December 03, 2003
More Righties
The Yankees have signed another right-handed reliever, Paul Quantrill (the article also has a roundup of the hot stove action). I like this signing a lot less than the Gordon signing. ESPN's profile page of Quantrill lists him as a groundball, finesse pitcher. Given the Yankees defense, I can see Paul getting roughed up quite a bit.
The one thing he did extremely well with the Dodgers was keep the ball in the park, allowing only three HR over the last two seasons. He has the lowest HR per 9 (0.18) over the last two seasons of any pitcher with 150 IP.
I'm going to have to whole-heartedly agree with David on this one. I love the Flash Gordon signing, but the Quantrill signing doesn't really make me jump up and down. Then again, he's gotta be better than some of the stiffs the Yankees had throwing for them out of the pen last season. Acevedo? Osuna?
Have fun with Flash Gordon. Hope they get better use out of him than the Sox did...
And I find this interesting about another reliever. Since I don't have a blog, I'm posting it here:
"Mariners free-agent closer Shigetoshi Hasegawa told the Yomiuri Shimbun in Tokyo he has received an offer from the Yankees and has offers from nearly 30 teams. He said he will make his decision by Jan. 10. Backup catcher John Flaherty is close to re-signing with New York." (from espn.com)
Offers from nearly 30 teams? That's amazing! I wonder how many offers that Quantrill had, since if you look at their numbers, they are pretty close, though Quantrill's were better. They both pitched in a pitcher's park, but Hasegawa is Neutral & Finesse as opposed to Quantrill's Groundball & Finesse.
as a dodger fan, quantrill will be missed from the best staff in the league, he was vry good at getting the groundballs when we needed then, and did not give up hr's, but mota, who is like a mini gagne, is coming into his own, shuey has done quiet well, martin is coming back, but looks like q did it for the money, since he declined his option with us. just as long as Game Over Gagne is there in the 9th to serenade us with welcome to the jungle, i am happy
as a giants fan, I am happy that gagne does not have many leads to protect ;-)
Love the comments feature! The Yankees obviously took advantage of Dodgers ownership being frozen in place pending finalizing the sale to McCourt.
I'm a little surprised at the reaction, but maybe just because I've watched Quantrill be quite effective over the past year, and haven't seen much of Gordon. If my quick addition is correct, over the past two years Gordon and Quantrill have given up the same number of hits, while Gordon has walked 23 more people. (Gordon has five more innings pitched.) I think it isn't a sure thing that relatively poor infield defense will give up 23 more groundball hits over roughly 150 innings than will good defense. Gordon might work out betterthan will Quantrill, but I'm not sure the difference will be great enough to be excited about the one acquisition but not the other.
Capy, good point. Plus Gordon has a history of arm trouble. 2003 was the only season in a while that he's been able to pitch the entire season. Though maybe all the time off he's had for his injuries extended his career a bit. ;) Quantrill seems a like he has a much better health track record.
I think Quantrill is a much safer signing than Flash. Gordon's arm isn't the least bit reliable and he could be injured at any time. He's a health risk while Quantrill's numbers are fantastic and he has a pretty good track record. I'd rather have Quantrill...but there was a good point made about the Yanks defense. They aren't as good as the Dodgers defense was, besides a few guys like Matsui and Posada. But then again if Gordon's healthy than he is a great setup man/closer.
Hmmmm, a groundball pitcher. What I'd be more interested in seeing is where those groundballs travel. Up the middle or to the corners? If it's up the middle we're going to be hearing a lot of this,
"Runners on first and third 2 out, Quantrill in. Groundball up the middle and through for a base hit one runs scores! so and so rounding second heading to third and he's in standing up well ahead of Bernie's throw."