David Aardsma, the crazy-eyed pride of Cherry Creek, became the victim of two long-awaited moves Tuesday. With
Alexei Ramirez and
Octavio Dotel officially joining the 40-man roster, the White Sox designated the hard-throwing righty for free agency.
This move may ultimately not matter in the long run, because Aardsma has only one solid half-season of major-league pitching to his credit. But since it's the offseason,
we've talked Dotel to death and don't know anything more about Ramirez, so we may as well dive head-first into the dreck.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought Aardsma may have had something to offer. Before he hit the wall starting with the first series against the Cubs, Aardsma had put together
a pretty damned good season over his previous calendar year. Combining his stats with the Sox and Cubs:
G |
W-L |
ERA |
IP |
H |
HR |
BB |
K |
55 |
4-0 |
2.66 |
67.2 |
41 |
7 |
28 |
70 |
Aardsma was a beast in
his first month and a half with the Sox, striking out 26 over 20 1/3 innings and owning a 1.31 ERA over 14 appearances. In
his last 11 games, however, he allowed 26 hits and 20 earned runs over 11 1/3 innings. Nobody -- not even Mike MacDougal -- went from awesome to abysmal that quickly.
He did manage to rebound in Charlotte, striking out 45 over 35 1/3 innings. The longball proved to be his only flaw, and nearly all of his struggles happened in Charlotte's tiny park. Get a load of
these splits:
- Home: 19 IP, 6 HR, .219/.286/.571
- Away: 15.1 IP, 1 HR, .115/.220/.173
My guess is that the Sox weren't enthralled with the lack of sink on his fastball -- only 32 percent of the batted balls he allowed stayed on the ground in Charlotte, and the Sox are a team that prioritizes keeping the ball on the ground more and more.
Of course,
the pursuit of sink is what led them Kenny Williams to acquire Nick Masset, who pitched worse than Aardsma at the big leagues and didn't come close to matching his peripherals in Charlotte. Masset is still around, and should be of importance to those of us who care enough to wring our hands over the back end of the 40-man roster.
Already, Masset's failures puts pressure on John Danks to make the Brandon McCarthy trade worthwhile. One-for-one, the deal made zero sense, but Masset's hard, heavy fastball tipped the scales.
At least it was supposed to. Unfortunately, Masset threw 92 instead of 98, and that rendered him practically useless.
Williams
still thought it was there, somewhere, late last season:
"Nick still hasn't shown us what we scouted. There's more in there.
"There's more velocity, more break to the breaking ball, more downward
action and more sink. So, what happened between this offseason, whether
it's fatigue or winter ball or whatever, we have to get a handle on it
and start asking some real questions."
Hopefully the "real questions" have been asked and answered, because the bodies are beginning to mount. McCarthy has Danks on the ropes right now without any contributions from Masset, and now Aardsma makes two more promising relief candidates that have been shown the door. The Sox left Fernando Hernandez unprotected in the Rule 5 draft, and Aardsma will be put on waivers or traded within 10 days.
On the talent shown last year alone, Masset should've been the first to be cut. If Andrew Sisco were right-handed, he'd give Masset a run for his money, but the Sox won't give up as easily on a lefty who throws that hard. Instead, he lives to see another day -- probably because Williams invested more in Masset than anybody else. Hopefully that means he'll get a visit from
the Golf Cart of Doom in Tucson a few weeks from now.
There is a significant chance all three could stink, making this conversation ultimately pointless, but I'd rather first-guess than play Monday morning quarterback a couple years from now. Sometimes these decisions do make a difference. After all, that's how the Sox ended up with Bobby Jenks.