Happy 32nd Birthday, Brian Bruney
Posted by Steve L. on February 17th, 2014 · Comments (6)
Another Cashman “nugget” that tarnished quickly.
Comments on Happy 32nd Birthday, Brian Bruney
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A “cast-off”, who was pretty good for awhile is to be considered a “Cashman failure”? Really? I have a large number of books that I’ve “stored” (to my wife’s chagrin) of “prospect books” such as Baseball America, the old “Stats Inc” books of the eighties and early nineties, and many others. When you go back, and see all the projected “stars” in clubs besides the Yankees. I mean guys who would be the “next Mantle, Schmidt, Aaron,”etc, it amazes how many never do anything. Although it’s emotionally easy to think that the Yankees have so many “failures” (they have), and someone is to “blame” (Cashman), let’s not lose sight of how this is the very Nature of the Beast. The Yankees are about due for their fair share of “luck” in this regard.
Steve’s hindsight has always been 20/20.
Signed from waivers and pitched in New York for 3.5 seasons. Put up the following:
144 IP, 12-3 W/L, 3.25 ERA, 140 ERA+, 1.40 WHIP, 8.3 K/9, 5.7 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9, 3.5 bWAR
A reliever with a control problem (too many walks) but with swing-and-miss stuff that pitched better than the MLB-average bullpen arm and was worth just about a win above replacement per season. That’s the defnition of surplus value when you sign a guy off waivers and he pitches well enough to hold down a job for nearly four years at better-than-average results.
jerryran wrote:
In this case, more like wilfully putting a hand over his face to obscure facts.
KPOcala wrote:
Not really. Brian Cashman, a Harvard Law graduate, has done an excellent job acquiring and cultivating young pitching talent since he became GM for NY in 2010, or only a few years ago: Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard, Niese, Montero, Gee, Parnell … Oh, wait a minute, I might have Cashman confused with someone else…
Bruney was basically a 1 bWAR a season reliever over his 3 1/2 years with the Yanks. For a free agent signing (no, not THAT kind of free agent), that’s actually pretty good.