The Athletics announced that they claimed right-hander Rich Thompson off of waivers from the Angels. The A's will announce a corresponding move once Thompson reports to Oakland.
The Angels designated the native of Australia for assignment six days ago, apparently because his velocity had dropped and they no longer trusted him in high-leverage situations. Thompson's average fastball has been checking in at 89 mph so far in 2012, according to FanGraphs. Last year, he averaged 90.7 mph and he was hovering above 92 mph in 2009-10.
The 27-year-old struggled through two appearances this year, but posted a 3.00 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 54 innings a year ago. It's not surprising that the Athletics put in a claim — they had an open 40-man roster spot and Thompson pitched quite well as recently as 2011.
good k rate, homer and hit prone though…please say the corresponding move is to get rid of fuentes, pretty much the only reliever he represents an upgrade over at this point
I’m guessing they’re probably bring down Wagner.
i’d rather they send down blevins over wagner. they just brought up wagner anyway haha
I think that in order to send Blevins down, they would have to first DFA him since he is out of options. Much like last year, where he got DFA’d 2-3 times, and because no one claimed him, he stayed in the organization. I could be wrong though.
last year was weird, since he still had options but it was some kinda loophole that they could DFA him and pull him off of waivers if he was claimed. i don’t understand the full extent of it, or most of the details. or maybe he was dfa’d so they didn’t have to use options. it was a weird situation with him
Honestly, I wish nothing but the best for this guy. He’s probably one of the nicest and most chill guys in the clubhouse. At fanfest earlier this year, when the A’s players were told to stop signing autographs towards the end of the event, Blevins was the last guy to leave and even though they told him to stop, he still kept signing autographs for the fans and felt bad when he had to leave as many still wanted to get autographs. Hope he can figure it out and contribute in one way or another, whether it be for the A’s or any other organization.
winner
Why would the A’s designate Fuentes? He’s actually doing pretty well so far. Pretty good k rate so far.
Bitterness about the horrible that Fuentes was last year.
And, he’d clear waivers, that’s for sure.
not dfa him, trade him if somebody is willing to take him.
Best of luck to the Chopper! Wish him the best.
Thompson had some success two years ago, but his velocity drop worries me. I guess the A’s will see what happens with him. Good claim though.
I hope they build Rich into a setup man over there. Best of luck Rich!
I don’t trust the entire Angel bullpen in a low leverage situation, let alone a high level one.
Downs and Hawkins are pretty trustworthy. But that’s it.
Is it just me, or does Rich Thompson’s velocity issues look very much like small sample size?
Good pickup for the A’s, that’s for sure. And, hopefully DFA Fuentes, since he has no future in the A’s pen.
send blevins down
get rid of fuentes! at this point, norberto is the only lefty reliever worth keeping at the big league level.
De Los santos will be going down. He has optios left and has struggled to find the plate. He needs more work so sending him down would be best for him.
billybob really like FDLS
apparently it’s wagner that’s got the boot….after a whole…2 days with the major league club, wow