I'm a bit higher on Cappy than Sandy, but overall I agree. We need another starter. I would have been interested in Webb, but we have our monster-pitcher-who-missed-2-years-due-to-injury in Bedard.
And why would Webb come here if he can go play for a contender? Jack did well making Bedard feel comfortable here, and now we'll see if he can still pitch like a frontliner (and for how many innings). My money's "yes" and "for on 140 or so," which would be stupendously great for us.
But shoulders are tricksome, precious. Can't rely on it.
And in no universe should Luke French be our #3-4 pitcher. If he's our #7-8, fine. But we can't be a Vargas/Fister setback from seeing French in the rotation for an extended period, let alone breaking camp with him as #5.
And the only starter down in the minors other than Pineda who's anywhere near ready for a big-league shot is a 4-innings-of-destruction...and then out of gas. I love Robles, but without a better lower half, his 11K/4 walk/7 hit maulings aren't sustainable.
So he needs more prep time. That's okay - the kid turns 22 in March. The rest of our minor-league starters are at least a year away as well, though, and we don't have a large number of them in the upper minors anyway.
We need help from outside the org. Pineda is a jewel and a legit #2 candidate...but so was/is Chris Tillman, and he's been trying for 2 years just to stick in the bigs with ugly results.
I think Pineda will do well, but even Felix had several years where his results didn't quite match his talent. Not everybody is Francisco Liriano off the bat (though Pineda is as good a bet to be as anyone).
I want another pitcher who's been there, done that, and done it well. Capuano counts. So does Francis (even with that pesky shoulder issue). I'm with moe, I'd trade Aardsma for a good couple of prospects and switch him with Capuano, even if it does make us rely more on kids in the pen. Aardsma is out of here at the trade deadline anyway unless he destroys his trade value during the first half. It's a huge risk to hold onto him and hope his value increases, knowing that pitchers like him fall off the closer wagon quickly when their control problems catch up with them, and right now the only thing saving Aardsma is his unhittability.
If and when opposing batters start making contact, he's going back to the guy Boston gave away for basically nothing. Moving him for prospects and a formerly-broken starter is all right with me.
We're shopping in the broken pitcher bin. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. All I want is a Paul-Abbott scrapheaper at this point. Not asking for miracles or anything, just a guy who puts us in line for more wins than losses and can pitch a professional 160-180 innings.
And then we'll see if we can get lucky with Bedard and Pineda as well.
~G
Add new comment
1