The 27-year-old Gabbard is a 6-foot-3 left-hander from Ohio. At the time of the trade, he was pitching in the minor leagues.

Last season, Gabbard had a 4.82 ERA in 12 starts. In 56 innings, he gave up 64 hits and 39 walks, while striking out 33 batters.

In 2007, prior to being traded to the Rangers, Gabbard had a 3.73 ERA with the Red Sox in seven starts. As a rookie in 2006, he had a 3.51 ERA in 25.2 innings.

While the Rangers are in need of starting pitching, Gabbard wasn’t viewed by the team as a long-term solution. In fact, Texas was trying to turn him into a reliever.

According to various reports, Gabbard will likely be kept at the minor league level by the Red Sox.

Kason Gabbard is Back with Boston (Image: Flickr)

Post from: Knuckle Curve

If Gagne makes the Brewers, he will receive at least $1.5 million from the team. That salary could rise to $4.5 million if he meets all of the performance bonuses.

The 2003 Cy Young Award winner had a disastrous 2008 campaign. He finished the season with a 5.44 ERA and only recorded ten saves despite starting the season as the Brewers’ closer.

Since the 2004 baseball season, Gagne hasn’t remained healthy for an entire season. If he can stay healthy in 2009, the Brewers will have gotten one of the biggest steals in free agency.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

• The Mets beat the Marlins, 7-2. The planet’s best pitcher against a Triple-A squad — who could’ve have anticipated such a result? Uh, everyone.
• The Pittsburgh/Atlanta game was insane. The Pirates took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves tied. Then the Bucs jumped ahead in the 12th, 12-9, before allowing two runs in the bottom half and hanging on for a 12-11 victory. Xavier Nady, whom I’ve been following since he took home Cal League MVP honors in 2001 while playing for a great Lake Elsinore Storm club (Peavy and Mets left-hander Oliver Perez also played on that team, which went 91-49), knocked two homers, including the game winner.
• The Giants really stink. Good thing they’re paying Barry Zito all that money.
• The Brewers and Cubs ran a clinic on how not to close a game. Locked in a scoreless tie headed to the ninth, Milwaukee plated three runs in the top half off “closer” Kerry Wood, then watched “closer” Eric Gagne cough up three of his own in the bottom half. The Brewers scored in the top of the 10th and hung on to win, 4-3. Who got credit for the victory? The least deserving guy in the ballpark, of course: Gagne. The next time someone tries to tell you that a pitcher is good because of his won-loss record, remind them that the rules dictating how a win is “earned” don’t necessarily correlate with actually contributing to victory.
• Break up the Nationals. With Monday’s 11-6 drubbing of Philadelphia, they’re assured of finishing no worse than 2-160 this year.
• Livan Hernandez pitched well in his Twins debut. Actually, for all the grief Minnesota took in signing him, he matched Johan Santana’s line — two runs in seven innings — and got the win. Not that he’ll keep pace with Santana beyond, oh, right about now, but still…
• The White Sox seem to be a sexy dark horse candidate this season, but I just don’t see it. By my count, they’ve got about three or four good pitchers, depending on whether you believe Octavio Dotel can stay of the disabled list. One of them (Mark Buehrle) got absolutely pounded at Cleveland. Granted, the Indians will do that to a pitcher, but if the White Sox can’t win behind Buehrle, then what are they going to do when, say, Gavin Floyd toes the slab?

Good times, my friends. Good times…

Post from: Knuckle Curve