We'll start this post with a little apology to our fans for the lengthy delay between postings. As you are surely well aware, we were quite busy around the trading deadline.
Let's talk about what we did around the deadline.
First, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves even in this race. If anyone had told me at the beginning of the season that this team would be fighting for a playoff spot this season I would have recommended that they drop the crack pipe and seek help. But, the offense outperformed our own expectations, and we have received quite the efforts from some of starters, particularly rule V castoffs Cesar Rodriguez and Arthur Graham, as well as Augusto Torres, who we plucked off the waiver wire. And here we are.
We tried to approach the trading deadline with a few key objectives. First, we had to upgrade our pitching, both the rotation and the bullpen. We also need help in the middle infield, at designated hitter/first base, and catching. But we had to keep some long term financial objectives in mind, and do it on the cheap as best we could. We committed ourselves to a limited number of long term contracts.
We knew we were going to have to give up something to get something, but we attempted as best we could to protect our young pitching in the minor leagues. In fact, in the process we actually managed to add a few arms. After the horrific run of luck we had with injuries to pitchers in our minors this season, we just could not afford to give up much in the way of pitching. We did give up Patrick Hunter and Ben Thomas along the way, but again, sometimes you have to give up something to get something.
Bringing over Mike Buck and Kirby Gibson in separate deals with Duluth strengthened our rotation. And right at the deadline we added Alberto Magana. Buck is young and cheap, while the veteran Gibson has a contract that expires at the end of the season. At this point we are undecided if we will offer him an extension. His asking price and age are major concerns. We held out on making the Magana deal as long as possible. Truth be told, we were very concerned about how he would return from his recent injury and the length of his contract. We explored every option for adding a pitcher before we finally had to pull the trigger and add Magana. In the end, it came down to the chance to make the playoffs, and he was better than any options we had on hand. We hope he can eat some innings in the middle of the rotation and be a decent #3 starter for us the next couple of seasons.
Over in the bullpen, we underwent almost a complete makeover. Despite doing a bang up job most of the season, Maeda had begun to struggle in the closer's role and we needed to get him some help. Bringing in Guzman and Harada to help at the back of the bullpen allows us to move Maeda into the setup role. Adding southpaws Hughes and Ortiz finally gave some balance to our bullpen. The rookie Ortiz has responded very well to pitching at the PEBA level and we expect him to be a force in our bullpen for years to come. With Arthur Graham moving to the long role in the bullpen, we now have three southpaws out there who will force teams to make some tough lineup decisions late in games. And what had been our greatest weakness is much improved. While it's not a bullpen that will strike fear into opponents, it is now better than average and gives us a fighting chance. We should have most of the bullpen back next year, with the exception of Guzman who is in the final year of his contract. We'll have one hole to fill there, and we could be a player for a top tier reliever in free agency, though we are going to consider a few in house options first.
On the offensive side of things, we added Kelly well before the deadline, which allowed us to move Murdock over to SS, improving our infield. When we able to acquire O'Donnell at the deadline, that allowed us to shift Murdock over to second, greatly improving our infield. O'Donnell's contract expires at the end of the season, and we are unlikely to bring him back, which means we will be looking for a solution in the middle infield this offseason. But we're really liking what we see out of Ben McGinnity down at AA, and there's a decent chance he might skip AAA next year and come up to Laredo, with Murdock switching back to shortstop. It's hard not to like what the former 10th rd pick in 2009 has done in his short time in the minors. He batted .303 with a .400 obp at Taku in 2009. In 2010 so far, he batted .344 with a .403 obp and 26 doubles in 215 at bats at single A Drumright before getting the call up to AA Monterey. His combined numbers at both levels so far this season are 45 2b's, 8 3b's, 38 stolen bases, .313 avg and .363 obp. He has above average defense, great speed, and a great eye at the plate. We could see this guy setting the table for many years to come at the top of the Calzones lineup.
We made one minor change in the outfield, bringing in Jon Anderson while letting Fernando Garza go on waivers. Anderson is actually platooning at DH, and not very happy about it. Like we really care who we make happy. We're running a ballclub, not a daycare for whiny overpaid underperforming so called athletes.
We also brought in Domingo Dejesus to play first base against righthanders, and keep Pexego's iron glove on the shelf against righthanders. We thought a change of scenery might help Dejesus, but so far it appears that we struck out there. We won't be picking up his option and we'll again be looking for a solution at dh/1b in the offseason. We have some in house options and flexibility there, and our number one goal is to keep Pexego's glove hand in his pocket as much as possible.
About the only option year we are committed to picking up for next season is Carlos Madrigal, who has been everything we hoped for. He's a solid all around player, he's having his best offensive season yet and he's playing All-Leather caliber defense. At just 6 mil for next season, and with Madrigal in his prime at age 28 next season, we think he will be a bargain. Especially as he looks for that long term extension in his walk year.
We made a few moves at the catcher position as well, bringing in Velez from Fargo and signing free agent minor leaguer Nagamoto. We've parted ways with Gutierrez and sent Brock Brett back to AAA Joplin. Brett should be a fine player in time, but we needed an upgrade now. We are not sure Velez and Nagamoto are the answers, but we were already convinced that we had to try something. Both moves were relatively inexpensive. They also give us a more veteran presence behind the plate as we go into the stretch run, and both are a little better defensively.
One of our considerations when dealing away a lot of our top prospects in the minor leagues during this frenzy is that we do have a very young core of players, with the key players in thier prime and locked into contracts for the next 3 to 4 seasons. Miyata, Madrigal, Pexego, Murdock are considered our core, and it's very unlikely any of the four will be traded under any circumstances. We hope to sign Kelly to an extension next year, we have Griffin who is not even arbitration eligible for another season, and we have a supporting cast in place with guys like Anderson, Ramirez, and Cobb. We don't see a major need arising in our lineup for awhile, and hopefully we will have rebuilt the minor league ranks before then.
On the flip side, we did keep most of our minor league pitching in tact, and we even added a few arms that show at least some promise, even if they are darkhorses at this point. But they are all young, and we managed to pick up guys who we can be patient with for awhile. And we also added a couple of guys we think will help us as soon as next year, namely Jeff Cobb and Ryan Dawson. With Cris Reyes returning from injury in September, we think these three guys could all be in the rotation in Laredo next year. Other young pitchers we picked up who you might see in a few years include Cipriano Baca, who has held his own at AA Monterey so far; Greg White, who has pitched lights out at Drumright since his acquisition; and Ken Sellars.
On the subject of pitchers, I have toss out a little heads up on Harlan Mack, a pitcher we picked up in the 14th round of the 2010 draft who has made quite the impression on us since arriving in Taku. He has posted a 6-3 3.23 mark so far, and has shown very good control for a pitcher getting his first crack at pro ball. We're giving him a long hard look.
One of the things we liked that we accomplished in all this activity was not hamstringing ourselves for the future. Outside of moderate contracts with Magana and Anderson, we didn't add much to the payroll for next year. Our present estimates have us with $25 to $30 million dollars available for free agency this next offseason. But with some solid in house options where we have our biggest needs, we're not even sure where we'll spend it yet.
Keep coming out and supporting the Calzones folks. We're ALL IN for the playoff race, we hope you are as well.
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