Transaction Analysis: June 11-15

To add to this mess, as you should already know, Colangelo promptly got
injured in his first game in an outfield collision, adding another casualty
to an especially unfortunate season for the Halos. But the worst aspect of
this is how it plays out in terms of who plays where: Erstad goes back to
first, and the worst offensive team in the league doesn’t really help
itself, unless you’re happy to see a minor league vet like Unroe get the
boot. The root of the problem is Mo Vaughn’s bad ankle, but to have Erstad
playing first while also enduring the worst slump of his career puts the
team in the ugly position of having to choose between Orlando Palmeiro or
Reggie Williams (or Pritchett, if they wanted to put Erstad back in the
outfield). Given those choices, there’s no really good answer, since it’s
understood that the team already has to endure an outfield that has Todd
Greene and Garret Anderson playing out of position. The central component
to the team’s offensive problems is its inability to get on base. In his
very brief professional playing time (he debuted in ’98, and has had injury
problems all along), Colangelo has shown good on-base ability, and could
also push Anderson back into an outfield corner, but he’s already out until
July. Although Luke pasted five homeruns in six games at Edmonton, he isn’t
going to add much.

A triumph of situational mania and the inertia of veterandom. No, Plesac
hasn’t pitched well this season. Yes, Andy Fox probably isn’t a
major-league shortstop. Yes, a lefty situational specialist shouldn’t be as
important to a team as getting adequate play at shortstop. The curious
aspect of this deal is that it really shows the Diamondbacks at their
worst: fixated on famous people, rather than concentrating on finding who
can do the job. Plesac’s resume is his greatest asset, and while I think he
can still be a handy part of a major-league pen, is it worth giving up a
middle infielder with a future and a useful middle reliever for the guy you
might get to use against Barry Bonds and Larry Walker a couple of times?
This move might make sense if the Diamondbacks had a great alternative at
short available to them, but Danny Klassen still has a lot to prove. They
might even end up making Jay Bell and Andy Fox trade positions. This move
might make sense if it was going to make the difference between them and
the Giants, but it won’t. The Diamondbacks already have a good
situational lefty in Greg Swindell. Getting a second one should normally be
a matter of shaking the bushes for someone you can use. Isn’t that what
scouts are for? Or are the D-backs just making this kind of decision
because of an addiction to situational data, and out of obedience to
present-day trends in pen usage? This isn’t even really defensible as a
stretch-drive move, because there are still months to go, and the Giants
are only just now getting Bonds back. There is some silver lining, though,
in that it does mean that Buck Showalter is going to have to use rookie
righties Vlad Nunez and Byung-Hyun Kim, and that’s better than last year’s
setup duo of Willie Banks and Aaron Small.

Placed RHP Tom Gordon on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 6/12 (elbow);
recalled RHP Jin Ho Cho from Pawtucket. [6/14]

Designated RHP Jim Corsi for assignment; recalled RHP Bob Wolcott from
Pawtucket. [6/15]

As always, Saberhagen is going to have his problems, so at least the Red
Sox are reasonably well-prepared. Cho steps into a rotation still saddled
with Pat Rapp and Mark Portugal, after getting off to a good start with the
PawSox. Cho ran up a 7-1 record with a 3.41 ERA, allowing 61 hits and 19
walks in 71.1 innings, while punching out 58. Corsi was struggling (but
will nevertheless probably show up as a Cardinal in the near future), while
Bullinger has run off 16 saves this year between Trenton and Pawtucket.
Losing Gordon in itself shouldn’t do that much damage, although the Sox
aren’t the kind of offensive powerhouse that can afford to give up runs
late in games. While I’ve been pulling for Wolcott to get an opportunity
for awhile, he wasn’t pitching as effectively in Pawtucket as his 2.94 ERA
would have you think, since he’d allowed 33 runs in 67.1 IP. Interestingly
enough, although great control is his game, he’s plunked six men in 67.1
innings. An acolyte of Bruce the Butcher Kison, perhaps?

Losing Johnson might not sound like much. He’s only putting up a limp .332
OBP, he’s getting slow going to the gaps, and he’s usually firing off
two-hoppers to the cutoff man when he really lets loose with his gun. But
when the alternative is Curtis Goodwin, you can see why Jim Riggleman is
kicking around playing the Bull Elephant outfield of Sammy Sosa in center,
Glenallen Hill in right, and Henry Rodriguez in left. The Cubs are already
a bad defensive team, so why not go for the gusto and put your best
available lineup on the field? Okay, so it didn’t work for the Blue Jays in
’98, but the ’98 Jays were an even worse defensive team, with a worse
rotation. The Cubs are going to need all sorts of crazy things to happen to
make the Astros sweat, so why not try to do it as offensively as possible?

The knee injury is expected to keep Johnson out for longer than just a
couple of weeks, which should give LaRue a nice stretch of time to make an
impression on Jack McKeon. Once the July 31 deadline rolls around, and if
LaRue does anything to impress, the Reds can feel more comfortable about
trading Eddie Taubensee or Johnson to a contender if they’re out of the
running by then. On the other hand, LaRue wasn’t dominating at Indy,
hitting only .249/.297/.398 in his first extended shot at Triple-A.

Guess who inherits Bob Hamelin’s roster spot? Guess who’s also more
deserving of Gregg Jefferies’ contract than Gregg Jefferies?

Traded 2B Craig Counsell to the Dodgers for a PTBNL. [6/15]

Sometimes Dave Dombrowski does things which can only make you shake your
head. Originally, he gave up a semi-adequate pitcher (Mark Hutton) to get
Counsell. World Series heroics aside, Craig Counsell is the type of player
you’ll always find available as a minor-league free agent or lying on the
scrap pile. So when Luis Castillo was finally ready to push Counsell aside,
what did Dombrowski do? Hope to get something as good as or better than
Mark Hutton. Of course by this time, his peers have wised up, at least as
far as Counsell is concerned. The Marlins will be lucky to get a handy
A-baller from the Dodgers for him. In the meantime, Danny Bautista will
inherit Bruce Aven’s role of spot starts and some right-handed
pinch-hitting duties, now that Aven has earned a bigger chunk of playing
time.

Recalled LHP Tim Byrdak from Omaha; optioned INF Jed Hansen to Omaha. [6/15]

Duke-itis seems to be spreading, because this was as silly a little move as
they get. If Rey Sanchez was sore and had to miss a start, why then are
both Steve Scarsone or Scott Leius on the roster if they can’t handle a
spot start at short? Okay, so Byrdak has a superficially impressive 1.42
ERA at Omaha, but that’s because of a bundle of unearned runs he’s allowed;
counting all runs, he’s allowing over 3.5 runs per nine. Alvin Morman isn’t
anything too special, but he has been a useful lefty specialist now and
again, and there doesn’t seem to be any compelling reason to prefer Byrdak
over Morman (or vice versa).

Acquired 2B Craig Counsell from the Marlins for a PTBNL; designated OF
Brent Cookson for assignment; outrighted INF Chance Sanford outright to
Albuquerque. [6/15]

The Dodgers’ bench has been weak all year, so I thought it was a great
little move for them to promote a good hitter like Cookson. Sure, he was
playing in the PCL bandboxes to hit .335/.421/.740 with 18 homeruns in 55
games, but Cookson’s been a consistently good hitter over his career, and
although they’ve already improved by bringing in Trent Hubbard, Cookson’s
still a much better hitter than either Counsell or Tripp Cromer. Since the
Dodgers are already carrying a short bench because of a twelve-man pitching
staff, you’d think they’d want to get maximum production out of the
position players they do have.

Does DeHart get a press conference where he talks about his pride in
becoming a garbage fish?

In itself, McMichael’s return is a good thing, but at some point, the Mets
are going to have to confront their wastage of roster spots. Because of the
Bonilla situation, they’re already effectively going with twelve pitchers
and twelve position players. One of the pitchers is mop-up scrub Pat
Mahomes, and one of the others is mop-up scrub Allen Watson. One of the
position players is Rey Ordonez, but at least he’s the only regular the
Mets really need to pinch-hit for.

A nice grab off of the waiver wire. Okay, so Brester’s been pasted at
Carolina (2-6, 5.76 ERA, 71 hits and 26 walks in 59.1 IP, with 44 Ks), but
there hasn’t been much talk about his past elbow problems this year, he’s a
lefty who can throw 90, and the Phillies need as much free talent as they
can snag.

The hope here is that Ashby’s strained back only keeps him out for two
starts. The interesting adaptation is the decision to have Brian Boehringer
make a couple of starts in his absence. Fortunately for the Pads, the
off-day on the 21st means that Ashby won’t have to hurry back before the
end of the month if they don’t want him to, because the Pads can keep their
other four starters starting on four days’ rest in every game up to June
28th.

Recalled RHP Melvin Bunch from Tacoma; designated RHP Mac Suzuki for
assignment. [6/15]

Maybe it’s just me, but after Carmona allowed 27 baserunners in 11.1 IP,
while striking out nobody, it doesn’t look like he was given time to
properly heal up or rehab. Scheffer gets to be this week’s rookie flavor of
the moment. Despite a gaudy ERA at Triple-A, on the year he’s given up over
3.6 runs per nine (not good for a reliever), and he doesn’t throw all that
hard. Still, he’s healthy, so he has to be a step up from feeding Carmona
to the vultures. Cutting loose Suzuki is long overdue; he should go
unclaimed, which should leave Woody Woodward with plenty of egg on his face
for keeping him around out of fear of losing him on waivers. If they choose
to keep Bunch around this time, they shouldn’t regret it: in 50.2 IP, he’d
allowed only 45 hits and 17 walks, posting a 3.91 ERA, while striking out
46. With Frankie Rodriguez and John Halama already bolstering the rotation,
they can save their better middle relievers (Paniagua, and potentially
Scheffer and Bunch) for long relief duty when Jeff Fassero decides to start
another of his local souvenir showers.

The D-Rays have gotten things half-right: they realize that Paul Sorrento
isn’t really a good outfielder. Unfortunately, the alternatives were
limited to letting another infielder (Herb Perry) stumble around out there,
or calling up a bad outfielder like Bubba Trammell, or giving Lowery a
bunch of playing time. I’m happy to see Trammell get an opportunity, even
though he wasn’t killing the ball at Durham (.269/.317/.446), but if they
D-Rays are going to carp about their defense in left instead of big issues
like "Randy Winn isn’t getting better," they aren’t really
helping themselves.

While the Mariners and the A’s seem to be improving their pitching staffs,
and while the Rangers desperately need to improve theirs, the Rangers
actually did the most to improve themselves by finally making the
long-anticipated switch from Goodwin to Mateo. Mateo was tearing up the
PCL, smacking 17 homeruns while hitting .340/.389/.605. Sure, he needs to
improve his command of the strike zone, but he’s replacing Tom Goodwin, not
Rusty Greer. I don’t think there’s a point at which you can have too much
offense, and when the Rangers are wrestling with how much better their
rotation might be with Esteban Loaiza in it, they’ll need to take their
improvements where they can get them.

Placed RHP Chris Carpenter on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 6/3 (elbow
inflammation); designated C/UT Mark Dalesandro for assignment; optioned SS
Chris Woodward to Syracuse. [6/13]

Activated RHP Paul Quantrill and DH Geronimo Berroa from the DL; designated
DH Dave Hollins for assignment. [6/15]

The Jays have been one of this season’s busiest teams, but for all of that
activity, they haven’t really helped themselves much. They tossed Tom Evans
away to make room for a light-hitting DH (Hollins) and they’ve sort of
brainlessly shuffled through Kevin Witt, Willie Greene, Jacob Brumfield,
Pat Kelly, Willis Otanez, Pat Lennon, and Berroa, without really taking
into account who has the ability to contribute. They’re still wasting
roster space on Brumfield, Otanez, and Mike Matheny. But the payoff here is
that by getting Paul Spoljaric for Robert Person, the Jays had a spare
lefty in the pen, and they just snagged a very good offensive middle
infielder in Batista, while dumping Plesac’s salary. Because Alex Gonzalez
recently won’t be back until late July at the earliest, the Jays won’t get
to ask themselves which of Gonzalez, Batista, and Homer Bush gets to start
for awhile. Bush is the least-useful of the bunch, but the Jays don’t seem
to have figured that out yet. They may have finally stumbled into a
new-and-improved DH situation; a Willie Greene-Berroa platoon could be very
productive, and Greene should also get some spot duty at third for Tony
Fernandez. Losing Carpenter givens them a temporary way to get Joey
Hamilton back into the rotation. The bigger debate, should Carpenter not
bounce back quickly, is going to be about whether Jim Fregosi should get
the blame for Carpenter’s breakdown, or whether he was overused by Tim
Johnson last year.