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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Rosenthal: Sources: O’s pushing for pitchers Looper, Redding

No pan and tilt assembly needed. Robothal, now all in one piece.

The Orioles, desperate to add veteran starting pitchers, are making strong pushes for right-handers Braden Looper and Tim Redding, according to major-league sources.

Right-hander Jeremy Guthrie is the only proven starter in the Orioles’ rotation. Looper, 34, and Redding, 30, would offer 200-inning potential, but both would be moving from the National League to the high-powered A.L. East.

After Guthrie, none of the pitchers’ on the Orioles’ 40-man roster has made more than 33 career starts. The team last week declined to offer a contract to right-hander Daniel Cabrera, who has agreed to a one-year deal with the Nationals, as first reported by MLB.com.

Looper and Redding are not the only free-agent starting pitchers on the Orioles’ radar, but they fit the profile for what the team is seeking — durable, reasonably affordable veterans who would reduce the pressure on the team’s younger starters.

Repoz Posted: December 20, 2008 at 07:49 PM | 19 comment(s)
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1. Mayor Blomberg Posted: December 20, 2008 at 08:56 PM (#3034935)

Interesting to see "Redding" and "200 innings" in ther same sentence, considering it's uncharted territory for him. He's been over 100 only three times, and one of those years he finished shy of 101.

2. ugen64 Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:04 PM (#3034940)

Marcel projections:

1) Jeremy Guthrie: 6.07 K/9, 2.82 BB/9, 4.44 FIP, career 43.4% GB
2) Braden Looper: 5.20 K/9, 2.60 BB/9, 4.53 FIP, career 45.5% GB
3) Tim Redding: 6.06 K/9, 3.45 BB/9, 4.77 FIP, career 39.8% GB
4) Garrett Olson: 6.30 K/9, 4.08 BB/9, 4.75 FIP, career 40.5% GB
5) Chris Waters (?): 5.77 K/9, 3.62 BB/9, 4.74 FIP, career 47.7% GB

it doesn't look great but it's better than last season - our defense is generally pretty good (the corner infielders are probably the question marks), which is always a plus. also if we end up getting Looper + Redding, that's 3 guys who can get 190 innings each, which is better than last season (our 5 "best" innings eaters logged 190, 180, 132, 129, and 84 innings).

EDIT: Redding, has 187, 173, and 182 IP over the past 3 years, counting the minors. the problem hasn't really been health over the past 3 years, it's the fact that he's spent a long time in the minors.

3. STEROIDS!!!!! Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:11 PM (#3034947)

For some reason I thought Tim Redding was in his forties and had been terrible for years. Must have him confused with someone else.

4. Vaux, A.B.D. Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:21 PM (#3034954)

Rick Helling? Mark Redman? Lots of choices!

5. TerpNats Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:22 PM (#3034956)

If Redding goes to Baltimore, it's a de facto trade with Washington for Cabrera. Who has the advantage, or is this a "trade" that hurts both teams?

6. PH Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:53 PM (#3034975)

It seems like the Orioles would be better off waiting for the Garland-grade pitchers to drop in price, rather than scour the bottom tier, where a lot of teams figure to shop. Maybe I'm wrong.

7. ugen64 Posted: December 20, 2008 at 09:56 PM (#3034978)

TerpNats - I think it's a low-risk high-reward "trade" between 2 clubs who have nothing to lose. Cabrera's best season was 161 IP, 4.02 FIP. at worst, he will give you 160 innings of replacement level pitching, which will give the bullpen some rest, at least. meanwhile Redding should give us 180-190 innings at above replacement level for a reasonable price (actually better than what we had last season), but he also had 1 season (2003) where he threw 176 innings with an FIP of 4.12, which isn't too bad at all.

the salaries in question are like $2-3 million - considering Jon Garland wants something like 3 years $35 million, I think this is a good deal for both teams. you never know what a change of scenery can do.

8. Chris Needham Posted: December 20, 2008 at 10:31 PM (#3035006)

Just a gut feeling, but I think Redding would be a bit of a mistake for the O's or the AL, in general. He's not a very economical pitcher, and he rarely works deep in games. On his best days, he _might_ scratch the 7th.

He fell off in the second half, and while some of that is probably related to the foot, i bet one of the pitchfxers could show his fastball slowing down over the season. He tends to pitch high in the zone. He can get away with it when he's got a little extra oomph in the FB, but over the season, it seemed like it trailed off just a bit. I can just envision the Sox or the Yankees working him over big-time, and knocking him out in the fourth.

Of course, I once sat through a Yankees/O's games where they worked ("worked"?) Cabrera for about 17 walks through three, so... ya never know!

9. ugen64 Posted: December 20, 2008 at 10:57 PM (#3035030)

yeah, Cabrera has his issues too. the worst example seems to be a 2006 game against the Devil Rays, where he threw 5 IP (okay), giving up 3 hits (not bad), and 1 run (fine), notching 10 strikeouts (wow!) and... 9 walks (wtf). he threw 117 pitches in that game too.

10. Jim (jimmuscomp) Posted: December 20, 2008 at 11:02 PM (#3035034)

Cabrera has his issues too. the worst example seems to be a 2006 game against the Devil Rays, where he threw 5 IP (okay), giving up 3 hits (not bad), and 1 run (fine), notching 10 strikeouts (wow!) and... 9 walks

I had him on my fantasy team that year and remember that game. I saw (on the crawl on ESPN, or something) that Cabrera had 10 K's through 5 innings and went to the CPU to see what his line was like and damn near lost my dinner. He is really sketchy...

I had hoped that the Halos would pick him up as the 5th starter (sharing it with Moseley if need be) to go cheap and maybe see a payoff on all that talent. But, his K rate has dropped a lot - he might be done.

11. Chris Needham Posted: December 20, 2008 at 11:31 PM (#3035060)

Here's one of his gems.

At least it was a pleasant weather day.

12. Suff Posted: December 21, 2008 at 12:34 AM (#3035086)

With the Astros, Redding had the reputation as a mental midget who did not handle adversity well at all. He seems to have gotten himself together a little bit with the Nats, but I'd be leery of him in the AL East and those offenses.

13. billyjack Posted: December 21, 2008 at 12:57 AM (#3035099)

My two favorite Redding starts:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN200505080.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200507150.shtml

14. Crispix Attacks is in the best shape of his life. Posted: December 21, 2008 at 02:02 AM (#3035109)

The Orioles, desperate to add veteran starting pitchers,

Oh man, I think we might have found a taker for Adam Eaton. Saints be praised!

The Phils will pick up a cool 1/2 of his contract in exchange for one of your many batless shortstop prospects, one who can wow the crowds in Allentown with his speed and quickness.

15. ugen64 Posted: December 21, 2008 at 01:10 PM (#3035300)

"Here's one of his gems.

At least it was a pleasant weather day."

check out the beginning of the play by play:

-bunt single to pitcher
-walk
-walk
-walk (run scores)
-strikeout
-walk (run scores)
-walk (run scores)

16. Walt Davis Posted: December 21, 2008 at 05:10 PM (#3035400)

(our 5 "best" innings eaters logged 190, 180, 132, 129, and 84 innings).

Which is probably just below average. There were 117 pitchers in MLB last year to throw 125+ IP, 69 threw 180+, 52 threw 190+. I'll guesstimate they were about 40 innings below the average for teams' top 5. "Average" would seem to be roughly 210/190/170/140/100 .... which would put them 100 IP short which, OK, is not good and I was wrong two sentences ago. :-)

Those numbers are roughly the 15th, 45th, etc. cutoffs in IP last year. I wonder what those would look like for projected IP.

17. ECBucs Posted: December 22, 2008 at 09:35 AM (#3035744)

Looks like both the Nats and Os will be competitive with moves like this. Although I would rather be a contender than a competitior, as would Marlon Brando if he was still kicking.

18. JoeHova Posted: December 22, 2008 at 09:53 AM (#3035757)

The Brewers are also interested in Looper and I've been assuming that he'll get about $8-9 million per year based on past salary and performance, does that seem too high? What do people think a guy like him will end up signing for? Because if he could be had for $3-4 million, that could be pretty good but it's a totally different story at $9 million.

19. Dayton Moore is a Big Fat Idiot (AG#1F) Posted: December 22, 2008 at 10:15 AM (#3035777)

My WAG: 2 years $15 mill, option for a 3rd year at $9 mill.

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Rosenthal: Sources: O’s pushing for pitchers Looper, Redding

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