A’s がHolliday 外野手を獲得

オークランド・アスレチックスのビリー・ビーンGMが正しくマネーボールなトレードを行いました。

クローザーのヒューストン・ストリート他2人をコロラド・ロッキーズにトレードし、スター選手のマット・ホリデー外野手を獲得しました。近年のホリデーは毎年OPS .900 超えで、確実にチームの打撃力はアップします。そして、マネーボールで言っていた通り、ビーンは去年また下投げ新クローザーのブラッド・ジーグラーを一年かけて作り上げ、見事ストリートをトレードに出してスター選手を手に入れました。が、ホリデーの契約には1年しか残っていないので、シーズン中にトレードされる可能性もあり、もしそうでなくてもFAで他球団へ行けばドラフト指名権を保障として獲得できる。相変わらず抜け目の無いGM です。

Cloning Chad Bradford

One season he’s a recently converted submarine reliever for the Oakland A’s writing regular diary entries to the great A’s blog A’s Nation, giving us insight into how minor leaguers live and play, as well as how (great) baseball organizations are run from the inside.

Next season, he’s called up to the big club, and has not allowed a single run in any of his appearances since being called up at the end of May.

The man is unheralded Brad Ziegler. A’s have just successfully cloned Chad Bradford. Amazing. I’ve picked him up in both of the competitive fantasy leagues I’m in  🙂

And then there’s Brad Ziegler. He’s a side-arm reliever for the A’s, and his fastball tops out at about 86 MPH. It’s basically his only real pitch – he throws it 89% of the time, mixing in a below average slider just to keep hitters occasionally off balance. Just based on velocity, his stuff could charitably described as marginal. If he was a lefty, he’d be described as crafty, which is code for can’t-break-glass-with-his-fastball.

But what he lacks in velocity, he makes up for in movement and deception. His fastball has so much sink, in fact, that in his first 11 1/3 innings of major league pitching, he’s posting a 73.5% GB% and an 8.33 GB/FB rate. He’s faced 40 batters since the A’s brought him up from Triple-A, and a whopping three of them have managed to hit the ball in the air.

Apparently, Billy Beane missed having Chad Bradford in the bullpen, so they decided to create another one. Until 2006, Ziegler was a traditional over the top pitcher, but given his limited chances to make the majors as a “normal” pitcher, the A’s convinced him to become a side-arming reliever. It’s worked wonders, as he hasn’t given up a home run since at any level, and he’s run a GB% of 60% or higher at every stop along the way.