Monday, May 18, 2015

The 2015 Roster Shuffle; Lost & Found Dep't.

After you get a few weeks into the season, everyone becomes kinda used to the roster as it's constituted. But it sure looked a lot different in September of 2014...

Lost: Russell Martin (FA) - Russ was pretty much deified in Pittsburgh, and his rep spread far and wide enough to land a five year, $82.5M deal with Toronto.  Who knows - he may be worth it; his slash is .284/.375/.560 for an OPS of .935 with seven homers and 21 RBI - oh, and a 48% throw-out rate against base stealers.
Found: Fran Cervelli (from NYY for Justin Wilson) - Cervelli isn't Russ, but he has a rep as an OK catcher with some hitting skills and a penchant for injury. He's hitting .290 with no power, has a league-average 29% toss-out rate and hasn't *knock on wood* been down or out yet.

Lost: Edinson Volquez (FA) - KC signed him for two years with an option for $16M, but he was a poster child for regression. Some regression; he's 3-3/2.74 and outperforming his year in Pittsburgh.
Found: AJ Burnett (FA) We all know the prodigal son's story; the 38 year old came back to the flock for $8.5M, turning his back on a bigger offer. And he's been the man so far at 3-1/1.38.

Eddie has kept his game on for the Royals (Shane Keyser/KC Star)

Lost & Found: Frankie Liriano (FA) - He stayed home, signing a three year, $39M deal.

Lost: Justin Wilson (1-0, 5.56) to the Yankees, Stolmy Pimentel (0-1, 3.97) to Texas, Jeanmar Gomez (0-0, 3.45) to the Phillies, John Axford (1.29, 0-0-4) to the Rox & Big John Koldzkom to the minors.
Found: Antonio Bastardo (0-0, 5.40) from the Phils for a minor league arm, Rob Scahill (1-2, 1.15) from the Rockies & Arqimedes Caminero (0-1, 4.86) from Miami for cash, and Radhames Liz (1-3, 3.77) as a FA.

Lost: Travis Snider (to the O's for two minor league P) - As a platoon starter, Lunchbox Hero is hitting .266 with a homer for Baltimore.
Found: Still looking. Andrew Lambo is hurt and not hitting (.040) while Corey Hart can't catch a cold isn't a threat at the dish, either, hitting .206. So far, the 4th outfielder is Sean Rodriguez's job.

Lost: Ike Davis (to Oakland for cash) and Gaby Sanchez (FA), the 1B duo. Ike is off to a good start with a .282/.345/.427 slash, tho he's now on the DL with a strained quad. Gaby is in Japan.
Found: Pedro Alvarez & Corey Hart (FA) took their place. Pedro's BA is .219; Hart's is .206. First base was and still is a sinkhole.

Ike is swinging it for Oakland (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Lost: Clint Barmes (FA) - Clint is now with San Diego, and hitting .244 off the bench.
Found: Jung-Ho Kang (FA) - The KBO star, inked for five years/$16.125M, is hitting .300, has shown a little pop, an adequate glove and may bump Jordy to the bench
.
Lost: Michael Martinez, Brent Morel, Jayson Nix etc. Last year's bench is now playing AAA ball for a variety of clubs.
Found: Sean Rodriguez (from Tampa Bay for Buddy Borden) - Rod plays just about anywhere and is off to a hot start, hitting .333 with a couple of bombs; he may make Corey Hart expendable.

1 comment:

Lee Foo Rug Bug said...

Good stuff!!!

Sort of a mix of gains and losses for the new guys.