Patience with Guardado?
It is obvious Eddie Guardado is really struggling right now. Even when he is pitching well, you wonder how he is effective. He has no "out" pitch, and basically relies on mixing his pitches and staying away from the middle of the plate. He is a relievers version of Moyer if there ever was one. Watching hime "fire" an 88 mph fastball in the 9th is rather entertaining!
So while the M's have stablized a bit and won a couple of series, Hargrove faces a dilemma. How long do I stick with Eddie when I have Putz and Soriano waiting in the wings?
But the bigger issue is Hargrove shouldn't have had to make that decision- Guardado should have been traded last year at the deadline. We talked about that decision at length last year, and it still holds true today- Guardado serves no purpose right now.
Not only would the M's likely have an extra victory or two in hand, they'd have $6 million of extra salary to play with, plus whatever talent they picked up in return. Bavasi blew it by playing he safe route and not trading Guardado last summer, and now we get to watch him play with fire every time he takes the mound. This team isn't good enough to afford to waste any games if they want to stick close to .500
Sure, they aren't going to make the playoffs regardless, but Eddie, as nice of a guy as he might be, really shouldn't be on the team right now.
But he is, so I'll still cheer him on. The team is clearly better with Eddie pitching well, so I hope he gets his act together. This team could have one of the best bullpens in baseball if he does.
It is obvious Eddie Guardado is really struggling right now. Even when he is pitching well, you wonder how he is effective. He has no "out" pitch, and basically relies on mixing his pitches and staying away from the middle of the plate. He is a relievers version of Moyer if there ever was one. Watching hime "fire" an 88 mph fastball in the 9th is rather entertaining!
So while the M's have stablized a bit and won a couple of series, Hargrove faces a dilemma. How long do I stick with Eddie when I have Putz and Soriano waiting in the wings?
But the bigger issue is Hargrove shouldn't have had to make that decision- Guardado should have been traded last year at the deadline. We talked about that decision at length last year, and it still holds true today- Guardado serves no purpose right now.
Not only would the M's likely have an extra victory or two in hand, they'd have $6 million of extra salary to play with, plus whatever talent they picked up in return. Bavasi blew it by playing he safe route and not trading Guardado last summer, and now we get to watch him play with fire every time he takes the mound. This team isn't good enough to afford to waste any games if they want to stick close to .500
Sure, they aren't going to make the playoffs regardless, but Eddie, as nice of a guy as he might be, really shouldn't be on the team right now.
But he is, so I'll still cheer him on. The team is clearly better with Eddie pitching well, so I hope he gets his act together. This team could have one of the best bullpens in baseball if he does.
posted by Tom at
4:48 PM
