PHOENIX—With the fifth-starter competition eating up diminishing innings, the Dodgers trimmed the list of contenders Sunday by cutting veteran left-hander Shawn Estes.
The club also reassigned knuckleball specialist Charlie Haeger, who will start at Triple-A Albuquerque. Estes was offered a chance to do the same but said he hasn’t decided whether to accept, take his release and seek employment elsewhere or retire.
“I didn’t expect to have this option today,” the 36-year-old said. “It’s disappointing and a little shocking, to be honest. I still feel I’ve got a lot left in the tank, I’ve got the stuff to get big league hitters out and still feel I can be a starter.”
Estes pitched two scoreless innings Saturday, then couldn’t get out of a third inning, allowing a pair of runs. He has an 8.44 ERA in five Major League exhibition games, allowing 19 hits in 10 2/3 innings and a .380 opponents batting average.
“We’re at a point where we had to start separating people and we don’t have enough innings,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said.
Torre listed the ever-changing group of fifth-starter candidates as James McDonald, Eric Milton, Eric Stults and Claudio Vargas. McDonald stepped to the front of that group with three hitless innings Saturday after an otherwise undistinguished Spring Training.
Estes said he believed his experience put him at least on par with Milton as a front-runner. He said he was told of the decision in a meeting Sunday with Torre, pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and club officials Kim Ng and DeJon Watson. He later met with club officials Rick Ragazzo and Bill Mueller and after that met with general manager Ned Colletti.
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1. Roger Cedeno's Spleen Posted: March 23, 2009 at 01:24 AM (#3110937)Estes is a NL West pitcher, and the padres are giving up about 15 runs a game right now. If Estes can lower that to say 13 or so, its an improvement, right?
Lasorda: "I told you he didn't bleed Blue®. Get the #### out!"
What a bizarre, bizarre career that followed.
Yo. My "favorite" moment was in the 2000 NLDS when he sprained his freaking ankle by standing on second base. Then worse, when he hobbled off the base to go "ow," they tagged him out.
He always was, you know, kind of mental.
Yeah, I'm not sure there's ever been another active MLB player who stole* a police bicycle.
*-allegedly. Did he ever get convicted?
Well, he is a lefty...
Generally, you'd want to start looking at who the manager was and how he led said pitcher down a path to ruination... but I'm too lazy to look up Estes' manager during his formative early years as a big league pitcher.
Sure... I was just engaging in a little tongue-in-cheek BTFing... mostly.
I wouldn't say it was "standing" on second. I still have a vivid image of him jamming his foot on the base while sliding and rolling it completely over. Ugh, it was horrible.
Similar pitcher to Zito although obviously not as good. Both have the big big curveball, which offered the ability to dominate, but they had major control issues with it. Hitters would just ignore Estes' curveball in the hopes that he couldn't throw it for strikes. He usually couldn't. When he did he was dynamite.
No, he wasn't sliding, he was coming into the base standing up, awkwardly, and stepped on the side of the bag.
But the curve ball broke so much it was almost never a strike, which is why, though it is perhaps the most impressive it was not the best. And he always tried to be too fine with his fastballs, and could never get the strike zone. And he blew out his elbow from overwork in 97, that cost him 5mph on his fastball, and turned him from the next Koufax to the late model zito overnight.
His foot injury cost him another mph or so off his fastball, and, even worse, guaranteed his inconsistency.
Even today, when he is on, and has an umpire that gives him the low strike on his curve, he can pitch a hell of a game. Too bad for him you pay a pitcher to have good games 75% of the time, not 25%.
He is still probably as good as anyone the Pad's have for their 5th starter.
Hey, he has a better career winning percentage than Dennis Eckersley.
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