***UPDATE***
Well, so much for the rumors about Bill Hall joining the Dodgers. Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Hall has inked a deal with the Astros to play second base. Oh well.
***
The Dodgers made yet another offseason move to strengthen their bullpen on Thursday. This time they plucked away Matt Guerrier from the Twins with a three-year, $12 million deal. Other teams interested in his services were the Rockies, Yankees, and Red Sox.
What we know about Guerrier is that if the bullpen needs to be called upon, he's most likely the guy to answer. His 76 appearances in 2008 and 79 in 2009 led the American League, and 74 last season was third. If Don Mattingly wanted a workhorse, he's got one.
Guerrier also has some nice statistics for holds the last four seasons: 14, 20, 33, and 23. Last season he went 5-7 with one save, a 3.17 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and 42 strikeouts in 71 innings. The year before he had a 2.36 ERA, but in '08 it was 5.19. Let's hope that was an aberration.
In looking at last season's splits, he did his best work in the beginning and end of the year. His July ERA was 8.00, and 5.27 in August. But, he bounced back with great work in September at 1.67, and didn't give up a run in 1 1/3 innings against the Yankees in the postseason.
As of now, Jonathan Broxton is still the closer, so it looks like Guerrier will team with Hong-Chih Kuo to bridge the gap. That's a pretty good combination from both sides of the rubber. Plus, there's young Kenley Jansen, who was very impressive at the end of the season. If Ronald Belisario and Broxton get back to normal, that's a fantastic bullpen.
But, if there's one thing we learned about last season, it's that looking good on paper means nothing once the games have started. A bullpen that dominated in 2009 looked all out of whack last year. So, if Broxton continues to fade under the spotlight, Belisario remains ineffective, Jansen shows his youth, and Kuo's arm troubles resurface, then the Dodgers are thin once again, even with Guerrier.
While many things can happen, the Dodgers have to love what they did this offseason to improve their pitching. They have five legit starters (Kershaw, Billingsley, Lilly, Kuroda, and Garland), a swingman that can do a little of everything (Padilla), and a bullpen that is deep (Broxton, Kuo, Guerrier, Jansen, and Belisario). Ned Colletti has definitely taken a huge step forward in that regard.
Next up is still looking to add a left fielder. There's rumors about getting Bill Hall, who spent last year with the Red Sox and hit .247 with 18 homers and 46 RBIs in 119 games. Not exactly a killer year, but he does have pop, and hit 35 homers in 2006, so maybe he's still good, right?
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