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Trade Bait: Baek to the Padres
Christopher Solberg, Editor
5/28/2008
Finally
some interesting trade business going on!
On Wednesday, the San Diego Padres acquired
Cha-Seung Baek from the Seattle Mariners.
Ok, so interesting went out the door, but it’s still
a trade to review.
Baek,
who turns 28 on Thursday, is a right-handed
pitcher from Korea. Originally
signed by
the Mariners in 1998, Baek never held an ERA over 4.00 in the minors
until he
hit Triple-A. He
supposedly has a
high-80s fastball, a slider, curve, and a changeup.
His slider is supposedly his best pitch, but
the lack of velocity and the straightness of it means that he has to
nibble
with it to be effective. This
season has
been the first that Baek has been used mainly in relief and the results
haven’t
been too promising. Although
his hits
per nine has reduced, Baek’s walk rate has increased.
But he hasn’t had a walk rate problem in the
past and Padres have started to become famous for turning cast-offs
into decent
relievers.
The
Mariners got reliever Jared Wells in return.
Wells throws a low-90s fastball, and has a
pretty decent slider. But
his changeup
is largely underutilized and he has poor control.
Since he joined the Padres system in 2003, he
has had only one season with a WHIP below 1.32.
The Padres switched him to relief full time part of
the way through the
2007 season, trying to turn him into a viable reliever, but his control
problems have continued to hold him back.
Although
it looks as if Wells has better overall stuff,
Baek seems to be a more refined pitcher.
Even though Mariners’ GM Bill Bavasi was backed into
a corner to trade
Baek after he DFA’d him, I believe that Kevin Towers still got a little
better
package in this trade that probably won’t amount to much anyway.
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