It's official-By By Danny!

[jestor92]

The mistake would have been if he kept him on the 40 man roster now. Last year, Rick Rueschel would have been resigned, if he could have made it out to the mound without help. Hopefully, this year will be better, and most of the staff won't be shell shocked again.
[/quote]


Unfortunately, Rick Rueschel would have been an improvement over alot of the guy the Pirates ran out to the mound last year.  Paul Rueschel might have been an improvement.  Almost made you miss Steve Cooke and Paul Wagner.
[/quote]
Do you remember when Paul Wagner almost threw a no hitter vs Colorado?

[cgarcia]

Galaraga on a full count broke that one up in the 9th (2 outs?) if memory serves.

My favorite Paul Wagner story was a conversation on the air between Lanny and Blass.  Lanny asked Steve if he'd rather have a pitcher with good stuff, or a pitcher who knew how to pitch.  Steve said good stuff, because you can teach a guy how to pitch, but you can't teach velocity and movement.  Lanny said, "So you'd rather have Paul Wagner than Denny Neagle?"  Steve reconsidered his line of thinking.

[Lumber Co]

NH is going to sign whoever maxes out the formula:

MPH (over 90) -Years (over/under 27) + Inches (over 6'3") + BB/9 (over 4.0)

Daniel Cabrera would be his man, matching all of the above criteria.

Cabrera would be awesome, guy has huge potential.  everytine I watched this guy I always thought he was very close to being a front line pitcher, just not able to get over the hump.  wander what our new pitching coach could do with him?  If not him then how about Charlie Haeger the knuckle baller, our pitching coach worked with a knuckle baller in Boston so maybe he could work with Haeger.  Nothing messes up opponents timing like a good knuckle baller.  Plus his is 25 so there is time to work with him.

[lefty]

NH is going to sign whoever maxes out the formula:

MPH (over 90) -Years (over/under 27) + Inches (over 6'3") + BB/9 (over 4.0)

Daniel Cabrera would be his man, matching all of the above criteria.

Cabrera would be awesome, guy has huge potential.  everytine I watched this guy I always thought he was very close to being a front line pitcher, just not able to get over the hump.  wander what our new pitching coach could do with him?  If not him then how about Charlie Haeger the knuckle baller, our pitching coach worked with a knuckle baller in Boston so maybe he could work with Haeger.  Nothing messes up opponents timing like a good knuckle baller.  Plus his is 25 so there is time to work with him.

A couple of thoughts.

1. A K ball would offer a change of pace to ANY pitcher on either side of him, thus an advantage for the whole rotation.
2. Can Doumit, or any other catcher in the organization for that matter, catch a K ball 99.9% of the time? If a batter winds up on base just because your catcher can't control the pitch, have you really gained anything? We had a lot of passed balls last year if memory serves, as it was.

If we can solve #2, I'm all for it. Wakefield gave us that option in the early 90's.

[bobster]

"Cabrera would be awesome, guy has huge potential.  everytine I watched this guy I always thought he was very close to being a front line pitcher, just not able to get over the hump.  wander what our new pitching coach could do with him?"

Cabrera had 3 different pitching coaches with Baltimore, and that included Ray Miller and Leo Mazzone. He occasionally showed flashes of great pitching but always regressed to his natural state of wildness and high ERAs. Can't blame the Orioles for not going to arbitration with him. If he came cheap. it might be worth a shot with yet another pitching coach. But I wouldn't offer anything more than a minor league contract.  The Orioles, who are desperate for starting pitching, cut him loose for a reason.

[slider]

"Cabrera would be awesome, guy has huge potential.  everytine I watched this guy I always thought he was very close to being a front line pitcher, just not able to get over the hump.  wander what our new pitching coach could do with him?"

Cabrera had 3 different pitching coaches with Baltimore, and that included Ray Miller and Leo Mazzone. He occasionally showed flashes of great pitching but always regressed to his natural state of wildness and high ERAs. Can't blame the Orioles for not going to arbitration with him. If he came cheap. it might be worth a shot with yet another pitching coach. But I wouldn't offer anything more than a minor league contract.  The Orioles, who are desperate for starting pitching, cut him loose for a reason.

Won't get it done.  I'm guessing there will be several teams willing to take a chance on a 27 year with Cabrera's potential.  It wouldn't even surprise me to see him make more as a free agent than he would have through arbitration (3.5-4 million).  If the Pirates make a phone call, which I'm sure they will, it will certainly take more than a minor league contract, perhaps upwards of 2 years at 8 million or so.

Slider

[bobster]

MLB has been rife with bad signings since free agency began. Anyone who wants to give big bucks to take on Cabrera is free to squander their money. That doesn't make it right or even smart.

As I said, I wouldn't offer more than a minor league contract because that's all his lack of productivity warrants. He can't throw strikes, has an awful career ERA over 5.00 and is 2 years removed from a Kip Wellsesque 18-loss season. Since others will waste big bucks on him, that's their problem. He's been a starting ML pitcher for 5 years and 840 innings under some of the best tutelage available.  The likelihood that he can change is minimal, no matter how much money is thrown at him.