Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
According to Yahoo.com's Jeff Passan, the Nationals have teamed up with their favorite agent, Scott Boras, and struck a two-year, $28 million deal for arguably the premier reliever on this year's free-agent market.
Rafael Soriano, 33, spent the last two seasons with the New York Yankees and posted a 2.94 ERA in 111 games. He served as Mariano Rivera's setup man in 2011, but when the future Hall of Fame closer went down early last season, Soriano stepped in as New York's closer.
His performance was Rivera-esque as he went 2-1 with a 2.26 ERA while converting 42 of 46 save opportunities.
Soriano's addition to the Nationals makes a strength even stronger. A year ago, the Nationals' bullpen ERA was 3.23, which was the seventh best in baseball and the third best in the National League.
That is a nice complement to a starting rotation that had a 3.40 ERA and a major-league leading 72 victories. Only Tampa Bay's starters had a better earned run average among baseball's 30 teams last season.
The Phillies felt they significantly upgraded their bullpen by adding free agent Mike Adams, who is considered one of the best setup men in baseball. They signed Adams to a two-year deal worth $12 million.
Relying on a cast of young relievers to get the ball to closer Jonathan Papelbon, the Phillies' bullpen had a 3.94 ERA last season, which ranked 21st in baseball and 10th in the National League.
The addition of Soriano gives the Nationals the luxury of three quality pitchers with closer experience. Tyler Clippard served as the team's primary closer last season and had 32 saves in 37 opportunties. The year before, Drew Storen had 43 saves in 48 opportunities and posted a 2.75 ERA.
It will be interesting to see who manager Davey Johnson selects to be his primary closer in 2013, but it's obviously a nice problem to have and another reason the Nationals will be difficult to dethrone as N.L. East champs.
all 3 of the Nationals relivers are infinitely better than the truly atrotious Papelbum who has proved over the past several years that the bigger the moment, the more precipitous the lead that he is likely to blow and the greater the numnber of runs that he is likely to give up— warbiscuit- Wow. Talk about over-paying. You wonder if some of these overpaided players will stay hungary. But maybe that's just fat contracts in the NFL, see Philadelphia Eagles. Nice bullpen and only a two-year deal, but $28 million. Wow.— 76er
- Clueless Rube wasted $50 million on a single atrotious reliver, Papelbum, who is one of the worst closers in the clutch in baseball, while the entire Nationals relief staff makes much less and is infinitely superior— warbiscuit
- Are you high???? NONE of the 3 are better than papelbon you know nothing, Storen is a china doll and Soriano had 1 good year, STFU you idiot— mdean305
- Some people don't realize that Papelbon went 6 years in the post-season and gave up zero runs. That ended with his horrible 2009 appearance against the Angels that blew his postseason ERA all the way up to 1.00. Storen has one appearance and an ERA of 9.00. — s
- Papelbum's Greatest Hits 2012 (plus may more in which he gave up runs):
5/7 vs. Mets 3 ER, Loss;
6/4 vs. LA 1 ER, Loss;
6/23 vs TB 2 ER, Blown save;
7/5 vs. Mets 2 ER, BLown save, Loss;
7/18 vs. LA 2 ER, Papelbon Blown save leading to loss;
7/21 vs SF 1 ER, Papelbon Loss;
8/21 vs Cinc. 1 er, Papelbon Loss;
9/2 vs. Atl, up 7-3 with 2 outs to go; 2 inherited runs score, 3 more earned runs, Blown save, Loss..season over
Papelbon was the worst signing of last winter, despite padding his stats with non-clutch saves againt poor hitting teams -- he had 6 devastating losses and 4 blown saves that were as bone-crushing and season-detroying as anything else that wrecked the Phils season -- no worse reliever to see on the mound in an important spot past few years than this one-dimensional loser-- after his pitch count exceeds 15 (which good teams can quickly get him to) opposing hitters hit way over .300 against him - he's not "elite" he's an annoying unreliable loser who will prevent the Phils from ever winning anything meaningful until his contract expires in 2016— warbiscuit - Right. If not for that 9/2 debacle, we'd still be hearing echoes of the champagne corks popping, and the ticker tape would still be raining down on Broad Street.
Even if everyone here weren't already tired of you, histrionics like "worst signing of last winter" and "devastating", "bone-crushing" and "season-destroying" really paint you as a tiresome drama queen.
Here are some cold, hard facts, spud: Papelbon isn't the second coming of Mariano Rivera, and nobody says he is. But he was tied for 8th in MLB saves (T-3 NL); 9th in MLB S% (3rd NL); 10th in ERA among MLB closers (6th NL); T-10 in appearances among MLB closers (4th NL). Of the 15 MLB closers with at least 30 saves, ONLY 4 HAD FEWER BLOWN SAVES THAN PAPELBON!!! Kimbrel was the only closer in the NL last season who had at least 30 saves and fewer than 4 blown saves -- and he had 3!!
To say that the closer wrecked the season of a team that managed to score just 4 more runs than it allowed (by far the lowest of the NL's 9 teams with positive run differentials), and finished 17 games behind the division leader is so nonsensical that "nonsensical" doesn't come close to doing it justice.
And by the way, your "Clueless Rube" schtick is really, really, REALLY old.— 1980 - Do you mean atrocious? Not sure what a trotious is... LOL!— Grazman
- obviously anyone with half a brain knows you improve your team by getting quality players, not by trading for a singles hitting center-fielder, an over-the-hill former 3rd baseman and filling the rest of your roster wiht bargain basement trash, and then expecting to trade away your prospects in July to get the plyers that you failed to get in the off-season...Clueless Rube cointinues to run this franchise into the ground as the most inept g.m. in professional sports— warbiscuit
- Warbiscuit. Give it a rest. I tire of your slobbering negativity.— Charon
- @Charon: I tire of having to re-post the same points to rebut imbeciles like you— warbiscuit
- When was the last time warbiscuit said anything new? Or of any value? Good thing his mom lets him use the internet or he'd have to suppress all that anger. But let's let him vent. Can you imagine his daily pain from waking up every day and realizing he's still him?— inky93
- @inky --when was the last time a moron like you had a single intelligent point to make about baseball, instead of coming on websites with nothing to do other than reveal your own psychological inadequacies by attacking other posts?— warbiscuit
- Another big, brave keyboard-tapper who gets himself off on calling the hordes of people who wish he would go away "morons" and "imbeciles". — 1980
