A Few Facts for Fernando Rodney Fans

as for Matsui and Rodney, I have no idea what the Angels front office is thinking in regards to these players. Granted this is a pretty weak FA market, and the economy, especially in Southern California sucks. But the Angels let every big (and good ) FA go to other teams. Some people have been touting that they would land Chapman, well he looks to be a Red now. The Angels look set to start the season with 2 solid starting pitchers, and then whoever else they send to the mound and cross their fingers. If they intend to save money and rebuild, then just do it and bring up minor league players who will play their hearts out, and for less pay. signing Matsui and Rodney is a sham.

Rank the Angels 25-Man roster in order of most important player to least important player.

If Aybar or Hunter or Morales or Weaver or Saunders (or fifteen other Angels) go down, we are twenty times more fucked than if Rodney sucks.

It is like worrying about when we traded Jose Molina. Rodney’s presence in the bullpen is almost inconsequential to the success of this team.

Frankly I would have preferred that they signed Jose Valverde, but … whatever.

if Weaver or Saunders, or possibly both go down for even a month or two then we are screwed. To date, those two are the Angels only solid starting pitchers who you can count on to be solid when they take the mound, the rest of the starting rotation is a crap shoot, unless one or more of them proves me wrong and steps up their game this season. The Angels depend on good pitching, and fast and agressive base running, they are not a power hitting team, even with Matsui. The Angels need shut down pitching and Valverde would have been a much better signing than Rodney.

I liked you better when I thought you were reppin’ Turk 182.

but…uh…del taco… uhhh

I’m working on a song, or a limerick, or something for him even as we speak.
And when do the F Rod jerseys come out?

if it says Rodney on the Roq and it is jersey number 106.7

Rodney’s 2010 peripherals indicate he is a very mediocre pitcher and he got 2yrs/$11mil
K/9 7.26
BB/9 4.88
Batting AVG against .247
HR/9 0.95
WHIP 1.47

I would like to add that that were better relievers who could have been had for either less money or a 1 year contract and would not cost a draft pick. Let’s see some of them stack up against him.

1. Rafael Soriano- Was re-signed by the Braves to a 1-year 7.25mil deal then dealt for virtually nothing.
K/9 12.13 (Ridiculous)
BB/9 3.21
Batting AVG against 1.99
HR/9 0.71
WHIP 1.06

2. Kiko Calero- Has not garnered much interest this offseason possibly because of the injury risk, but was great last year.
K/9 10.35
BB/9 4.50
Batting AVG against .175
HR/9 0.15
WHIP 1.39

3. Octavio Dotel- Is not that much better than Rodney and most likely won’t command as much money unless some other GM pulls a Reagins and offers him 2 years.
K/9 10.83
BB/9 5.20(ewww)
HR/9 1.01
Batting AVG against .235
WHIP 1.44

4. Takashi Saito- Was a huge injury risk, but had a decent 09 and signed for only 1yr/3.2 and had an excellent track record.
K/9 8.41
BB/9 4.04
HR/9 .097
Batting AVG against .242
WHIP 1.35

5. Kevin Gregg- Had a terrible season in 09 and would be lucky to get anything near the $4.2mil he made last year for more than 1 year.
K/9 9.31
BB/9 3.93
HR/9 1.70
Batting AVG against .237
WHIP 1.31

I don’t understand why they chose to offer Rodney the amount of money and years that they did, but I believe they should’ve spent their money a bit more prudently or even saved it for this year’s draft. Even if their plan was to deny Fuentes his option with a bullpen signing, they could have done so by signing someone to a 1 year deal so that 4 bullpen contracts would be shed next offseason.

That’s all I need to know, I’m sold.

Let’s work on a long-term extension before the season starts.

IF Rodney is a total bomb, at least he will unite is in an appreciation of Fuentes if not a downright Bri-Fu Love Fest.

but I’m waiting to cast judgment until I see what Butcher can do with him. Not to mention, if Fuentes wants his job, he’s going to have to earn it.

Rodney, as Rev said before, isn’t going to be a crucial centerpiece to the success of the Angels and although the price is way too high for my taste, Lord knows we’ve saved money this offseason. I think I’d be up in arms if we signed Benedict Lackey for $80+, that is way too much money. This signing doesn’t really shake us financially. We’re not the Rangers, we have the cash and the FA market was pretty pathetic this year.

As for Tony, I’ll sleep easy when/if we get a 5th starter. Palmer belongs in long relief and I don’t think SOS is ready just yet, let alone Bell. Let’s say we’re up at SafeCo and it’s Lee vs. O’Sullivan. I don’t like that at all and, considering Texas and Seattle both look like they’re ready to play major league ball, we’re going to need those wins.

We’re not doomed yet and, assuming we crash and burn this season, I can guarantee the blame will fall on several pairs of shoulders, not just Rodney’s.

I’m pretty sure the decision to sign Rodney wasn’t Reagins’ alone, as he had input from a lot of different people within the organization. If I can speculate, there aren’t too many pitchers, let alone free agent pitchers who have a fastball that averages 95 mph and the Angels wanted him. Did the Angels overpay? Sure, but who cares. What is one or two million extra dollars a year to the Angels? That’s 1% of their payroll budget. The Angels front office decided Rodney was their man and they went out and got him, making an offer he was almost sure to accept.

I don’t think rodney is going to be any type of savior or anything =, but his ability to eat up some innings, get some save opportunities taking away Fuentes vesting for next year, and it is not like the guy sucks he is a decent pitcher…
All this means is that we made a decent signing at an overvalued price. not the end of the world.
He if blows chunks he lets us get rid of Fuentes next year and moves into a 7th inning role in his final year allowing Jepsen to take over Closer role. with Shields taking the 8th innings
preferred a 1 year deal or a 2 year deal at less money but whatever

…I think you missed the part where our bullpen isn’t going to be as big of an issue as last year due to the return of Scot Shields and the unlikelihood of our rotation suffering numerous major inuries at the same time again.

Last year we lost Lackey, Santana, Moesely, Adenhart, Loux, and Oliver from our staff at the beginning of the year for various reasons. It’s highly unlikely that the same thing will happen with Weaver, Kazmir, Saunders, Santana and Palmer (or whoever else). Shields should be fine, and Jepsen and Bulger both have a year of experience under their belts now.

And to top it off, we no longer have to account for replacing John “My Season Doesn’t Start ’til June” Lackey until he’s ready to go. Instead we went ahead and permanently replaced him.

Our offense is going to score plenty of runs and our rotation will not be a 5 alarm fire like it was early last year. This means less stress on the pen, which means it won’t turn into a gas can to add to this fire.

Rodney is going to pitch 2 innings at most every few days. He’s not going to hurt us that bad and could turn out to be a nice option to have. Is he getting overpaid some? Yeah, probably. But, when you look at the fact that having him could keep Fuentes’ option from vesting and save us about $4.5 million next year, it’s not so bad.

Am I a “fan” of the Rodney signing? No, but I don’t hate it either. It’s a relatively minor issue and there’s more important things to worry about.

Nary they to write anything remotely positive about the Angels or any of our players or coaches even though we always out perform their projections and WAR.

      There is no getting around the cold hard stats. Another bad signing.

but on MLBnetwork.

They were talking about how pitchers in Cold weather have a harder time getting to Season ready shape if they throw heavy stuff , and how at the end of the year when it starts to get cold and ‘dead arms’ start to pop up it puts a strain on them again.

They never mentioned Rodney by name but I thought of it right away. It could not severely, but somewhat skew his numbers a little high.
Also there is a lot to be said for playing on a winner Vs. a ;looser like Detroit.. Players on winning teams always seem to have something extra in the tank because they are always competing. Tough to think that in KC or PITT the pitchers and hitters are still giving it everything in August and they are out of it.
Lets give Rodney a chance.
Hell even Spier gave us something in short bursts at the beginning. all we really need from this guy is 1 good year the other year is irrelevant.
If we get rid of Fuentes and have to eat Rodneys contract next year and suffer through a average MLB reliever we have made it through worse

I don’t have a problem signing Rodney, but at $11 million? People are fond of throwing out the phrase “It’s not my money.” And that’s true. But Arte’s pockets aren’t bottomless, which means the Angels budget has a certain limit. And as Turk said elsewhere in this thread, that’s $11 million that would have been much better spent on draft pick bonuses, international free agents, or undervalued commodities.

Reagin’s has shown no ability to recognize the current market and take advantage of the inefficiencies. Currently, good defense can be had on the cheap, but Reagins has let Figgins walk, and signed a bunch of guys to play OF who might be mistaken for statues out there. Then he overpays for the easiest position to replace internally – reliever.

Pretty sure Brendan is juicing, so this fun fact, not so fun. He was juicing when he was an Angel, then got named in the Mitchell report, then his performance dropped off. Now that he is on the uptick, i’m betting he went back to the juice.

The ude throws hard and has a nasty changeup. With Butcher at his side I believe he can elevate his current status of not very good. At the end of the year we could possibly have the best bullpen in baseball. To our benefit let’s all hope he does turn things around and become studly!

Valverde to the Tigers for $14MM. Nice work Reagins. Link