Glad We Chose Eddie Over Hawkins and Bradford?
Given the continuing struggles of the bullpen, I think it’s about time to look back at the one bullpen acquisition we made versus the ones we passed up. At the time, we passed on both Latroy Hawkins and Chad Bradford (to my chagrin), and we picked up Eddie Guardado (also to my chagrin).
Here’s what it looked like at the time:
Hawkins: 23/17 K/BB, 42 H in 41 IP Bradford: 2.45 ERA, 1.19 WHIP in 40 IP Guardado: 28/17 K/BB, 38 H in 49 IP
We passed on both Hawkins and Bradford before Eddie showed up on the waiver wire and we pounced.
And what have they done since then?
Hawkins: 19/3 K/BB, 5 H in 13 IP, 0.00 ERA Bradford: 0.69 ERA in 13 IP Guardado: 11 H, 5 ER in 3 IP, for a whopping 13.50 ERA and 3.6 WHIP
Now tell me: Aren’t you glad we picked Guardado over Hawkins and Bradford? At the very least, he’s taking the strain off our overworked bullpen, right? Those 3 IP have been pretty valuable — especially since we have to pull him and put in someone else to put out his fire every time. His WHIP is 3.6!!! Are you kidding me?
The stats guys were right about this one.
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So we pass over two decent pitchers for a bad one then don’t even use him? What was the point in signing Eddie? Did the Twins really think he was going to be effective then realize he isn’t after 3 ip?
Heh. Apparently.
Of course, everyone pointed out at the time that he had a ridiculously unsustainable HR/FB and BABIP which held is ERA to about half his xFIP … and he regressed to the mean hard as soon as he came to the Twins.
This move might rank right there with the Monroe/Livan/Lamb/Everett mistakes.