Braves sign Ervin Santana to 1 year 14.1M deal

[Tapate50]

If you really believe U get 2 guys to put up above average numbers out of Hale, Wood, Garcia, Floyd then sobeit.

Teams may have won with worse rotations. They likely had great offenses and/or a lack if competition. We have to compete with 4 stud pitchers on the Nats with an offense that is a bit of a question mark outside of Heyward, Freeman, Jup

Wood can be dominant. I am not sure you watch him make pitch.

 

[weso1]

LMAO! Javier Vazquez was actually a very good pitcher when he wasn't trying to pitch for the Yankees. There's nothing to like about Santana. Guy doesn't strikeout people and when you don't strikeout people you can't have as poor of walk numbers as he does.

I think you're selling him short. Last season he k'd 160 and walked 50 in the AL.

 

[thethe]

Most years his WHIP is closer to 1.5 than it is 1.

His WHIP the last four years (Much more relevant than what it was prior):

10 - 1.32
11 - 1.22
12 - 1.27
13 - 1.14

Looks to me like a late bloomer.

 

[gilesfan]

14.1 mil

Santana has MUCH better career numbers vs the NL, there's no way you can hate this. It's one year, 2 of our starters are done and we are in win now mode.

For the people bitching about the pick, who is the last, late 1st rounder, that the Braves picked that turned out to be good?

Do picks later than late first like Simmons and Freeman not count?

 

[thethe]

It was also his "career" year. Aside from 2008 when he had 214 strikeouts to only 47 walks in 219 innings he's been poor in that area with last year being his 2nd best year in that area. Most years he's barely been about 2 strikeouts for every 1 walk. That's not good.

Yeah but now he is moving to the NL behind a very good defense. Why should we expect his numbers to get worse?

 

[AUTiger7222]

Here's something I haven't talked about with Santana, look at the amount of homeruns he gives up and he's done his pitching of home games in Angel Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, two pitcher friendly parks. He's Tommy Hanson when it comes to tossing up homeruns.

 

[AUTiger7222]

Yeah but now he is moving to the NL behind a very good defense. Why should we expect his numbers to get worse?

Defense has nothing to do with strikeout-to-walk ratio. And the Angels and Royals aren't exactly bum teams when it comes to defense either.

 

[stpeteirish]

14.1 mil

Santana has MUCH better career numbers vs the NL, there's no way you can hate this. It's one year, 2 of our starters are done and we are in win now mode.

For the people bitching about the pick, who is the last, late 1st rounder, that the Braves picked that turned out to be good?

The alternative would be a trade, and then you have to give up someone who's done something to be wanted by the other side. So its better to forfeit a draft pick which is not as "proven". And certainly better than doing nothing which is what I figured we'd do.

 

[gilesfan]

His WHIP the last four years (Much more relevant than what it was prior):

10 - 1.32

11 - 1.22

12 - 1.27

13 - 1.14

Looks to me like a late bloomer.

Ignoring that whip is a terrible stat, some of that is likely attributed to the leagues best defense.

 

[AUTiger7222]

I think you're selling him short. Last season he k'd 160 and walked 50 in the AL.

It was also only the 2nd time in his career he was over 3 in that area. Here's his ratios.

2005 - 2.11
2006 - 2.01
2007 - 2.17
2008 - 4.55
2009 - 2.28
2010 - 2.32
2011 - 2.47
2012 - 2.18
2013 - 3.16

Which two years are the outlier there?

 

[thethe]

Here's something I haven't talked about with Santana, look at the amount of homeruns he gives up and he's done his pitching of home games in Angel Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, two pitcher friendly parks. He's Tommy Hanson when it comes to tossing up homeruns.

Park factors for 2013:

KC - 6th
LA - 19th
ATL - 21st

 

[AUTiger7222]

Ignoring that whip is a terrible stat, some of that is likely attributed to the leagues best defense.

WHIP is a terrible stat? So knowing how many base runners per inning a pitcher gives up is a bad thing?

 

[thethe]

Ignoring that whip is a terrible stat, some of that is likely attributed to the leagues best defense.

Sure, but his walk rate dropped as well. He seems to be learning how to command his pitches more.

 

[AUTiger7222]

Park factors for 2013:

KC - 6th
LA - 19th
ATL - 21st

I have no idea how park factors work.

 

[Millwood1Hitter]

I just wish Medlen was 100%. I bet this deal costs us the chance to sign Heyward long-term.

 

[COGPK]

Sure are a lot of negative people here. I call them "yeah, buts." We could get Kershaw and people would be posting "yeah, but..........."

Here's what I believe. The Braves are better off with Santana than without Santana. He will give us 200+ innings. We need that this year.

 

[stpeteirish]

This isn't an example of liberty being generous. Our profits would be pretty similar whether we signed Santana or not.

There's a difference between profits and budget. We were reported to have a budget of 100 mill, the Santana deal puts us over that. Profit will be impcted by revenue as well as expenses. If the Santana deal gets us to the postseason when not doing it wouldn't, I see your point. That could make us an extra 14 mill easily. But that's speculation. Spending the extra money is real and I'm glad we did it.

 

[Tapate50]

I just wish Medlen was 100%. I bet this deal costs us the chance to sign Heyward long-term.

Whoa whoa whoa

 

[weso1]

I agree with Gfan. No reason to think you aren't going to get 3.5 to 4 era out of him in and a lot of innings. That's nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Bye Week]

If he can pitch close to the level that he did last year, we are going to be ok. The worry is that he has a history of one good year followed by a bad year. I think he will be well above average for us in the NL and in the Braves enviroment.