January 12, 2007
Bronson Arroyo & Brandon Claussen
By
BubbaFan
Posted at 6:33 pm
Just in case there are any Reds fans in Massachussetts…Bronson Arroyo is making a personal appearance in Boston. Well, the suburbs of Boston, anyway. He's signing autographs tomorrow at the Natick Mall in Natick, MA.
In other news, Brandon Claussen signed with the Nats. He got a minor league deal.
Bowden continues his compulsive obsession with ex-Reds,.
If he’s not trading pitchers, Krivsky is letting them slip away to Washington.
But it’s OK, because we’ve got a depth of pitching talent, right??
I’m slowly starting to loathe Krivsky.
Arrgh. I do know how to spell “Massachusetts,” darn it.
From [url=http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070112&content_id=1778174&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp]MLB.com[/url] on the Claussen signing:
[quote]”He is a left-handed pitcher that won in double digits and had a four ERA in a bandbox [Great American Ball Park],” Bowden said. “At his age, and if he comes back, we have control of him for four years. It’s worth the gamble to rehab him.”[/quote]
I thought there would be more interest in him. I guess that shoulder thing must have been off-putting.
RE CLAUSSEN:
[His finest campaign came in 2005, when he went 10-11 with a 4.21 ERA in 29 starts for the Reds. That season, Claussen allowed three earned runs or less in 21 of 29 assignments, and was the only starting pitcher for whom the 73-89 Reds posted a winning record (Cincinnati finished 15-14 in Claussen’s starts).]
If Claussen’s rough 2006 was due to injury, and he comes anywhere close to returning to 2005 numbers, giving up on Claussen might be even worse than “the trade”
Teams are paying obscene amounts of money for pitching and we just kick a young left handed pitcher to the curb after one bad season (when he was hurt !)
Leatherpants beats Krivsky again !
“Nobody listens to Andrew”
“If” is the key word… and when a young guy has arm problems its never a good sign. I liked Claussen in 2005 but he was pretty bad last year before that injury. I really don’t think he will ever be special. Decent is about the best he can do. Its funny how a team always spins a guy’s reputation to the absolute most positive light after acquiring him. The Nationals PR machine makes Claussen sound like a cy young candidate. Without looking up the numbers, Victor Santos seems just as good in my mind and doesn’t have an injured shoulder and doesn’t take up a roster spot. I don’t see why we couldn’t place Claussen on IR so he doesn’t take up a roster spot though, but I am sure there was some annoying reason for it.
Hey I looked up Victor Santos on baseball-reference.com and it showed most similiar pitchers by age, and guess who was listed as number 4? Dick Pole, our new pitching coach. Interesting… Having said that, I must admit Santos numbers don’t look very good.
I agree that Victor Santos doesn’t look like the answer either. In fact, his numbers kind of scare me. But then, Claussen’s ERA was over 6.00 in two of the four seasons he appeared in the majors so far. Maybe the Reds just figure Santos can do just as well (or just as poorly) without the periodic trips to the DL to further complicate matters.
The thing about Claussen is, he has a history of injuries. In fact, he was damaged goods when Bowden got him from the Yankees for Aaron Boone. Claussen had undergone Tommy John surgery (that’s a ligament transplant for the medically challenged among you) in 2002. That was why the Bats shut him down after three starts in 2003.
Then he missed about a dozen games with an arm injury in 2005.
Then he missed the last 95 games of 2006 because of a shoulder injury.
This is a guy whose career ERA is 6.75 against the Cubs, 8.18 against the Brewers, 5.63 against the Cardinals, 6.10 at Wrigley Field, 11.44 in Miller Park, 5.40 in the new Busch, 6.35 at Minute Maid. And in his best year, 2004, when he won a whopping ten games, the Reds scored an average of 5.28 runs per game in Claussen’s starts. With that kind of run support, it’s not surprising he won ten games, the surprise is that he didn’t win more than that.
Not that I think Santos is likely to do much better, but that’s another matter entirely.
We know the Reds’ 2007 rotation is likely to contain Arroyo, Harang, Milton, Lohse, and as for the fifth starter, maybe they start the year with Santos, and maybe not, but they weren’t going to start the season with Claussen as the #5 because he’ll still be rehabbing then. By the time Claussen is ready it’s possible Homer Bailey will already be in that rotation, and Santos traded to the Diamondbacks for two truckloads of desert sand and an autographed picture of Randy Johnson.
HMZ
I am still voting for Elizardo if he is healthy. I have his minor league baseball card here and it reads on the back:
“One of the fastest-rising stars of the Phillies farm system, Elizardo has posted strikeout-to-walk ratios that defy belief. In addition to his outrageous 73-to-2 mark in 2002, he previously fanned 137 against only 13 walks in two Dominican League seasons. Nicknamed “Easy,” the change-up specialist won the ’02 Gulf Coast League ERA crown, running his three year pro record to 21-3 with a 1.46 ERA.”
Incidentally, I will be putting this card up for auction soon. Check out my [url=http://auctionfire.com/cgi-bin/allauction.pl?action=search&searchtype=username&searchstring=big_red_mechanic&seller=1]reds memorabilia auction[/url] and place a bid if you see something you like.
“If he is healthy” is an important qualifier. IIRC, Baseball America had Claussen rated as the #3 prospect in the Yankee organization before he had his Tommy John surgery.
I dunno about Easy. His three-year major league ERA is now 5.79, which is quite a difference from the 1.10 he put up in 2002 in rookie ball. That’s why I usually don’t get excited about prospects until they do it at AA or above. Then again, he’s only 23. He seems to get hit hard early in games, and he seems to have trouble pitching with runners on. I think he gives hitters too much credit and needs to challenge guys more. If he does that, and is healthy so he can throw a 90-MPH fastball to mix with his change and curve, then yeah, he should at least be able to be a solid #5 on a good team. Especially considering the detritus some teams ran out there as #5 starters last year.
Anything we get from him turns out to be pretty much all we got out of that deal that sent the late Corey Lidle to Philly. I know for a fact that one of the other two guys we got in that trade is long gone: OF Javon Moran (a speedy little guy, thus a player who RHM would probably have liked) went back to Philly in the Conine trade. As for P Joe Wilson, he got hammered at Class A Dayton in 2004 and 2005. I’ve lost track of him now, but if he played last season, it wasn’t for Dayton.
You’re right about Bowden’s obsession with ex-Reds. Tell ya what though, right now I’ll take the Reds’ kids (under 25: Phillips, Bailey, Encarnacion, Jay Bruce, Ramirez, Bill Bray, Joey Votto, etc.) over the Nationals’ kids (Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero, Ryan Wagner) any day, even knowing that Zimmerman’s probably a future Gold Glover at 3B.
Claussen was certainly one of the Yankees’ top prospects. Yankee fans were outraged when he was traded.
However, keep in mind that back then, the Yankee farm system was terrible. Being the Yankees’ best prospect basically meant, “Not good enough to be traded.”
That said, a couple of the Yankees’ other prospects from that era, Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang, have turned out pretty well. Cano, projected as not starter material, was an All-Star last season, and Wang, never expected to be an ace, came in second in the Cy Young voting. Both of them would have been traded if the Yanks had any takers.
I don’t know if the numbers bare it out or not, but I thought Elizardo looked a LOT more poised last year than in 2005. He was making some big strides, and I remember 2 games vs the Brewers that he was lights out virtually unhittable… and yea I think he was trusting his stuff more. I don’t know if he wore down or what, but I look to him to continue to progress and make the next step. He would definitely be a good #5 compared to most teams like you said. I also like Belisle but he hasn’t shown that he can stay healthy for very long, although I like his chances as a starter more than as a long reliever, where you aren’t on a strict schedule and need a looser arm. I would not be shocked if Bailey joins the big club for a pennant drive late in the season if they are still in the thick of things and he is kicking ass in Louisville.
I was impressed with Ramirez in 2006 and hope he rebounds from his injury. I figure the Reds’ complete inability to diagnose injuries forced Ramirez to start several tmes while hurting, which did neither the team nor him any good.
We’ll see. When healthy, he was an excellent #5 starter (cheap and young). Heck, he was better than Milton for a while. (Not saying much, I know.)
His fall-off at the end of 2006 was troubling, especially since it was injury related. Hopefully, it doesn’t amount to anything.
And I still think that getting rid of Claussen for nothing was stupid at worst and incompetent roster management at best.
Okay, I’m starting to think there’s something to that “obsession with former Reds” thing.
[url=http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/172566]Nats sign Tony Womack[/url]
He’s also invited D’Angelo Jimenez to spring training.
And Craig Wilson has finally found a home. He’ll be joining his old teammate, Gonzo, in Atlanta.