Photo:  did you ever read Peanuts, the picture that Charles Schultz would draw of Charlie Brown running to the ballfield after school?

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=== Jan 2009 - A hitting donut - for - David Aardsma ===

Okay, Fabian Williamson for David Aardsma.

With trade #2, Zduriencik out-maneuvered SSI for the second time running.  ;- )  Along with James, I've always insisted that a real expert within baseball should obviously see things that I, personally, do not from my bleacher seat.

It's actually kind of rare that I've felt that this was clearly the case.  :- )  But it's the case with Zduriencik.

If this little series does nothing else, we hope that it reminds the crowd that Jack Zduriencik is still the same grandmaster that it used to (quite literally) give standing O's to.

Dice rolls come and go.  Vision, coherency, and insight are forever.

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SSI has always been appalled at Aardsma's delivery, as you can read in this two-part SSI article from Dec. 2009. 

We predicted that he'd never gain enough control to be consistently effective -- while conceding the fact that some awfully funky pitchers have indeed run a year or two with 30 saves.

Anyway, Zduriencik judged the man differently:  he thought Aardsma could throw enough strikes to be useful, and traded for him.  The result:  two cheap seasons' worth of 30+ saves.

This is, also, the kind of move that Beane-level GM's make.  They find closers out of nowhere.  Jack did that.  And it was a completely different skill from the one used to find Gutierrez.

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I'd be interested to know if Capt Jack just got lucky -- if he acquired Aardsma as spaghetti-against-the-wall, and the 30+ saves were accidental.

No, I'm inclined to give him credit.  Z and Wok pushed Aardsma forward very early in ST 2009, and Aardsma was singled out to back up Brandon Morrow right away.  Aardsma's first save for the M's was April 5, 2009.

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Baseball is evidently still skeptical about Aardsma's future.  He was on the block this July, and Capt Jack wasn't able to convert a 9-10 strikeout closer into a building block for 2011-12.

I'm skeptical, too.  As with all of the white-knuckle, Bob Wickman-type closers, I keep expecting Aardsma to blow four saves in a row and be done, any second.

In a smaller park, I'll bet you that "any second" would be, say, the next second.  Safeco is the best park in baseball for Aardsma's 90% high fastballs.

But let's not quibble.  If you took over a new 100-loss franchise, you'd have a much tougher time than you thought, filling the hot seat in the bullpen.  Remember J.P. Ricciardi's contract for Ryan?

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It wasn't a miracle.  GM's do scrounge closers.  But so did Capt. Jack, coming up with a franchise pillar out of thin air and pure scouting ability.

The Aardsma trade isn't one that most bloggers rave about.  But for SSI, it's one of Zduriencik's most masterly.

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Next deal:  the Cedeno blunder, Jan. 2009 ;- )

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