B-Law’s Bad Wing
Tue, Feb 28, 2006
by Geoff Young
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, former Padres right-hander Brian Lawrence is expected to miss the season following labrum and rotator cuff surgery. It’s interesting to note that the Nationals didn’t give Lawrence an MRI before making the trade that brought him to Washington. But GM Jim Bowden’s explanation makes sense:
It’s expensive to do MRIs on every single transaction. In the case of Brian, he had made every single start the last four or five years. We saw him throw a three-hit shutout [in his final start of 2005]. We were trading a player [Castilla] with a bad knee. We felt that there was MRI risk on both sides if the deal was made, and we made a decision not to.
Seriously, who was the greater injury risk in this trade? Of course, the answer is Castilla and it isn’t even close. Since the start of the 2002 campaign, Lawrence’s first full season, only nine pitchers have made more starts in the big-leagues. As much as any pitcher ever can be, the guy was a lock for 30+ starts.
Or so it seemed.
The take-home lessons here aren’t anything new but they bear repeating:
- Past durability in a pitcher is not necessarily an indicator of continued future durability.
- Regardless of how hard he throws (Lawrence routinely has one of the slowest fastballs in the game), a pitcher places tremendous strain on his arm and body just by the simple act of doing his job.
Bad blow for the Nats. Worse blow for Lawrence. Here’s hoping he’s back out on the mound real soon.
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February 28, 2006 at 8:17 am
Best wishes to Brian Lawrence, and I hope he returns to his 2002 form. On the other side, Bowden continues to show that he is a buffoon, claiming that MRIs are expensive, in relation to a 3 plus million dollar starting pitcher. We all saw his mediocre velocity fastball lose 3-4 mph during the time he was with the Padres, with corresponding declines in overall performance. Guys usually don’t lose velocity at his age without something being up, right?
On the other side, Castilla had a predisclosed injury, patella tendon fraying. Prudence dictated an MRI for Lawrence; thank God Bowden is a doofus with pathetic post-injury rationalizations. Unless I am missing something about how GMs conduct business . . .
February 28, 2006 at 9:49 am
All that shoulder trouble and Blaw still pitched decently last year. Hell, he’ll probably be back to form after the surgery.
MRI too expenvice? Can’t MRI every player. How bout just old pitchers. Dude was caught with his pants down on this one. Of course, Vinny may prove to be just as damaged. But we kinda expect that, no?
Hey, if I where a bench guy, I’d want to play for the Padres. Plenty of ops for playing time.
Who backs up Vinny anyway?
February 28, 2006 at 10:00 am
I agree with my elders above. Just take a look at the myriad transactions teams like the Red Sox and Indians undertook this offseason. How many MRI’s do you think Guillermo Mota has had this offseason? I bet it’s closer to 6 than 0. Anyway, even BLaw himself says he isn’t all that surprised. He says he knew something was not quite right given that he threw around 88-89 only three or four years ago and now was around 82. Bowden’s a great trade partner, we should deal with him some more. By the way, JB, how’s the whole “I’m gonna talk to Soriano, I think we’ll come to an agreement that he’ll play the outfield” thing going? Now there’s rumors that he’ll trade Soriano to Boston for Clement and Loretta…huh!?!?!? Just what he needs, another second baseman.
February 28, 2006 at 10:31 am
TF - re: “missing something about how GMs conduct business” … I’m just now getting around to reading “Moneyball” … wow, what a fun read! It’s a HUGE rant about how GMs conduct business … pretty ugly … with lots of evidence to support …
February 28, 2006 at 10:33 am
USA Today’s “NL West Top 10 Prospects” list is out … http://fantasybaseball.usatoda.....ryid=19949 … it’s really got a Top 15 … nothing surprising/controversial to me … Carillo a clear #1 … Barfield a clear #2 … iffy after that …
February 28, 2006 at 11:09 am
I think we all knew that B Law was a pretty gutty pitcher, this just proves it. He was getting major league hitters out with an 82 mph fastball, a torn rotator cuff and who knows what else. He had a terrible record last year but he did pitch well at times, that frisbee fastball he throws can be tough.
I always assumed it was standard procedure to get an MRI on any pitcher in a trade. That’s amazing that they skipped it on B Law. There was probably an (unspoken?) agreement on both sides that since both guys were damaged goods they’d just swap them and take their chances.
I see that Andy Ashby says he feels good, maybe we can trade him the Nats too.
February 28, 2006 at 12:08 pm
From Gaslampball:
http://www.boston.com/sports/b.....te?mode=PF
nice article on Breslow. I wish him the best.
The same to Brian.
February 28, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Didi, thanks for the Breslow link. Very cool.
BTW, the Nats have signed Pedro Astacio to replace Lawrence in the rotation. Oleanders & Morning Glories has some thoughts on this sequence of events:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ol.....21903.html
February 28, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Just because I saw it from BTF:
http://tinyurl.com/qm4vt
holy crap, Balco.
February 28, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Bad things happen to bad general managers.
February 28, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Heads-up: They’re replaying the Khalil-slam-in-the-ninth game on Channel 4 right now.
February 28, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Maybe the Nates could use chan ho park and klesko. KT will even pay for the MRIs.