Home MLB'Weekly' Hit Ground Ball Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Searching for starters

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Searching for starters

by Matt Smith

WhgbHlSqWe’re not quite halfway through the season, but teams are already taking stock of how 2010 is shaping up for them.

Some teams are on the right course for a playoff place, many others can paint scenarios that will see them breaking into the October club, while several teams already have one eye on 2011.

Whichever group a team is in, they will be looking at their roster of players, looking at the other twenty-nine teams and giving serious thought to making a deal or two.  The initial trade deadline is six weeks away and a lot can happen in that period.  A good or bad run of form can turn a team from being a buyer to a seller and back again, while the ever-present shadow of injuries can force a team’s hand into going out and replacing a key player. 

Acquiring a new starting pitcher in particular can make all the difference, either by acquiring an ace, such as the Phillies did with Cliff Lee last year, or getting a guy off the scrap heap as the Dodgers did with Vicente Padilla. 

You can never be certain how a deal is going to work out.  Jarrod Washburn went 8-6 with a 2.64 ERA for the Mariners during the first four months of the 2009 season and was much sought after on trade deadline day.  Detroit won the battle to acquire Washburn, but he was hampered by a knee injury and ended with a 7.33 ERA in his eight starts with his new team and is now a free agent and contemplating retirement.

Still, that uncertainty is part of the fun as a fan (not so much for the General Managers).  Here are a few starting pitchers that could be joining contenders over the next six weeks. 

Cliff Lee didn’t make his season debut for the Mariners until 30 April, but he has been as excellent as expected in his ten starts.  He has gone at least 7 innings in all but one start and has thrown two complete games in his last three outings.  Seattle traded for him over the offseason in the hope that he would help them into the playoffs.  Those hopes don’t look like being realised so the Mariners are likely to shop him and, despite Lee’s impending free agency, they’ll be able to drive a hard bargain because Lee showed last season what sort of impact he can have on a team’s playoff chances.  He was simply outstanding for the Phillies down the stretch and in the playoffs and the contending team that adds him to their roster is likely to become the favourite to win their division.

Dan Haren isn’t definitely available, but the Diamondbacks appear to be willing to listen to offers for pretty much everyone bar Justin Upton.  This hasn’t been a vintage Haren season so far and historically he has tailed off in the second half (3.30 ERA in the first half, 4.21 in the second), but maybe this is the year that his season works the other way around.  Haren is under contract until 2012 (with a club option for 2013), which decreases the D-Backs’ need to deal him unless they get a good offer, although he would be an excellent option for a team looking to add a quality pitcher for more than just the next few months.

Roy Oswalt has declared publicly that he is open to being traded, tired of the constant losing in Houston and lack of any semblance of a plan to change the team’s fortunes.  Oswalt has pitched well for the Astros this season, while receiving an average of just 2.92 runs in support of his efforts, and would be a strong addition for a contender.  The stumbling block for any trade is that he is being paid $15m this year and is owed $16m next year, with a $2m buyout for 2012 (or a $16m option, although there’s no way that is being picked up).  That could be a crucial factor because the team most closely linked to a potential trade, and who have publicly acknowledged their interest recently, are the Texas Rangers.  The Astros’ Lonestar State rivals are going through a contracted and complicated ownership change, ‘another fine mess’ by Tom Hicks, and their ability to take on Oswalt’s contract may be determined by whether the proposed new ownership group are in charge by the trade deadline.

Ben Sheets is included on my list as the Oakland A’s signing of Big Ben over the offseason was always likely to end in him being traded to a contender midway through the year.  The plan was for Sheets to settle into the season, having missed all of 2009 through injury, and then start showing his ‘ace type’ stuff before being traded for a prospect or two.  Unfortunately, if he’s still got that ‘ace type’ stuff then he is doing a good job of hiding it.  His nadir came in back-to-back starts at the end of April and beginning of May when he was marmalized by the Rays and Blue Jays for seventeen runs over 7.1 innings.  Apart from three eight-strikeout performances, he hasn’t looked too inspiring since then either and he sports a 4.95 ERA following his loss to the Cardinals on Saturday.  There have been some signs of a turnaround here and there, snapping off his knee-buckling curve for strikes in some starts, and Oakland’s hope now will be that he can find 4 or 5 good starts in a row from somewhere and a team thinks it’s worth seeing if they can catch lightning in a bottle.

The Baltimore Orioles traded for Kevin Millwood over the offseason to add an experienced innings-eater to their cast of young starters.  As with most of their plans this season, this move hasn’t quite had the desired effect.  Millwood had done a decent job over the first two months, despite being lumbered with an 0-5 record; however, things have gone downhill rapidly in June.  Even after gaining his first win of the season against the Padres on Saturday, Millwood has been hit for 23 runs in his four starts so far this month, pushing his ERA from 3.89 to 5.12.  Two of those games came against the Yankees and one against the Mets, so he wasn’t getting punted around by also-rans.  While no one’s first choice, a quick return to pre-June form will make him a good option for some teams as the Orioles have no pressing need to keep hold of him. 

Pedro Martinez is the wild card out there on the market.  He is working out in the Dominican Republic and his agent recently confirmed that he is looking to land with a contender in the second half of the season.  That plan worked out well for Pedro and the Phillies last year and there are sure to be teams who are confident that he can repeat the trick for them in 2010.  A return engagement with the Phillies would make sense, although General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is playing down those rumours (which doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, of course).  Whether he returns to a former team (the Dodgers would be a great story) or dons a new uniform, the odds are good that Pedro will be back on a Major League mound this season and that’s always a sight worth seeing.

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