I had heard tell that Fast Eddie was trying to re-sign Hawkins, and I guess the club had thought it would be a cinch (and therefore didn’t offer him arbitration) but they wouldn’t offer more than 1 year. IF they really wanted him back, they got burned when Milwaukee swooped in and signed him for 2 years/7.5 mill. Drayton is whining about the economy, but I sure nuff don’t hear that from the Brewers, who have one of the small market teams AND an even worse economy than Houston. AND they also just signed Randy WOlf to a 10 mill for 3 years contract instead of going with dreck like Hampton/Ortiz. But I digress…..
I would guess that decision was Drayton’s and NOT Ed’s, as he has offered more than a few relievers more than 1 year. Too bad we didn’t offer arb. But Hawk isn’t exactly a young man, and he did have some DL time last year, and there certainly is a good chance that he might could have some injury/ineffectiveness issues. But he is good insurance for Trevor Hoffmann, who isn’t exactly a young whippersnapper his own self.
Fast Eddie apparently isn’t interested in starters, having told Richard Justice that he is interested in getting first and foremost a closer, then some offense (REALLY?), then more relievers, then a bench. And we certainly don’t need starters, seeing as how we have 5 aces lined up with 5 more in waiting at AAA. (Whaddaya mean, like WHO?????)
With both Valverde and Hawk out the door and Rafael Soriano still the possession of the Braves, Eddie traded some minor leaguers AND OUR RULE V DRAFT PICK!!!!! for Matt Lindstrom, the on again off again Marlins closer, whose selling point is the velocity of his fastball. Whoopie DOO on the velocity. Because, as every single ML hitter will tell you, it AIN’T the speed, it’s the motion, that make yo daddy swing n miss….
The minor leaguers were a rookie league SS (not Mier, of course) and an A-ball pitcher named Robert Bono. The only reason I’m a little nervous about this is that Beinfest has an outstanding eye for minor league talent. Lindstrom is now arb eligible, meaning he has to be paid more than league minimum, meaning that Loria wants him off the team.
So let’s take a look at Lindstrom:
He was drafted by the Mets in the 10th round of the 02 draft and traded to the Marlins after the 06 season for Jason Vargas (don’t guess THAT worked out real too good for the Mets, hunh? Larry Beinfest has got to be THE most underrated GM in the biz. Billy Beane gets all the cred for working with a small payroll team, but Beinfest does more with even less.)
The Marlins called Lindstrom up in spring 07 and put him in the bullpen.
He threw 67 innings with a 141 ERA+ and a 1.266 WHIP and a 3.09 ERA (and of course, the most important stat of all, the win/loss record of 3 and 4, which according to Jack Morris’ fans, tells you all you need to know about that pitcher’s heart, guts and testicular capacity. Unfortunately, though, not about his arm, but I digress…) He also had a career high 3:1 K:BB, with a little under 1 K/IP. I note that he finished 11 games, but saved none, so it looks as if he wasn’t used in high leverage situations much.
In 08, he threw fewer innings, 57, but finished more games, 27 of 66, and was credited with 5 saves. He didn’t even average an inning/appearance, so he must have been brought in with MOB to put out fires or brought in with a game already won or lost.
Interesting.
He also had a 3.14 ERA but a 1.448 WHIP, and his K/9 dropped from 8.3 to 6.8 and his BB/9 increased from 2.3/9 IP to 4.1/9 IP.
Last year, he started the year as closer. Let me be kind and say he didn’t have a real good year. His ERA+ dropped from 138 to 72. I do know he was hurt and went on the DL, but let’s take a look at his game logs:
He did fine in April, except for one game from he!! vs the Phillies in which he threw gopher balls and was tagged for 7 ER over 0.2 IP which, uh, wasn’t good for his ERA. In May, he saved 4 games and had only 1 bad game in which he gave up 4 ER over 0.1 IP throwing in a game that was already lost. So over 2 months, he gave up runs in 6 of 23 games (and 11 ER in 2 of those.) He appeared in 9 games in June, didn’t blow any saves or lose any games, but he did have an ERA over 7 and he went on the DL for almost 6 weeks.
He returned in August, appeared in 13 games and allowed runs in 3 of them, but didn’t lose any games or blow any saves, and he had a 2.45 ERA for the month (interestingly, all the run but 1 were given up against the Astros.) He appeared in 9 games in September and gave up runs in 4 of them, including a 4 run job vs the Cards, and his September ERA was 8.59.
Reminding me of 06 Brad Lidge.
But hey, let’s be cheerful here – Lindstrom COULD turn into the 08 Brad Lidge. After all, it IS baseball and youneverknow…
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
