As Ed Wade knows only too well, you can’t never have too many middle relievers. I mean, relievers. Shawn Chacon decided to sign with the Astros because (supposedly) we have “a chance to win.” Yeah. And I have a chance to have a date with Morris Chestnut, too. I would guess that the truth is that the Astros told him that he had a chance to win GAMES – in other words, that the possibility exists that he could start a few games or even close if Valverde falters.
Shawn Chacon was born in Alaska but grew up in Colorado. When he graduated from HS, he was selected by the Rockies in the 3rd round of the 96 draft and debuted as a ML starter in his rookie year of 2001. In those pre-humidor days, playing with the worst team in the NL, he managed a 5.06 ERA (105 ERA+) and a 1.53 WHIP in 27 games over 160 innings. (Remember that year? They brought in Denny Neagle and Mike “I LUUUVVV the Denver Public Skoolz” Hampton and were supposed to Win?!)
He didn’t pitch nearly as well in 02 – he had a 5.73 ERA (83 ERA+) and a 1.53 WHIP in 21 games over 119 IP. He did throw 24 innings at AAA, so he must have been sent down at some time because he wasn’t on the DL. Not sure what happened – his K rate did drop from 7.54 to 5.05 and his HR rate increased from 1.56 to 1.89/9 IP, but perhaps the fielders didn’t do as well for him: they replaced Neifi Perez with Juan Uribe, Jeff Cirillo with Todd Zeile and Todd Walker with Brent Butler.
However, he rebounded in 03 in spite of 2 stints on the DL with right elbow problems, he posting a career best 4.63 ERA (108 ERA+) and a 1.33 WHIP, significantly reducing both walks and homers in 23 games over 137 IP, and made the All-Star team.
The next year, for reasons I didn’t understand at the time and still don’t, they decided to make him the team closer, although he was very clear about not wanting to close AND he had been the team’s best SP the year before. And it wasn’t as if they were exactly overflowing with ace quality starters, neither.
Let me be kind and say that closing didn’t agree with him at ALL – he posted a 7.11 ERA and a 1.93 WHIP over 66 games, saved 35, lost 9 and blew 5 more.
The Rockies abandoned the Chacon as closer experiment – it WAS a stupid idea from the get go – and he resumed his starting in 2005. Although he had a 1-7 record, he had a 4.09 ERA (117 ERA+) and a 1.44 WHIP at the trading deadline and the Rockies traded him to the Yankees in what was an obvious salary dump for a couple of cruddy prospects. He looked like an ace the rest of the year, going 7-3 with a 2.85 ERA over 79 IP. He even pitched well in is one playoff appearance against the Angels, giving up 2 ER over 6.1 IP.
In 2006, he looked even worse than he would have had he stayed in Colorado – a 7.00 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, 5.14 BB/9, 5 K/9 in 63 IP over 17 games with 11 GS and this was NY, so anything less than perfection gets you traded and sure enough off went Shawn to the NL basement for Craig Wilson. It’s not that Shawn looked exactly ace-like in his new home, going 2-3 in 9 GS over 46 IP with a 5.48 ERA, but hey, anything to escape a lynching I guess. It’s most likely that Chacon wasn’t near as good as his first 3 months in NY and he wasn’t as bad as his last 3 as his FIP showed he should have had an ERA around 4.20, not bad, but not exactly 2.85.
Last year, Chacon had a very good year as a middle reliever, a 3.94 ERA (110 ERA+) and a 1.49 WHIP in 64 games over 96 IP.
Career, he has a 4.98 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP (too many walks) – a 92 ERA+ as a starter.
Well, as Eddie Wade always sez – you just cain’t never have got your selves too many mediocre middle relievers or #5 starters. What is sad is that Chacon would most likely have outperformed both his old teammate Jennings as well as Woody had he been an Astro last year. And Woody and Wade had, um, a discussion – ahem- at the start of ST: even though Woody is getting 6 mill this year, he won’t stay in the rotation if he sucks as much as he did last year. Unfortunately, this most likely means that Chris Sampson will most likely be getting the shaft. And on NO planet is Shawn Chacon a better starting pitcher than Sampson.
Ah well.
It is interesting that the Astros never wanted Sampson to start in spite of his excellence. I suppose it is because he is such a GB pitcher and has a low K rate, which isn’t glamorous, or something. But Sampson pitched himself onto the rotation last year, and hopefully he will do the same THIS year.
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB
I think it was a necessary signing. Aside from not having a real #2 pitcher, starting pitching depth is a major flaw on the team. This will allow them to spread the innings around and not kill the pen or rely on the few developing arms in the minors.
So although its not the greatest signing its something that will have a serious impact on the teams chance to put up some Ws espically if Wandy or Backe were to do something amazing and put this team in competition.
joel,
necessary? NOT if chacon replaces sampson as a starter.
but let’s look at the pitchers we already have who we KNOW will make the 25 man:
(assuming there are 12)
starters: backe, oswalt, wandy, woody
relievers: brocail, borkowski, chacon, geary, paronto, villareal, valverde and either mclemore/wright
no room for sampson that i see. unless coop decides to go without a lefty.
and also, i don’t know whether or not nieve is gonna start the season on the DL, but i sure don’t want to see him on the roster starting instead of sampson – do you???
speculatin’ is fun, but y’all are gonna have to wait and see what happens in March. Pitchers can most definitely pitch themselves off the team, and they can probably pitch themselves on to the team, as well.
One thing’s for certain, though — the five starters at the beginning of the year will not be the five starters at the end of the year. I guarantee that — and another thing — the ‘stros will start AT LEAST ten different pitchers this year. It will be more, fer sure.
Lights out, Lidge — sure am glad we traded him. He needed a fresh start, anyway. And now we know that knee is not something we want to be depending on and worrying about. I’m thinking ‘stros mgmt suspected that, as well.
Chacon should be better than Woody, but I don’t know by how much. His GB% was 46% last year, but was 34% and 36% in New York and Pittsburgh the previous season. His GB/FB ratio is pretty bad. Compare that to Sampson’s 48% GB% and excellent FB/GB ratio. In other words, better than woody, worse than Sampson. I like that it’s only a 2 million one year deal, but stupid if he displaces sampson.
For some reason management over the last couple years has become suspicious of the freely available home grown talent already on hand. Somehow a player is better if he wasn’t already an astro, like Wigginton.
I would prefer to Sampson start. But what happens when one or two of the starting pitchers gets hurt?
Nieve is an unknown quantity as is Paulino and let’s see who else…yeah thats about it. And many see those two as bullpen guys.
Again I prefer Sampson but your not going a whole season with 5 pitchers.
i also would be VERY surprised if we used fewer than 10 starters during the year.
i would also be stunned – and i mean seriously STUNNED – if all those middle relievers wade signed – brocail, geary, paronto, villareal, borkowski – didn’t make the team.
i doubt they’d go with 13 pitchers – i mean, they DO need a few actual players for the bench.
i also don’t know how many options sampson and nieve have left.
poor brad lidge.
we all KNEW he was having knee problems last year. poor guy…
kevin,
after going back and reading stuff written about chacon at various times in his career seems that he is one of those guys who everyone talks about his “potential” – sort of like matt clement only worse. there are still people who think chacon could be a BIG star or at least a really excellent pitcher.
i think that like most other guys, he has streaks of good luck and bad, streaks of pitching well and pitching lousy.
i know that it seems that a whole lot, if not most, baseball people think that any subpar major leaguer is a more reliable bet than almost any young player.
although sampson really isn’t young and has a sustained record of excellence, except when he had grossly subpar infielders.
i would bet just about anything that unless sampson has an ERA under 2 in ST that he will be relegated to the bullpen or AAA in favor of chacon