Rangers Quote Of The Week (1/4)
John Vittas
Coach never taught me to throw like this in little league. - clareperretta/Flickr.com
"He's a little bit of a wild card. Without Mike's endorsement, I don't know if he would have been the fit that he ultimately was but he's not far removed from being a very productive back-of-the-bullpen reliever."
That was assistant general manager Thad Levine speaking on the signing of a former resident of the Milwaukee bullpen, Derrick Turnbow. The Rangers beat out another club, the Florida Marlins, in acquiring his services -- but at what cost? It's a little more complicated than just simply a pitcher with control problems in Turnbow: the righty basically was dealing with a muscular imbalance in his shoulder that altered and disrupted his mechanics. The Brewers have had him on a strength and conditioning program since last summer and he's been doing some throwing in the off-season.
A muscular imbalance. Yikes. This is not just your run-of-the-mill loss of confidence on the mound we're dealing with. For Quote of the Week 1b, we turn to Turnbow's agent, Damon Lapa, and his description of his client's ailment to Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News last Thursday:
"The way it's been described to me is that based on the strength tests he had in 2006 and the ones in 2008, (his shoulder) was 20 percent of what it was in 2006. That led to an inability for Derrick to repeat his mechanics on a consistent basis. And then that led to tinkering, changes in his wind-up, changes in his mechanics and that led to inconsistent location and all kind of changes in velocity."
I'm a little freaked out by this. Not "Steve Blass Disease" freaked out, but freaked out nonetheless.
Still, the Rangers have been no strangers to the low-risk player acquisition over the years and Turnbow is no different. They've had some successes (Willie Eyre -- Joey's arch-nemesis is one name that comes to mind), along with some eyeball-gouging failures (Brad Fullmer) in the past. But with the watchful eye and tutelage of his pitching coach in Milwaukee overseeing things in Arlington combined with a strenuous rehab program, then hey, maybe he can return to being the guy who went 7-1 with a 1.74 ERA and 39 saves in 2005.
Reader Comments (7)
Interesting. I see this move in the vein of the Gagne signing two years ago, or the Guardado signing last year, except even less risk since he's on a minor league deal. I think they believe that their relief corps is adequate, and they can fill in wherever needed with other "new" guys like Diamond, Strop, etc. And if Turnbow can produce like he used to, you can keep him or try to flip him for more prospects. Sooner or later you're going to have to go after guys who you want to count on to be YOUR guys for a few seasons, but I guess that's not a huge problem for 2009.
The big problem will be when Benoit, Franky, CJ or Madrigal prove unhealthy and/or ineffective, and Turnbow still can't pitch because of the shoulder. That wouldn't be good. If I were them I'd still try to go and get Guardado, and I'd also try to take a flier on someone else like Saito, Aki, or Chad Cordero on another minor league deal with incentives, if they can, just for more insurance. If you have CJ, Franky, Madrigal, Turnbow, and Benoit all at the top of their games, then you do have a good bullpen. But last season doesn't give one much confidence for that scenario.
I know you're not attempting to imply that classic Turnbow is on a similar plane as classic Gagne somehow and Guardado, JD...I suppose the major contributing factor to my skepticism is that even if he comes close to recapturing his 2005 form (and again, he stranded 88.1 percent of baserunners that season, which contributed significantly to his ridiculously low ERA), he's still going to be a pitcher that walks the razor's edge, frequently putting men on base with his iffy control and having to work out of jams far more often than one would like.
The problem then becomes one of deployment...Turnbow's good at inducing ground balls and striking people out, and logistically speaking, that makes him a good candidate to come clean up messes his teammates have created with men on base...however, his propensity for walks simultaneously makes him a terrible fit for such situations, because if your opponent has runners on first and second with just one out, the last thing you can afford to give up is a walk.
Now, Texas isn't overflowing with great relief alternatives, and I'm thinking that if Turnbow flashes his normally good stuff and even a modicum of decent control during spring training, he'll make this team...I'm just exceedingly skeptical that he's going suddenly rediscover the passable control that has eluded him for three seasons.
Oh, no - I was only comparing Turnbow to Gagne and Guardado in that all 3 were signed here late in their careers, and after suffering their lumps and being considered "done" by many in the game. They were low-risk, high reward "reclamation" projects, weren't they? And of course both Gagne and Guardado were traded away at the deadline for prospects.
The walks problem is something to worry about, though. We already have enough relievers who give away free passes.
Sorry, the proper inflection didn't come across -- I knew that wasn't what you were trying to imply. I think the key difference between Gagne and Guardado at the times of their respective comebacks was one of severity -- Guardado, though a half-decade older, was coming back off simple Tommy John surgery (which is about as routine as a root canal these days), while Gagne was coming back from a pair of surgical procedures that attempted to stabilize (and later removed) a nerve in his elbow, as well as back surgery to repair a couple of herniated discs.
The thing was, you knew Gagne and Guardado were really effective major league pitchers at their best, ones you knew you could consistently count on. Turnbow has had one legitimately solid season in his career and it's been all downhill since, and while I understand that Turnbow's low price tag makes him a low-risk pick-up, it concurrently reflects the tremendous unlikelihood that he's going to emerge as an integral cog in the Rangers' bullpen.
None of that is to say I dislike the signing -- heck, I don't have a problem with it in the slightest. What I am saying is that expectations should be severely tempered with Turnbow going forward.
Yeah - I see what you're getting at. You're probably right in that we shouldn't expect much from the big guy. I have to be honest and say that I didn't expect much from Gagne or Guardado, and both were pleasant surprises - so maybe we'll be lucky again. I agree with you, too, that if we're counting on this guy to be a closer or something - we're going to be pretty disappointed. But as depth and insurance, I agree that it's not a bad move. Cheers, and Happy New Year to Joey, John, Jason, and everyone else.
Why does Turnbow give me a Franklyn German deja vu?
Because it's a relatively apt comparison, stuff-wise -- they've got big arms that can deal big heat, albeit not very accurately. Granted, German is also surprisingly bad at striking people out (lifetime K/9 ratio of 6.47) and that has never really been a problem for Turnbow, and in that respect Turnbow is a much better bet going forward, relatively speaking, though that really isn't saying much because German's a pretty bad pitcher.