Cabrera needs to be sent down

[joldey]

I think Daniel Cabrera to the Rangers for 3B Hank Blaylock might work for both clubs. Both players values are down significantly.

Rangers are still really experimenting with the 4-5 in the rotation after Millwood, Padilla, and Gabbard.

21 year old 3B Chris Davis should be in the majors next year with an interesting situation in the Rangers IF with Andrus probably taking over SS, Chris Davis at 3B, Kinsler at 2B, Saltalamacchia at 1B with Michael Young DHing would be my best guess. No place left for Blaylock.

Blaylock would be a much better option at 3B in my opinion than Scott Moore (who I believe is an AAAA) and I believe he is still only 27 (granted with some injury history).

Blaylock is due $5.95 million this year with a $6.2 million option next year.

[maudibjr]

Daniel is what he is, I don't think we have anyone better to replace him with, except maybe Albers, and the jury is still out on him.

[byrdz]

He had really good movement on his fastball and was throwing his offspeed stuff OK. The K's were there which is a good sign and he went deeper into the game this time. He also showed pretty good composure in two innings that he could have easily melted down in. Let's see if there's some incremental improvement in the next couple of starts.

[luismatos]

The thing that bothered me most about the whole Cabrera, Beltre incident is that the announcers on the radio were talking about how Cabrera hasn't played baseball all that long and how that was an excuse for him not turning around. He's been in the Majors for 5 FREAKIN' YEARS!!!

However, I do like DCab and think he belongs in our rotation. I think he is figuring out his changeup and that will improve as the year goes along. I'm really glad that he is finally using it! Also, I wouldn't call him a great 4 or 5, but he is a serviceable one that has as much upside as just about any other 4 or 5 in the bigs. Even now.

That being said, I wouldn't trade DCab for Blalock, given that we have Mora, Moore, and eventually Rowell (hopefully) there. But, I might trade him for Andrus and a little more or add a little to him and get Michael Young. As good as Luis Hernandez has been so far this year, I have a feeling either one of those guys would be better.

[RShack]

FWIW, which might not be much, here's how it looks so far:

• ERA in innings with dingers: 24.00
  
• ERA in the rest of them: 2.25 (If not for the brain-fart at 1B, it would be 1.13)
  

[pactman12]

I guess it could be worse.....we could have Oswalt, Zito, Verlander, Meche who all have 6+ ERA after 2 starts. Glab we dont have any of those bums taking up space on our roster;)

Actually yes, I am glad we don't have Zito. What the hell has happened to that guy? Especially considering the ridiculous amount of mula he is getting to be awful.

[joldey]

what happened to Zito?

The same thing that happened to Mulder and Hudson. Take them out of the Coliseum and the huge amount of foul ball range and numbers inflate.

I will never fully bash Zito considering he has been my favorite player every since he was in the minors, but when your fastball goes from 87-88 to 83-84 and that 12/6 curve no longer has that sharp bite to it, you get hit.

And I hate to say this, but if I was guaranteed $126 million whether I won the Cy Young every year or my ERA was almost 6, I'd find it difficult to stay motivated to be on top on my game. I love the game as much as anyone, but we can't say for certain that a guaranteed 100+ million contract wouldn't change our work habbits, because we are not in that situation.

And speaking of Verlander, did anyone know he had 19 hit batters and 17 wild pitches, while D-Cab had (...only) 15 hit batters and 7 WP last season.

[pactman12]

It is unbelievable that he made that much money off of a Cy Young he won in 2002. He has been nothing more than above average, if that, ever since then. That has to be one of the worst, if not the worst contract of all time.

[joldey]

At least you know you'll get 30 starts out of him every year!

...alright, I know I'm reaching for answers but I agree.

Glad it's SF's problem and not ours, even though I still give the edge of worse contract to Giambi or Pat Burrell.

[wildcard]

DCab is Kranny's project. Give Kranny some time.

[nyjimbo]

Read my posts and you'll see I agree we should be patient with DC. And, I see today's start as a step in the right direction. But he needs to make further progress over the next 2 months IMO. I want to see an ERA under 5.00 by the time he gets to 8-10 starts. If not, and if someone else has shown themselves ready to step up, then I'd try DC in the bullpen. No, I don't see releasing him under any circumstances.

The bolded part is the key. I wouldn't mess with the bullpen right now (leave Albers alone) and there is no one in the minors that you know would come up and do as well. What the bullpen doesn't need are pitchers getting knocked out in the 1st or 2nd innings. IMO DCab wouldn't be a good bullpen candidate.

[Dipper9]

Ok. Like I said, I wasn't paying full attention.

Just seems to me that on a double-play grounder, any runner on third would have broke for home either on the throw to second (especially a long one like from first base) or the return throw.

He wasn't on third...he was on second when the play started!

[higgybaby]

Believe it or not, I am seeing some major progress in D-Cab.

[clapdiddy]

what happened to Zito?

The same thing that happened to Mulder and Hudson. Take them out of the Coliseum and the huge amount of foul ball range and numbers inflate.

I will never fully bash Zito considering he has been my favorite player every since he was in the minors, but when your fastball goes from 87-88 to 83-84 and that 12/6 curve no longer has that sharp bite to it, you get hit.

And I hate to say this, but if I was guaranteed $126 million whether I won the Cy Young every year or my ERA was almost 6, I'd find it difficult to stay motivated to be on top on my game. I love the game as much as anyone, but we can't say for certain that a guaranteed 100+ million contract wouldn't change our work habbits, because we are not in that situation.

And speaking of Verlander, did anyone know he had 19 hit batters and 17 wild pitches, while D-Cab had (...only) 15 hit batters and 7 WP last season.

I don't think its fair to include Hudson and Mulder into your argument. Mulder really hasn't been healthy since his trade, and Hudson has had 2 of 3 very productive years in Atlanta.

I know many on here...myself included...wanted us to make a run at Zito. I'm so glad we're building with young pitching!

[Tank]

I actually thought Cabrera pitched pretty good yesterday. He got us 6 innings and kept us in the game. If it wasn't for the 2 pitches in the first inning and the mental mistake, it would have been a great performace.