Washington Nationals: More Minor Notes

The Nationals promoted reliever Drew Storen up to the parent club this weekend, which is kind of interesting because Storen was the Nats’ other first-round draft pick in last year’s Draft, but obviously not the one getting all the attention in the media.

After selecting Stephen Strasburg and knowing he wouldn’t sign until the last minute for as much money as possible, the Nats used the Draft’s tenth pick (which they got after failing to sign Aaron Crow, the 2009 Draft’s ninth pick) to take Storen, a relief pitcher out of Stanford, above slot. 

Storen signed right away for a below-slot price, which was probably the amount agreed upon even before they drafted him.

He turned out to be better than the Nats could reasonably have hoped for, making 28 minor league relief appearances in 2009 and throwing 37 innings with a 1.95 ERA. He finished the season with a ten appearances at the AA level without allowing a run.

This year Storen has a 1.12 ERA after twelve minor league appearances and 16 IP roughly split between AA and AAA. He appears to be ready, but, of course, so does Strasburg.

There has been some speculation that the Nationals are rewarding Storen for signing right away by calling him up first. In strictly monetary terms, Storen is likely to cost the Nats a lot less if he is called up in time to become a super-two and get arbitration a year earlier than Strasburg would be.

Aside from the fact that Storen is a reliever and Strasburg is a starter, Strasburg signed a major league contract which ensures that he is paid several million dollars a year even before he gets to arbitration. Starting higher means getting more money when he does hit arbitration.

With the Nats still a couple of games above .500 and tied for second in the NL East, it’s hard to imagine the Nationals keeping Strasburg at AAA much longer if he continues to pitch the way he has so far.

The A’s have designated Chad Gaudin for assignment, which may mean that he will opt to become a free agent, since he has enough experience to reject a minor league assignment. It will probably depend on what kind of contract the A’s signed him to. 

I can’t see Gaudin accepting a minor league assignment, unless he’d lose guaranteed money by refusing, like Jack Cust’s situation coming out of Spring Training.

Gaudin is having a strange year. After twelve major league appearances he has an ugly 8.83 ERA with the following line: 17.1 IP, 27 hits, five HRs, five walks allowed, and 20 Ks. It’s rare to see a pitcher with a four-to-one strikeout/walks ratio, and better than ten Ks per nine innings pitched get hit that hard, and almost certainly reflects the small sample size. 

The question is whether Gaudin is really as bad his ERA, hits and HRs allowed suggest or whether he’s still got good stuff and is just going through a rough patch, as his walks and Ks rates suggest.  Probably somewhere in between.

Former Yankee cast-offs Gaudin, Brian Bruney and Edwar Ramirez have this week all been cast off again by their new teams, and it’s only the middle of May. I liked all three pitchers going into the season, as low-cost, potentially high-reward bottom of the roster additions. 

I’m not surprised that a couple of them didn’t turn it around so far this year, but I am surprised that all three pitched like crap, because I expected that all least one of them would put it together this year.

Even if none of them amounted to anything with their new teams, they were still worth taking the chance on, because none of them cost their new teams much to give them a look. None of them are old, and all three have stuff, so there’s still a good chance that one of the three will eventually amount to something, even if not in 2010.

Another pitcher I liked before the season started was Kiko Calero, who had a 1.95 ERA as the Marlins’ set-up man last year. I was amazed that no one signed him, until I began to hear reports that teams thought his arm was shot. He eventually signed with the Mets to a minor league deal, but they have now released him after ten appearances for their AAA club, the Buffalo Bisons.

Calero didn’t pitch badly at first, posting a 3.38 ERA after his first seven appearances.  However, he gave up 15 runs over 3.2 IP in his last three appearances, and the Mets had seen enough.

Depending on whether or not his arm is sound, he probably deserves another shot at the AAA level from someone. His line is: 17 IP, 24 hits, four HRs and nine walks allowed and 16 Ks, which isn’t good, but at least he’s still striking people out. After the last three appearances, however, everyone is going to wonder if his arm is giving out.