Thoughts on Former Sox: Gabbard and Pena

As I watch the Rangers-Angels game on ESPN, Kason Gabbard is pitching pretty well once again. For those of you unfamiliar with Gabbard, he is a former Red Sox prospect who made his MLB debute last year and worked his way into the Sox rotation in 2007. The Red Sox traded him (along with David Murphy and Engel Beltre) to the Rangers for Eric Gagne. Likely, the Sox won't know if this trade was a success until the playoffs but it is clear that the Rangers picked up a quality starting pitcher. Gabbard is what has become known as a "soft tossing lefty" and was likely undervalued by the fact that he doesn't throw above 91 MPH. However, Gabbard just keeps winning by pounding the strike zone, keeping his pitches down, and changing speeds effectively--particularly his off-speed stuff.

So this begs the question, since in my last post I emphasized how young pitching may be the new key to success in MLB, did the Sox fail to truly appreciate how good Gabbard was/could be? It's likely too early to tell but since that isn't an interesting answer, I'll try to dissect things further. The Sox have (at least) five starting pitchers for the 2008 starting rotation: Beckett, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, Lester, and Buchholz. They also have Justin Masterson and Michael Bowden waiting in the wings (much as with Papelbon in 2005, Lester in 2006, and Buchholz in 2007). However, should one of the "slated" starting five go down early in the season, the Sox could be short handed and Sox fans likely don't want to see another version of Julian Tavarez in the rotation for more than a start or two. Gabbard certainly could have made for a nice safety net in the 2008 season. However, to answer my own question, the Sox were right to trade Gabbard. The goal of any MLB club is to win a championship and Theo Epstein made a reasonable assertion that Gagne would help the Sox achieve that end. (Gagne's performance to date makes this less than certain but it is difficult to fault him for not being able to predict Gagne's massive regression to date.) Gabbard was not in the long term plan for the Sox because they have better arms both in the rotation and in the system. Thus, I'll maintain that trading Gabbard was for the best despite Gabbard's continued success. And, I'll continue to cheer for Gabbard except when he is pitching against the Sox.

I also wanted to call attention to the season that Carlos Pena is having for the D-Rays. (Pena played briefly for the Sox in 2006 and continues to help the Sox by utterly destroying the Yankees today.) If he played for a team that was remotely close to a .500 winning percentage, then he would probably get more attention for the AL MVP. To me, he seems like a lock for the AL Comeback Player of the Year. And, most importantly, Pena is a fellow Huskie and I love seeing a fellow alumnus represent NU so well in The Show.