Kuzul

There was a serious fantasy fallout with Brian Fuentes being traded to the Minnesota Twins on Friday. One player’s stock soared for the final month of the season and one player’s stock went down.

Let’s take a look at the Fuentes trade from a fantasy perspective.

Brian Fuentes—Stock Down. Despite recording the save in yesterday’s 1-0 win over the Seattle Mariners, Fuentes should be seeing the eighth inning more than the ninth inning.

Unless current closer Matt Capps goes down or starts to really struggle, then Fuentes has very little fantasy value moving forward.

Matt Capps—Stock Even. Despite NOT recording the save in yesterday’s 1-0 over the Mariners, Capps should get the majority of the save opportunities moving forward. The only reason Fuentes got the save yesterday was because left-handed batter Russell Branyan came to the plate, and Fuentes was a better match up against the lefty.

I could see Capps losing saves like this every now and then, but his stock should remain unaffected moving forward.

Fernando Rodney—Stock Up. With Fuentes being shipped out of town, someone needs to close games in Anaheim. That guy will be Rodney.

Rodney is having a typical Rodney season with an ERA of 3.83, a WHIP of around 1.40, and a very mediocre BB/K ratio. He will be a decent fill-in choice if you need a No. 2 closer for the day or week.

Rodney could benefit from the Angels’ easy schedule in September. The Angels play the Mariners and Cleveland Indians a total of 10 times in September. Easy games means wins, and wins potentially could equal saves for Rodney.

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On Friday the Minnesota Twins acquired Brian Fuentes from the Los Angeles Angels.

On Saturday Fuentes earned his first Twins‘ save against the Seattle Mariners. For Fuentes it was his 24th save of the season.

For the Minnesota Twins, Fuentes gives their bullpen a proven closer—that makes three proven closers since Joe Nathan injured his pitching shoulder in spring training.

Within an hour of arriving at Safeco Field in Seattle, Fuentes had his first Twins’ save, giving him 24 for the season.

Jon Rauch started the season as Nathan’s replacement. He has 21 saves, a 3.40 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP.

The Twins traded catcher Wilson Ramos to the Washington Nationals for All-Star closer Matt Capps on July 29th. Capps has six saves in 13 appearances for Minnesota.

Combined in 2010, the three-headed closer of Rauch-Capps-Fuentes has 77 saves, a 3.10 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP.

Minnesota General Manager Bill Smith has acted quickly after the Twins’ bullpen lost their two left-handed relievers, Jose Mijares and Ron Mahay. 

On Wednesday the Twins claimed left-handed reliever Randy Flores off waivers from the Colorado Rockies. Flores has pitched 27.2 innings with a 2.96 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

The addition of Fuentes gives Manager Ron Gardenhire some extra flexibility at the end of games.

Rauch will probably alternate with Jesse Crain and Matt Guerrier for the eighth inning set-up role, while Capps and Fuentes gives the Twins a left-handed and a right-handed closer for the ninth. 

The Twins needed a closer with some experience, and with three post-season saves, the 34 year-old Fuentes gives them just that.

Nick Blackburn impresses with eight and two-thirds innings of shutout baseball.

On Saturday, starter Nick Blackburn found himself in some early trouble in the first inning. With two outs, he gave up back-to-back hits putting runners on first and third. He would get the next batter to end the inning, and then pitch into the ninth not allowing another hit. 

The Twins would pick up a run in the top of the third when Danny Valencia, J.J. Hardy and Denard Span would provide three hits in a row scoring the only run the Twins would need.

With one out in the second Blackburn would walk Ryan Langerhans, and then set down the next 22 batters, until with two outs in the ninth he would walk Chone Figgins.

With the winning run at the plate Gardenhire wasted no time bringing the left-handed Fuentes to pitch to the left-handed hitting Russell Branyan.

Fuentes had an easy four-pitch save, striking out Branyan on a 91 mile per hour fastball.

In his two starts since returning from Rochester, Blackburn has pitched 15.2 innings, allowing only three earned runs (a 1.72 ERA). He has dropped his ERA for the season from 6.66 to 6.02.

If Blackburn continues to pitch this well, Gardenhire will have some tough decisions to make when Kevin Slowey comes off the DL.   

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In 2009, Brian Fuentes led the Major Leagues in saves with 48. Granted, they weren’t all pretty and Angel fans still remember the fastball that Alex Rodriguez belted out of Yankee Stadium in the ’09 ALCS; but overall Fuentes has been a solid closer for the Angels.

Just one season later, with the Angels at a mediocre 60-61, Fuentes has just 23 saves. He also has finished just 31 games in 2010. Fuentes contract includes a vesting option for 2011 if he finishes 55 games.

With just 41 games remaining, a lackluster offense and relievers setting him up who are not getting the job done it seems Fuentes is headed towards free agency. With an ERA presently at 3.22 and a WHIP of 1.16, plus being left handed he is likely to have quite a few suitors.

So in the offseason of 2011, not only will the Angels have to take a hard look at upgrading their core of set up men, they may also need a new closer. Those returning next season the Angels are going to have to right their ship or the 2011 club may have the same bullpen issues they do in 2010.

Click here to continue Brian Fuentes Should Remain an Angel

Eric Denton is the head writer and content editor for LA Angels Insider.com

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The Angels need bullpen help.

The Indians need payroll relief.

The Angels are about to give up on their top prospect Brandon Wood.

The Indians are about to give up on their season and closer Kerry Wood.

These are just a few of the reasons why a Wood-for-Wood trade might make sense for both teams.

Kerry’s bloated 7.02 ERA and 1.56 WHIP are not exactly living up to his bloated $10.5 million salary. It’s going to make it extremely hard for the Indians to get anything for him if they choose to try and get out from under that albatross of a contract.

Cleveland (28-47) is in another early death spiral, as they have already fallen 13 games behind first place Detroit.

The Indians probably felt they could trade Kerry for prospects mid-season this year if things didn’t go their way. Unfortunately, they probably weren’t counting on Kerry to have such a disastrous start.

Good luck getting anything for him now. The best Cleveland can hope for is to convince a large-market team to take Kerry’s salary off their hands.

Similarly for the Angels, things could not have gone worse for their 25-year-old infield prospect Brandon Wood, who was compared to the likes of Troy Glaus and Mike Schmidt during his minor league career.

The reality has been a nightmarish .176 batting average with four extra base hits and 45 strikeouts over 150 at-bats. Brandon hasn’t exactly made up for his anemic offense with stellar defense either. He has made eight errors in 399 innings.

However, Brandon’s upside might appeal to the Indians. Baseball America had Brandon ranked no lower than the 16th best prospect in baseball for three straight years—ranking him as high as third at one point.

Did I mention he also makes only $410,000 per year?

Brandon hit 43 homers, 116 RBI and had a .321 average one year in the minors. He seemed to be on track to put up similar numbers in the majors until the wheels fell off that turnip truck.

Many have speculated one reason was the unrealistic and unfair expectations put on the kid by the Angels organization and their fans. A change of scenery where not much is expected might be just what the doctor ordered for Brandon, who is obviously pressing.

Kerry Wood is a player that can probably relate to not living up to the hype, even though his problems were more physical than mental.

Kerry might be an excellent gamble for the Angels, who desperately need help at the back end of their pen, and are one of the few clubs who could handle that kind of a payroll hit.

A closer look at Kerry’s stats show 13 of his 16 innings this year were clean. His poor numbers are largely because of a horrible outing against Kanas City, where he gave up 5 runs while only recording one out.

Although he has been wild at times, Kerry is still recording almost a strikeout per inning. When he is on, he has proven he still has the mental toughness and “stuff” to come into games at big moments and shut teams down. Playing for a contender again might start to stir Kerry’s competitive juices and bring back some of his intensity.

It would definitely be a gamble for the Angels to take on the $10.2 million contract of a fragile and declining Kerry Wood, but I like his upside over that of Brian Fuentes.

There really is no gamble in this scenario for the Indians, who stand to save almost $10 million with this move—a move that they would be hard pressed to pull off with virtually any other club.

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They may have beaten Toronto to win their latest three-game series, but many of the same problems that have plagued the L.A. Angels through their first two months of the season were still evident Wednesday.

Horrible defense. Horrible bullpen. Horrible intensity.

* Juan Rivera forgets how many outs there are, and almost gets picked off in a key part of the game.

* The underachieving Howie Kendrick almost hits into a double play, when all he had to do was hit the ball in the air to win the game. The man that has been touted as the “future batting champion” for the past five years is now hitting .257.

* Bobby Abreu commits his fifth error of the year by slowing up on a fly ball to shallow right and dropping it—putting the tying run on second base in the ninth.

Let me just repeat that: Five errors in two months of playing right field. That gives him a .938 fielding percentage through 45 games—the worst among outfielders in the majors.

* Brian Fuentes ultimately blows another save—only to thieve another win away from Joel Piñeiro. 

Abreu atoned for his defensive sins with a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth, which really cloaked another sloppy game for the Halos.

Here is the good news.

The Angels get to play virtually nothing but horrible teams for the next month.

The bad news is, their opponents are probably thinking they are lucky to get to play the Angels, who have now managed to pull within three games of .500.

The Angels had an unusually tough schedule to start the season. They have already played Boston, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Minnesota, St. Louis, Texas and the New York Yankees a total of 29 times in their first 49 games.

In those 29 games against contending teams, the Angels had a record of 8-21. Against all other opponents, they are an amazing 15-5.

Considering that lopsided statistic, June might be just what the doctor ordered for the Angels—a steady prescription of anemic teams to find their stroke against. In fact, their next 14 games are all against Seattle, Kansas City, and Oakland.

The only teams they will play in the next 29 games with winning records are the Dodgers, and Colorado. The Angels always play their cross-town rivals tough, and Colorado is playing at two games over .500.

The June finale will be against first place Texas before the Angels begin July with another light stretch against Kansas City, Chicago, and Oakland.

Given that schedule, don’t be shocked if you see the Angels emerge from June with a record that is at least 10 games over .500.

That being said, the Angels are going to have to beat a good team sometime. They miraculously won a three-game series against the Yankees, but wins against teams with winning records have been few, and far between this season.

Hopefully June can help them get their groove back, since they have proven they are at least still good enough to dominate second-rate ballclubs. They are going to need to find their swagger soon if they have any interest in seeing their seventh playoff appearance in nine years materialize.

Too bad they won’t get to play Kansas City if and when they get there.

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Admit it Angels fans. You’ve been spoiled.

Since Bryan Harvey took over the role in 1989, the Angels have been blessed with a shut-down closer every year until now.

Harvey, Troy Percival, Francisco Rodriguez and yes, Brian Fuentes, have provided an unbroken, 20-year chain of confidence for Halo managers to go to the pen in the ninth.

That amazing streak of good fortune seems likely to be ending this year.

In just 11 appearances this season, Fuentes has already allowed four homers, blown two saves, and lost a game.

With an ERA hovering near 6.00 and a WHIP of 1.31, Fuentes has been far from automatic and anything but intimidating for opposing batters.

Normally, a sampling of 11 games might not be all that much to be concerned about—especially for a guy that led the majors in saves last year with 48 and made the All-Star team.

Lost in those stats from 2009 are his seven blown saves, five losses, 1.40 WHIP and a blown save in the playoffs.

A trip to the DL earlier this year gave the newly acquired, former Detroit Tigers closer Fernando Rodney a shot at locking down wins. Rodney promptly went five-for-five in save opportunities and had fans advocating for manager Mike Scioscia to make the change permanent.

Rodney then promptly blew a save against St. Louis on Sunday, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of Angels fans everywhere.

With all the hand-wringing over the Angels’ offense and inconsistent starting pitching, the biggest letdown of all has been the bullpen. No longer can they count on the best set-up man in baseball to hand the game over to one of the best closers in baseball—a luxury Scot Shields and Brendan Donnelly provided for the past decade.

If the Angels could have simply held on to leads this year in the same way they have held on in the past, they still would be tied for first place despite all of their other woes.

Until the Halos solve their relief problems, the $30 million they are spending on their starting rotation will be utterly worthless, which begs the question: Was Francisco Rodriguez worth $12 million per year after all?

I was front and center on the “don’t re-sign K-Rod” bandwagon two years ago. After all, the Angels had rookie sensation Jose Arredondo, who looked like he was separated at birth from K-Rod with his 1.62 ERA.

Paying the league minimum to a guy that might end up being as good as Rodriguez seemed to make far more sense than paying $12 million for redundancy.

The Angels still obviously put a high priority on the closer slot, despite letting Franky walk. They spent $9 million to bring in Fuentes, 34, because of reservations management had about Arredondo’s readiness in making the jump to closer.

After Arredondo flamed out in his sophomore season, and ultimately ended up needing Tommy John surgery, the insurance move paid off for the Halos.

However, with Fuentes seeming to have lost a step just one year later, questions about the wisdom in letting Rodriguez walk in the first place deserve to be revisited.

Did the Angels actually save money with the move or did they waste $9 million by making Brian Fuentes their highest-paid pitcher?

For $3 million more, would they have been better served to keep the real deal in K-Rod?

$3 million more might start to look like a bargain when you consider K-Rod is only 28 and has already accomplished the following:

He’s a season away from already joining the 300-save club.

Crushed the all-time single-season save record with 62.

Has more saves than any other closer since 2005.

685 K’s in 542 innings pitched (they don’t call him K-Rod for nothing).

Batters are hitting .191 against him for his career (lower than Mariano Rivera).

He’s a World Champion.

Consistently one of the top three most intimidating closers in baseball.

Through 21 appearances this season, he has 25 K’s, with a  1.96 ERA.

Further consider that the Angels spent $5.75 million to sign Rodney as a backup plan to Fuentes this season. That means the Angels ended up spending more on two mediocre closers than they would have if they had just signed their elite closer in the first place. $2.75 million more, which ironically is almost the exact difference between the Fuentes and Rodriguez contracts.

Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but I promise I will never take pitching depth for granted again. It would be wise for General Manager Tony Reagins to take heed as well. It may have taken this year to remind the Angels and their fans what pitching is worth.

The Angels have gone from having the third best team ERA in baseball two years ago, to the second worst in the American League this season.

Now, the Angels are seeing the consequences.

Until the bullpen gets righted, a team that has been built on pitching a defense for the past decade with much success can no longer succeed.

Don’t look for the Angels to make any trades to remedy the problem. They are pretty much stuck with what they have for the season because of all the money they have already allocated to Rodney and Fuentes.

Unless several relievers step up from within the organization in the next month, the Angels will be in for a long, frustrating and forgettable summer.

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