Madritsch gone
Dave · October 21, 2005 at 1:41 pm · Filed Under Mariners
First reported by KJR, Bobby Madritsch was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Kansas City Royals.
The organization clearly believes that his injury problems are not something he can rehab from and come back to being a major league pitcher.
Comments
74 Responses to “Madritsch gone”
#42– Jon Wells said:”I don’t pretend to be an expert in these matters, but to me it calls into question the organization’s approach to rehab. Maybe they need a different approach during the players’ rehab, maybe they need to have veterans get in these guys faces. Maybe they need to be a little more patient with players who are dealing with injuries.”
then how does that explain all the other players who do successfully rehab in the system? These are supposed to be adults intent on saving their careers, isn’t it incumbent on them to do the work? Anderson sort of had the excuse that he was a kid who’d been pampered, but Madritsch & Jacobsen were veterans of the minors/independent leagues, they knew what was what.
#44-skipj said: “So, what is it with the M’s? PR, performance, don’t party, don’t get hurt”
yah, imagine a team wanting that from their players.
#47. just to be accurate, he had the labrum tear simultaneous to the ligament injury in the capsule. Did anyone really expect that Madritsch would be part of the rotation next year, coming off labrum surgery as the season started? Does anyone think that Jacobsen will be part of another big league team next season?
Bucky was jettisoned because he wasn’t doing his rehab. Unless of course one would believe rehab to be the cause of a 50 lb weight gain. Bucky is gone because he didn’t do the work. He’s done, period. Baseball for him is a dream lost.
I’m hoping Nageotte can step it up and win a spot next year, whether it be in the bullpen or the rotation. He was pretty decent this year after returning from injury, no? Pitching well in the AFL (heavy in hitting talent), no?
I agree with the position Jon Wells has taken in regards to Bobby Madritsch’s release. In defending Mr. Wells, I ask MSB if there is medical evidence to support the claim all players heal at the exact same pace. Otherwise, it’s absurd to use the “then how does that explain all the other players who do successfully rehab in the system? ” excuse in shooting down Mr. Wells opinion on this matter.
I can’t objectively comment because I’m so damn drunk, but watching Mads pitch in the second half of ’04 was one of those reasons to live with an otherwise horrid team, with good peripheries over 88 innings to boot. I hope the best of luck to him in the future, a speedy recovery, and a medicine wheel tattoo on his neck that will plague the M’s for two starts a year. And a curse on Bob Melvin.
A lot of this depends on what they continue to do with roster moves, but who would you rather have stay in the organization, Adam Jones or Mads?
There’s a lot of “but remember how good he was in 04” statements. Are you the same people who criticized the FO for holding on to the players from 2000-3 too long because of fond memories? What you have to give Bavasi credit for is his commitment to jettisoning players that are not producing. Mads is having labrum surgery. He isn’t pitching in 06. He might not be done, but there’s younger options to pursue.
#54– they have dealt with slow healers before (Edgar is the classic example– granted, Edgar at the end didn’t have to prove anything or worry about his status, but the first time he was hurt he wasn’t “Edgar”). Anderson by all reports wasn’t a slow healer, he was an indifferent rehabber until the last year or so. As mentioned above, Jacobsen’s knee healed slowly because the surgery was more involved than they’d thought it would be, and he apparently did his work up to Spring, as he came to camp weighing less as requested; by the time he came up to Tacoma later in the year, he had gained the weight back and added some. Madritsch’s capsule healed along the expected timeline according to his doctors; he had the secondary injury and a 40-man crunch to deal with.
#46– if I read it right, according to Neyer’s Transactions primer, they could have pulled him back
I don’t really see the connection between Madritsch’s situation and the state of the M’s pitching going into the 2006 season. Madritsch wasn’t going to be doing anything for the M’s in spring. His best case scenario was mid-season. If anything, this move allows the M’s to hold on to pitchers who actually do have a realistic chance of helping the M’s in 2006, including Cruceta, Baek, and Harris. Cruceta is an interesting project for the M’s. Baek was not healthy at all last year, but could be a mid-season option if he can get himself right. From what I have heard, his injuries were the nagging variety. Harris is worth holding on to. He is not a hot prospect or anything, but he is decent as an emergency option in guys go down.
If I were Bavasi, I would be looking to add two good starters this offseason. With Piñeiro and Felix, that would leave one spot to fill. For that final spot, they could bring in a few retreads (Kevin Brown, Pedro Astacio) to compete for the spot with guys like Nageotte, Livingston, and Foppert. Ideally, the M’s could give the latter three a chance to pitch in AAA for about 1/2 the season, but you never know.
IMHO, later in this thread the more sensible opinions came out. Before that, I was really surprised to see how many people were thinking Mads was in the ’06 picture. Also surprised to see people against the FO clearing out roster room to allow kids to come up and develop.
I am disappointed that things didn’t go differently for Mads and Bucky, but rehab doesn’t just happen. You have to get up every morning with a goal in mind and grind it out every day — similar skills to being successful over a 162 game season. With Mads it is probably more of an issue of one too many injuries, but it sounds like Bucky is a different story.
Before the Beltre and Sexson signings, when I was being pessimistic and expressing skepticism that anyone would want to sign with Seattle, a Red Sox fan friend of mine told me Seattle had a great reputation for treating its ballplayers really well, and that that would be a factor. Assuming that’s really true, do you guys think something like this compromises that at all, or do players expect a team to cut a pitcher in a situation like this, even a team trying to keep that kind of reputation? What about combined with the usage pattern that preceded the injury? Does this make the Mariners seem less loyal to their players, or is that really only for established veterans anyway?
Anyway, certainly hope this lights even more fire for Madritsch and he is a productive major leaguer again soon. If he’s part of some KC playoff run because of all their great draft pics these days, it would make me very happy.
cutting players like Bucky and Mads is not something unique to the Ms. It will have zero effect on free agent signings.
K.C. will be the NEW Indians!
They will take Bobby, Bucky, Ryan Franklin, and Ryan Anderson (Fox say something like “all you need is a little R & R to win this series!”). KC will make them stars out of them and win the wild card in ’08. Then they will go on to beat both the Yankees in the Divison series, and Boston in the ALCS! But KC will lose the World Series in game 7, even though Bobby will throw a 238 pitch 1 hitter (HR), to the Cubs.
…at least BM gave me some hope through the ’04/’05 seasons. Good luck, you crazy tattooed dude.
#52 Do we know that Bucky slacked off and gained 50 lbs? I never saw that in print anywhere. Can you post a link?
I think in both the case of Bucky and Madritsch… Fans need to quit expecting any 30ish year-old rookie to be any type of a long-term solution or fix. If Madritsch were 24 instead of 30 maybe I’d care he was gone. Madritsch’s career K/9 is 5.95, and he’s not a young man coming off of a major injury. Odds are he’s out of the league in two years, so there really isn’t much call for the M’s to protect him on the 40 man roster.
Odds are he’s out of the league in two years
For that matter, it might be two years before he’s back in the league.
i wish the best for bobby. i had big hopes for him.
I really hope bobby comes back to bite the FO. I know some have said it’s nothing to make a big deal of but doing what Bavasi did via the media stinks of cold personal corporations. And I haven’t read anything by the good doctor (Yokum?) that suggets Bobby will never pitch well again. This (and still keeping Kida) really puts Bavasi on my Kusai Mierda List.
Go get’em Bobby!
Sorry, that should be “impersonal” not “personal”
I think it would be easier to understand the pressure to free up spots on the 40-man if we looked at the demand for those slots. Which minor-leaguers need to be put on the 40-man to avoid possibly losing them this winter? How many spots are best left open to pickup someone from the waiver wire, free agency or elsewhere?
AS for Kida over Bobby, I would bet that Maseo doesn’t end up on that roster. Sometimes a player is let go early in order to give him a chance elsewhere, so perhaps that’s in the equation.
#68: If I am counting correctly, Michael Garciappara will need a spot on the 40 man roster this year to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
Position players are not the same as pitchers. I would agree that a 30 year old rookie position player, even if he has a good rookie season, is very unlikely to have much of a career.
However, pitchers develop at different speeds. Some get their control late (RJ), or figure out how to pitch late (Moyer). Others get hurt and then come back as a totally different pitcher (Tanana).
It’s perfectly believable that a pitcher could have a good career in his 30’s when he wasn’t in the majors in his 20’s. Especially one that has shown he can get major league hitters out. The only question would be his health. Great gamble for KC to take.
I was only a kid when the Twins released Luis Tiant when he got hurt, after a season when he had gone 7-3 for them. He was then signed and released by the Braves. He then went on to have a pretty fair (!) career in Boston.
Is there any reason to protect Michael Garciaparra?
Is there any reason to protect Michael Garciaparra?
I wouldn’t. And I don’t see a club carrying him on the 25-man roster all season, either.
Investigative journalist Dave Mahler plans to find out the REAL reason Madritsch wasn’t protected. Apparently, he feels there must be some deep, dark secret other than clearing space on the 40 man.
#72: Which brings up the next question: when, if ever, do you guys project Michael Garciaparra finding his way into a big league ballgame?