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December 8, 2008

Transaction Analysis

Catching Heck

by Christina Kahrl

CLEVELAND INDIANS Team Audit | DT Cards | PECOTA Cards | Depth Chart

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Signed RHP Tomo Ohka to a minor league contract with a spring training NRI. [12/5]
Noted their contribution to balancing the trade deficit by letting RHP Tom Mastny sign with the Yokohama BayStars. [12/8]

Remember when Tomo Ohka was a going concern? I know, it started coming apart around the same time that he became one of the last targets of Frank Robinson's ire, which got him dealt to Milwaukee for Junior Spivey, and he rounded out an adequate 2005 season at the back end of the Brewers rotation, finishing with 29 starts, 180 1/3 IP, and a 3.2 SNLVAR. His next season, he was plagued with shoulder and hamstring woes that limited him to 18 starts for Milwaukee (and a 1.8 SNLVAR). He drew plenty of interest as a free agent after the season, but as an increasingly marginal fourth- or fifth-starter type in the NL, he made the signal mistake of signing with the better league, getting his head handed to him in ten starts as a Blue Jay before earning his release, then bouncing to the Cardinals and Mariners organizations. The blush being totally off, he settled for a non-roster contract for 2008 with the White Sox, and it says something about his stock that at no point during their problems keeping the rotation manned in the second half was he given a shot. With the Knights, he didn't really earn it, surrendering 23 homers in 135 2/3 IP. A ratio of 112 strikeouts to 32 unintentional walks is pretty good, and he also logged 11 quality starts (one blown) in 20, but we're talking about a 32-year-old veteran in Triple-A; his DERA of 5.32 suggests that we're still talking about the same guy, someone who might be able to avoid doing too much damage as a fifth starter if the kids more likely to man the back end of the rotation falter early. He's more probably going to wind up spending the summer in Buffalo.