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January 24, 2012

Uehara

Perhaps it's nitpicky, but I quibble with Gerry Fraley's characterization of potential trade-away Koji Uehara as "a victim of the numbers game in [Texas's] bullpen." Let's check those numbers.

First, the closer and setup guys:

Joe Nathan,
Alexi Ogando (presumably),
Mike Adams.

Next, everyone else on the 40 with MLB experience:

Scott Feldman,
Mark Lowe,
Yoshi Tateyama,
Mark Hamburger,
Michael Kirkman,
Cody Eppley.

The other contenders are 40-man virgins Martin Perez and Neil Ramirez, non-40 prospect Tanner Scheppers and NRIs Mitch Stetter and Sean Green. The only lefties are Kirkman, Perez and Stetter.

Outside the top three, there's no one about whom you can say: "He has to be in this bullpen." When on his game, Uehara ranks easily among Texas's best bullpen arms. Despite middling velocity, he owns one of the best K/BB ratios on the planet.

Uehara isn't being squeezed out of a deep bullpen. This is about him. He appears to be held in such disfavor that Texas isn't interested in seeing if he can regain his form in Spring Training. The homers -- an ungodly one per ten batters faced -- and his self-professed lack of confidence as a Ranger have transformed him from one of baseball's best relievers to a salary dump.

Posted by Lucas at January 24, 2012 01:26 PM