In 44 games for the Padres this season, Linebrink is (3-3) with a 3.80 ERA, and one save. He is expected to join the Brewers Friday in St. Louis. According to the Padres official site Linebrink was recently removed from his eighth inning set-up role.
The Brewers had to part with one of there best pitching prospects in Will Inman, who many view as THE best they had in the minors right now. Melvin was quoted as saying today, "You have to give up something to get something. One of our goals was to add quality to our bullpen. We think we got one of the best guys out there."
Melvin also went onto say "This is the first time we've been serious about the post-season".
Thus they pull the trigger on a soon-to-be 31 year old successful reliever who will become a free-agent after this season. This is the first time in my memory where they made a move like this giving up prospects for a rental player. Melvin however pointed out that if they are unable to sign Linebrink after the season they will get compensatory draft picks.
Linebrink has had 90 saves in the last 3 years excluding this year. I'm hoping the 2004 and 2005 Linebrink is the pitcher we get when he was arguably a top 2 or 3 set up man in the league. He has struggled some this year, and it appears the Brewers gave up a lot to get him. My first reaction is I don't like the deal, but that will change if Linebrink pitches very well for us over the second half of this season. A lot of scouts are back and forth on Inman as to whether or not he'll be a great starting pitcher in the big leagues. He was definitely the key to this deal for the Padres. No doubt it will help the Crew this year as there was no chance of seeing any of the departed pitchers being called up. But the bottom line is I have my reserves about trading for about 30 innings from a struggling reliever for 3 promising young pitchers
- You can check out his season stats here, as well as his career stats (3.19 ERA).
Courtesy of Brewers.com, a couple of quotes from the Padres clubhouse regarding the Linebrink trade. He seems like a good guy, as he has definitely earned clubhouse respect setting up for Hoffman for years.
Said Hoffman: "Incomprehensible. Four other teams in the National League West are awfully excited. I probably need to take a day before I say something about this, because I'm going to say something stupid."
Starter Jake Peavy: "You have to trust your front office when you are in the middle of a playoff run. But, man, to trade away your setup man ... what kind of a message are we sending here?"
David Wells: "I know Scott has had some rough times recently. But he's one of the premier guys in the league. Scott Linebrink is a pitcher of magnitude. He's also one of the best people you'd ever want to know ... a great friend and a teammate. To take a hit like this ... they must have different reasons we can't see."
0 comments:
Post a Comment