Daily Archives: December 10, 2009

Building a Team $50k at a Time

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Dylan Hernandez with more news:

Dodgers sent cash to Tampa Bay for its pick in the Rule 5 draft, LHP Armando Zerpa.

Zerpa is 22 and was taken from the Red Sox, where SoxProspects.com had this to say about him:

Scouting Report: Big strike ‘em out lefty with a history of control issues, which took five seasons in rookie ball to refine. Easy three-quarter delivery.  Fastball sits around 89 mph, and slider goes around 78 mph. Fastball has decent movement. Very good groundball splits, also some impressive stats against lefties.

Five seasons in rookie ball. A fastball that doesn’t top 90 mph. And walking 6.4 per 9 in A-ball this year. This sounds like a guy who’s going to stick on the roster all year? At least Monasterios sounds like he might have some talent, and I’m all for taking a long-shot. But two, on a guy like this?

I think Mr. Colletti’s got some ‘splainin to do.

Dodgers Buy Carlos Monasterios

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Well, at least it’s a signing right? And it even cost money! From Dylan Hernandez, who’s quickly become the go-to guy for Dodger breaking news:

The Dodgers sent cash to the Mets for their pick in the Rule 5 draft, 23-year-old RHP Carlos Monasterios.

I won’t pretend I’ve ever heard of this guy, but here’s what I do know: the Mets had drafted him from the Phillies, and Mets blog Mets Today had already put up a review of him in the 20 minutes or so he was Mets property. Here’s their take:

Monasterios is a 23-year-old righthander (will be 24 in March) from Venezuela who throws a hard sinker in the low 90s. He was acquired by the Phillies in the deal that sent Bobby Abreu to the Yankees, and has performed with mixed results since that time.

Originally a starter, he moved to the bullpen in 2009 — appearing 29 times as a reliever and making 8 starts. Of those 37 games, 35 came for Clearwater in the Florida State League (A). He pitched a total of 7 innings for AA Reading last year. He had two saves and pitched a shutout for Clearwater.

All told, his ERA last year was 3.73 over 89 IP, with 75 Ks, 29 BB, 4 HR and 79 H, for a 1.21 WHIP. You can see his complete stats here.

Hard to judge a guy based on his Single-A stats, but it looks like there’s some talent there. Enough to stick on the MLB roster all year, which he’ll need to do to remain a Dodger? We’ll see. The jump from A ball to MLB is pretty huge, but there’s very little risk involved here.

Prediction: This is Not the Last We’ll See of Jamie Hoffmann

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Some completely out of nowhere news about today’s Rule 5 draft from the New York Post:

INDIANAPOLIS — Barring a last-second trade, the Yankees plan to take outfielder Jamie Hoffman from the Dodgers as the first pick in this morning’s Rule 5 Draft, the Post has learned.

The Yankees obtained the pick earlier this week from the Nationals in exchange for Brian Bruney.

The Yanks are not often viewed as a team that can stash a player on the 25-man roster for an entire season. But for the price of $50,000, they will see if Hoffman can stick around as a reserve.

Can’t say I saw that coming. If you’re not familiar with the Rule 5 draft, minor leaguers who have been professionals for a certain number of years (varies based on age and when drafted) yet who aren’t on the 40-man roster are eligible. A player who gets selected must be kept on his new team’s active roster (or disabled list) all year, and cannot be sent to the minors. If they can’t keep him on the roster, his original team gets the chance to reclaim him.

Thanks to Hoffmann’s bizarre resigning after being DFA’d last year, he couldn’t be put back on the 40-man until May – still not sure why that was the case. Point being, now the Yankees have to keep him on their roster all season, or offer him back to the Dodgers – and that’s why we’re going to see him again.

Hey, Hoffmann’s a nice enough part. He’s an excellent defensive outfielder, which is fine. But he’s never really been anything like a top prospect. If you remember, he only got a shot in the bigs last year because Manny got suspended and both Xavier Paul (in the bigs) and Jason Repko (in the minors) got hurt.

At 25, there’s not a whole lot of projection left for him. What you see from Hoffmann is basically what you’re going to get, and that’s a nice defensive outfielder who can draw a walk, and doesn’t have a whole lot of power (a .401 SLG in your minor league career isn’t going to get you that far in the bigs).  What’s really confounding about this is that the Yankees already have two guys like that – Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner – and either way, New York isn’t exactly the kind of place where you can stash a guy on the end of your bench all season long.

So, good for Hoffmann, I suppose, because he’ll get more of a shot to make the roster in New York than he would with the Dodgers in 2010. Kind of a confounding move from the Yankees, but five will get you ten that he gets offered back to the Dodgers at some point this year.

At which point, the major question will be… can the Dodgers afford the $25,000 it would take to get him back?

Update: the more I think about this, the worse it looks for the Dodgers. They’re still carrying Jason Repko on the 40-man until he inevitably gets non-tendered, and while the terms of Hoffmann’s resigning meant he couldn’t be on the 40-man right now, he never should have been off in the first place. Here’s what I said when he re-signed:

I didn’t mention it at the time, but his being DFA’d never made sense in the first place – it absolutely should have been Jason Repko, who’s 4 years older than Hoffmann, is being outhit by him in AAA this year (.815 OPS to .800), wasn’t rated the best defensive outfielder in the system by Baseball America (as Hoffmann was) and is almost certainly going to be an ex-Dodger after the season.

For once, this isn’t about money – just horrible asset management.

Update 2: Hey, remember about 5 minutes ago in the first update when I said “they’re still carrying Jason Repko on the 40-man until he inevitably gets non-tendered”? Turns out it wasn’t so inevitable after all. Dylan Hernandez with the news:

The Dodgers will tender contracts to all of the arbitration-eligible players under their control, GM Ned Colletti said.

You can’t possibly think of enough of Repko to go to arbitration with him, right? What in the world does he offer that Xavier Paul or Hoffmann doesn’t?