Saturday, July 06, 2013

Welcome to the Blue, Ricky Nolasco!


In a move to bolster our starting pitching staff, the Dodgers pick up Miami Marlins veteran starter Ricky Nolasco. 

In exchange for Nolasco we give up AAA reliever Steven Ames, AAA reliever Josh Wall and Single A pitching prospect Angel Sanchez.  Both Ames and Wall figure on being serviceable pieces to a Major League bullpen in the future, while Sanchez may turn out to be a decent starter.  In fact, earlier this year Sanchez flirted with a no-hitter while with the Great Lakes Loons, via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, and is ranked #8 by MLB.com and #25 by Baseball America in the Dodgers farm system.  On the other hand, Sanchez is not considered one of our best high-echelon starting pitching prospects and is 23 years old in Single A.

So, we basically give up 2 middle relievers and a potential starting pitcher for the best pitcher on the Marlins.  Not too bad, eh?  I think Colletti deserves a big round-of-applause for this one.  We didn't give up too much in order to get a solid arm in our quest for a pennant.  Heck, Nolasco should slot in as our #4 starter, so I think he'll fit in quite nicely.

Furthermore, the Dodgers also get some International Singing monies.  They receive bonus slot #96 valued at $197,000.00.  So, the Dodgers can go ahead and sign another kid to add to our stable of teenage prospects.  This is becoming a bigger win than I originally imagined.

In celebration of Colletti's brilliant move to bring a solid arm to our starting staff, I made the above fantasy card of Rocky Nolasco.  See it above.  It uses a 1968 Topps card design, and I grabbed the pic from 2012 media day: Marc Serota/Getty

Below are Nolasco's Major League stats, per Baseball Reference.


Per a Dodgers press release:
The Los Angeles Dodgers today acquired right-handed pitcher Ricky Nolasco from the Miami Marlins in exchange for minor league right-handed pitchers Steven Ames, Josh Wall and Angel Sanchez. The Dodgers also acquired international signing bonus slot No. 96 valued at $197,000 from the Marlins as part of the deal.

Nolasco has gone 81-72 with a 4.44 ERA in 213 games (197 starts) in eight Major League seasons from 2006-2013 with the Marlins. He’s posted double-digit wins and a sub-4.00 ERA in five consecutive seasons since 2008, ranking among the NL leaders in wins (69, 5th), strikeouts (891, 6th), complete games (9, T-7th), shutouts (4, T-9th) and innings pitched (1064.1, 6th) in that span. Nolasco is the Marlins’ all-time wins leader with 81 wins and also holds franchise records with 1,001 strikeouts and 1,225.2 innings pitched in 213 career games with the club. In addition, Nolasco owns the Marlins’ franchise single-game strikeouts record with 16 on Sept. 19, 2009 at Atlanta.

The 30-year-old has made 18 starts for Miami this year, going 5-8 with a 3.85 ERA and 10 quality starts. He last pitched on Wednesday at Atlanta, allowing just two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts in 7.0 innings and picked up the victory in the Marlins’ 6-3 win.

The Corona, CA, native, who attended Rialto High School, was acquired by the Marlins from the Cubs in 2005 after he was originally selected by Chicago in the fourth round of the 2001 First-Year Player Draft.
Wall, 26, went 0-1 with an 18.00 ERA in six relief appearances with the Dodgers this season and is 1-1 with a 12.08 ERA in 13 career big league appearances in 2012-13. The Louisiana native was 1-2 with a 5.60 ERA in 25 games this season with Triple-A Albuquerque and has a 40-47 record in 252 games (115 starts) in nine minor league seasons. Wall was originally selected by Los Angeles in the second round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft.

Ames, 25, has gone 2-2 with a 3.67 ERA in 30 appearances this season with Triple-A Albuquerque. The Washington native has gone 8-10 with a 2.22 ERA in 170 career relief appearances at the minor league level during his five professional seasons. Ames was added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster on Nov. 20, 2012 and was originally selected by the Dodgers in the 17th round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft.

Sanchez, 23, has gone a combined 2-7 with a 4.67 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) this season with Single-A Great Lakes and Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. The native of the Dominican Republic has a 16-23 career record in 63 career games (54 starts) in three minor league seasons after signing with the Dodgers as a non-drafted free agent on July 12, 2010.

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