SB Nation - Victor Zambrano

The WBC Gets Some Deserved Attention

Al — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:30:07 -0000

I admit, I was kind of lukewarm about the WBC before it started.

But that was before all the compelling, entertaining and exciting games and upsets we've seen so far.

Tonight, there are three games, with one more tomorrow that will end the first round. Use this thread for discussing all three of them. And, the two Cubs remaining in this round will both see action tonight.

Netherlands vs. Puerto Rico at San Juan. Game time: 4:30 pm CDT. TV: ESPN2. Both teams are headed to Miami for round 2; the winner gets the #1 seed, the loser the #2 seed. There ought to be a raucous home crowd rooting on the Puerto Ricans. The Giants' Jonathan Sanchez will start for Puerto Rico, and Geovany Soto is expected to be the starting catcher.

Venezuela vs. USA at Toronto. Game time: 5:30 pm CDT. TV: MLB Network. Ted Lilly will start this game and probably go two or three innings, then be followed by Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie. Zambrano will start for Venezuela... that is, of course, Victor Zambrano, who got shelled in relief on Sunday. The winner gets the #1 seed from the pool, the loser gets the #2 seed, and they'll both head to Miami for the first game in the next round on Saturday.

Mexico vs. Australia at Mexico City. Game time: 9 pm CDT. TV: MLB Network. Another partisan home crowd will root on Mexico -- this game is an elimination game; the loser goes home, the winner faces Cuba tomorrow to determine the #1 seed in this pool, where the top two seeds play Japan and Korea in San Diego. Atlanta Braves starter Jorge Campillo will pitch for Mexico; David Welch will go for Australia. Two days ago the Aussies overcame a 6-4 deficit vs. Mexico and won 17-7.

Discuss, as always, amongst yourselves.

Worst Individual Bullpen Seasons in Rays History

Tommy Rancel — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:00:09 -0000

After reading this yesterday, color me unexcited about Troy Percival feeling "great."

Friedman said Percival has thrown off the mound a couple times and said he “feels great.” Nonetheless, the Rays are eager to get him into camp and get a firsthand look before figuring out exactly where things stand. Friedman expects Percival to report to Port Charlotte within the next couple of days.

We heard this story far too often last year. Percival would get hurt, rehab, "feel great" and then implode on the mound. This is also know as rinse, reuse, repeat. Normally, a Percival appearance from the month of May forward would provoke a statement like "man, this guys is the worst." However, to my surprise he wasn't the worst reliever in Rays history as far as FIP is concerned. Again, we use FIP because it tells you how effective a pitcher was regardless of how his defense played. Here is the list of the worst FIP's for a Rays reliever (min. 40 relief IP).

Name	Year	FIP
Zambrano	2002	6.11
Percival	2008	5.87
Colome	2002	5.79
Stokes	2007	5.76
Colome	2001	5.58
Yan	1999	5.47
Hammel	2008	5.46
Harper	2005	5.43
Meadows	2006	5.4
Sosa	2004	5.29

As you can see we all owe another round of applause to Mr. Chuck LaMar. Victor Zambrano was not only a 5.29 FIP starter when he was traded for Scott Kazmir, but his 48.2 innings of relief in 2002 were the worst as far as FIP is concerned. Percival, however, is right up there and because he was in higher leverage situations, you could argue that he was the worst. The rest of the list includes no surprises: Colome x2, Yan, Meadows and Harper were bad and we all knew that. One interesting note, while the 2007 bullpen was the worst collection of relievers, only Brian Stokes makes the list. However, the much improved 2008 bullpen features two relievers in this "top" 10.

The Washington Nationals And The MLB Hot Stove: Winter Rewind...

Ed Chigliak — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:55:49 -0000

Federalbaseball.com -- Recent Posts...

Small W.A.R.s: Baserunning and Fielding - Doghouse

Where Do You Live? Oh, NatsTown? - Nats News Network

'08's Officially Over, What Will '09 Bring For DC's Nationals?

There have been two recurring messages out of the DC Front Office this offseason about the direction the Washington Nationals would take to improve on their 102-loss 2008 season and continue to rebuild the moribund franchise they purchased from Major League Baseball...(after MLB had devalued the Expos significantly enough to warrant their removal from Montreal, Olympic Stadium and the assumed-to-be apathetic Montreal masses who had rejected the Expos and baseball in general after the '94 strike/season).

The First Message, which Washington Nationals' Team President Stan Kasten repeated at the recent NatsFest press conference, is that the Nationals should follow the model of the Tampa Bay Rays*, and build a winner rather than trying to buy a winner, or as Mr. Kasten himself put it, as quoted by Washington Post writer Chico Harlan in a Nationals Journal post entitled, "The Stanifesto":

"Do you want last year's -- I won't name the teams in the American League that had payrolls all over $100 million that ended up last -- do you want those $100 million teams? Or do you want the $40 million team from Tampa that went to the World Series?"

As far back as October 2, 2008, just a week after the '08 season had ended, MLB.com's Bill Ladson started an article entitled, "Nationals see reason for optimism in '09", by writing that:

"After watching the Rays go from the worst team in 2007 to the American League East champions this season, the Nationals have hope they can turn things around in 2009."

...and for as long as there have been comparisons to the Rays, there has been the persistently stated desire to add a middle-of-the-order bat to a lineup that failed to produce nearly enough offense to support the efforts of the Nationals' beleaguered rotation and beaten up pen. New options arose in the bullpen, however, with Mike Hinckley, a former Expos' draft pick emerging as a late-inning lefty, and Steven Shell and Garrett Mock pitching well enough to earn themselves spots-to-lose heading into Spring Training, while "Wild" Joel Hanrahan successfully flirted with disaster and Saul "Sa-ool" Rivera did the yeoman's work whenever and for however long it was necessary...

As for the starters...The Nationals have added two new starters, towering righty Daniel Cabrera and left-hander Scott Olsen(signed after being acquired in a trade w/ the Marlins), and brought back lefties John Lannan and Odalis Perez, as well as right-handers, Jason Bergmann and Shawn Hill to challenge the young arms of Jordan Zimmermann, Shairon Martis and Collin Balester -- who was successful enough his first time through the Majors to all-but-guarantee a starting spot in the rotation -- so regardless of what you might think of the pitchers they've assembled, the Nationals know who they'll be turning to...

But still, they've yet to add that difference maker, the middle of the order bat, the Mark Te - - - - ra, Adam Dunn or even Milton Bradley (Really? As an everday player? Good luck, Cubbies!)...Whichever players the Nationals were actually after, they've yet to get the power they've consistently identified as their number one need...

Will the power emerge from within with Wily Mo Pena finally putting it together...or, uh, more realistically, Elijah Dukes or Lastings Milledge reaching their potential, or maybe Austin Kearns reaching back to find what he's lost since he was named Mr. Baseball in the Commonwealth of Kentucky (or less-humorously when he was signed by now-DC GM Jim Bowden and debuted with the Reds). Will Ryan Zimmerman's power be back 100% after the first real injuries of his career? Will Willie Harris continue to do everything right? Can Nick Johnson stay healthy enough to contribute? Can Jesus Flores continue to improve? Is "The Hammer" the answer? "The Hammer"? Josh Willingham, who was acquired along with Scott Olsen early in the offseason...Will Willingham make the difference offensively? (Notice, I'm not asking where all these outfielders will play? Why harp?")

The Washington Nationals still want a middle of the order bat...again, according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson, who writes today, in an article entitled, "Nats head south with unfullfilled desires", that we shouldn't, "underestimate general manager Jim Bowden", when there are so many free agents still available, and Mr. Bowden himself is quoted by Mr. Ladson, (from the Nationals Caravan), reiterating:

"'Certainly, there is a big bat that we think could help us...Whether or not we are able to sign them and make it work remains to be seen, but we are working on it.'"

If you want a bat...Adam Dunn is just sitting there, stalling...Make him come to DC. Don't wait for him to lower his price...(if he's really what you think you need, which, well, uh, whatever, but )**...ask Dunn what he'll accept, meet it, and make it happen. We've all heard about the personal relationship between Mr. Bowden and Dunn, Zimmerman and Dunn, and Kearns and Dunn, (Is it me or is this sounding very country?), but with all this history, Dunn's still "sitting" on the Nationals' offer?" Why not offer Mr. Dunn a deadline? (That totally worked for the Dodgers...") (ed. note - "And don't forget my offer to Manny Ramirez...Manny?)

(ed. note - "For those of you who believe that the Nationals' struggles last season were mostly a result of all the injuries sustained by the DC roster, Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll posted his 'Team Health Reports: Washington Nationals' diagnosis today. You'll need to be a BP member to read it all, sorry...")

(another ed. note - " * = The Tampa Bay Rays' method of building a winner, does, however, rely on things like the Hated Mets giving you deals like Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano....")

(one last ed. note - " ** = Fans For A Dunn-Free DC.")

eMb

Friday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:53:46 -0000

Some things to read while waiting to see if it's a good mail day.

Is the Brewer front office the only group of people in baseball who don't realize their starting rotation has a depth problem? The team has stated for weeks now that they're not looking to spend big money on a starter, and that's fine, but now Ken Rosenthal reports they're also not interested in offering minor league deals to veteran starters like Mark Redman and Victor Zambrano or reclamation projects like Kris Benson and Jason Jennings. (h/t Al) Their interest in Mark Mulder is described as "lukewarm."

Since 2000, the Brewers have used 8, 13, 13, 12, 12, 8, 12, 8 and 8 starting pitchers, respectively. That's an average of about 10 and a half starting pitchers per season for the past nine seasons. Here's the current depth chart for starting pitchers, as I see it:

1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Manny Parra
3. Dave Bush
4. Jeff Suppan
5. Seth McClung
6. Chris Capuano (after May or so, if all goes well)
7. Mark DiFelice
8. Carlos Villanueva

After eight, it becomes anyone's guess, with names like Tim Dillard, Chris Narveson and Lindsay Gulin coming into play. I'm not sure why the front office seems to be in no hurry to add pitchers to this list.

The Brewers agreed to terms yesterday with seven players on their 40-man roster: Dillard, Mitch Stetter, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel, Casey McGehee, Brad Nelson and Angel Salome. In a related note, the Brewers recently sent Salome to the 2009 Rookie Career Development Program, and while he was there he was interviewed for MLB.com.

Speaking of interviews, The Sporting News took a few minutes to catch up with Mark Attanasio for a Q and A. They asked him about (what else?) the salary cap (three times), then they had a brief conversation about the Brewers. (h/t BBTF)

I guess there is one advantage to having a fair number of free swingers on your team: The Brewers were below league average in strikeouts looking in 2008.

On the hot stove:

A's: Signed Russ Springer to a deal reported to be worth more than $3 million.
Braves: The team has reportedly stopped pursuing Adam Dunn and will not offer more than a minor league deal to Andruw Jones.
Cubs: will reportedly trade Rich Hill to the Orioles once Baltimore has cleared some space on their 40-man roster to take him.
Dodgers: Spoke to the agents for both Braden Looper and Randy Wolf yesterday.
Giants: Signed Juan Uribe to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.
Mariners: Signed Mike Sweeney to a minor league deal. They may also be considering an 11-man pitching staff.
Marlins: Signed Kiko Calero and Jason Standridge to minor league deals.
Mets: Signed Bobby Kielty, Tony Armas Jr., Matt DeSalvo and Valerio de los Santos to minor league deals.
Orioles: Will not retain Kevin Millar.
Pirates: Signed Paul Maholm to a three-year deal, buying out his three arbitration seasons. The deal also has an option for a fourth year. They're also reportedly ready to sign Eric Hinske.
Red Sox: Jason Varitek, apparently unhappy with the offers he's received as a free agent, is threatening to sit out the 2009 season. (see update)
Reds: May sign Luis Gonzalez to help fill out their bench.
Yankees: We've had several conversations about how this works, but apparently we were all wrong and the Yankees have filled their quota of Type A/B free agents. (see update 2)

UPDATE: ESPN is reporting Varitek has accepted a one-year deal from the Red Sox.

UPDATE 2: Or not. The Yankees can still sign more free agents.

Do you have MLB Network? (I don't.) Are you losing your mind waiting for the first televised spring training games? (I am.) If so, perhaps Caribbean World Series games can help tide you over. The network will have 12 games between February 2 and 7. Odds are my cable company will continue to hold out and I won't see any of them.

Oh, and it appears Rays reliever J.P. Howell can't draw straight lines.

Drink up.