Yet Another Interesting Move

The Rangers designated Vicente Padilla today, which is a really strange move when you consider that Padilla is a veteran with considerable major league success, he’s 8-6 this year with a 4.92 ERA, which is not terrible for a starter pitching his home games at the Ballpark at Arlington, and the Rangers are still very much in the race for AL West only 3.5 games back of the Angels in what is essentially a two-team race.

In fairness, Padilla has not pitched as well as his won-loss record or ERA suggests.  Also, the Rangers perhaps rightly believe that they have a better five-man rotation in Kevin Millwood, Scott Feldman, Derek Holland, Tommy Hunter and Dustin Nippert

The Dallas newspapers are saying good riddance to bad rubbish — in other words, Padilla was a pill, noted for throwing at hitters, which led to Rangers hitters getting decked, and also for being a bad apple in the clubhouse.  Here are articles about the move from the Dallas Morning News and the Star-Telegram.

Ah, American League Baseball!  In the NL, you never hear about teammates being angry at a pitcher for throwing at hitters, because in the NL it’s directly taken care of: the pitcher has to hit.  He comes up, and if he’s been taking liberties on the mound, he’s going to get his come-uppance in a most direct way.  In the AL, you have to get even by throwing at the other team’s star hitters.

I posted an article a few months back in which I looked at the numbers for the leagues as a whole, and it appeared that pitchers don’t throw at hitters any more in the AL than in the NL, at least when taking the entire league activity into account.  Perhaps this is the reason why — teams put pressure on pitchers not to throw at other teams, because the team’s hitters will get the same back.

Based on his numbers this year, it looks like Padilla at this point in his career needs to throw at hitters to be effective.  According to the articles above, however, the Rangers’ GM and at least a couple of the players are on the record as saying Padilla was a negative influence on a team trying to win.

Given that his won-loss record and ERA are solid, my guess is that another team signs him up right quick, especially with the Rangers on the hook for most of his remaining salary once he is released.