Two Webbs Don’t Make a Wainwright
September 7, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Games Worth Watching
I don’t even know what that headline means. Anyway, here are some of the more interesting games for Friday:
American League
- Mariners at Tigers, 4:05 p.m. PT — Both teams are three games back of the Yankees in the AL wild card race. Miguel “Don’t Let the Career-High 13 Wins Fool You” Batista faces Justin Verlander. Whatever happened to Brandon Inge, anyway? That guy was good for, like, 5 minutes.
- Indians at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — First off, we should rename these teams “Europeans” and “Animal Spirits.” Second, why did Cleveland sign Jake Westbrook to a huge contract extension in April? The new Bill Wegman was really good in 2004, but otherwise has been a league-average pitcher. The Angels counter with John Lackey.
National League
- Cubs at Pirates, 4:05 p.m. PT — The Pirates are going nowhere, but Tom Gorzelanny is an exciting young pitcher. The 24-year-old left-hander has scuffled a bit since the All-Star break, but 13 wins on a bad Pittsburgh team is impressive. Another intriguing southpaw, Rich Hill, goes for the Cubs. Jose Bautista is having a decent season at third base for the Pirates, but it’s hard not to wonder how different that franchise might be right now if it hadn’t given away Aramis Ramirez, who has been a force in Chicago ever since. Hey, at least the Bucs got Bobby Hill in the deal. Nobody can take that away from them. Nobody.
- Padres at Rockies, 6:05 p.m. PT — Justin Germano averages 5.70 K/9 for his career. Elmer Dessens checks in at 5.44. Hmmm, good hitters making contact at Coors Field? Dessens is pitching for his fourth team over the past two seasons. Wow, he must be really coveted.
- Cardinals at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m. PT — Have you noticed how good Adam Wainwright has been in the second half? Try 6-2, 2.43 ERA, 3-to-1 K/BB ratio good. I think it’s safe to say that Wainwright’s re-adjustment to a starting role is complete. He’ll face perennial Cy Young candidate Brandon Webb on Friday.
One game? Go with Wainwright/Webb. That has a chance to be fantastic. Happy watching!
A fair point about Westbrook, but the reason they gave him the extension is that his innings pitched for 04-06 were 215, 211, 211 (although he obviously won’t get to that level this year). He may be right around league average, but there is some serious value in 210 league average innings, as seen in his average VORP of 33.8 over those three years.
How much of Westbrook’s value comes from his ‘04 campaign? He is a useful pitcher, just not a very exciting one. Seems to me that the money could have been better spent; then again, Vicente Padilla would argue otherwise.
Exactly- the only argument one could really have against the Westbrook signing would be that they should have let him go to free agency and tried to develop pitchers in their system to replace him. It’s not like they could get someone comparable at a better price on the open market.
Yeah, I guess my real gripe is with the market and not with Westbrook. It bugs me that a guy with that skill set can command such a high salary. It shouldn’t, but it does.