Okay, so it’s a bad and obvious joke, but one that needed to be told. Let’s take this in two steps:
1 – The Rangers traded away Eddie Guardado. Fine with me. There was talk that he might be the closer next year, but let’s be honest, Eddie is not a long-term solution. Getting rid of him forces the organization to deal with the problem, rather than simply using a stop-gap. JD is getting good at signing older free agents (Guardado is 37), showcasing them, than trading them to a contender for a prospect or two. Which leads us to…
2 – The Twins sent over right-handed pitcher Mark Hamburger. The stats, from baseball-reference.com:
- 21 years old, 6’4", 210 lbs (according to media reports, baseball-reference.com seems to have an old number)
- Just finished his 2nd season of Class A Rookie ball.
- 35 G, 51.2 IP, 3-3, 13 SV, 3.31 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 52 K (just over 9 K/9!), 17 BB
- Named this year’s Closer of the Year in the Appalachian League, also named to the postseason All-Star squad.
- In his last 11 appearances, dating back to July 28, gave up no walks and struck out 10.
- Features a fastball, slider, curve, and change-up. Says his fastball is his "out pitch" and has "decent movement." A Rangers scout reportedly clocked the fastball at 96 recently.
- T.R. Sullivan calls him a "decent prospect." Well then.
- An interview with Hamburger, from a Twins perspective, from this last offseason.
