Daily Archives: February 16, 2011

Ronald Belisario’s Troubles Are Far From Over

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This morning, it was “we don’t expect Ronald Belisario to arrive today.” Okay, no one really expected him to be completely on time, so if he’s a day or two late, no big deal. Right?

Yeah, about that…

Ronald Belisario could miss the 2011 season, according to his agent, Paul Kinzer.

Pitchers and catchers were supposed to report to the Dodgers’ spring-training complex on Wednesday, but Belisario wasn’t there. The hard-throwing reliever reported late to camp in each of the last two years because of visa problems.

His latest problems could be more serious.

Kinzer would not specify why Belisario was still in his native Venezuela. But asked if Belisario was having trouble securing a visa, Kinzer replied, “It goes a little deeper than that.”

Kinzer said he didn’t think Belisario would be able to enter the United States at any time this year.

“Unless some things change drastically, I’m not very optimistic at this point,” Kinzer said.

Every time I read that quote, all I can think of is Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: “Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.”

(Cue Belisario: “I killed a guy with a trident. I stabbed him right in the heart.”)

I’m going to predict the fan reaction here, and that’ll be “cut him loose! He’s unreliable! We don’t need him! Get rid of him!” That’s fair, but also unnecessary. If he doesn’t report, then the team can just put him on the restricted list, freeing up the 40-man roster spot. Any action beyond that is obviously going to depend greatly on what the circumstances are here, though I must admit I’m less interested in knowing what’s really going on than I am in knowing why this is just being brought to light now.

There’s always a silver lining, however, and in this case there’s two. First, seems like I’ll be able to keep up the “Has Belisario Reported Yet?” image on the sidebar there for quite some time. Second, you know there’s a few guys doing a jig in Arizona right now – guys like Blake Hawksworth, Ron Mahay, Ramon Troncoso, Scott Elbert, and even Lance Cormier, who all just saw their chances of making the club rise by quite a bit.

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Unrelated, but still interesting. All winter, we’ve been treating it as a foregone conclusion that Tony Gwynn, Jay Gibbons, and Marcus Thames would all make the team because of their major-league contracts. Not so fast, says Tony Jackson…

Gibbons’ ability to play first base and the outfield could be a factor in the ultimate decision as to whether to go with five infielders and six outfielders or vice versa. But although Gibbons’ contract is technically a major league deal, the fact that he has to actually make the club to get the last $250,000 of his $650,000 salary means he isn’t viewed as a lock. If he has a bad spring and the Dodgers cut him loose, that would open a spot for an outfielder — presumably Paul — and another utility infielder. Thames could serve as the backup first baseman if Gibbons isn’t around.

I still think that Gibbons is an overwhelming favorite to make the club – whether that’s deserved or not – but this is the first indication we’ve heard that his chances may be at something less than 100%. It gives Xavier Paul a ray of hope, anyway.

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Finally, as you’ve no doubt seen elsewhere, Don Mattingly named Clayton Kershaw as the Opening Day starter today. I’ve long felt that the gig was completely overrated, but I definitely dig Mattingly’s style of getting it out of the way on the first day, rather than waiting until camp was nearly over like Joe Torre did last year.

Lance Cormier, Come On Down

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Per Dylan Hernandez, the Dodgers have signed righty reliever Lance Cormier to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training. Cormier just gets added to the pile of veteran arms in camp on zero-committment minor league deals and is otherwise not really noteworthy, but I’d like to take you through my thought process when I saw the news.

First, I got flashbacks to Lance Carter, who also came to LA from Tampa, but as part of the ill-fated Edwin Jackson trade of 2006. Carter allowed 25 baserunners and 11 runs in 11.2 innings as a Dodger in what proved to be his final professional season. Thinking of Lance Carter makes me die a little inside.

Then I thought of Rheal Cormier, who had a productive 16-year MLB career with several teams, and whom I mainly remember because the name ”Rheal” is pretty awesome. 

Getting back to Lance Cormier, an initial look at his baseball-reference page shows that maybe this guy isn’t so bad, as he pitched in at least 45 games in each of the last three years, with ERA of 4.02, 3.26, and 3.92. That could be useful, right?

But then I look over to the right column, and see that he’s walked less than 4.3 per 9 exactly once in his career, and for a guy who doesn’t strike out all that many, that seems brutal. It was even worse in 2010, since he actually walked more (4.9/9) than he struck out (4.4/9). Not good.

The brain doesn’t stop there, though. Seeing that K/BB mark made me think that, “hey, didn’t I write about this guy already?” Indeed I did, back on December 3, when I was looking at the players who were non-tendered by other teams:

Cormier comes up because he had a 3.92 ERA this year. He also had a 1.648 WHIP and walked four more guys than he struck out. Uh, no thanks. PASS.

Yep. Gross. Still, Tommy Rancel of Rays blog The Process Report (and FanGraphs, and Bloomberg) chimes in with an explanation of how a guy with that kind of rate can be successful:

@MikeSciosciasTI Cormier is useful as a low-lev groundball guy.

@MikeSciosciasTI K/BB is awful. He had a reverse split, but I think he was overexposed to LHB last yr. If you need a GB in the 6th, he’s ok.

“If you need a groundball in the 6th inning” is probably what ought to be in the dictionary next to “minor-league invite”, right? So while the numbers aren’t great, he’s managed to kick around the bigs for seven seasons, and while he won’t make the team he might not be totally without his uses.

I don’t quite understand why guys like this bother with the Dodgers this year, though. As I mentioned the other day, the pitching depth is excellent – something like fifteen deep, and maybe only one spot open for discussion in the bullpen. He – or Mike MacDougal, or Oscar Villareal, etc. – wouldn’t have a better chance of grabbing a spot on a team with a more unsettled staff?