Dennis Sarfate DFA

[hobbycars]

Sarfate has a career 4.53 ERA and has never had an ERA under 4.74 in a full season. He was walked 6.1/9 and his strikeout rate dropped off last season with the velocity drop. His career 1.49 WHIP is not exactly jaw dropping. He's 28-years old and and his career comps by baseball reference are just ugly.

Someone might give him a shot, but I think you and few others are way over estimating his value and his effectiveness.

Agreed. Sarfate has been given chance after chance.

[Frobby]

Agreed. Sarfate has been given chance after chance.

Sarfate was pretty decent for us in 2008, pitching all year with a broken clavicle. He stunk when we experimented with him as a starter out of desperation, but as a reliever he was pretty good. So I don't know why you say he got chance after chance.

Anyway, when we sign Hendrickson or some other lefty reliever, we'll have to cut someone else and we can all wring our hands about that move.

[mikezpen]

Tony, I agree with you that Albers should get another shot. He pitched very well early in the year. But what earthly use are a couple of minor league left-handed hitting first basemen like Hughes and Aubrey to this team now (despite some Hangouters' fondness for Aubrey)? Why couldn't they have been dropped from the roster for Sarfate (and now Hendrickson)?

[wildcard]

Sarfate has a career 4.53 ERA and has never had an ERA under 4.74 in a full season. He was walked 6.1/9 and his strikeout rate dropped off last season with the velocity drop. His career 1.49 WHIP is not exactly jaw dropping. He's 28-years old and and his career comps by baseball reference are just ugly.

Someone might give him a shot, but I think you and few others are way over estimating his value and his effectiveness.

Far be it from me to say that I know more about what MacPhail is trying to do then MacPhail does. He is the architect and I can't argue with what he as done so far.

However, though Sarfate's career numbers are ugly when you analyze them they show something different. Sarfate has only had one full season in the majors - 2008. His overall numbers that year looked bad because he took one for the team and started 4 games to a 10.34 ERA. His relief numbers where good at a 3.38.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?playerId=6234&type=pitching&year=2008

I agree that he walks too many. 2009 was a rehab year and he did not start pitching consistently well until the winter league were he put of very good numbers.

I agree that there are a few good righthanded relievers on the team but not that many. Albers pitches well in the first half but has been a big part of the O's collapse in the second half for the last two years. Its hard to know if Uehara will be healthy. He is very good if he is but he will not help much of the DL. Meredith numbers are ok but he has an option and was on the margin even with the Padres.

The first guy to be outrighted IMO should be Tatum. I don't know why he is still on the roster. He doesn't have the experience to mentor Wieters which is part of the role for the backup catcher. He is going to have to go at some point. Hughes strikes out way too much to be promoted to the majors. I understand he has a option left but with Atkins, Snyder, Wiggy and Aubrey in front of him this is an area of depth that is deeper then righthanded relievers. At 26 and never played in the majors he has a steep hill to climb in the O's organization to make it to the majors.

There are not that many guys yet to be added this off season. Hendrickson should be able to be signed to a AAA contract like Moeller was with the agreement that he will go on the roster before opening day after Gabino and Albers have been evaluated in ST. There is room on the roster for Bedard with Tatum and Hughes there.

Sorry to see Sarfate go before he got a chance to show what he can do when he is healthy. I thought he would have added to the competition.

[wildcard]

Good point in the Sun today.

If Sarfate makes it through waivers he does not have the right to become a free agent. Because this is the first time he has been outrighted he can't refuse the assignment to Norfolk.

[backwardsk]

Good point in the Sun today.

If Sarfate makes it through waivers he does not have the right to become a free agent. Because this is the first time he has been outrighted he can't refuse the assignment to Norfolk.

What's the time frame for waivers? Is it 5 days? Shorter, longer?

[NewMarketSean]

I know injuries are common place for pitchers these days but it seems like time after time we give these injured pitchers too many chances to rehab, come back, get healthy, etc, and the expense of our win-loss record.

Maybe our focus should be on pitchers who can actually stay healthy. I am at the point where I don't care if they aren't even that good, just so long as they are healthy. A guy like Chris Waters seems to be able to pitch until his arm falls off while guys like Sarfate, Albers, Rich Hill, Chris Ray, etc...etc... just get chance after chance to prove they are healthy when they are either not -- or just not that good anymore or to begin with.

Am I way off base here or what?

[isestrex]

Who needs Sarfate... we just replaced him with Hendrickson

:rolleyestf:

[Mark Carver]

What's the time frame for waivers? Is it 5 days? Shorter, longer?

A player designated for assignment is removed from his club’s 40-man roster and, within the next 10 days, traded, released or, if he clears waivers, assigned to the minor leagues. A club may not designate a player for assignment if the corresponding transaction is to recall a player on optional assignment.

From Cot's

[CSB Jack]

This is a lot of angst over a guy who was far from a lock to make the 25 man roster coming out of ST, and as such would have had to be DFA'd then because he had no options remaining to be sent back to Norfolk.

If they go with 13 pitchers (and I'd rather see 12) that's an 8 man pen. The first three are virtual locks:

1. Gonzalez (L)

2. Johnson ®

3. Hendrickson (L)

If Koji is healthy, he's also in there.

4. Uehara ®

If they want a LOOGY, the top options currently on the roster are:

5. Castillo (L) or Perez (L) - but the team is reportedly still kicking the tires on other lefty relievers on the free agent market. Also, this is not considered a "must have" based on last year's decision that "Nobody" would be a better option than Walker.

Assuming Berken and Hernandez start the season in the rotation at Norfolk, that clears out some room, but that's far from a certain assumption. Either one could be in the pen, based on how they do in the spring and what the team sees as their best long term value to the organization. Regardless, either offers what Sarfate does, plus the opportunity to be optioned to Norfolk. So Sarfate would have been competing with the following for one of the remaining 3-4 slots, depending on the status of the LOOGY:

Meredith ®

Albers ®

Berken ®

Hernandez ®

Gabino ®

plus the non-roster invitees

Personally, I was hoping for Sarfate to have a good camp and make the roster. Then I would hope for him to be a solid contributor and not the D-Cab of the bullpen where his raw talent never translated to consistent performance. But he's not the difference between success and failure for the bullpen. He's replaceable from what is currently in the system. For anyone saying they could have chosen someone else to DFA, I agree, and one of them will be designated to make room for Hendrickson. I also wonder what Gabino brings that was worth picking up over what was already on board.

But I'm not going to be losing any sleep over Sarfate's situation. I wish him the best and hope he has great success - with a NL team, preferably.

[RShack]

Sarfate is nothing...

Nice. The guy's Dad is reading stuff here, and you say something like that.

No reason to change your opinion because his family is on here. No reason to say your opinion is other than it is.

But there's no reason to be a heartless jerk either. There's lots of different ways to so say you support the O's decision.

It wouldn't have killed you to find one of them. Thanks for helping the rep of O's fans.

[McLovin]

"I wish I had known earlier and saved two days of my life and not gone to Baltimore for FanFest."

Stay classy, Dennis. Was nice to meet you too.

[clapdiddy]

Stay classy, Dennis. Was nice to meet you too.

That's a disappointing statement from him. I realize that there's a little bitterness in being DFA'd, but he really didn't have to say something like that.

[wildcard]

That's a disappointing statement from him. I realize that there's a little bitterness in being DFA'd, but he really didn't have to say something like that.

I am going to play your boss for that few minutes: You are fired! Are you disappointed? You have a wife and kid and no pay check coming. If you are sent to the minors he just took as huge pay cut.

I think under those circumstances Dennis' statement is pretty darn mild. I think we have to think of the human side of this "its only business" situation sometimes.

[Dipper9]

Stay classy, Dennis. Was nice to meet you too.

Yeah, this line kinda got to me as well. There is probably a 50/50 chance he is in Norfolk this year and is a call up at some point for the O's. This statement will not earn him a lot of support if he is still in our organization.