Rodriguez getting ready to fire in another pitch that he has no idea where its going. Photo via humorfeast.blogspot.com
Here’s Henry Rodriguez‘s outing on Sunday 5/8: 6 batters faced, 3 walks, 2 wild pitches, one weak grounder and two strike outs. 1 inning pitched, 1 earned run on zero hits. 27 pitches but only NINE for strikes.
This gives him, as of Sunday, a grand total of 5 innings pitched on the year. In those 5 innings he’s only given up 1 run (today’s) and three hits. He also has 7 strikeouts in those 5 innings. But he now has 6 walks and 3 wild pitches in those same 5 innings. His ERA may be nifty (1.80) but his WHIP is the same (1.80), which is really bad for a late-innings reliever.
Adding insult to injury, as Steven at FJB pointed out tonight, Steve McCatty and Jim Riggleman’s comments about the reliever are rather ridiculous. Per WashingtonTimes.com beat reporter Amanda Comak‘s story, Riggleman said that Rodriguez “needs to get sharper before we can get him into bigger spots.” Hmm; isn’t that what spring training is for? Oh yeah, Rodriguez showed up 3-weeks late, but the Nats couldn’t do jack about it except invent an injury to stash him on the DL to start the season since he’s out of options despite a grand total of 36 mlb innings in his career.
He’s now replaced Brian Broderick as the lowest-leverage use reliever in the Nats bullpen. In other words, the guy you would be least likely to bring into a close game. For a team already carrying a rule-5 reliever, this shortening of the bullpen means that manager Jim Riggleman is now basically playing with a 5-man pen on any night where the team has a lead or the game is close. And, as noted several times in this space, Rodriguez’s lack of options handcuffs the team’s roster flexibility.
How about the other player we got in the Willingham deal? Corey Brown? Oh, he’s hitting .202 in AAA. But, he’s gotten hits in his last four games, so there’s that.
Yes, we are talking about small sample sizes. We’re only 5 weeks into the season. But no matter how slowly Willingham is starting off himself in Oakland, he’s still out-performing our current left field platoon. Oh, and his 5 homers would be leading the team, and his 104 ops+ would be 3rd best on the squad (behind injured Ryan Zimmerman and part-time catcher Wilson Ramos).
Did Rizzo make a god-awful deal? Or is it too early? Or do I keep needing to tell myself, “hey, this team isn’t winning in 2011, so this is the best season to experiment with guys like Rodriguez to see what you have?” Sure; i tell myself that all the time. But this team has potential; they’re nearly .500 despite their horrible offense.
But in the end, it seems to me that we’ve traded our #5 hitter, a guy who always produced for us and who was a popular clubhouse guy, for a reliever we can’t use, and a minor league outfielder who’s in danger of getting benched in Syracuse.
Rodriguez was pretty consistent and dead-on in Syracuse. I think some minor adjustments should help along with pitch selection. Many more sliders, fewer fastballs. Also, he needs to pitch regularly … when he sits too long he isn’t as effective.
In other words if Riggleman doesn’t use the guy he will get worst. Riggleman tends to pitch the guys he trusts … even when they are terrible.
From what I saw Rodriguez wasn’t terrible dude? In other words what game were you watching? When he threw that slide the hitters were completely baffled, just stood there hoping it was a ball. When he threw that 101 bat out of hell he had them shaking in their boots? This guy is a keeper he doesn’t have the attitude of Daniel Cabrera I think he could be good if not great.
Oh and who pitched terrible and will likely continue to regress: Livo. And how many runs did he allow … how many hits? How many walks? What’s his ERA now? He is getting older as is Marquis.
And oh, wait until John Lannan gets in there with his gaudy 5.01 ERA.
Rodriguez was bad in a one-sided blow out. IN previous games where the score was close he did great.
peric
9 May 11 at 12:48 pm
Syracuse is not the Majors. I was watching the 5/8 game. 27 pitches, 9 strikes. One ball that nearly hit Hanley Ramirez in the head and hit the backstop on a fly. His outing went: walk, groundout, walk, wild pitch, strikeout, wild pitch (scoring a run), walk, strikeout.
Here’s his game log: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=rodrihe03&t=p&year=2011 . He has four outings; one i’d list as “good” (his first; 1ip, 2ks). one i’d list as “mediocre to bad” (2ip, 2 hits, 1 bb but 3ks) and the other two i’d list as “very bad.” He’s incredibly lucky not to have a far worse ERA. His xFIP is nearly 3 points higher than his current ERA.
What is the value of a bullpen guy, a supposed “back of the bullpen” arm who can’t find the plate? Would you possibly bring in Henry Rodriguez in a tie game in the 6th with two men on and one out? Because if the answer is “no,” then exactly why did we trade for him?
Not that this post was about our starters, but Livo is a completely different animal. He’ll have two great starts then a lousy one. Always has. He’s still an amazing bargain at $1M per year. I won’t really defend Lannan; he’s probably going to make way at some point in this team’s rotation for a better arm. Not sure who or when, but it’ll happen.
Todd Boss
9 May 11 at 1:04 pm
The Hammer is much better than any other player we have in the outfield right now, they should have never traded him away! Rizzo saw 100+ on the radar gun and heard good reports from the Dominican Winter League then pulled the trigger on the deal. FAIL!
Harper_ROY_2012
9 May 11 at 3:51 pm
Mark me as happy that both Hammer and Dunn are in the AL where they can DH and butcher first base and the out field respectively when their managers have the misfortune to have to play them there.
NatsJack
9 May 11 at 4:21 pm
Let’s be honest here, Wilingham was a straight salary dump, no matter the sping control.
I remember the trade 4-5 years ago; we gave up 2 months of Livan Hernandez for Matt Chico & Garrett Mock. Chico was a serviceable starter for a year or two before he went down. Kept hearing all these proclamations that Mock had this Million $ arm, only it turned out that it was accompaied by a 10 cent head!
Mark L
9 May 11 at 7:19 pm
Willingham a salary dump? More like: lets trade the aging, injury prone, stone glove outfielder while we can still get something of value for him. And based on his play this year, it wasn’t a bad move. I figure Rizzo got about as much as he could for him.
bdrube
9 May 11 at 9:12 pm
Rizzo loves his ex-Arizona prospects. Chico’s off the 40-man and Mock’s on his last option, so odds are we’re going to see some decisions made on both guys this year. Based on the downward trajectory of Chico’s career, i’m guessing he’s a minor league free agent from here on out. Mock will be DFA’d and off the 40-man next spring, as I can’t see him beating out the slew of other, more reliable options this team now has.
Todd Boss
9 May 11 at 9:20 pm
Honestly I see both sides of the Willingham deal. Right now, as I watch our team struggle to a .220 team batting average with little pop I wish we still had Willingham, no matter what his injury history or plodding left field prowness. Especially when the “return” for him included a reliever we can’t use and a minor league outfielder who has yet to show he can hit above the AA level.
Mark has stated his opinion that his trade was a salary dump in this space several times…. i’m not sure I entirely agree (how can you be dumping salary the same time you’re signing someone to a $126M contract, and while you’re pursuing Zack Greinke for another 9-figure deal?). If anything, It was as bdrube presents it; a chance to get something for a player we were never going to re-sign after 2011 and who doesn’t seem to be even a typeB free agent, meaning no compensation.
Todd Boss
10 May 11 at 9:32 am
[…] and Rodriguez) be essentially “locked” onto the 25-man active roster. Its one of my main criticisms of the Josh Willingham deal in general; see my post for more opinion but to have only a right […]
Broderick and Rodriguez are officially costing the team Wins « Nationals Arm Race
13 May 11 at 11:23 am
[…] A fair question; one can certainly nit-pick the Willingham trade (as I have done in this space), complain about the bullpen construction (as I have also done in this space) and […]
My Answers to Boswell’s chosen chat questions « Nationals Arm Race
7 Sep 11 at 12:21 pm