The Red Sox acquired RHP David Aardsma from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for two long-shot prospects, righthanded pitchers Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich. As OverTheMonster mentions, Aardsma struck out 90 and walked 55 in 96 Major League Innings. He was drafted as a first-rounder (22d pick) by San Fran in 2003, has spent time with both Chicago franchises, and (perhaps appropriately) has an award named after him which was presented at the “2008 Recycled Baseball Items (RBI) Foundation Banquet.”
Best Second best stat on this guy?
He “is the first player listed alphabetically in the Baseball Encyclopedia, ahead of Hank Aaron ” [MLB.com Player Profile] And you all thought that losing the HR record to Barry was rough…
Update: Best stat on this guy? His sister is an actress and has a saucy photo on IMDB:
Thanks to The Chief for flagging the transaction, if not the hot sister angle.
First, Scott Linebrink. Now, Octavio Dotel. Here’s a list of things that are wrong with this signing (feel free to add anything I forget):
$5.5 million per year! Dotel is now the 3rd highest paid pitcher on the White Sox behind Mark Buehrle and Jose Contreras. Bobby Jenks, who pitched like 800 shutout innings in a row last year, makes less than $500,000 per year. To land a big contract as a relief pitcher, I guess you have to wait until you’re over-the-hill.
A two-year deal for a guy who cannot stay healthy for two years. I can’t wait for the White Sox to pay Dotel $5.5 million in 2009 while he rehabs his inevitable shoulder injury.
Maybe I’m missing something, but Dotel, who’s 34 now, has been pretty mediocre since 2004. Do White Sox execs have updated statistics incorporating the 2005-2007 seasons? If not, let’s get them those numbers. If so, I guess the White Sox expect some kind of Roger Clemens-non-steroid-induced-late-30’s resurgence.
Apropos to the White Sox, I read an article a few weeks ago (which I can’t find right now), opining that the White Sox are now one of the top AL teams. This is wrong. Their bullpen isn’t all that great, even if they get healthy years from Linebrink and Dotel. Their projected five starters — Buehrle, Vazquez, Contreras, Danks, and Floyd — are middle-of-the-road by AL standards. And, despite the additions of Orlando Cabrera and Nick Swisher, their offense is nowhere near the likes of the Red Sox, Tigers, and Yankees. Led by the inept Ozzie Guillen, I expect this team to be marginally better than last year, but not a playoff contender.
It’s the 2007 major league ERA of the new middle reliever for the Braves. To be fair, Jeff Ridgway (who I had earlier scientifically classified as “sucks”) didn’t have much of a chance to prove himself at the major league level last year. The Rays swapped him out for a utility guy with some upside:
Though the Rays have a dire need for a lefthanded reliever, they apparently saw enough of Ridgway in spring training and in a late-season callup to decide he wasn’t going to fill the need. Ridgway, 27, pitched in three regular-season games, allowing nine of the 10 batters he faced to reach base, and finished with a 189.00 ERA.
Friedman said Ridgway has “a really good arm” with the potential to be a successful major-league reliever and the deal “was much more about Willy Aybar for us.”
Here’s some recent news and commentary from the Bullpenternet:
Mets Geek breaks down the Hot Stove Winners and the Loser in both the AL and the NL: They give the Rockies bullpen moves a “neutral” and the Royals bullpen moves a “loser” designation. [Mets Geek]
There’s so little hope at Enron Field Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, that Jamey Wright is looking like some kind of answer for the Rangers. [The Ranger Rundown]
Yankees fans are dreaming their outsized dreams: “If Goose Deserves To Be In The Hall……then Joba should stay in the bullpen. Think about it. Hey, at least Goose agrees with me, but middle relievers never get any respect.” [Five O'Clock Lightning]
…was not a relief pitcher, but he was mentioned yesterday in a post because someone voted for him to make the Hall of Fame. Whoever did vote for Todd Vernon probably dug the man’s passion; just saw this on FJM:
(1) Pitching ability, specifically from 1975 to 1985: With the exception of a one-year hiatus in 1976 as a starting pitcher, Gossage was the best relief pitcher in baseball during this stretch (better, in my opinion, than Hall-of-Famer Bruce Sutter). It’s hard to pick a favorite statistical year, but I’ll go with 1977, the year before Goose became a member of the world-champion Yankees:
133 IP, 151 K’s, 1.62 ERA, 243 ERA+, 0.955 WHIP
(2) Closer and set-up pitcher all in one: If Goose is voted in this year, in what “experts” call his best chance to date, he’ll probably be labeled as baseball’s fifth closer to enter the Hall. But, as evidenced by the above numbers, Gossage wasn’t just a closer as we think of it today. Sure, he accumulated that silly save statistic every season during his dominant stretch, but he also played the role assumed by today’s set-up man. To wit: Goose had 52 regular-season saves of seven or more outs (by comparison, Mariano Rivera — the greatest closer of this generation — only has one such save, which came when he was a set-up man in 1996).
(3) Wicked mustache: The more mustachioed men in the Hall of Fame, the better.
I know it’s outside of the realm of middle reliever baseball, but The Loogy Lounge has entered into a post-season fantasy football challenge sponsored by our friends at Hugging Harold Reynolds. Although the site says that I, Gnopple, am responsible for the team, I have to give full credit to John Stevens. He spent some solid time going through the options and has picked The Loogy Lounge a sure winner.
Thanks to HHR for making it happen. Oh, and check out the sweet trophy that the chief put together. We will proudly post that on our blog if we win. Good luck to all!
Update: The kind folks at HHR have updated their post to assure John Stevens gets his credit. Thanks.
So, I had planned to post a thorough review of the top relievers of 2007 a few days ago. Sorry — my NYE Spinach & Artichoke Dip preparation got in the way. Now, because 2007 is so yesterday, here’s my cop-out Top Five list (please note that this list is in no way based upon holds or saves):
* Honorable mention: Pat Neshek, Tony Pena, Rafael Perez, Chad Qualls, Brandon Lyon
5. Joba Chamberlain – He was called up on August 8, but his name belongs on this list because: (1) he had an utterly dominant two-month stretch, helping to propel the Yankees to the postseason; (2) he achieved icon status in New York in record time; and (3) I’m a biased Yankees’ fan.
4. Carlos Marmol – Was nearly N.L. MVP. Plus, 96 K’s in 69.1 innings!
3. Hideki Okajima - The silver lining for us Yankees’ fans is that Jeemer struggled in the second half of the season; perhaps the league caught up to him a bit. Nevertheless, he was lights out in the first half and a major contributor to Boston’s championship season. Who woulda thunk that he’d be Boston’s best Japanese import?
2. Rafael Betancourt – I almost put him at number one, but because the Mitchell Report can selectively single out a small percentage of players who might have used PEDs, I choose to selectively discount Betancourt’s 2007 accomplishments because of his positive test a few years back. That said, Betancourt was awesome this past season. See, e.g., 312 ERA+!!!!
1. Heath Bell - A year ago, the Mets sent Bell to Kevin Towers’s Padres after a disappointing 2006 campaign. In 2007, Bell made, to say the least, a dramatic turnaround. While most of his numbers are similarly impressive as compared to the other guys on this list, what stands out the most, and what made Bell such a valuable reliever in 2007, is that he put those numbers up over 81 games and 93.2 innings pitched. In other words, Joe Torre would love to get this guy in a Dodgers uniform.
His arm might fall off by the middle of 2008, but, in 2007, Heath Bell was the best middle-relief pitcher in baseball. Congratulations, Heath!
