Since the big trade news was that Paul Quantrill was traded by the Yankees to the Padres, here’s an all-former-Sox bullpen:
RHP Chris Hammond, Padres, 5-0, 1.60, 0.86, .181
RHP Rudy Seanez, Padres, 4-1, 2.65, 1.04, .216
RHP Bob Howry, Indians, 5-2, 3.44, 1.06, .228
LHP Scott Sauerbeck, Indians, 0-0, 3.04, 1.27, .253
Sure beats the idea of Matt Mantei, Alan Embree, and John Halama… Of course it’s selective nit-picking - I’m not going to put Quantrill on that list, and all of them pitched pretty badly for the Sox. But it would be nice to have their performance now.
Chris Hammond, incidentally, is one of those players for whom pitching coach extraordinaire Leo Mazzone worked his magic in Atlanta, turning him from a 62 ERA+ to a 434 ERA+ player. I’m not fully sure that’s the biggest jump in ERA+ in between seasons, but it’s got to be at least up there. What’s interesting about Hammond is even after leaving Atlanta he stayed a good pitcher, unlike, say, Jaret Wright.
Back to the trade - I’m not sure I get why the Padres feel they need to upgrade an already awesome bullpen, what with Chris Hammond and Rudy Seanez both on form and the Scott Linebrink-Akinori Otsuka-Trevor Hoffman three-headed monster. Right now the quality of their pen is such that I could see them doing a no-hitter by committee on the line of that Houston one against New York some time back.