RedSox acquiring RHP Burke Badenhop

Thanks, I didn't think the math would work. Look forward to your numbers.

Operative word... strike thrower. I swear Farrell aged a year each time Morales, Tazawa or Miller came into a game and walked their first batter,

Boy, did you pick on the wrong guy.

Tazawa made 84 regular season/postseason appearances this year. He gave up 13 walks all year.

FYI, he did not walk the first batter in his last 23 appearances and only once in his last 40 appearances (covering seven of his 13 walks, feel free to check the rest at your leisure).

As an aside, Tazawa did not walk more than one batter in any game this year (in fact, he has not done so since he was called up as a starter in 2009).

Thanks for playing; we have some wonderful parting gifts ...

Wait, when you trade for a reliever you don't need to give up a pre-arbitration player capable of being an impact player on most major league teams?

I agree with everyone - this is a solid deal. He's durable (at least 60 IP in five straight seasons) and pitches well against righties. You can't ask for much more out of a 6th inning reliever. Steamer has him projected at 0.2 fWar, and MLBTR projects his arbitration cost to be $2.1 million.

The Red Sox got four total seasons from Melancon, Bailey and Hanrahan. Combining their numbers gives us an average season of -0.175 fWar in ~24 IP at a cost of ~$3.88 million. Hopefully Cherington has learned his mistake.

So, in other words, we shouldn't rely on what you post because you had some other, heretofore unstated, reason for lumping a right-handed control pitcher in with two left-handed power pitchers with control issues. Makes sense, thanks.

Back to topic, can't complain about this deal. The team needed depth at RH relief and Badenhop is cheap depth. Query whether this foreshadows keeping Workman in Pawtucket to start the year as an emergency starter, with the idea that he can be shifted back to the pen later in the year, once the rotation is firmed up.

Not to mention the team and every other organization has a habit of holding others at the 7/31 deadline for guys not a whole lot better than this. Even during the Off season Boston has lost people such as Jeff Bagwell, Sparky Lyle, Mark Clear, David Murphy.

It hurts little (or none) to get an excellent ground ball specialist like The Hopper now when the team dearly needed him as it shows last year when they were throwing the same 4 out there on a nightly basis.

Regarding Tazawa, I think that a lot of people forget how great he was with the exception of September and against the Blue Jays. He had a rough last month statistically, but that was entirely the product of games against the Yankees and Blue Jays (one apiece). Further broken out, he had a 10.13era / 2.125whip against Toronto, but looking at the other AL East teams, and playoff teams, his worst numbers were a 3.86era/1.286whip against Baltimore - he was nails against all the rest of those squads. In the post season he appeared in 13 games with a 1.23era/0.955whip. I'm not arguing that a given individual was nervous when he came into the game, but will argue that they shouldn't have been. My biggest fear with him was, quite simply, over use for lack of better options.

On Uehara, I agree, his breaking down is somewhat of a fear. This was easily his biggest, and most strenuous, work load in his career. There also has to be an assumption of some regression - he had what looks to have been one of the top 5 great seasons by a reliever in the modern era history of the game, so assuming anyone to repeat that is monumentally unfair. That is a huge reason why (in the GM thread) I advocate signing two relievers like Perez and Wilson for next season. That would give the Sox three pitchers with closing experience, plus good set up options like Tazawa and Miller.

To the point of the overall thread, I like the Badenhop pick up. Very low risk, decent return potential. Also a guy who looks to be able to pitch multiple innings, which over the course of a season is very valuable. Though I don't think we are at all done with the bullpen for the off-season.

I'm putting this comment here because I don't know where else to put it.

Somebody commented somewhere that Badenhop fills the 40-man, and that might complicate acquiring a catcher or 1B.

In looking at the 40-man, I saw something that simply astounded me. On the current roster, the 5th most senior member is -- Felix Doubront.

Baseball is NOT what it was decades ago.

Nov 23, 2013 2:38:16 GMT -5 ericmvan said:

Yeah, but you can't just look at what we got from them. We've also ending up trading Josh Reddick, Jed Lowrie, Stolmy Pimentel, Raul Alcantara, and Jerry Sands (plus Rule 5 eligibles Miles Head and Kyle Weiland) for Brock Holt. That's eased the 40-man roster logjam enormously.


I was going to include the average fWAR and salary of the players we traded away during those same seasons but I didn't want to make myself angry right before bed.

Feel free to move this as needed but I'm wondering who else the sox may acquire who fits a similar current state as the hopper.
The market efficiently the sox targeted here was a small market team with a later year arb eligible player that fit a particular need.
Good value for us, freed up resources for them.

For example, does anyone see a undervalued arb eligible rightly to split first with Carp?

Or a super sub middle infielder type?

Let's try to keep this thread to Badenhop. I have no objection to starting a general relief pitcher thread.

EDIT: Got carried off topic.

Badenhop is a pretty solid third-best righty in a bullpen. This was an eminently sensible move.