Sunday night linkage..
- Kelly Johnson's arbitration hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert.
- Dodgers owner Frank McCourt needs to be more open and direct about his financial troubles, writes T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times.
- Before suffering a hip injury, Mariners pitcher David Aardsma was a major trade candidate. After undergoing surgery in December, the hurler is still unsure of when he'll be able to return, writes Larry LaRue of The News Tribune.
- Recent trades have weakened the Padres bullpen, says Bill Center of the Union-Tribune.
I don’t feel that Center’s article says that the Padres bullpen is “severely weakened”. Instead it says that the depth at the back end of the bullpen (specifically, the #6 and #7 relief spots) has been thinned. As a non-Padres fan, I’d say they still have a top 5 MLB bullpen at the worst.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned is that the Padres will have a full season from reliever Ernesto Frieri. After he was called up to San Diego he went 31.2 innings and allowed 18 hits with 41 K’s. Earlier in the season he was just as effective in triple AAA…37.2 IP with 14 hits allowed and 49 K’s.
The Padres losing Webb and Mujica, (to the Marlins) then, (Ramos, Russell and Gomes) to the Rays. None of which were the Padres top relief pitchers. The signing of Qualls, Moseley and Flores on a minor league deal. With emerging pitching prospects such as, Simon Castro and Corey Luebke, and even Wade LeBlanc to some degree possibly altering his role due to Tim Stuaffer’s vastly improved season, possibly being moved to the pen. The Padres can replace the players dealt this off season with some of the aforementioned pitchers easily. Ramos, Russell or Gomes, are hardly “proven” pitchers. Webb could have set-up or closer stuff, but is also still quite a bit away from being a “sure thing”.
I would say Moseley could easily take over for Mujica. Qualls (looking for a bounce back year) can replace Webb. And.. lets not forget about the emergence of Ernesto Frieri, that looked to have as good, if not better “stuff” than any of the pitchers traded, who also had success along with a closer like mentality. None of Ramos, Russell or Gomes were significant factors in last years spectacular relief run, and some of the new additions or current pitchers could have different roles to play in this year, such as Wade LeBlanc. With the additions and some of the players coming back from last year, if anything I believe the pen is as strong if not stronger than last year.
The Padres dealt from a position of depth (relief pitching that is easily found to pitch in spacious Petco), to bolster their middle-infield and to acquire a potential future all star center-fielder. You know trying to improve on Jed Hoyer and Co’s philosophy of, “playing Petco park into an advantage”. The new additions, while on the surface may look minor, but the pen is not weekend much at all!
I’ll miss Webb in the padres bullpen, but he was a luxury. The 7-8-9 guys are still arguably the best in the business and between Frieri, Qualls, and Thatcher you’ve got 3 more guys that could be 8th-inning guys for most of the other teams in the MLB. Qualls was shakey last year, but he’s almost a safe bet to bounce back (he far underperformed his peripherals, even miscast as a closer).
I don’t think anyone is going to miss Mujica. He was largely a throw-away innings kind of guy and he had a serious problem with the long ball, which is not going to go away.
I understand Qualls peripherals were off, but those weren’t bloop singles raising his numbers, they were rockets off and over the wall.
What does everyone think about Padres minor league reliever, Evan Scribner? I see a slightly lesser effective version of Frieri. Maybe that’s wishful thinking. But his seasonal numbers have been consistent as they are solid.
“Dodgers owner Frank McCourt needs to be more open and direct about his financial troubles” McCourt is broke and his wife is taking him to the cleaners anyway, just like any other divorce. Who doesn’t know this?
The team is probably worth in the neighborhood of $700m. We should all be so broke.