A's Looking At Nate Robertson

Interesting note from a Tuesday night MLB.com article:

"An Oakland scout was in attendance on Tuesday, specifically to evaluate Tigers left-hander Nate Robertson."

Robertson was battered around that night against the Rangers.  He insisted he was healthy, but hit the DL the next day with a tired arm.  It's obvious that Robertson does not believe he belongs on the DL and the Tigers decided this was best.

The 29 year-old southpaw was excellent in April, but has really tanked starting May 9th.  He's making $3.26MM this year and won't become a free agent until after the 2009 season.  Robertson has a lot in common with teammate Kenny Rogers, and it would be wise for a team to buy low on him if possible.

The former Marlin has dealt with a dead arm before in 2005, and it's likely he'll snap out of this and return to form.  His 223.6 innings last year (playoffs included) were easily a career high.

Comments

[bravesbeast]

I would love for the braves to after Robertson, as we have some bullpen arms in triple A who could help the tigers, and robertson would be a solid 3 in the NL, once he got stuff straightened out. The braves and tigers have pulled off trades before (miner and colon for farnsworth) and swapping arms could help out both clubs

[gtliles]

Never say never, but I wouldn't think that Detroit's shopping Nate right now. He was a horse last season, and there's reason to believe he'll be that type of pitcher again (200 IP, sub-4 ERA). I would think that Maroth's the one getting shopped instead.

If Nate does get moved, that could mean the Tigers know something's really wrong with him.

[greenbaydude1232]

Nate Robertson pitched above his level last year and the stats prove it. Although his 3.84 ERA was very good over the large amount of innings he pitched, his component ERA was almost half an integer worse at 4.16.

For those who don't know what component ERA is:

"A pitchers component ERA has nothing to do with how many runs crossed the plate and it has everything to do with determining a pitchers true value. It eliminates the luck factor from a pitcher because it is a measure of how many hits and walks the pitcher gives up."

I'm not saying that a 4.15 ERA is not valuable to a club, especially if you factor in a change to the NL from the AL (if he was traded to a NL club like the Braves). I'm just saying, don't expect him to be a career sub-4 ERA pitcher.

[gtliles]

Fine. Call him a 'slightly-above-4 ERA pitcher'.

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