Diamondbacks Bullpen

[allstar]

After he came to Arizona, he has shown us that he is a great GM by making all these moves. I just wanted to list the players he got and got rid of to see what a nice job that he has done.

Players Acquired:
P Livan Hernandez - He, at the right time, came to Arizona for a rather cheap price in this year's crazy pitching frenzy. He solidifies middle rotation at #3 and he eats up eatings.
C Johnny Estrada - Great catcher for two relievers. Yes, he was a problem, but he did play well for us and he'll likely net us a good pitcher or good prospects.
2B Orlando Hudson - Probably the 2nd best player that he has acquired. Great defense that supported Brandon Webb's Cy Young season and helped Stephen Drew seasoning. Provides good bat and leadership.
RP Luis Vizcaino - Oh man, how valuable he was. He anchored the struggling bullpen almost all year long and he was light out at times.
CF Chris Young - The gem of the prospects. He'll be that gold glover who'll roam the chase with handful of silver sluggers in his pocket. Fan favorite to be.
LF Eric Byrnes - Bursted out of nowhere to find his strides and became the player that he once was from a journeyman.
P Juan Cruz - Really who deserved to keep the rotation spot who provided sparks at important spots.

Players Traded Away:
Troy Glaus
Sergio Santos
Lance Cormier
Javier Vazquez
Oscar Villarreal
Brad Halsey
Orlando Hernandez

Obviously players traded away, with some exceptions, are past their prime.
_________________
Too many girls out there to choose from. Just too many. lol.

[Tucson DBacks Fan]

In addition to proving already that he is improving the team with his personnel moves, he is very likeable guy who gets along well with the media and the public. He was a great hire for the Diamondbacks. I am expecting more of the same good work from him this offseason as he works with a very limited budget.

[baldmaga]

Just think how good he'd be with a extra 30 mil to work with

[levski]

Josh Byrnes's transactions

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ARI/2006_trans.shtml

Picking the key ones here:

December 7, 2005 :Traded Lance Cormier and Oscar Villarreal to the Atlanta Braves. Received Johnny Estrada.

My take: certainly a nice move. Buy low on Estrada. Remains to be seen what JB will get for Johnny Boy, but should be more than Villarreal/Cormier

December 8, 2005: Dan Uggla drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 2005 rule V draft.

My take: big fuck up. Granted, not many people even on this board were that high on Uggla, but several posters (Stu was one of the more vocal ones, iirc) were commenting on Uggla's solid play in the AFL and there was a consensus here that AZ might lose him. JB failed to properly evaluate the accomplishments of Uggla in a tough park in a tough league. And even if AZ had traded for Hudson, Uggla would've been nice insurance or even a nicer trade bait.

December 9, 2005: Signed Kevin Jarvis as a free agent.
August 31, 2006: Traded Kevin Jarvis to the Boston Red Sox. Received PTBNL.

My take: meh. I doubt the PTBNL is anyone. Jarvis basically stunk in AZ. Worth a gamble tho

December 15, 2005: Signed Damion Easley as a free agent.

My take: A crappy move, imho. Easley was easily terrible last year. He took a roster spot for too much money, and he took playing time away from Andy Green. There was absolutely NO REASON to sign Easley with Andy Green on board. Green had hit very well in 2005, and he was/is as versatile as Easley. And he cost less than half of Easley's salary. Easley gave AZ two big games in ATL and a bunch of suckitude. Also, his grizzled old balls were far too appealing to Melvin, who continued to stick his sorry ass in the lineup far too often. JB should have never even touched the guy and told Melvin to suck it up and play Andy Green instead.

December 20, 2005: Traded Javier Vazquez to the Chicago White Sox. Received Orlando Hernandez, Luis Vizcaino, and Chris Young.

My take: easily the best move that JB made last year. I love Chris Young, and I defended him on this board (actually, the azcentral.com). And I also argued that Batista (acquired later) should give us everything that Vazquez gave us in 05. Don't mean to sound smug, but I feel pretty good about my predictions

December 22, 2005: Signed Jason Grimsley as a free agent.

My take: at the time, it didn't seem that bad... I think AZ signed him because Grimsley has friends in the front office... and that's usually a bad way to do business. Too much nepotism and you end up being a crappy team like the Baltimore Orioles. In retrospect, this was a terrible signing in light of the steroid allegations against Grimsley. I think the team went into a tailspin at the time; the crappy month the Dbacks had right after that easily doomed the season. Lesson: don't trust crappy relievers with tons of baggage

December 27, 2005: Signed Eric Byrnes as a free agent. Traded Troy Glaus and Sergio Santos (minors) to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Miguel Batista and Orlando Hudson.

My take: First, the EB signing. At the time, I went on record hating strongly being opposed to this move. I have never been really crazy about EByrnes; he's the type of guys that "baseball" people love: he hustles, he gets dirty, he pats everyone on the ass, he is loud in the clubhouse. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit, and that's what Byrnes does best. IMO, he's a very overrated player.

However, EByrnes was cheap, and he had a nice enough season on the surface (25 homers, 25 steals) and played decent D in CF to make me eat crow along with turkey. You gotta give JB credit for this signing. It was similar to the Estrada deal, buying low on a player. Now JB needs to trade EByrnes while his value is at his highest. Do it, JB. Do it NOW.

Next, the Glaus trade. I really liked it at the time. There wasn't much to dislike. Getting rid of the ent manning 3B while making too much money and blocking Tracy was sufficient enough. Getting O-Dawg and Batista, both cheap and undervalued, in return, was excellent.

In fact, when the trade was made, or shortly thereafter, I posted on the azsnakepit.com site (Jim's other hunting grounds) that Hudson alone would've been more than enough return for Glaus. I also wrote that, once you adjust for position, Hudson was a better player than Glaus; and that once you took contracts into account, JB totally robbed TOR. Well, I got called names for arguing that, especially by some dude there (nihil or nihilist or something like that)... But given that Hudson had higher VORP than Glaus this year, and won a gold glove, I can tell that nihil guy to go suck a lemon. It's so good to be right so you can be smug.

The one thing I disliked about the trade was losing Santos. I really believed Rizzo that Santos would pan out. I was wrong. And so was Rizzo. I feel bad for Santos, but he seems pretty much washed out.

January 1, 2006: Luis Terrero granted Free Agency.

January 6, 2006: Josh Kroeger selected by the Philadelphia Phillies off waivers.

January X, 2006: Mike Gosling selected by Red off waivers

My take: I had no problems with these moves. We've already gone over the Kroeger and Gosling moves here. I wasn't going to lose sleep over losing them, as I didn't see any future for them in AZ. Looking at what they did in 2006, JB was right on to release them

January 12, 2006: Signed Terry Mulholland as a free agent.

February 7, 2006: Signed Jeff Davanon as a free agent.

February 10, 2006: Signed Felix Heredia as a free agent.

I liked the DaVanon signing. He got hurt, but he did pretty well in his limited at bats, and he's coming back cheaply next year, so this was a good move. Mullholland... another nepotistic signing by the Dbacks. It was really obvious that Mullholland's grizzled veteran balls were deep fried like giblets on Thanksgiving; why JB wasted money on him was beyond me. It wasn't THAT much money, but it was totally wasted cash. Again, don't waste cash on over the hill relievers. Period. Ditto for the Run Fairy (TM).

February 28, 2006: Traded Jason Bulger to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Received Alberto Callaspo.

My take: Great great deal. I loved it the day it was made. I love it even more now.

March 8, 2006: Traded Alex Cintron to the Chicago White Sox. Received Jeff Bajenaru.

My take: Well, this saved the Dbacks 1.5M. That's about all. Baj wasn't very good in AAA, and now he's a free agent. I hope the Dbacks can bring him back.

March 24, 2006: Released Felix Heredia.

My take: Duh. Like we never saw this one coming

March 26, 2006: Traded Brad Halsey to the Oakland Athletics. Received Juan Cruz.

My take: Used the savings in the Cintron deal to acquire Cruz. I liked the deal at the time, I still do. Cruz has more value to AZ than Halsey.

April 6, 2006: Koyie Hill selected by the New York Yankees off waivers.

May 20, 2006: Released Brian Bruney.

My take: Koyie... no harm no foul. He was another one of Joe Jr.'s crappy acquisitions. What the Dbacks released Bruney, I don't know. He was hurt, I suppose. And probably the Dbacks needed a spot on the 40 man roster. But he looked pretty good with the Yankees. We'll see... This may have been another mistake

May 24, 2006: Traded Orlando Hernandez to the New York Mets. Received Jorge Julio.

My take: I like this trade. El Duque was poorly suited to AZ, he was making too much money, and the Dbacks needed help in relief. The fact that El Duque ended up with the Mets was extra sweet for me. Extra sweet. Julio was OK last year, and this transaction saved AZ a couple of millions. Still, Julio will be too expensive in 07, imho. JB should trade him

June 7, 2006: Released Jason Grimsley.

June 21, 2006: Released Terry Mulholland; Released Russ Ortiz

My take: If JB hadn't signed the first two, he wouldn't have had to eat their salaries in June. Ortiz was a waste of roster space and waste of money. I hated that signing the day it was announced (granted, Joe Jr. was the GM) but even I didn't expect Fatso to implode so quickly. This move, more than anything, is slap in the face of Moorad and Kendrick. Next time, they should think twice before giving up so much money to overrated free agents. If they'd only listed to the posters on AZ central's board, they would've saved themselves a whole bunch of money. Now, they'll eat Ortiz's fat contact and love it too. The price you pay for wisdom.

August 7, 2006: Traded Garrett Mock (minors) and Matt Chico (minors) to the Washington Nationals. Received Livan Hernandez.

My take: well, I wasn't too thrilled initially, but I changed my mind on this deal once I looked more carefully at Livan. This move was made with an eye to 2007, really, so it still remains to be seen how Livan does. If he doesn't shape up a little bit though and stop using Russ Ortiz's coupons at Krispe Kremes, Livan could end up being an overpaid tub of lard in 07. I have hopes that with a healthy knee and better conditioning, he'll give us 200+ innings of 110 ERA+. We'll see.

Mock and Chico... well, they'll take time to reach the majors, and even then it's not sure how much they'll contribute. At this point of time, they seem like longshots to have meaningful major league careers.

August 22, 2006: Traded Shawn Green and cash to the New York Mets. Received Evan MacLane (minors).

My take: a great trade by JB. Again, I hated the Shawn Green trade when the Dbacks acquired him, and many others did too. I thought he was done, and I predicted that pretty soon the Dbacks would be looking for a way to move him as he'd be blocking CQ in RF or CJ at 1B. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look smart when a team acquires Shawn Green. The Green fiasco was another egg on the face of Moorad and Kendrick, and it should be another reminder to them to stay on the sidelines and let JB call the shots on player acquisitions. Or better yet, just double my current salary and hire me as a consultant. That'll save you bunch of money on your car insurance.

[tmar]

Great comments.

On the Easley thing, it always amazes me how we'll throw a 1MM contract at a grizzled veteran that projects the same results as many minor league prospects we have.

Not only does this cost us a considerable amount of money, but it takes up a valuable roster spot <one in which Uggla could have used last year>.

There's really not much of an upside to a deal like this because if they actually perform well, you've only got them for that year <typically> and then have to bet on them continuing the anomolly <Clark> or watching someone else scoop them up.

[stu]

Great post, Lev. A couple followups with no agenda just some minor factoids and points.

The point on easley and the roster is a great one. I had the same thought with Gosling and Kroger. If you are going to cut these guys why not keep Uggla. It is a matter of making the right call early on.

In fairness to Byrnes (and to his credit he has never used this as an excuse), he was just hired in at the end on October. He had about a month to make the roster decisions along with all of the other things on his plate. I can see how a Dan Uggla (who did not look to have a spot with the Dbacks in the near future and who showed his stuff in the AFL) was not at the top of his list.

Still a major screw up. One of the issues at the time was why send him to the fall league where other teams are going to see him if you are not going to protect him if he does well? This may be a disconnect between the prior decision maker and Byrnes.

Cintron hit 285/310/392. Baseball Prosectus has him -8 in batting runs above average and minus 3 in fielding runs above average. he did get some big hits for the Sox FWIW.

Minor quibble. Easley got 700k last year. The million is close enough for an estimate. I was going to say close enough for govenment work, but I am old enough to remember when that was a compliment.

[levski]

I would've had NO problems with keeping Cintron and NOT signing Easley.

I think Easley was signed because he was a friend of Tony Clark. In other words, an ownership decision. In other words, a pointless move. Just a waste of a roster spot and resources.

[stu]

In end results, the difference between having Cintron or Easly last year was slight and the Dbacks saved 800k. In fact, having Cintron might have tempted Melvin to play him instead of Drew.

Cintron also seemed to be very unhappy at his lack of PT. On playing ability, Cintron over Easley is a no brainer. Other things brings them closer.

They also got Baj who was a disappointment, but you couldn't be sure of that at the time.

To follow up with some more factoids. Halsey last year pitched 95 inning, 4.67 era 53k/46w 95 era+. He is 25 with one more non arb year.

Cruz 94 ip, 4.18, 114, 88/47. He made 575k last year and has 4 years of ST in.

[levski]