Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Spring Preview: Bullpen

Chad Gaudin

2009 Stats: 6-10, 4.64

Chad Gaudin was the Yankees number four starter. He was considered so valuable to the future of the franchise that he was not allowed to pitch in October or November. While his overall numbers weren't great, he was 2-0 for the Yankees with a 3.43 ERA after being acquired from San Diego. The fact that he was pitching for the second half Yankees had nothing to do with that increased winning percentage. Gaudin, if he's not traded before then, and assuming he makes the major league team, will probably serve as a long reliever/spot starter, waiting in the wings should Hughes pitch like Joba did circa 2009. He will also serve as trade fodder come July.

2010 Prediction:

Gaudin will pitch serviceably through the first half of the season, at which point he will be traded to the Braves. Unbeknownst to Brian "Bronny Cash" Cashman, Gaudin has a no-trade clause which he refuses to wave unless he gets an extension. Cashman can't figure out how Gaudin ended up with a no-trade clause in his one year deal. All he can recall from the negotiations is block, block, z-piece, right-side L-piece, z-piece, long piece.

Little Known Gaudin Fact:

Chad Gaudin was once a world-class track athlete. According to legend, he ran from the blocks the way the Yankees ran from the possibility of him pitching in the '09 playoffs.

3 comments:

Clint said...

I was pretty impressed with him last year. Especially that game vs LAA. I'd be happy with more of the same from him out of the pen/spot starts.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

Yeah, I thought he was serviceable enough to deserve a shot in the postseason, frankly. But Girardi disagreed with me. We're still not speaking to this day.

Anonymous said...

He was pretty good last year but I don't think he should have started in the playoffs. For one thing, a lot of his peripherals were not that great, and Girardi pulled him from games before opponents could go to town on him the second or third time they saw him, which usually meant some pretty short outings. He does not pitch very well against lefties.

I was pretty impressed with that one start he had against the Rays, but noooot really the start in LA because he didn't even last five innings. It was definitely a lot better than this interleague start of his versus the Angels, though:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ANA/ANA200906120.shtml
Yikes

I was very surprised and pleased that he didn't utterly suck with the Yankees though. I think he's a nice longman for the bullpen.