55 MPH.  Swindle is obviously known for his incredibly slow curveball.  I am excited to see that pitch when he throws it during Spring Training.  The trajectory must be amazing.

With his stuff, Swindle needs to live on the black.  He must keep all his pitches down in the zone to be effective at all.  Fortunately, it seems he is quite adept at that aspect of his game, as he very rarely walks anyone.  The vast difference in speed is also enough to keep batters off-balance, which is why his strikeout rate is higher than expected for a finesse pitcher. 

One aspect of the southpaw's game that is concerning is that he is a fly-ball pitcher.  It is mainly attributed to the fact that he is a slider-curveball pitcher, rather than a fastball/sinker pitcher.  Throughout all last season, his GO/AO in 2008 was 0.76.  Normally this, coupled with his low velocity, signifies that a pitcher allows many home runs, yet Swindle only gave up one long ball all 2008.  How can this be explained?  The drastic change in velocity must cause many opposing hitters to get out ahead of the pitches and weakly pop them up.  

Doug Melvin almost certainly signed Swindle to come in and compete for a LOOGY role in the bullpen.  One can only assume this signfies Brian Shouse will not be back in Milwaukee next season.  Via Beyond the Box Score, Swindle had a 15.53 K/9 and a 1.41 BB/9 after facing 183 left-handed batters.  Even more impressively, he has not given up a single home run against a lefty.  It seems he should fit in quite nicely as a left-handed specialist coming out of the bullpen, especially at the league mininum.  He and Mitch Stetter should make a formidible pair of cheap left-handers coming out of the bullpen.

While this acquisition may not register as "the best" of the entire offseason, R.J. Swindle could be one of the unsung pick-ups of the winter for the Milwaukee Brewers.