Hes got a good splitter and slider. And he also has both a 2 and 4 seam fb that isn't nothing to sneeze at.
i didnt think gutierrez was anything special. seeing both of their short time in the MLB i thought paulino had better stuff anyway. plus Nieve will be back around June. good trade... dont remember if i posted in this thread already or not.
I am surprised this thread is only 4 pages long, we picked up one of the best young closers int he majors.
wow, i had no idea...that sucks...he was a good prospect til he got hurt this year...not sure why we gave up on him
Man, am I gonna even recognize the squad on opening day?! And that's perhaps a good thing...getting excited.
He wasn't offered arbitration. Astros can't negotiate until right before Spring Training with him due to the arbitration rules, so he's pretty much guaranteed to be somewhere else next year.
Nope, he is a FA. Looks like the Nats are interested in him and Prior. On another note: I know you have to give to get, but it would've been sweet to have a Qualls/Valverde combo to finish off games.
They still could offer him a deal, but he couldn't be an astro until May because he wasn't offered arbitration.
I believe that May stipulation was removed from the collective bargaining agreement. You can now sign your own free agents that you did not offer arbitration to anytime and they can be on your opening day roster.
Saves are pretty meaningless until you realize that not every one can step in to these pressure situations and close them out. Valverde has done that. He did that in the playoffs, when the pressure was high. Qualls was an unknown in that context.
The Rockets weren't bringing in all-star players. Scola was an unknown. Francis and James don't compare to a Tejada and Valverde. This is very different from that, in my view.
Not sure how I feel about this deal. I personally felt Qualls would have excelled as the closer. Valverde's up and down past concerns me. I was not a Burke fan, so his inclusion doesn't really matter to me. Gutierrez I don't know much about. I don't think I saw any of his games last year. Hopefully Valverde can be the kind of closer they hope he will be.
It really surprises me to hear people say this. We traded away a 7/8 inning guy and a guy who had no place on the team for a guy who was an all-star closer last season. A guy who has shown he can get it done in pressure situations for a playoff team. I can't imagine being against this trade.
