McBride probably needed to go down, but this guy? Not promising. A 28-year-old lefty from St. Louis, Colyer was drafted by the Dodgers in the second round in 1998 out of a community college. He didn’t do anything much as a starter in the low minors, largely due to horrendous control. Converted to relief, he had a couple of decent years as a closer at AA and AAA, earning a promotion to the big leagues in 2003.

He pitched pretty well, in just 19 2/3 innings, and his control was all the way up to “bad”. Just prior to the 2004 season, he was traded to the Tigers for Commando Cody Ross, I am guessing because he was out of options and the Dodgers out of roster space. He put up a 6.47 ERA and walked 24 men in 32 innings. The Tigers traded him to the Mets for Matt Ginter in spring 2005, and he entered the Mets’ top-secret “Sabotage The Braves” program under Professor Yates.

Colyer was awful in Norfolk, then entered the Rockies organization, where pitchers go to die. He was if anything even worse in Colorado Springs than he’d been before, highlighted by 7.41 walks per nine innings. Sheesh. He’s always had good strikeout rates, but that’s not going to do a lot of good if he’s allowing nearly two baserunners per nine thanks to the walks. Does a pretty good job limiting home runs. In the majors at any rate has been equally ineffective getting lefties and righties.

Steve Colyer Statistics – Baseball-Reference.com

NOTE: I realize that a lot of this could also apply to McBride, but Colyer’s walk rate is worse than McBride’s, at least worse than McBride’s before this year.