In lieu of the recent transactions that have been made, I have a few comments:
1) Why bring up Luis Mendoza? You remember, he of the 8.67 ERA (dead last in the majors for pitchers with at least 50 IP). He seems to be having some success at AAA Oklahoma (approximately 10 scoreless innings pitched), but after last season's train wreck he's going to have to spend a lot more time in AAA to convince me that he's ready. I imagine he'll be kept on a short leash and optioned back down at the first sign of repeating last year's debacle.
2) A great option would have been signing Juan Cruz (check out his stats if you aren't familiar . . . or just know that he has a career 3.99 ERA coming off of three straight solid seasons in the bullpen), but the Rangers apparently couldn't compete with the high-octane, payroll-driven financial behemoths: the Kansas City Royals. There's nothing else to say.
2) With all of this bullpen trouble going on, it makes me wonder why we traded Wes Littleton to the Red Sox (he's now with the Brewers, having been claimed off waivers). Granted, at this time the Rangers didn't know that Eric Hurley and Joaquin Benoit were out for the year, so he was a little bit more expendable at the time. That having been said, however, he has had some success (albeit not last year) in the big leagues, which is more than can be said for most other options to which the Rangers could have turned.
Opposing hitters have posted a modest .239/.317/.349 line against him in his career (all major league appearances have been with Texas). A look at how opposing hitters have perfomed against the other Rangers bullpen options this season:
Josh Rupe: .290/.380/.432
Kason Gabbard: .257/.364/.374
Luis Mendoza: .324/.387/.493
Willie Eyre: .301/.374/.474
Scott Feldman: .280/.357/.443
The obvious arguments against Littleton are that he was out of options and, with young stars on the way, it wasn't worth hanging onto him. But what about now?
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Agreed about Luis Mendoza. There were too many times I blacked out in a fit of rage caused by Luis' ineptitude.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we figured the guys we had picked up would do a better job than Cruz? Right? Scratch that. Our bullpen is money, I won't hear anything else about the topic after I go cry in the corner.
In terms of Wes Littleton though, I loved him, but he was out of options and I don't think they wanted to give him a major league spot. Maybe they felt he wasn't good enough to be a permanent reliever or that he wasn't a significant upgrade from anyone they had. You can always find a long relief guy.
Based on what has happened in his time at Boston? or whereever he ended up, that was a pretty good assessment. Newberg tracked him when he left, and he just couldn't get anyone out, as evidenced by his being waived again.