I had a whole section on Claudio Vargas written out, mostly about how unlike Milton, Estes, and...

I had a whole section on Claudio Vargas written out, mostly about how unlike Milton, Estes, and Weaver, he was given a major-league contract rather than just a spring training invite. But all that's out the window after Monday, because Claudio Vargas has committed the unthinkable: he allowed a home run to our favorite fat sack of crap, Andruw Jones. That alone should disqualify him - and if it doesn't, the three other homers he's allowed in just 8.1 innings so far ought to.

An excerpt from Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness' excellent breakdown of the Dodgers' 5th starter candidates.

11 months ago Eric Stephen 9 comments 0 recs |

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grabowski principle no more.

by sporky on Mar 11, 2009 1:20 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

This is probably just an error, but...

Danny Ardoin and Eric Stults are gone from the Dodgers.com 40-man roster.

Also gone from the NRI roster are Juan Castro and Doug Mientkiewicz.

(This tip first appeared in the comment section at the TJax blog).

by silverwidow on Mar 11, 2009 7:22 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Well

The last time Dodgers.com jumped the gun (Brent Leach) it turned out to be false, so I’m holding out hope.

by Eric Stephen on Mar 11, 2009 10:59 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

The thing is

The names jive EXACTLY with how the front office thinks – they don’t like Stults, have no need for Ardoin. And Castro/Eyechart fit their bench ideals.

I think it could be true.

by silverwidow on Mar 11, 2009 12:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Nevermind

Tony Jackson just said it’s almost certainly a system glitch.

by silverwidow on Mar 11, 2009 12:29 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

This excerpt is a pretty good example of why I generally find MSTI unreadable. Vargas is a fringe major league pitcher. Milton and Estes are horrible, awful alternatives, and MSTI doesn’t give an expletive just because Vargas gave up a home run to a home run hitter in a spring training game? With weeks left until this decision is made? Just throwing in my two cents but MSTI has yet to not disappoint me with their misleading use of sample data.

by fifth of on Mar 11, 2009 4:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

They are all equally crappy

http://www.baseball-reference.com/e/estessh01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/miltoer01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/v/vargacl01.shtml

Vargas is healthier, I guess.

by kensai on Mar 12, 2009 3:39 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

"Equally crappy"?

Vargas, 2003-8: 4.94 ERA, 703.2 IP, 5.08 FIP (4.95 ERA, 5.11 FIP as a starter)
Estes, 2003-8: 5.46 ERA, 527.2 IP, 5.20 FIP
Milton, 2003-8: 5.37 ERA, 588.1 IP, 5.30 FIP

And every projection system projects a better ERA and FIP for Vargas (unless the BIS book really projects Milton for a 4.37 ERA as per fangraphs). Agreed that they are not good. Like I said, Vargas is a fringe/replacement pitcher. It’s just that Milton and Estes are worse than that and citing their numbers from the 1990’s doesn’t change that. The difference in their numbers is a lot more substantial than the number of HR they give up in ST.

by fifth of on Mar 12, 2009 4:14 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs