The Reds have claimed Alfredo Simon off of waivers from the Orioles, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun tweets. The Orioles had placed the 30-year-old right-hander on waivers over the weekend.
Simon posted a 4.90 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 43% ground ball rate in 115 2/3 innings as a starter and reliever for the Orioles last year. He has a 44.7% ground ball rate and an average fastball velocity of 94.5 mph in four seasons with Baltimore.
Ryan Madson will miss the 2012 season and Nick Masset will open the season on the disabled list, so the Reds are short on relievers. Simon will join right-handers Jose Arredondo, Logan Ondrusek and Sam LeCure in manager Dusty Baker's bullpen.
You Jest Josh, but Simon could be an excellent closer.
If he drops down to two pitches and keeps his head in the game.
Yeah, I think he could do it.
“If he drops down to two pitches and keeps his head in the game.”
Wasn’t the exact same thing said about another ex-Orioles pitcher by the name of Daniel Cabrera, who threw the bal mid 90’s and was known for.. well having some issues with thoughts along the lines of Simon?
The difference is the Orioles had Cabrera when he was young. The Orioles didn’t really give a chance to Simon until 2009.
Plus, Simon rehabbed pretty quickly from TJ surgery. The powers that be in the Warehouse questioned Cabrera’s toughness.
As a side note the Phillies signed Simon as a free agent in 1999 and after seeing Simon with his 100 mph fast ball as a closer, I became very interested in his career and asked a few Phillies fans about him. Not one had ever heard of him. The bottom line is if he gets a chance with the Reds and remains healthy, he could have as many saves as Madson did in 2011.
Oh and another note about Simon, he drove Jim Palmer crazy. You could see Palmer’s blood pressure rise every time Simon was pitching. Sure Jim would say, Simon has good stuff and blah, blah, blah. However, you knew deep down, he was like get this guy out of here. I am just sorry that the O’s can’t send Palmer over to the Reds as well, because he drives me crazy. 😛
Am with you on Palmer.. Really did used to watch a LOT of Orioles games way back and when Palmer was teamed with Mel Proctor, it was almost unbearable.. Rex Barney popping in with his words of wisdom was the only nice moments, then John Lowenstein always had something to say that seemed to make -0- sense..
I always thought Boston’s Bob Montgomery was awful and still think the Rays Dwayne Staats is pathetic, but that team of Mel Proctor and Jim Palmer was painful to watch.. neither were enjoyable and I liked the team was watching even.
There should be a poll here sometime of worst announcers..
Mine would have NYY Phil Rhizzuto topping that list by a country mile, but Proctor and Montgomery would be 2 and 3.
Have you ever noticed (am sure you have) that Palmer always tries to look impeccable on his shoots? It’s hilarious. Adjusts his tie, jacket etc..
Hmmm why would Jocketty do this? He has 2 open spots on the 40 man, but Willie Harris and Jeff Francis could be added. I don’t really get or like this move, at all
40 man roster spots aren’t really an issue, they still can transfer Madson to the 60-day DL. But he doesn’t seem like a better option than the guy they just got from Atlanta.
Biggest move of the Reds off season
Not hardly.
Not any more.
Over/under on the number of arms that Dusty causes to fall off this year? Line is set at 2.5
Without mentioning Mark Prior and Kerry Wood–two players with horrific mechanics that were going to have their “arms fall off” anyway–how many arms has Dusty caused to fall off?
Edinson Volquez got pretty messed up by him.
Volquez’ injury had nothing to do with Baker … he messed himself up going against the Reds directive and throwing too many innings in winter ball.
Aaron Harang – May 25, 2008. Pitched four Innings in relief at San Diego (on short rest) and then came back and made his next scheduled start, on short rest. (Note that Edinson Volquez, also on short rest, pitched after Harang and lost the game)
Up to that point, even though he had a losing record, his peripheral stats were as good as (ERA was better) than his stats from 2006 and 2007 when he was a 16 Game winner each year on a team with a losing record. After that stretch, his peripherals were much worse.
Harang – May 25, 2009. Harang has the lead in the game against Houston when a storm rolls in and the game is suspended. For two hours Harang keeps his arm warm by throwing. He then came back after the delay to get ONE OUT (so he could get the win) and was pulled for a reliever.
The announcers said Harang must have thrown over 200 pitches during the delay and were shocked Harang was allowed to come back out and especially just to get one out. The Reds went on to lose that game in extra innings.
In the mid-2000’s, the Reds NEEDED good starting pitching but decided NOT to draft Tim Lincecum (even though he was available when their spot in the draft came up) and instead drafted Drew Stubbs.
Both Stubbs and Lincecum signed for the same $2 million dollar bonus money.
The Reds explanation for not drafting Lincecum was that they were afraid of his small size and mechanics and that they were afraid he would get injured.
Fast forward to trading Josh Hamilton for Edinson Volqauez. If the Reds were afraid to draft Lincecum because of his mechanics then WHY did they trade for Volquez? Must NOT have thought his mechanics were messed up and thus be injury prone.
Yet, after just one year under Toothpick Baker (who allowed him to have multiple starts in a row and where he threw over 100 pitches in less than 8 innings of work), Volquez had to have Tommy John surgery in 2009.
Homer Bailey. He was supposed to be the SAVIOR. I heard or read very little about him having bad mechanics yet under Baker he has been on the DL multiple times and has never lived up to his potential.
Johnny Cueto started last season on the DL with an injury. The Reds didn’t want him to play Winter Ball (he didn’t) so as to keep him away from injury. Still happened.
Nope, the pattern is that pitchers under the age of 25 seem to keep getting injured while Baker is their Manager.
Also note that the Reds wanted to get rid of Pitching Coach Dick Pole (Baker’s yes man for many years) and Baker almost quit as Manager instead of firing Pole. In the end, Baker fired Pole and accepted Brian Price as Pitching Coach.
I believe the Reds wanted to fire Pole and install one of their guys so that Baker wouldn’t have a chance to hurt more pitchers.
For those people are still fans of the Reds, you can only hope Price has some say in how Latos is handled and that Baker has NOTHING to do with him.
The Reds need relievers more then they need utility players. Simon would get a spot before Harris in my opinion.
By the looks of his stats, the Reds signed Simon so that he could take some heat of Arroyo as the Pitcher who gives up the most Home Runs and/or HR per IP.
Simon 2009 – 6.1 IP 8 Hits 7 R 7 ER 5 HR
Simon career – 184.1 IP HR allowed – 34
I don’t quite understand this either. I guess he’ll just be a 2-week stopgap until Masset gets back. Hopefully he pitchers better than a 5 ERA though.
Dude sucks big time…
I take it since madson is out for the season marshall will close and simon/chapman will be the 8th guy
I’ll just make the same assumption some people do and purpose he was mismanaged in Baltimore and the Reds can fix him just like the Braves will be able to fix Francisco’s plate discipline lol
I wonder how much $$ this guy will make..