The Red Sox plan to promote right-hander Aaron Cook to their active roster, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. The Red Sox didn't call Cook up last night, which triggered an opt-out clause in his contract and pressed the team into action.
Cook, 33, drew trade interest from multiple teams, according to Bradford. Instead of trading him, the Red Sox will use him out of the bullpen. Cook posted a 1.89 ERA with 13 strikeouts and 11 walks in 33 1/3 innings over the course of five Triple-A starts this year.
The Red Sox will have to remove someone from their 40-man roster to create space for Cook, who signed a minor league deal in January. They could create space by moving an injured player such as Carl Crawford to the 60-day disabled list.
Hallelujah!
Fo’ Realz this time?
Great addition to that BP
It’s time for the Sox bullpen to get cooking
I hope his goose isn’t Cooked..
No, it’s the Sox so the preference is for chicken.
Fried.
”
They could create space by moving an injured player such as Carl Crawford to the 60-day disabled list.”
Red Sox Nation is crying.
Why? We got Ross Byrd and Sweeney top ten outfield in MLB.
They can move him to the 60 day DL retroactively (I’m not sure what exact date they could make it retroactive to), so he wouldn’t have to be on the DL for anywhere near 60 more days.
13 strikeouts and 11 walks.
This could be interesting.
11 walks in 33 innings isnt bad
Certainly isn’t good…
13 strikeouts is
certainly bad
in 33 minor league innings.
Maybe you should take a look at his career strikeouts. He pitched 200 innings twice and his strikeouts were in the 90s.
Boo! I was hoping Cook would be a Yankee soon.
Me too
Really? Why?
Thanks Disqus
Because 5 AAA starts in no way trumps a career worth of mediocrity (mediocrity in the NL West no less), and as an extreme ground ball pitcher he needs a very good infield defense behind him to have any sort of success; both Boston and New York have bad defense on the left side of their infields. If he pitches in Boston it most likely hurt the Red Sox, and if he pitches in New York it likely helps the Red Sox.
It made sense for them to call him up but I’d stop short of calling anyone who hasn’t posted a K rate above 5 the past 3 years a savior.
He’s a groundball guy not a K guy
K rate means nothing.
/Am I doin’ it right?
Alternatively, “Cook is now a sous chef.”
Nice one.
I had a tough time not making a crack about another veteran pitcher being forgotten in AAA with the “Red Sox Do Not Recall Aaron Cook” title earlier. One of my rare successful instances of self-restraint. Though it occurs to me that I just made it, now. Dang.
The walks are what everyone seems to be talking about but its not too big a deal IMO. Hes a sinker baller, so if he is keeping it down he will throw balls with it. Not every hitter will sit there and wait so he will induce ground balls even after a walk.
MLB hitters are a lot more likely to lay off of those pitches than AAA hitters, so he’d likely walk more guys, and with the poor defense on the left side of Boston’s infield he’d also likely give up more hits.
The chances of Cook having any real success for any period of time in Boston have got to be pretty slim.
A sinkerballer thrives on pitch to contact. If he’s walking batters with his sinker, his primary out pitch isn’t being effective.
And the K/BB ratio is a nightmare, even for a sinkerballer.
Aaron Cook IS getting a start..
WEEI has it he’s starting for Beckett on Saturday…
Yeah, Beckett has a stiff lat muscle so they are skipping one of his starts and Cook is going to make it. It sounds like the long-term plan is still to use him out of the ‘pen (although there have been whispers about having effectively a six man rotation for 2-3 times through the rotation).
Saw that about the 6 man rotation.. Not so sure the 6 man rotation (short term bursts) wouldn’t have been a better gambit with someone like Andrew Miller if only to see if he can even function as a SP for them before DFA/releasing him and admitting the entire Miller trial didn’t work out.
ERA on a reliever means nothing.
except he is talking about his 1+ ERA as a starter at AAA so reliever really has nothing to do with it.
I dont think i see the conection, cook wasnt going to start on either team. Also it probably isnt best to bash hughes when clay is pitching like he is….
Or crying because they know that they got hosed on what has to be an albatross of a contract.
The deal was an overpay from day one (but so are 95% of free agent contracts), and after last year and now the injury, it looks like more of an overpay, but he’s eventually going to come back, and there’s no reason to expect he wont be the same player he’s shown he’s capable of being (not the 7 WAR guy, but the 4ish WAR guy) and that’s all the fans should really care about.
Hosing is what Oakland got out of Barry Zito, or Baltimore did from Albert Belle (played 2 seasons, retired from injuries 3) Vernon Wells from Toronto and Anaheim, Alex Rios and Toronto and Chicago.. Those players have proven to be huge busts over the course of their contracts and clearly not worth a fraction of their deals.
CC is just on year 2 of his 7 season deal and isn’t even 30YO yet.. There is plenty of time for him to prove he is worth the $$$ spent, unlike those other contract bombs.. This isn’t another Jason Werth, wrong side of 30 7 year deal where nobody would have approached a 7 season contract, but a player with a clear track record.
What Oakland got out of Barry Zito
You mean what San Francisco got, right?
The A’s had Zito at pre-arb and arb rates and he pitched like an ace for them (at least until 2004). Even with his slow decline and increase in walk rates, he was still an above average pitcher during his entire time with the A’s.
He didn’t decline enough to be terrible terrible until after the Giants gave him that 126MM deal in FA (and he didn’t have awesome IF defense behind him)
“You mean what San Francisco got, right?”
Of course, not Oakland.. Zito was losing his velocity even before SF threw that contract at him.. The stop light was red, but Sabean blasted right threw it regardless in Zito’s case…