MLB: White Sox Trade Linebrink to Atlanta
- Thread starter CrossCyed
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I can't believe we got more than a bag of used baseballs for that bum! We must be paying $4 of the $5 million or so he is due! But good riddance! Arguably one of KW's worst signings!
Sox are sending 1.5 million, so this deal essentially pays for Pierznyski for a year.
Also, I can't fault that signing. We desperately needed pen help at the time, the market was a bit off, and before he got hurt, he wasn't too bad, was a good clubhouse guy, was a good mentor for Gavin Floyd and helped bring us Peavy.
The thing that hurt about that signing is that (if I recall correctly) that no setup men even came close to a 4 year - $20 million contract outside of Linebrink. So at the time it was a bit much no matter what but I do agree that it looked smart to load up on good relievers and I was happy about it...at the time.
Who knows...in two years we might be complaining about how much money Dunn got from the White Sox. One of the many reasons baseball is so great! The excitement...the complaining.
The contract was terrible not the pitcher. He has a 3.5 ERA in his career as a lifelong setup guy. Pretty solid. And the best news as a Braves fan - we can at least assume Freddi won't send him out there 90 times this season.
Seems like an overpay for Atlanta, Linebrink has been a middling reliever for the past few years, is old(and is thus likely to see his skills deteriorate), and even with 1.5 million being sent is rather expensive. That said, the prospect sent doesn't look to be any great shakes and Linebrink only has a 1 year deal so its hard to condemn the Braves too harshly.
He's not going to be (or at least shouldn't be) depended on to be great. They are looking for a solid veteran presence to solidify the back of the rotation and help out the young kids, especially Kimbrel. Probably overpaid a little but not to the point that it's going to keep them from doing anything else they may have wanted to. Losing Cofield is no big deal to them as they are absolutely loaded with young pitching. At 24 he likely would have never seen the bigs with Atlanta unless major injuries happened. Not a great pickup but they weren't looking for a game changer at this point.
The best thing about Linebrink over the past two seasons is that he did not whine and complain when he was ineffective. This day in age that is commendable. No excuses. It would have been difficult for the White Sox to trot him out of the pen and have the fans take him as anything more than a mop-up man. Again, it is not personal (although I did allude to him as being a bum earlier, I shouldn't have), he acted like a true-professional, but there were times I almost felt sorry for him because he was so bad! And then I remembered what his paycheck must be.
While I don't disagree that he wasn't "good" I definitely wouldn't say he was "so bad!" He had an ERA that hovered around 4 for the last 3 years. For a back-end relieve that doesn't walk a lot that's not a bad ERA. For those that like stats, his WAR was at 0 or higher all 3 years too. Again, not great and probably would like to see better considering the paycheck but not "bad." Just because the White Sox overpaid him doesn't mean he's a bad pitcher.
I don't have the numbers or dates to throw into this debate and maybe I am "misremembering" (thanks Roger), but I don't know if Ozzie brought Linebrink into a meaningful situation (non-mopup) more than three or four times and those were because the Jenks, Putz and Thorton's arms fell off in August. I really shouldn't hate on the guy because if a MLB team offered me that contract I would sign it and I couldn't get a single out! I am telling you, he pitched in games that were out of reach because when he was used in tight games, they quickly became out of reach. I hope he finds successs with the Braves. I really do, first-class organization. But if Linebrink would have been a free agent this offseason, he wouldn't have received a contract close to $3 million let alone the almost $5 he will get this year.
This I absolutely agree with. If he had anything more than the one year left I would be pretty ****** with the trade. But for just one year at 3.5 million I don't mind the pick up. We have made much worse trades (see Texeira trade, both of them).