SB Nation - Matt DeSalvo

Marlins Minor League Free Agents

craig — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:59:10 -0000

This is the time of the year when those who are eligible can file for Minor League free agency. To be eligible, basically, a player with six years of service after his first season can file if he is not on the 40-man roster. Here is this year's list.

Florida (32)

Pitchers: LHP Willie Collazo, RHP Matt Desalvo, RHP Nate Field, RHP Jonathan Fulton, RHP William Glen, RHP Clay Hensley, RHP Brian Lawrence, RHP Carlos Martinez, RHP Nick McCurdy, RHP David Miller, RHP Kasey Olenberger, RHP Henry Owens, RHP Matt Peterson, RHP Levale Speigner, RHP Nick Ungs

Catchers: Michael Rabelo, Neil Wilson

Infielders: Christopher De La Cruz, John Lindsey, David Matranga, Louis Ott, Smelin Perez, Kevin Randel, Rigoberto Silverio, Lee Mitchell, Rich Townsend, Geraldo Valentin

Outfielders: Ben Harrison, Erik Kanaby, Michael Ryan, Lorenzo Scott, Brandon Tripp

Rabelo, McCurdy, Silverio and Townsend spent all of the 2009 season on the DL. So they might be a bit chancy for another club to sign. Then again, maybe not. Signing a minor league free agent basically costs nothing and the club's only obligation is to carry them all the way through spring training. So normally someone will be willing to give them a shot. Just because another team signs them doesn't necessarily mean they won't be back with the Marlins. A couple of years ago Paul Hoover filed, went through spring training with some team and ended up once again being the Marlins Triple-A catcher.

Kinda sad to see Henry Owens name on the list. For a little while in 2007 he was the closer for the Marlins and did a pretty good job, then he hurt his shoulder and ended up playing for Dr. Andrews team. We have never seen him in a Marlins uniform since.

Before you jump off the Joba The Starter bandwagon

Travis G — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:30:09 -0000

More photos » by Mark J. Terrill - AP

Browse more photos »

Please read this (and yes, I know it's a bit late) -

Last night we saw a 23-year-old kid have a bad game. It was his second straight - no question about it. But let's not go overboard: from some of the comments on this site, you'd think Joba was as bad as Chien-Ming Wang. These knee-jerk reactions are irrational.

His ERA now stands at a-better-than-average 4.25, third among Yankee starters.

Joba's velocity last night was 93.5 MPH. Is that not good enough? It won't be as fast as when he relieved because that's the nature of baseball: pitching fewer innings is easier and less taxing.

And we've seen him be very successful as a starter - last season he had a 2.76 ERA with a 1.30 WHIP in 12 starts.

Now let's play a game called Guess the Pitcher:

22 years old, 4.48 ERA, 1.49 WHIP...

23 years old, 10.64 ERA, 2.20 WHIP...

22 years old, 4.74 ERA, 1.51 WHIP...

21 years old, 5.61 ERA, 1.64 WHIP...

25 years old, 4.82 ERA, 1.51 WHIP...

and now Joba: 23 years old, 4.25 ERA, 1.56 WHIP

My point is not that Joba will turn into a Hall of Famer (like the aforementioned pitchers), but that a bad stretch doesn't mean he automatically won't. It's two bad starts, two.

All I remember hearing the past couple years was how the Yankees had to develop their own pitchers so we wouldn't have to rely on the likes of Carl Pavano, Tim Redding, Jaret Wright, Kevin Brown, etc.; and the Quadruple-A guys that we got to know too well: Ty Clippard, Matt DeSalvo, Jeff Karstens, Darrel Rasner, Kei Igawa, etc.

That brings me to my next point: if you're throwing Joba into the pen, who takes his spot in the rotation? Sergio Mitre (28 years old, 5.36 career ERA, hasn't pitched in the Bigs since '07), Josh Towers (32 years old, 4.96 career ERA, last seen in '07), Jason Johnson (35 years old, 4.99 career ERA), Igawa (do I have to go over his resume?)? You liking any of them?

Joba is 23, has a 3.04 career ERA (3.62 as a starter).

So the choices seem to be ML re-treads with no promise, or watching a kid with a ton of promise go through normal ups and downs.

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In addition to all that, Andy Pettitte had another poor game. Should he be moved to the pen?

Joba's ERA as a starter is 3.62. Pettitte's over the same time frame ('08-'09) is about 4.62. A full run difference. Before you tell me that Joba doesn't pitch deep enough, I've already looked. He averages 5.1 ip/start - Pettitte has averaged a hair over 6 ip/start. How much is a full run in ERA worth? 2-3 more outs?

It would seem those traits might roughly even out. Therefore, if Joba deserves to be in the pen, why not Andy?

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.