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December 14, 2005
Transaction: Shouse and DeRosa Sign
Texas signed reliever BRIAN SHOUSE to a one-year contract for $725,000 and utility guy MARK DEROSA to a one-year deal for $675,000.
Shouse is 37 and earned his first arbitration-induced raise. His ERA leapt from 2.23 in 2004 to 5.23 last year, though his performance wasn’t that much worse. He did allow seven homers compared to three the previous year and didn’t induce as many grounders. Shouse breezes against lefties, while righties chew him up:
OPS of Lefties vs Shouse, 2003-2005: .501, .555, .628
OPS of Righties vs Shouse, 2003-2005: .916, .807, .924
DeRosa provides excellent depth, able to play anywhere but catcher and center field. For the moment, he and Ian Kinsler enter next spring as competitors for the second base job. Kinsler had a solid first season in pitcher-friendly Oklahoma --.274/.348/.464 – but not one that screams “ready to face Roy Halladay.� If DeRosa wins the starting role, his presence negates much of gain from trading Soriano for Wilkerson. (That assumes Wilkerson is a better player than Soriano. I am willing to make that assumption.) Put another way, a team constructed such that Mark DeRosa keeps someone else on the bench is not a team destined for postseason play. In a perfect world, DeRosa provides value by spelling Hank Blalock and David Dellucci against tough lefties.
Posted by Lucas at December 14, 2005 02:54 PM