I've always liked old Saul. I love the heavy sinkers, and the workload he's taken on the last three years has been huge for the team. But with Joe Beimel headed to the DL with a flexor strain, is it really possible that Rivera's our best option now? I've covered it yesterday, but the short thing is that his velocity and movement are both way down, and he's not a guy with the stuff to get major leaguers out right now.
NFA Brian suggests Tyler Clippard, probably with an eye to the guys currently on the 40-man. Me, I could care less about the 40-man. With guys like Dmitri Young (and for that matter Tyler Clippard) cluttering up the roster we have more than enough space to pick the best guy available. Seems to me that Marco Estrada, Craig Stammen, J.D. Martin, Preston Larrison... any of those guys I'd rather see than Rivera right now. And as far as I know there's no reason they couldn't bring Steven Shell back either, though I guess Shell would have to want to come back.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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7 comments:
What really fucking sucks is that the guy we traded for Clippard (Albaladejo)would be really nice to have in our bullpen right now.
How about Jhonny Nunez? Or Billy Bray? Or everyone's favorite Bowden cast-off Scott Downs (does that guy ever give up a run??) Or Daryl Thompson? Or Armando Galarraga?
Hindsight, but it does illustrate how the bullpen has been the most neglected part of our off-season acquisitions, mostly due to the fact that it has been our strength the last few years.
Personally, I think management has it stuck in their heads (or asses, same thing) that they can just throw any swinging dick in the 'pen and St.Clair can turn them into a serviceable reliever.
I don't mean to single you out, but it bugs me when moves don't work out and people say, "you can't criticize in hindsight." It's not like we're talking about deals where a guy had a freak injury or something. Bray was a #1 draft pick. Galarraga was a top ten prospect. Downs didn't project to be what he is, but he was a perfectly good lefty, and you have to give Toronto credit for amking him a reliever and getting more out of him than most ahyone else saw. Thompson and Nunez were both real live arms (not that either's become anything yet).
I think it also goes to show how much bullpen talent is available on a regular basis. There are always teams that have bullpen talent to trade, maybe in exchange for an outfielder. We have seven outfielders, we have no relievers. let's make something happen. we would be 6-5 if not for the blown saves; this is our most obvious missing piece. lets make something happen eh?
I just said 'hindsight' in reference to the fact that these guys are no longer part of the organization.
There's nothing wrong with criticizing a Bowden move in hindsight, since most of them were probably heavily criticized at the time they were made.
The only deal I would say you can't really judge is Bray. The trade sort of ended up being him for Kearns straight up (Majewski and Wagner were basically a wash, as was the middle infield part of the deal) and I think I would rather have Kearns, even though our current situation leaves us needing a reliever much more than another outfielder.
The question is "how bad is it?"
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