OT - Tigers Get Relief Pitcher Jose Veras From Astros
According to the Free Press, the Tigers acquired the Houston Astros' Jose Veras for a prospect (Danry Vasquez) and a player-to-be-named. It will be nice to have a designated closer him in that organization.
Veras has 19 saves for the Astros this season, and sports a 2.93 ERA.
LINK.
[Edit - rlew correctly points out in the comments that he's not necessarily going to be a closer.]
I'm not certain he's going to close, but it will be nice to have some more help with late innings.
It looks like Benoit will continue to close (from Danny Knobler on Twitter - I can't embed for some reason):
Tigers will keep Benoit as closer, use Veras along with Smyly in the 7th and 8th innings.
Nice move. Not a lot of saves to go around for the Astros. The deeper you go into the season and in the playoffs, the tougher those late inning outs. I believe Vaszuez was a low-minors prospect with a big upside.
Let's hope he works out better than the last Houston closer who came here.
You mean the unmitigated disaster who saved 43 out of 43 in 2011? Using your criteria, Babe Ruth sucked too. His last season was terrible.
yeah, that guy sounds good too, but don't forget Jose Valverde, who was 49 for 49 in 2011.
Valverde was very good for the Tigers until his implosion last year.
Well, Vasquez ranked as the Tigers #6 prospect. Last time they got a RP named Jose V from the Astros, it went very well for one year. After that, not so much. Hopefully this means Phil Coke is dead to them.
the player we traded away for Veras. He was the #4 prospect of the Tigers according to BYB
Link: http://www.blessyouboys.com/2013/2/7/3962204/the-top-50-prospects-count…
I still think this is a good trade, we needed some help in the pen, and this guy has been pretty good for an awful team.
As long as they don't give up Garcia and Castellanos I will be happy. Those two could be their corner outfielders very soon. After Hunter's two year contract is up they could have an outfield of Castellanos, Jackson and Garcia.
Yeah, it would be nice to keep those two around. Hopefully one of them is not the "player to be named."
Neither one of those guys would be on the 5 or 10 man list the Tigers would give up. A PTBNL is usually not a MLB prospect.
I am more interested to see who gets cut from the 40 man roster. They couldmove a couple guys to the 60 day DL or I could also see Machado losing his spot. Not sure anyone would pick him up on waivers.
You're comparing Babe Ruth to Jose Valverde?
Valverde was good for the Tigers for one year. Even that year he was the beneficiary of luck. He had more than a couple "Todd Jones" saves the year he was perfect. By that I mean the saves when a guy gets out of a jam when he inherits a 3 run lead and saves it as a one-run game with the go-ahead run on base. Sometimes the numbers you pick don't tell the whole story. Example, Clayton Kershaw has fewer wins than a number of other pitchers in the league but that doesn't mean those pitchers are better. You could easily argue Kershaw is one of the top 3 pitchers in the game. The pitcher that gave up the GS to Peralta yesterday still has a 0.00 ERA because those were unearned runs, but anyone who watched that game saw him walk 2 and give up a moon shot while getting no one out. I was nervous for at least 25 of those 43 saves.
I don't think his point was that it was all luck, but that he had some lucky breaks. I think that is a fair statement.
Just one example, if Jackson doesn't make that incredible throw from center to sweep the Tribe, the streak was over for Valverde.
The final stat isn't the whole story. When you consistenly put guys on base on save situations, it juices up the other team, puts pressure on your team, and while the regualr season often forgives, in the playoffs you get blown up.
as well (the year prior to the perfect save season). ERA was higher at 3.00, but he only only allowed 5.9 hits per nine innings and struck out one batter per inning, which was actually better than his perfect save season. The closers job is to save the game, regardless of how that get's done it really doesn't matter. For much of his time with the Tigers Valverde did that a high level, just because it ended with an implosion doesn't take away from those first couple years with the Tigers. I don't care how you want to nitpick it going perfect in saves for a season takes way more than just luck. Every pitcher get's lucky at times over the course of a season, that doesn't take away from what he did because besides having a slightly high walk rate that year Valverde was lights out in most appearances.
you are not a good closer IMO.
I like this move a lot - they don't want to overtax Benoit so this guy can be a closer on those off days when they want to rest Benoit. Otherwise he can mix and match with Smyly in the 7th and 8th. It's a great move IMO (nice WHIP) - dont want to overpay for a closer when really the guys available are not a material upgrade over Benoit. Lets hope the player to be named later is not someone big but Danry V is years away from the majors so I like this strategy. Outfield depth and catcher are relative strengths in the farm system - the infield is where there are glaring hole so the prospect is expendable and whatever he is rated he is years away. Thought they'd get a 7th inning type of situational specialist - this is better.
Valverde was a very, very good closer for a handful of years. That is extremely difficult to do, and it is extremely rare for all of the pitchers who have ever attempted it. At the end he lost his fastball. It happens to all of them. His meltdown just happened to be in the postseason of the MLB, not in some backwater minor league town. Do not overreact and say he was terrible because he lost his mojo in his final season.
Currently Benoit, Smyly and Rondon are the only three bullpen guys I trust. If Veras can be a 4th reliable guy then that may be enough to get this team through. Who knows, maybe Alburquerque and/or Coke may heat up as well.
With reports that Octavio Dotel is nearing a return, I'm liking the odds of the bullpen being solid here out.
If JV can be "fixed", this team will be lights out.
Dang, I completly forgot about Dotel. If he gets back to being where he was last year plus the addition of Veras, the bullpen should become pretty decent.
If Verlander regains his "stuff" I don't see no better starting 5.
Some advanced stats for Veras are at Fangraphs - LINK
A few interesting notes when looking at pitch distribution - his career average for fastballs thrown is 58.8% with an average velocity of 94.2 MPH. He throws the curveball quite a bit, averaging 33.6% of the time at an average velocity of 78.3 MPH. He also seems to feature a changeup, which hits the mid-80s and batters will see about 7% of the time.
Over his career, he's seen an almost even split of ground ball outs and fly ball outs, leaning only slightly to fly ball outs. His K/9 average is 9.37 and his BB/9 average is 4.68, which basically makes for a K/BB ratio right at 2.00
More Fangraphs (because honestly who doesn't want more to read from Fangraphs) Don't overlook a player option for next year, another year of control also makes this a nice deal for the Tigers.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/tigers-acquire-jose-veras/
HURRRR, DUMBROWSKI IS AN IDIUT AND A MORAN AND DOESN"T KNOW HOW TO RUN AN ORGANIZATION. NICE MOVE DUMBROWSKI NOW WE DEFINITELY DON"T HAVE A CHANCE AT THE POSTSEASON.
Sorry, couldn't resist. I REALLY like this move though. Fangraphs did a nice comparison of Veras to Papelbon over the last year, and Veras has very comparable stats, and comes at a much lower price.
Stats for Veras so far this season:
- 43 IP
- 9.21 K/9 (26%)
- 2.93 BB/9 (8%)
- 1.00 WHIP
- .240 BABIP
- 77% LOB
- 45% GB
- 3.39 FIP
I'm liking his K and BB rates, the low WHIP, and solid GB percentage. You'd like to see his strand rate over 80%, but I'm not going to complain with a 77% at all. Again, great pickup, starting to feel good about our bullpen.
Haha you linked the article while I was creating a post about it, but ya Dave Cameron's piece really puts it into more perspective considering how cheaply we got Veras compared to what Papelbon would have demanded prospect/salary wise.