On the heels of a lousy relief appearance in New York, Daniel Cabrera was DFA'd by the Nationals last night. His final numbers: 40 innings, 16 strikeouts, 35 walks, a 5.85 ERA, and a 7.76 tRA. His once blazing fastball dropped all the way to a 91mph average, and given his awful command and poor secondary stuff, Cabrera found himself incapable of both throwing strikes and missing bats. His time spent in Washington was time spent as arguably the worst pitcher in the Major Leagues.
Said acting GM Mike Rizzo on Cabrera's DFA:
I was tired of watching him.
A lot of times, GMs will respond to situations like this by saying something guarded and innocuous. It seems that when you're 13-32, the honestly starts to come out.
0 recs | 15 comments
That's pretty refreshing actually.
thewyrm - May 27, 2009
Mike Rizzo is commenting himself out of the Nats GM job.
I don’t care how honest his assessment may be, and how much it tracks with what we as fans might feel — it’s still stupid and impolitic to say it out loud, and people notice these things. This is the second time in less than a month that Rizzo has said something vaguely nasty about a player the Nats have released (the first was when they DFA’d Steven Shell in the Great But Fruitless Bullpen Massacre, about how Shell didn’t give off the “aura” of an MLB pitcher — this despite the fact that his numbers suggested he was a reasonably serviceable middle reliever). With snark like this, he’s talking his way out of the job IMO.
Which, for all we know, may be precisely his intent. God the Nationals suck.
esoteric - May 27, 2009
"Aura of an MLB pitcher"? Sounds like Bavasi.
.Taylor - May 27, 2009
Is he the permenant or interim GM?
Decatur - May 27, 2009
Interim, with the general assumption that he would become the permanent one.
This is a good way to derail that. Which as I said may be the idea, given the current woeful state of the Nationals.
esoteric - May 27, 2009
Why the fuck don't they hire someone smart to be their GM?
I mean, all the cool kids are doing it now. Free Tony LaCava!
Decatur - May 27, 2009
Have you heard tell of this newly-breaking PED scandal implicating the Nationals and Capitals?
It may be on the verge of getting a whole lot uglier in Washington.
esoteric - May 27, 2009
No.
Do link.
Decatur - May 27, 2009
.
Link
R.J. Anderson - May 27, 2009
Also, I would point out that Rizzo has the (justifiable) reputation of a scouting/drafting/prospect guru on the level of GMZ...
…due to his work with the D-Backs. (Of course, the way that Arizona has subsequently botched the development of all that young talent is an open question.) He’s long been considered a top prospective GM candidate for that reason. The rap against him is generally the one that DePodesta was tagged with: smart ultra-competent guy, but bad on the PR/political side of the ledger. Stuff like this merely reinforces that impression.
esoteric - May 27, 2009
Total dick move, but I laughed.
Teej - May 27, 2009
Honesty is far too rare in corporate America
pdb - May 27, 2009
Now Jack Z needs to say the same about Yuni
“I was tired of watching him.”
LCT - May 27, 2009
And Kenji.
And Lopez, Beltre, Silva, Batista, Johnson, Lowe…
Phil Hatzenbuehler - May 27, 2009
Dammit.
That was supposed to be a reply to LCT’s comment.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - May 27, 2009
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