It didn't take long for last year's Braves closer and setup-man (deposed closer) to go head to head in their new homes in the American League. Rafael Soriano, now with the Tampa Bay Rays, and Mike Gonzalez, who signed with the Baltimore Orioles, were both inserted into last night's game in the ninth inning.
With Baltimore leading 3-to-2, Soriano took the mound in the ninth relieving Lance Cormier (one of five former Braves pitchers in this game!). He promptly gave up a double, then a bunt single, then some good defense, a walk, and you get the picture, it was one of those typical Soriano's-not-sharp-in-non-save-situations outings. He didn't give up a run, which was a bit of a miracle after a leadoff double.
Mike Gonzalez then came of to close out the game for Baltimore. He struck out Pat-the-bat to begin the inning, then allowed a single and a double to put the winning run in scoring position. They intentionally walked the bases loaded and Carl Crawford doubled home the winning run. Blown save Mike Gonzalez.
While it is only one game, I still like our eighth and ninth inning combo this year of Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner much better than last year's combo of Gonzalez and Soriano. Gonzalez had become borderline Mitch-Williams-wild on the mound, and Soriano had no consistency throughout the season.
In addition to Soriano, Gonzalez, and Cormier appearing in this game, the other ex-Braves to make an appearance were Will Ohman and Kevin Millwood, both for Baltimore. (hat tip: JW)
0 recs | 26 comments
I still don’t like the combined age of those two are about 70… We will see I guess
Erich Vowell - April 7, 2010
77 actually
Jacob Peterson - April 7, 2010
Haha even better!
ATLforlife - April 7, 2010
Can’t complain thus far after I saw Wagner hit 97! I was shocked he got it up there bc I didn’t see anything above 94 in spring training and he was consistently 96-97 Monday.
RWH2 - April 7, 2010
keep in mind
stadium guns are generally jacked up to get the fans excited so you can’t definitively compare readings from two different stadiums.
was385 - April 7, 2010
Furthermore, keep in mind Wagner was pitching on Opening Day in his Brave debut in front of 50k fans or so (the stadium was no longer full in the 9th). I suspect he was pretty pumped which can add a little zip to the fastball.
Frankly, I could care less if he hits upper 90s or not, if he can maintain the kind of good movement he had all year long, he’s going to be unhittable.
UMDBHIK - April 7, 2010
ugh…
Smoltz's Beard - April 8, 2010
I saw...
him hit 100 in one spring training game, FWIW.
sddbaker - April 7, 2010
I was going off the TV gun both times if that makes a difference
RWH2 - April 7, 2010
I mean it's not like it's going to be way off
but as tv announcers love to say, there are very few players who can legitimately touch 100 and a bunch that hit it on the gun every year. OTL had some story on it a couple years ago and the Yankees even hire a guy with a radar gun to sit in the stands and sign down to the man on deck what the actual speed of the pitches is.
was385 - April 7, 2010
All 4 relievers (Soriano, Gonzalez, Wagner, and Saito) are somewhat of a gamble health and performance wise as well as being expensive. I’ll wait until the end of the season before making a judgment about whether Wren picked the right ones.
redwards95 - April 7, 2010
Well,
if they are equal gambles, Wags and Saito came cheaper ($10M) than Gonzo and Soriano ($13M I believe). So that’s a win for us.
I’ll take the two we have, too. Mainly because I don’t think Wags will be as combustible as Gonzalez or Soriano.
Jacob Peterson - April 7, 2010
And plus we got another reliever!
ATLforlife - April 7, 2010
I'm just irked
that we didn’t get any compensations from Soriano leaving…and we had to pay draft picks on top of that for Wagner (to the Red Sox, of all teams).
soup du jour - April 7, 2010
What? You don’t like Jesse Chavez?
redwards95 - April 7, 2010
Didn’t Gonzo lose like 5 mph on his fastball during the offseason? I thought I read that somewhere.
Either way, I’ve got a friend who’s an O’s fan so he’s already bitching about the bullpen. Always good for a laugh.
Smoltz's Beard - April 7, 2010
Gonzo’s always been slow to build up velocity.
gondeee - April 7, 2010
True, but they made it seem like the guy can’t top 88 anymore.
Smoltz's Beard - April 7, 2010
Man, Frank Wren is really stupid for not committing $20 million to those guys…
PWHjort - April 7, 2010
Gonzo blew the save last night
Rough start for him.
Kayne - April 7, 2010
I got a text messge last night that just said
“mike gonzalez bsl”
I laughed, and laughed. I checked the box score, only to confirm the fate, but also to see that Soriano needed like 20+ pitches to get out of his inning.
Gonzo is no doubt a good guy, but he’s certainly no full-time closer any more, and the O’s are going to find out the hard way. I think Brad Lidge is going to be pleased to see how quickly people will forget about his 10 BSs from last year.
I read in an MLB magazine about Evan Longoria saying how Soriano was going to make them into a legit contender again since they didn’t have a real closer last year; I like Sori more than Gonzo, but again, in the long haul, I question him as a legit closer.
I’m quite pleased with Wags in our 9th, and I’m hoping to see 40 saves this year, for all the reasons involved.
royhobbs - April 7, 2010
Pretty quick to dismiss the former Braves...
While I agree that Gonzo was always “effectively wild”, I take issue with the statement that Soriano “had no consistency throughout the season”. Soriano’s stats from last year:
April: 10 appearances (all 1IP), 1 run allowed
May: 12 appearances (all but 1 were 1IP), 2 runs allowed (1 each in 2 cases)
June: 13 appearances, 15IP, 2 runs allowed
That’s pretty f’ing consistent for me. Now, if you want to say that his Aug and Sept were not on par with his start to the season, then that’s a perfectly legitimate gripe. But you can’t ignore his work earlier in the year based on how he finished, which wasn’t all that bad at the end of the day.
The problem with Soriano was that he simply was going to cost too much — not that he can’t do the job.
fphjr01 - April 7, 2010
Agreed, I think Soriano will be fine but Gonzalez, not so much.
Smoltz's Beard - April 7, 2010
Agreed.
Effectively wild is not always wildly effective for sure!
ATLforlife - April 7, 2010
Haha, true :=)
HEYJUDE - April 7, 2010
Inconsistent Force meets Unstable Object
skymuse - April 7, 2010
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