For the past month, the Twins fan base has been growing restless for general manager Bill Smith to make a move. The starting pitching has been horrendous, and the fans wanted a big name to fix it.
However, the dreams of that slowly faded. First, Cliff Lee was dealt from the Mariners to the Rangers after the M's balked at the idea of taking Kevin Slowey (or Nick Blackburn...or both) and catching prospect Wilson Ramos. It was understandable after it was seen what Seattle got in return (Justin Smoak promises to be a beast in a couple seasons.)
Then, Dan Haren was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Angels. There was no chance for the Twins to get Haren as the D'Backs were looking to get a quality, young pitcher in return. Sadly to say, none of the Twins pitchers, on the team or down in Rochester, fit that description.
Roy Oswalt was on the Twins list too, but Oswalt stated that any team who obtained him in a trade had to pick up his 16 million option in 2012. Sounds pricey for a guy who repeatedly finds himself on the disabled list. Oswalt was traded from the Astros to the Phillies on Thursday.
There are still options out there. The most notable name on the block is Ted Lilly. However, Lilly has a list of teams on his no-trade list (Haren did as well.) and guess who popped up on that list? You guessed it...
The Twins needed to upgrade their pitching somehow, so they made a move.
On Thursday night, the Twins traded Ramos and minor league pitcher Joe Testa to the Nationals for Matt Capps.
At first, I hated this trade. The Twins already had Jon Rauch as their closer, and he was doing a pretty good job saving games. However, when you look deeper at the job Rauch has done, maybe he wasn't.
Only 5 of Rauch's 21 save opportunities were considered "clean" saves by the Twins brain trust. A "clean" save, which should be added to sabermetrics any day now, is a 1-2-3 inning. So basically Rauch was making Ron Gardenhire pull out whatever hair is left on his balding scalp when he came in to slam the door on opposing teams.
Also, we all knew Rauch wasn't a prototypical closer. He can't strike people out. Having a pitch to contact bullpen is detrimental to a team late in innings. When there are guys on second and third with nobody out and a one run lead, a grounder to second isn't going to help. That's where Capps comes in.
Before looking up Capps' stats, I thought he was about 30 years old and had an ERA of about 4. Wrong. Capps made the all-star team this season, which I was aware of, and had 26 saves on a bad team along with a 2.76 ERA entering Friday.
Capps also has a strikeout rate of 7.4 per 9 innings compared to Rauch's 6.3 per 9. Not spectacular, but it's still makes a better closer to have a power guy at the end of your pen.
People may also still have Capps' horrid '09 in their heads where he registered a 5.80 ERA with the Pirates. However, looking at his other numbers, Capps has consistently posted an ERA in the low 3's.
So then there's the issue of did the Twins give up too much for Capps? I don't think so personally. At first, I thought it was terrible to give Ramos to Washington for Capps rather than get a starter, but the thing is, the Twins aren't getting a starter.
As for Ramos, he was only hitting .241 this season and hadn't looked like the second coming of Victor Martinez as some people had called him in spring training. He'll be a good major league player, but to solidify the back of the pen it's worth it. Especially when you factor in...
Joe Nathan is coming off Tommy John surgery and will be 36 next season. It usually takes two years to come back from this surgery (look at Liriano) and it's not a given that Nathan will be the same closer he was two years ago.
Oh yeah, Capps will be here next year. He's not a rent-a-player. Capps is 26 and has a year of arbitration left, so the Twins will be able to keep him as not only an insurance policy, but potentially their future closer (that is if Anthony Slama doesn't take it away from him).
Of course, none of this matters until Mr. Capps takes the field, which could be tonight at Target Field when they host the Mariners. Let's hope Billy knows what he's doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment