Billy Traber Claimed!

The Boston Red Sox claimed Billy Traber off waivers.

Traber was chosen in the first round and 16th overall of the 2001 draft by the New York Mets, and made his major league debut with Cleveland in 2003. He spent the entire season with the Indians, going 6-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 33 appearances and 18 starts.
He had ligament replacement surgery on his pitching elbow in September 2003 and rehabbed for all of last season.

This is sensational news, because I am very aware of Billy Traber. My favorite team is the Red Sox, but I also enjoy following the Indians. I went over to the Cleveland Indians Report, and this is what they had to say. (I’ll tell you something, it’s good to be a Red Sox fan. Heartfelt thanks goes out to John Henry and Tom Werner for purchasing the franchise. If you remember, there were some issues about if Henry and Werner got ‘ushered in’ because Selig wanted them to get the franchise, and that it should have gone to another owner. Well, I can say with all conviction that I’m glad Selig ushered them in. We’re getting a dynasty. It may not seem like it right now, all things considered, but we are going to be very competitive for a good, long while. Especially if we keep making pickups like Billy Traber.)

The Boston Red Sox claimed Billy Traber off waivers from the Indians today. It’s likely the Tribe was trying to sneak Traber through in order to clear space on the 40-man roster with the hopes that teams would be less inclined to claim him given that he had missed all of last season with Tommy John surgery. Before the 40 is frozen on November 20, the Tribe needs to clear enough room to add Aaron Boone, Jody Gerut, Kaz Tadano, and Jason Stanford from the 60-day DL, add Rule-5 eligible prospects such as Fausto Carmona, Jake Dittler, and Franklin Gutierrez (among others), all while maintaining a roster spot (or two) for free-agent signings. I wonder who else they tried to sneak through, if anyone?

From the Red Sox official report:

The 25-year-old southpaw was selected in the first round (16th overall) of the 2001 Draft by the New York Mets and made his major league debut with Cleveland less than two years later in 2003, spending the entire season with the Indians and going 6-9 with a 5.24 ERA (65 ER/111.2 IP) in 33 appearances (18 starts). The six-foot-five, 205-pounder tied for fourth among American League rookies with 88 strikeouts, ranked fifth with a 5.24 ERA, sixth with 111.2 innings and eighth with six wins. He underwent Tommy John ligament replacement surgery September 29, 2003 and rehabbed for the entire 2004 campaign.
In his first professional season in 2001, Traber climbed three levels of the Mets organization from Single-A St. Lucie (18 starts) to Double-A Binghamton (seven starts) and Triple-A Norfolk (one start). Acquired by Cleveland as part of an eight-player trade that sent Roberto Alomar to New York, Traber combined to go 17-5 with a 2.94 ERA (53 ER/162.1 IP) in 27 outings in 2002, all but one as a starter, between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Buffalo, earning organization Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors.
Traber is 27-14 with a 3.01 ERA (105 ER/313.2 IP) in 54 minor league appearances, all but one as a starter. He has 239 strikeouts and 68 walks in 313.2 innings, an average of just 1.95 walks per nine innings pitched. He went 13-2 with a 2.76 ERA (33 ER/107.2 IP) with Akron in 2002, earning runner-up Pitcher of the Year honors in the Eastern League and a spot on the league’s post-season All-Star team despite his July 11 promotion to Triple-A.

Wow. Just wow. He has had a sensational minor league career, and a perfectly acceptable major league rookie season. He was injured and had surgery in September of 2003, and rehabbed all season. It makes sense that the Indians were trying to sneak Traber through waivers, and they almost succeeded (I assume we were the 27th team in line to claim him, ahead of the Yankees and Cardinals). If Traber fell this far to us, before finally being claimed … what the heck are the other GM’s doing? Are they sleeping on the job? Just because someone has had surgery and spent a year rehabbing doesn’t mean you pass them by!? Especially when you have a 27-14 win-loss record with a 3.01 ERA in the minor leagues, and who had an extremely productive rookie season in 2003. He is only 25, too!
Traber figures to start in Pawtucket, to see if he has anything left in that old gun of his. If he does, well, then. Schilling’s gone in two years, Pedro might not be back, Tim Wakefield will probably be shifted to the bullpen (and will be a free agent shortly), whoever replaces Lowe will be gone in 2-3 years (the Red Sox don’t like giving contracts over three years to anyone) and Arroyo will become a free agent in give or take two, three years. That’s a wide-open field in 2007, folks. Let’s assume everything goes as we want it to. It’s possible we could see a rotation of Billy Traber, Jon Lester, Abe Alvarez, Jon Papelbon, and Anibal Sanchez … and only Sanchez is right-handed! Great move by the Red Sox to get Traber.
He could also become a solid reliever, and team up with Lenny DiNardo or any other current minor-league lefty in the Sox’s minor league systems. The Red Sox have really been building their minor league pitching staff, and I think a lot of them are going to be coming up soon, allowing them to focus on building position player depth. In ten years, you will be hearing about the “Red Sox Way” as you hear about the “Dodger Way” or “Oriole Way” or “Yankee Way” as you hear so often when a team brings up all its minor leaguers, taught the same, and operating the same. The Oriole Way and Yankee Way are pretty much things of the past, because now they focus on free agents. The “Way” is still bandied about though, when they acquire free-agents. “They need to follow the Oriole Way.” Things like that, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Theo is really building a monster here, I must say.
MVN AWARDS
The Most Valuable Network (of which I own) started releasing it’s awards today. While they’re certainly not as famous as the Baseball Writer’s Association’s Awards (the ones announced by MLB) or the Sporting News, etc. etc., they certainly don’t diminsh the effort put forth by both players. They celebrate the efforts.The MVN National League Most Valuable Rookie Award went to Jason Bay, while the MVN American League Most Valuable Rookie Award went to Bobby Crosby. If you visit those links, you can find very good writeups of their seasons. Let me show you an excerpt from both the writeups on Bay and Crosby.

As the season faded, Bay remained strong – 7 homers and 15 RBIs with a .290 BA in August, followed by 6 homers and 22 RBI in September. The season’s final complete month showed just how valuable Bay was. Three of the Pirates top 5 RBI leaders for the year – Craig Wilson, Rob Mackowiak and Daryle Ward combined for just 21 RBIs for the month. The Pirates went just 9-18 in September. Imagine how pitiful it would’ve been without the potent bat of Jason Bay in the lineup.

To me, this is absolutely astounding. A rookie usually wears down at the end of the season, because of the long playing season. A few examples: Justin Morneau, .277/.355/.506. Aside from July (when he first started playing regularly as a starter) and October (9 AB’s), September was his worst month. Another person is Lew Ford, who had his worst offensive output in September – .276/.345/.347. Then there is Charles Thomas – .211/.325/.296. Of course there are exceptions to everything, and Jason Bay is one of those exceptions. Congratulations to Jason!

While he’ll likely be the first to state that his .239 batting average, .319 OBP and 141 Ks were disappointing to him, Crosby still managed to compile some very impressive offensive statistics. Bobby joined Nomar Garciaparra, Ron Hansen and Cal Ripken, Jr. as the only rookie shortstops to hit 20 or more homeruns in his rookie season. He also tacked on 34 doubles and scored 70 runs despite mostly hitting in the bottom third of the A’s batting order.

A’s fans certainly hope he doesn’t end up like Ron Hansen, but they won’t mind at all if he ends up like Nomar, and they’ll be pumped if Crosby ends up like Ripken. Production like that out the low-end section of a batting order (14th in MLB in SLG as a team, 12th in BA, 9th in OBP, so it’s not like he was in a lineup of oh, Boston’s quality) is always welcome, and he should become a force in green and gold for a good while.
Keep an eye on future MVN Awards. The schedule is:
Nap Lajoie Award

Nap Lajoie, the man who has the highest batting average in modern history. Who is the best hitter this year? Who was the best AL hitter and the best NL? Melvin Mora, Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Tejada – and don’t forget the NL with the power that is Barry Bonds. Can Albert Pujols or another unassuming man steal the title from Bonds?

NATIONAL LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 12, 2004
AMERICAN LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 15, 2004
Bob Gibson Award

The Bob Gibson Award. Named for the man who had the third lowest ERA in modern history, while pitching over 300 innings. Something you will never see again. Which person had a season who was just mind-blowingly incredible? Johan Santana? Randy Johnson? Ben Sheets or Curt Schilling? Who will follow in Gibson’s steps?

NATIONAL LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 17, 2004
AMERICAN LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 19, 2004
Most Valuable Hurler

Who was the most valuable hurler? Was it Curt Schilling, Tim Hudson, Johan Santana, Mariano Rivera? The AL has many deserving candidates, as does the NL – Randy Johnson, Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens, Eric Gagne – the list goes on. But only one person wins.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 22, 2004
AMERICAN LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 24, 2004
Most Valuable Batter

Who was the most valuable batter, period? Who got his team there? Which team would have been nowhere without the services of a particular player? Manny Ramirez? David Ortiz? Gary Sheffield? Vladimir Guerrero? How about the NL? Barry Bonds, Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen – pick your poison.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 26, 2004
AMERICAN LEAGUE WINNER RELEASED ON: NOVEMBER 29, 2004