Sunday Night Musings

I’m back from a weekend trip to Feather Falls (Falls lovely, weather too hot).  Now that I’m back I see that the Indians traded Mark DeRosa to the Cardinals for Chris Perez and a player to be named later.

Looks like a good move for both clubs.  The Cards get a player who can play four or five different positions and can hit.  The Indians, who were going nowhere, trade a 34-year old player for a young pitcher with talent who turns 24 next Wednesday.

Chris Perez looks like the real deal.  He was the 42nd player selected in the 2006 Draft, and after 64.1 big league innings, he has a 3.78 ERA with 71 K’s.  He has a minor league career ERA of 2.71 with 151 K’s in 113.1 IP.  The only real concern with Perez is his command.  Given his age and performance so far, it’s likely that in two or three years, he’ll be the Indians closer or top set-up man.

Seven year minor leaguer Ryan Sadowski got called up by the Giants and pitched six shutout innings against the Brewers in Milwaukie to get the win in his first major league appearance.  In all honesty, however, I’m not convinced that he’s got much of a major league future.  He’s 26 already (turns 27 in October), and his minor league numbers haven’t been particularly impressive.

Sadowski only got the call-up because Kevin Pucetas, who is two years younger and has been pitching better than Sadowski at Fresno, pitched in the last couple of days.  The Giants put Rich Aurillia on bereavement leave in connection with the death of Aurillia’s father, so I doubt that Sadowski will be around long enough to get more than one more appearance, if that.

I suspect that Sadowski’s success in today’s game was in large part due to the fact that no one at the major league level knows anything about him.  He allowed three walks and had only to two K’s, which does not suggest that he’s got great stuff.

The Yokohama Bay Stars of Japan’s Central League recently inquired about obtaining the right to negotiate with Sadowski, but were rebuffed by the Giants.  It would not surprise me at all if Sadowski ultimately has more success pitching in Japan than in the majors.  Japanese teams love 4-A players with at least some major league experience, and now Sadowski has that.

In the Blind Squirrel Finds Nut category I noticed that Matt Palmer improved to 7-1 today, and former Giant David Aardsma picked up his 16th save.  Palmer got the win despite allowing six earned runs in five innings pitched, and his ERA jumped to 5.16.  He’s a guy with a lot of heart, but not so much talent, and one has to think his luck could turn on him at any time.  However, the Angels are good team, and Palmer may yet squeeze 10-13 wins out of this season.

Aardsma has a lot more talent that Palmer, but I’m not really convinced that Aardsma has finally turned a corner in this career.  The problem is that, as well as he’s pitched this year, his control, which has always been his Achilles’ heal, still sucks.

Aardsma has a 1.49 ERA after tonight’s game, but he has allowed 22 BB’s in 36.1 IP.  His ERA is so low because he’s only allowed 20 hits and has struck out 46.  His walks per nine innings pitched rate is 5.5, almost equal to his career rate of 5.6 coming into this season.

Pitchers with Aardsma’s strikout stuff usually turn a corner when they develop control.  Aardsma hasn’t done that this season.  Instead, he’s given up far fewer hits and struck out even more hitters than he has in the past.  If his control hasn’t really improved, I’m doubtful he’ll be able to keep pitching the way he has so far this year, at least not with the consistency you want from a closer.