Guardado hurt
JMB · March 10, 2005 at 3:52 pm · Filed Under Mariners
In case you missed it, Eddie Guardado has a strained right hamstring and is on hold for his next scheduled appearance. I heard someone today say that he’s the most important guy on the staff, because if he’s out, who’s going to close games? I say, by far, that Joel Piniero is more important to the pitching staff right now. Bullpen, schmullpen. Closer, schmoser. If the M’s are to contend, they need Piniero to step up this year.
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23 Responses to “Guardado hurt”
Agree, Piniero > Guardado. Or, more correctly Piniero >>>>>> Guardado. We can survive without Eddie, although I’d love to have him. Losing Joel would be a killer.
Hmm, we’re all of a week into spring training games and we’ve already got two pitchers who are being held back because of injury? Not a good sign.
I know, I know, I know that this doesn’t matter. But the Mariners are still 1-7 in spring games. That sucks.
Just wait until they’re 1-7 starting out the season.
Just like the housing market is about to do, you knew sooner or later it was all going to come crashing down. I don’t trust ‘Easy’ Eddie. Please come back Soriano.
Hated to draft my fantasy team on the bad fortunes of my favorite team, but I picked up JJ Putz for a reason….
Everyday Eddie?
that Herb Carneal is full of sh…..
Re (# 7) Herb Carneal being full of…
He’s also a member of the HOF (’96).
http://tinyurl.com/4mmrx
actually, both Joel and Eddie need to step up. they’re not going to contend if either of them are out or have an off-season.
#9: Relievers are fungible, though. Guardado is good, but the success of the Mariners in ’05 does not depend on having him close out our wins. The odds are very good that one of our pitching prospects can step up to performs acceptably in that role if it comes to that. Beane’s been doing the ‘closer pump’n’dump’ for years now.
Egg! Even though I know it is very subjective, dumb, and makes no sense, I feel a strange need for this team to go trade for a veteran relief pitcher, even if he is no better than Scott Atchison.
DJC — what, Jeff Nelson doesn’t do it for you? He’s the very definition of a veteran relief pitcher.
jason
This season is already starting to sound ominously like one of those Seventies disaster-epic movies with an all-star cast, like “The Poseidon Adventure” or “The Towering Inferno,” where part of the perverse attraction of watching them was to see which high-priced stars would get offed and which would survive. The soundtrack to the documentary on the 2005 Mariners could be narrated by Gene Hackman and the ghost of Steve McQueen:
(Fade in to Shigetoshi Hasegawa giving up a game-losing three-run homer in the ninth.)
MCQUEEN: “It’s a fire, mister … and all fires are bad.”
(CUT to Felix Hernandez grimacing, holding elbow and being walked off the mound by Rick Griffin)
HACKMAN (shaking fist at God): “HOW MANY MORE HAVE TO DIE??!!!!?? You want more? THEN TAKE ME!!!”
Personally I’d rather have no closer and get hold of some quality relief pitching or bundle Eddie with some others and get a new quality starter.
Nobody would give up a quality starter for Eddie, he’s too fragile. As for who would close if here were gone, I’d say Shiggy or Putz depending on who has the better spring. I’m not sure I trust Nellie enough to be our opening day closer.
You couldn’t use Nellie to close against lefties, though. When his control over that slider thingy he throws is slipping he doesn’t have anything else to bamboozle a hitter. His fastball has little movement and is very crushable. As much as I’d hate to see it Shiggy is probably the best choice to hold the fort for Eddie.
Nobody gives Putz any love but he did a good job closing after a rough start. Here are his numbers for August and September:
August ERA 3.24, BA against .219, BB/K 0/5 in 8 1/3 innings 6/6 Saves/Opp
September 1.29, .231, 1/7 in 7 inings, 3/3
I know it’s a small sample size but that ain’t bad. Shiggy on the other hand………..
#8, I was totaly kidding.
#10 is correct. The M’s should be able to field an average bullpen, with or without Eddie. If Bland is half as good as he has shown in ST, then the M’s have a decent crop of bullpen lefties, including Sherrill, Villone (ok as a reliever, bad as a starter), and possibly Thornton. If Eddie is healthy and effective later in the season, he could could be turned over to a desperate pennant contender for a decent prospect.
It is too bad Guardado isn’t 100%, because apparently the Cubs are looking for a closer. And last time they went looking, they gave up Dontrelle Willis for Antonio Alfonseca.
jason
Whenever I assembled my prospective rosters this past off-season, they included Pinerio with a question mark and Eddie not all. I thought the idea was Eddie adn Soriano would return at the All-Star break. Losing our projected number one starter is a bigger setback than losing our closer. Putz and Atchison will work fine. Somebody looked at the stats once upon a time and determined teams win 87 percent of the time when using their closer and 86 percent of the time when using somebody else. I guess this gives an opening for Campillo and King Felix.
I wrote to my Minneapolis correspondent about the blasphemy in # 8 (Tongue in cheek, yes; but blasphemy nevbertheless.) [“Herb Carneal is full of sh…”], and got this reply:
________________________________________________________________________________________
Herbie is not full of sh… and Everyday Eddie was Everyday until someone spoiled him with an oversized contract. Good luck, Mariners, with now Every Now And Then Eddie.
Larry
touche’
🙂