Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Nearing the halfway point of my season, 72 games, my patience is running out on Brett Saberhagen. He's 3-8, 123 hits in 98 innings, and a 1.52 WHIP. Probably his '86 season as lefties are hitting .310 off him and righties .315.
But he should be better, which is my dilemma.
My other starters are Hershiser, 10-3 with a 1.26 WHIP, Smith, 10-5, 1.13 WHIP and four shutouts, Caldwell, 2-4, 1.48, and Swan, 4-2, 1.59.
So I'm happy with the top two and .500 from my fourth starters is just fine with me.
If I axe him now, i could have up to $7.4M to spend on a replacement.
Pitchers out there who have not been used include Hammaker, Dravecky, Wegman, Ojeda, B. Forsch, Ruhle, John, Bannister, Darwin, Rozema, Schmidt, Candiotti, Darling.
Sutton is also available, but he was cut with Saberhagen type numbers and a similar card.
I offered him up for trade hoping someone else with an underperformer would be interested, but there wasn't a nibble.
Should I sit on Saberhagen or make a move. If I make a move, thoughts on how I should go.

If you make a move, check to see if the teams in your division are hitting better versus RH or LH.

I would try the most expensive guy first, and if he doesn't work, try the next in line....

Actually, I'm doing incredibly well against teams in my own division, 22-5 at last count.
It's everyone else I'm struggling against 18-27. I can't wait to get back to my own division.

My experience with the bad Saberhagen card(s)... lots of ups and downs... not consistently bad or good for LONG stretches... he will get pounded with singles, HR's, and runs one game... then toss a 2-1 win, CG 5 hitter the next.

When Saberhagen is the 1 or 2 starter, it's a killer, but when there are other (better carderd) SP guys on the team, I'd rather keep Saber... as HIS ups and downs are less risky than many of those you'd be picking up on the waiver... IMHO... and you don't lose salary by keeping him!

Of course, this advice to "stick it out" comes from (me), a guy who "stuck it out with a Lee Smith year that i SWORE couldn't get any worse... it did:
his ERA was almost nearly 15.00, his WHIP a healthy 3.5... in 50 games!

So take my advice with caution... I'm stubborn!

I ended up dealing Saberhagen for Rogers, who was doing marginally better than Saberhagen, but with a much better hits/IP ratio, which was what was killing me with Saberhagen.
In his first game, Rogers tossed shutout and in two games after had one good and one bad outing, going 2-1.
Sabehagen got injured his first inning after the deal and the injury reveal showed it was his '86 card where he does give up more than 1 hit per inning.
I guess what compelled me to make the deal was that Rogers was 6-6 with the worst team in the entire league, while Saberhagen had gone 3-8 and my team was first in its division right from day 1.