Chiba Lotte Still After Stults
Sponichi is reporting that the Chiba Lotte Marines are sending a rep Stateside at the beginning of the year to negotiate with/for Dodgers pitcher Eric Stults. The Marines have been interested in Stults for a couple of months, and apparently the Dodgers turned them down once already.
In the event the Marines are unable to land Stults, the Marines are preparing a new list of candidates, which could include Yankees farmhand Romulo Sanchez. I don’t think I need to repeat my opinion, but I will — why negotiate for a pitcher who is under contract when Lenny DiNardo is available as a free agent?
25/12/2009 at 7:19 am Permalink
Why do you think Lenny would make the transition so well. He isn’t a hard thrower. Do you see him as a starter or reliever?
25/12/2009 at 12:51 pm Permalink
Good question. To be clear, I think Stults would also do well. I guess my affinity for DiNardo comes from his time with the A’s, when I was able to watch him quite a bit and he put up a respectable season. He’s lefthanded, has a unorthodox delivery that allows him to hide the ball well, and comes after hitters. He’s also coming off a great 3A season and has nothing left to prove in the minors.
Stults is also a good candidate — the one time I saw him pitch last year made me think he was a prospect I hadn’t heard of, not a 3A veteran. But he’s under contract with the Dodgers, and Sponichi was speculating that it could take close to $1m to pry him away. Why not give Lenny a look? He won’t require a buyout.
I have no idea, of course, if DiNardo actually wants to pitch in Japan.
26/12/2009 at 12:41 pm Permalink
I have been a little put off on how the Dodgers have treated Stults the last few years. They have used him as a stop gap and he has been a solid starter for them both years. For some reason when he has one or two bad starts out of five or six they send him back to AAA. Personally I’d like to see them give him the number 5 starters slot for the year.
He’s started 17 games with a 6-6 record and an ERA right around 4.00 averaged out over the last two years at the major league level with two complete game shut outs. His one problem is the number of walks, but even there he strikes out three for every two walks. Even then it is less than four walks per nine innings. It’d be nice to see him just get a shot at LA this year.
Lizard
27/12/2009 at 3:07 pm Permalink
Eric Stults needed time to deal with the death of his mother. The Dodgers were great to give him time and patience to spend time with his immediate family. Eric deserves to come back and tryout to compete for the fouth and fifth spot in the rotation. He has pitched some competitive games during the 2009 Dodger season ands had some memorable match ups in previous years. I don’t know if Eric had a sub par performance with the Isotopes, but he should have an opportunity to make the club.
01/01/2010 at 2:15 pm Permalink
Huge fan of your work here at NPB Tracker. One thing I don’t really understand about the Marines is why they are even looking at Romulo Sanchez as the Yankees would never give him up. He was just added to the 40 man, and the Yankees see tons of promise in him as a starter or (at least as trade bait). He has an excellent fastball that touches 99 and can maintain it at 95 through the middle innings and complements it with an average change and slider. Plus he’s only 25 and tall guys usually take longer to develop and get it together. An org like the Yankees have time to be patient with him and they would have to be blown away by the offer to let him go.