However, that isn't what brought me back to the internet today - it was the Cubs latest trade acquisition that did that:
Fernando Rodney saved me from the blogging doldrums! Since saves have been pretty hard for this former closer to come by this season, that's not insignificant.
The Cubs bullpen has been a touch shaky lately and a club always needs a few extra arms, so the Cubs sent a little cash to Seattle for the embattled (5.68 ERA,6 blown saves) reliever last night. It's a low risk/high reward trade, as he'll likely be used for low leverage middle relief.
Hopefully, this at least works out better than the Rafael Soriano experiment - like Raffy, Fernando was an All-Star in Tampa under Joe Maddon. Since we seem to like bringing in aged Tampa closers lately, does this mean a Troy Percival signing is next? Maybe Grant Balfour?
In order to make room for "he who shoots a bow and arrow into the sky after each save," the Cubs had to flush someone off the roster:
Brian has gone down the Schlitter. The reliever has been resilient, hanging on in the organization since the 2008 Scott Eyre trade after multiple injury issues, but has been gasoline on a fire more often than not in his big league time. His number was up.
See? No big loss there.
The 2013 Archives card from the top of this post will go into my CATRC to represent the Cubs' latest scrap heap find; thankfully, it came in the box featured in this post - a gift that just keeps on giving! However, it wasn't the only card of Rodney that I had lying around:
I also had this 2007 Topps base card just sitting in my trade stacks. Now, I much prefer the faux-vintage Archives card as compared to the hard to read text and random colored boxes of this one, so it wasn't going to usurp for CATRC inclusion. However, it will proves useful for one of those aforementioned new collections from the top of the post.
This accumulation was inspired by Red Cardboard and it involves jerseys. I'll unveil it at some point next week to great anticipation, I'm sure.
In the meantime, here's hoping the Cubs can get things going on the west coast. This road trip has led the Cubs up against some top flight pitching and it ain't about to get better with Kerhsaw on the mound tonight. Anything can happen though, right?
The Cubs bullpen has been a touch shaky lately and a club always needs a few extra arms, so the Cubs sent a little cash to Seattle for the embattled (5.68 ERA,6 blown saves) reliever last night. It's a low risk/high reward trade, as he'll likely be used for low leverage middle relief.
Hopefully, this at least works out better than the Rafael Soriano experiment - like Raffy, Fernando was an All-Star in Tampa under Joe Maddon. Since we seem to like bringing in aged Tampa closers lately, does this mean a Troy Percival signing is next? Maybe Grant Balfour?
In order to make room for "he who shoots a bow and arrow into the sky after each save," the Cubs had to flush someone off the roster:
Brian has gone down the Schlitter. The reliever has been resilient, hanging on in the organization since the 2008 Scott Eyre trade after multiple injury issues, but has been gasoline on a fire more often than not in his big league time. His number was up.
See? No big loss there.
The 2013 Archives card from the top of this post will go into my CATRC to represent the Cubs' latest scrap heap find; thankfully, it came in the box featured in this post - a gift that just keeps on giving! However, it wasn't the only card of Rodney that I had lying around:
I also had this 2007 Topps base card just sitting in my trade stacks. Now, I much prefer the faux-vintage Archives card as compared to the hard to read text and random colored boxes of this one, so it wasn't going to usurp for CATRC inclusion. However, it will proves useful for one of those aforementioned new collections from the top of the post.
This accumulation was inspired by Red Cardboard and it involves jerseys. I'll unveil it at some point next week to great anticipation, I'm sure.
In the meantime, here's hoping the Cubs can get things going on the west coast. This road trip has led the Cubs up against some top flight pitching and it ain't about to get better with Kerhsaw on the mound tonight. Anything can happen though, right?
The Pirates had a tough run like that a couple weeks back with the Dodgers, Giants and Mets. Bumgarner was the only one that ended up getting us. He also hit a homerun.
ReplyDeleteThat Bumgarner... he's a one-in-a-lifetime kind of something!
DeleteNice post title. Sorry you acquired Fernando. He's a good enough pitcher, but because of his consistency issues you don't want him on your favorite baseball team or your fantasy baseball team. At least he gives you plenty to blog about, whether it's good or bad.
ReplyDeleteYea, that's what I figured. Oh well - he'll have a short leash anyway.
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