Non-Tender FA Pickings

by nihil67 on Dec 13, 2006 9:38 AM EST

The next batch of free agents hit the market last night when they weren't tendered arbitration offers by their current teams. The big name is undoubtedly Marcus Giles, but here's the couple names that perk my interest:

Chin-Hui Tsao, RHP RP - 25 year old with an "explosive" 92-96 mph fastball and reportedly a wicked slider. Was at one time projected to be the Rockies' ace. Was battling to be the closer last year before having to undergo rotator-cuff surgery. Worth a minor-league stab if you ask me.
Brandon Claussen, LHP SP - Once the top prospect in the Yankees' organization (is that saying much?), he has struggled with the Reds. I thought he had figured it out at the end of '05, but really fell apart last year. Could it all have been injury related (DL in June with shoulder tendinitis)? He's only 27 and made the league minimum last year. Another guy worth a cheap minor league stab and a long look in spring training.

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Hmmm...

The obvious question would be, do we think anyone on the list will be a potential #3 or better? Because, basically, we're not short on arms for the back of the rotation? Here's the full list, based off the one from Rotoworld, via DBBP, though I've added value through sorting it by position. :-)

Brandon Claussen, p
Adam Harben, p
Jerome Williams, p
Willie Eyre, p
Scott Dohmann, p
Brandon Duckworth, p
Eduardo Sierra, p
Todd Williams, p
Aaron Rakers, p
Jorge Sosa, p
Mike Wood, p
Victor Zambrano, p
Joel Pineiro, p
Jason Bulger, p
Chin Hui Tsao, p
Chris Reitsma, p

Miguel Perez, c
Jose A Reyes, c
Toby Hall, c

Luis Rodriguez, inf
Marcus Giles, inf

David Newhan, of
Rick Ankiel, of
Damon Hollins, of
Jason Werth, of
Jon Knott, of
Aaron Guiel, of
Alexis Gomez, of

A couple of thoughts. Seeing Jason Bulger on the list, makes the trade for Callaspo an absolute steal for Arizona: whoever okayed that one in Anaheim should be taken out and shot. Claussen has a 6.19 ERA in 14 starts last year, which is half a run worse than EnGon. Tsao's tore a labrum, and had surgery: he's only thrown 20.1 innings in the majors over the past three seasons combined. Still, in this market, he'll probably get multi-year offers from some teams... Joel Pineiro's name leaps out, but only because I had him on my fantasy team a couple of years back. His ERA+ in the past five years are 130, 117, 92, 77, 68: sounds like toast to me.

Oh, and that's not a mis-sprint, and it is the Rick Ankiel. After his nationally-televised post-season implosion in Game 1 of the 2000 NLDS, he effectively vanished off the radar, but quit pitching and converted to an outfielder in 2005. He didn't do much this year, having knee surgery in May that ended his season. Be curious to see if he can ever make it back: odds are probably against it. While I know of several position players who became pitchers - Greg Aquino was signed as an infielder, not sure how many have gone the other way, save some guy called Ruth. ;-)

by Jim McLennan on Dec 13, 2006 1:37 PM EST reply actions

#3?

Brandon Claussen had the potential to be #3. Or better? Probably not. It would really come down to how he recovers from the tendonitis, which I feel is what caused his 06 woes.

At the least he could be a LOOGY. He's just dominated LHBs the past couple years.

by nihil67 on Dec 13, 2006 2:01 PM EST up reply actions