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May 1, 2006
Subject: Miscellaneous Comments
I am still not happy with the leadoff spot. I made some noise about trading for a leadoff hitter in the off-season, but I could not bring myself to pull the trigger. The price was too high (Morgan or Bland or Davidson). I continue to work on it. I have a lot of high-value prospects and it may be time to part with a couple to fix a long-standing weakness.
I have locked up John, Trejo, and Garza to affordable 3-4 year deals, and reduced the arbitration risk for next season while saving money against the estimates. I see all three of these players as long-term keepers. I still have Gonzalez and Bennett on the list of arbitration-eligible players, but the future is less certain for them. The potential savings from a long-term deal is also much less because they are at the end of the arbitration cycle as opposed to the beginning for those other players. I might as well negotiate with Gonzalez and Bennett at the end of this season when I have another year of stats.
Wilkerson has been a real find. He is 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA in 5 starts. He was 8-14 with a 5.64 ERA last season for Chicago. Wilkerson is not yet eligible for arbitration, so I am pretty happy with how this is going so far. His case is looking a lot like Brian Wilson, but I am not trying to put that kind of expectation on Wilkerson. I would be thrilled with a competent fifth starter. In general, I think we are seeing that I have a very good pitching coach in Barry Melton.
Speaking of ex-Colonels pitchers, I know you are curious (I was) so here are updates on a couple of our former players after five starts:
Brian Wilson 37 IP, 2-0, 3.11 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, .263 BABIP, 3.78 FIP
Pedro Castro 26 IP, 2-2, 5.88 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, .267 BABIP, 5.43 FIP
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