Lost in the glitz of Sosa, Wood and Prior among Cub stars is the club’s All Star-caliber third baseman, Aramis Ramirez. Jim Hendry pulled off a steal of a deal last July, snagging Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and enough cash to cover a big chunk of Ramirez’s leftover ’03 salary for the forgettable Jose Hernandez, B-level pitching prospect Matt Bruback and player to be named later Bobby Hill, who while possessing the most upside of the trio, also had ample holes in his game and is now a 26-year-old semi-prospect, still waiting to click.
The beauty of the deal wasn’t just the Cubs’ ability to land two key contributors for last year’s playoff run. It was securing Ramirez for the affordable rate of $6 million in 2004. While he’d struggled badly in 2002 and early ’03, much of those struggles stemmed from injuries, including a bad ankle injury that took him far longer to overcome than most expected. Still, this was the same Ramirez who hit .300./350/.536 in his first full big league season at age 23, the same Ramirez who showed huge power as he climbed the minor league ladder. He could stand to ratchet up his plate discipline a bit, but you’re still talking about an elite player at a key defensive position who turns 26 this season, won’t break the bank this season and could be the rare free agent worth paying to retain long-term. Railing against Pittsburgh owner Kevin McClatchy and his money-hoarding reign of error won’t win any pennants. Having the presence of mind to fleece the Pirates in their stupor just might.
The Angels need to resist the urge to trade one of their top prospects. David Segui is injured again. Brad Hawpe is getting a chance in Colorado. Eduardo Villacis gets called for an emergency start for the Royals. And Bubba Crosby finds out exactly what a New York Minute feels like. All this and much more news from around the league in your Tuesday edition of Transaction Analysis.
There are groundball pitchers, there are Groundball Pitchers, and then there’s Brandon Webb. From the moment he was called up from the minors last season, Webb has become the premier sinkerballer in the league. His 3.44 G/F ratio last season was second in the majors behind only Derek Lowe; this year, his ratio of 3.82 dwarfs that of any other pitcher. No other qualifier has a ratio above 2.5; Lowe, who has too few innings to qualify, is only at 2.76.
But Webb has something going for him that Lowe doesn’t: He’s also a dominant strikeout pitcher. For his career, Webb has 203 whiffs in 217 innings, or 8.41 per nine innings. Since entering the rotation full-time in 2002, Lowe is only at 5.00 per.
Over the last 20 years, the number of pitchers who fit Webb’s profile–a power pitcher with a high G/F ratio–is very small, and includes such luminaries as Greg Maddux (in his prime) and Kevin Brown. Long-term, there might not be a safer pitcher to bet on than the Diamondbacks’ #2 starter.
Lots of e-mails on two unrelated topics: Jason Bay and Peter Gammons’ comment about pitchers using steroids. Let’s start with Peter’s comment: Yes, steroids would help pitchers. It’s always been my understanding that steroids, used properly (and yes, there is a proper way) would benefit pitchers MORE than it would hitters. Not only would they increase strength, but the drugs could be used to assist recovery, something pitchers definitely need to worry about. Strength alone won’t immediately put on velocity, but someone who already has the mechanics to put together an 88 m.p.h. heater could probably find a couple extra m.p.h. if his mechanics held together.
Jason Bay doesn’t seem like the type to start an e-mail flood, but since many of the questions were similar, I’ll go with it. Asked if Bay’s surgery was “botched” or if the Pirates are “hiding something,” I went to my best Bucs source. He flatly denied either suggestion, and implied that that the Pirates were just erring on the side of caution. I’ll also note that teams, in my experience, seldom out-and-out lie about injuries. They’ll dance around facts using every rhetorical trick in the book, but get them off the record or back them into a logical corner and the truth flows freely. Bay started his rehab assignment with a 1-3 night, so he should be about a week away from Pittsburgh.
With Todd Walker in the lineup, Dusty Baker’s bench on
most days consists of Todd Hollandsworth and four guys who
are 13-for-87 with three doubles and six walks this year. Not that Baker needs
another reason to leave his starting pitchers in, but at least three of them
are better hitters than the available pinch-hitters, save Hollandsworth.
I was hyping Ryan Wagner in the offseason, so I should
point out that he’s the worst
reliever in baseball this year, with an ERA of 11.25, and just eight
innings pitched in 10 appearances. The league is hitting .488/.520/.707
against him, and at this point, he needs to be demoted before the words
“David Clyde” start seeping into stories about him. He’ll be back,
though.
There has to be some category for what Hee Seop Choi is
up to: nine homers, no other extra-base hits. Choi, by the way, is at
.277/.405/.692 so far. Derrek Lee is a good player, but the
Cubs could have had Ivan Rodriguez and Choi for what they’re
paying Lee and Michael Barrett. That they don’t is a cost of
employing Dusty Baker.