The Padres have indeed signed Glendon Rusch. Along with their earlier Shawn Estes signing, the Pads have now cornered the market on comebacking lefty starters who were never any good in the first place. Fantastic.
Padres General Manager Kevin Towers is rapidly forfeiting his reputation as a savvy baseball executive; we here at UMVPs are delighted to have more fodder.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Resurrecting the Lousy
An incredibly disturbing trend is sweeping the National League this offseason: NL teams are highly interested in the comeback attempts of left-handed starting pitchers who were never any good. The southpaw hurlers at the forefront of this latest wave of front office insanity are the esteemed Shawn Estes, a lifetime National Leaguer sporting a career ERA 4.71; the 45 year-old Jeff Fassero, sporting ERAs of 5.35, 5.68, 5.46, 4.06, and 7.80 over his last five seasons; and, perhaps most stupefying of all, Glendon Rusch, he of the 5.01 career ERA.
Your skepticism is warranted, dear reader. Surely these well-compensated baseball executives can dig up some 23 year-old minor leaguer who can post similar numbers to what these washed-up never-wases would bring to the table, right? Yes, this would be the reasonable alternative. Unfortunately, Mr. Estes has already signed with the Padres, Mr. Fassero is being brought in to pitch for Mets scouts, and Mr. Rusch, apparently the most popular of them all, is drawing interest from the Reds, Astros, Cardinals, and, in what can only be described as an orgy of misguided nostalgia, the Padres along with Mr. Estes.
Well, fine, then perhaps these are crafty veterans possessing some smoke-and-mirrors knowhow developed from years of finding ways to get hitters out? No, this is very much not the case. In his 13 years in the big leagues, Mr. Estes has posted a sub-4.00 ERA only twice: in 1996 and 1997. That's right, a full decade. Additionally, although 3.60 in 1996 and 3.18 in 1997 seem downright adequate on the surface, his WHIP for those seasons was a horrendous 1.46 and 1.30, respectively, and he had the benefit of playing home games in that most brutally hitter-unfriendly of ballparks, the old Candlestick Park. Indeed, since 1997, he has lived in the high-4.00 to high-5.00 range. Mr. Fassero last posted a sub-4.00 ERA "only" six seasons ago in 2001, but this was done in a purely relief role; further, as noted above, he has been unacceptably horrid ever since, and his 25 starts in that span have been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. Mr. Rusch, in his ten-year career, has posted a sub-4.00 ERA once, and that was in 16 spot starts and 16 relief appearances for the Cubs in 2004. But, again, his lifetime ERA is 5.01, and in 66.1 IP last season he posted an eye-watering 7.46 ERA.
Yes, dear reader, you are justified in throwing your hands up in disgust and considering finding out whether you too can throw a baseball left-handed.
We believe we are not alone in hoping that Shawn Estes and Glendon Rusch round out the 2008 starting rotation for a Padres team that came within a one-game playoff of reaching the postseason in 2007. We can only pray that a Randy Jones comeback is somewhere on the horizon.
Your skepticism is warranted, dear reader. Surely these well-compensated baseball executives can dig up some 23 year-old minor leaguer who can post similar numbers to what these washed-up never-wases would bring to the table, right? Yes, this would be the reasonable alternative. Unfortunately, Mr. Estes has already signed with the Padres, Mr. Fassero is being brought in to pitch for Mets scouts, and Mr. Rusch, apparently the most popular of them all, is drawing interest from the Reds, Astros, Cardinals, and, in what can only be described as an orgy of misguided nostalgia, the Padres along with Mr. Estes.
Well, fine, then perhaps these are crafty veterans possessing some smoke-and-mirrors knowhow developed from years of finding ways to get hitters out? No, this is very much not the case. In his 13 years in the big leagues, Mr. Estes has posted a sub-4.00 ERA only twice: in 1996 and 1997. That's right, a full decade. Additionally, although 3.60 in 1996 and 3.18 in 1997 seem downright adequate on the surface, his WHIP for those seasons was a horrendous 1.46 and 1.30, respectively, and he had the benefit of playing home games in that most brutally hitter-unfriendly of ballparks, the old Candlestick Park. Indeed, since 1997, he has lived in the high-4.00 to high-5.00 range. Mr. Fassero last posted a sub-4.00 ERA "only" six seasons ago in 2001, but this was done in a purely relief role; further, as noted above, he has been unacceptably horrid ever since, and his 25 starts in that span have been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. Mr. Rusch, in his ten-year career, has posted a sub-4.00 ERA once, and that was in 16 spot starts and 16 relief appearances for the Cubs in 2004. But, again, his lifetime ERA is 5.01, and in 66.1 IP last season he posted an eye-watering 7.46 ERA.
Yes, dear reader, you are justified in throwing your hands up in disgust and considering finding out whether you too can throw a baseball left-handed.
We believe we are not alone in hoping that Shawn Estes and Glendon Rusch round out the 2008 starting rotation for a Padres team that came within a one-game playoff of reaching the postseason in 2007. We can only pray that a Randy Jones comeback is somewhere on the horizon.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Any Day Now, Omar
Hey, look at that, this is the inaugural post. Lucky me. Onto business!
There was much eye-rubbing and head-scratching when word came out that the Mets had dealt young outfielder Lastings Milledge for decidedly older outfielder Ryan Church and offensive sinkhole/catcher Brian Schneider. What purpose did that serve for the Mets, we all wondered. Why trade away a promising young talent with significant upside for a fourth outfielder/platoon player already in his unremarkable prime (and getting no better) and a defensive-minded backstop with a weak stick whose overall skills have already begun to decline? Further, why take on significantly more salary while doing this? Surely, we thought, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya was obtaining these two rather pedestrian pieces because they were to be included in some future deal for the front line starting pitcher Mets fans so desperately crave.
Well, the Winter Meetings near their end (indeed, some GMs have already gone home), but still no new ace for the Amazins. What's worse, all reports out of Nashville indicate that the Mets simply lack the available talent to come through with a winning offer for pitchers like Johan Santana or Erik Bedard, giving little hope to fans of the team from Queens that any major deal could possibly happen before Spring Training.
Is this the end of the world? Probably not. The Mets still have a better collection of players than almost all of their National League adversaries, and there is still plenty of time to retool the mayday bullpen that no amount of Jose Reyes high-fiving could overcome down the stretch last season. Additionally, the return of a healthy Pedro Martinez and another year of maturity for John Maine and Oliver Perez probably mean that next year's starting rotation will outperform last year's even if no trade for the much-cliched "#1 starter" is made. To speak the truth, there is really no reason why the Mets shouldn't win 90+ games in 2008. So why is there a very significant collective case of indigestion going on in Orange and Blue territory?
The culprit is expectation. Rather than downplay the Mets' chances of landing an impact starting pitcher via the trade market, Mr. Minaya decided to stoke the fires of optimism in every Mets fan, declaring,
There was much eye-rubbing and head-scratching when word came out that the Mets had dealt young outfielder Lastings Milledge for decidedly older outfielder Ryan Church and offensive sinkhole/catcher Brian Schneider. What purpose did that serve for the Mets, we all wondered. Why trade away a promising young talent with significant upside for a fourth outfielder/platoon player already in his unremarkable prime (and getting no better) and a defensive-minded backstop with a weak stick whose overall skills have already begun to decline? Further, why take on significantly more salary while doing this? Surely, we thought, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya was obtaining these two rather pedestrian pieces because they were to be included in some future deal for the front line starting pitcher Mets fans so desperately crave.
Well, the Winter Meetings near their end (indeed, some GMs have already gone home), but still no new ace for the Amazins. What's worse, all reports out of Nashville indicate that the Mets simply lack the available talent to come through with a winning offer for pitchers like Johan Santana or Erik Bedard, giving little hope to fans of the team from Queens that any major deal could possibly happen before Spring Training.
Is this the end of the world? Probably not. The Mets still have a better collection of players than almost all of their National League adversaries, and there is still plenty of time to retool the mayday bullpen that no amount of Jose Reyes high-fiving could overcome down the stretch last season. Additionally, the return of a healthy Pedro Martinez and another year of maturity for John Maine and Oliver Perez probably mean that next year's starting rotation will outperform last year's even if no trade for the much-cliched "#1 starter" is made. To speak the truth, there is really no reason why the Mets shouldn't win 90+ games in 2008. So why is there a very significant collective case of indigestion going on in Orange and Blue territory?
The culprit is expectation. Rather than downplay the Mets' chances of landing an impact starting pitcher via the trade market, Mr. Minaya decided to stoke the fires of optimism in every Mets fan, declaring,
"All those guys that are being mentioned in the market, as far as trade market, we've been in contact with these guys, on a regular basis."The common Mets fan could not help but assume that their fearless GM would never say such a thing unless he was certain a big-name arm was coming to Shea. So as Mr. Minaya's working vacation in Nashville ends and he returns empty-handed (or perhaps lighter in the hypothetical wallet for having given away a useful trading chip in Milledge), legions of faithful Wilpon customers can only groan and hope that Kevin McHale takes over a rival Major League Baseball franchise sometime soon.
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