Jays acquire Carlos Villanueva

[Rhettmatic]

ShiDavidi Shi Davidi
Blue Jays acquire RHP Carlos Villanueva from Milwaukee for PTBNL

Hardly a ground-breaking move, but thought it was worth posting.

[Schad]

Jesus, we really don't need any more power forwards.


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I actually quite like the pickup. Villanueva put up 11.4 K/9 in 50+ innings last year; worth a roll of the dice.

[evilRyu]

bullpen reinforcements I s'pose..

[evilRyu]

Jesus, we really don't need any more power forwards.


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I actually quite like the pickup. Villanueva put up 11.4 K/9 in 50+ innings last year; worth a roll of the dice.

CV back to T.Dot!!

[DonYon]

any information on his? judging by his stats I guess can I assume he's a fireballer with little movement on his pitches?

[CapeCrusader]

Little risk higher reward for sure.

[dagger]

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=343974

The 27-year-old Villanueva appeared in 50 games for the Brewers last season and posted a 2-0 record with one save and 14 holds. He posted an ERA of 4.61 in 52 2/3 innings while allowing 48 hits with 22 walks and 67 strikeouts.

[trwi7]

I guess can I assume he's a fireballer with little movement on his pitches?

You would assume wrong. He's lucky if he hits 90 with his fastball. Great changeup though.

[Michael Bradley]

This definitely has some upside. Villanueva's career numbers as a reliever are pretty decent (4.09 ERA, 275.1 IP, 243 H, 97 BB, 282 K), but he's a bit homer prone and command could be better. He just turned 27. I believe he has two years of service time remaining until he is a FA. Depending on who the PTBNL is, I like the move. His K rate already translates well to a late-inning bullpen role, so it is just a matter of tidying up his other issues. Worth a shot.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

He's basically Tallet's replacement as a long reliever who has the ability to start games on an emergency basis. This move is a low risk move with potential high reward. He has really good breaking stuff, but gets burned by the long ball too often because he relies on the fastball to get himself out of trouble.

His name was mentioned as possible reliever roles over the last few years but like Michael said, he's homer prone.

[Randle McMurphy]

He's pretty much just as good as Gregg is, except possibly a bit more HR prone.

This is how you build a bullpen...not going out and signing "closers."

[dagger]

He's pretty much just as good as Gregg is, except possibly a bit more HR prone.

This is how you build a bullpen...not going out and signing "closers."

I'd hate to think this guy would close games, and as much as Gregg pisssed me off on a regular basis, I'm not sure I can agree with your appraisal.

http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2010/12/0 ... vilanueva/

[Hoopstarr]

We just re-acquired Josh Roenicke

[trwi7]

This is how you build a bullpen...not going out and signing "closers."

Can you tell this to Doug Melvin?

[Randle McMurphy]

He's pretty much just as good as Gregg is, except possibly a bit more HR prone.

This is how you build a bullpen...not going out and signing "closers."

I'd hate to think this guy would close games, and as much as Gregg pisssed me off on a regular basis, I'm not sure I can agree with your appraisal.

True, Villanueva likely won't (not that I'd have any real problem with it). But that wasn't the point.

Any decent reliever can close games effectively and the Jays have plenty of those already. In fact, it's preferential to use your best relievers for the high leverage situations that save situations frequently aren't, which is why I was glad to have Gregg in that spot last year instead of Downs.

Going out and spending money to fill an overrated role that isn't needed is the last thing the Jays should be doing this offseason.

[Randle McMurphy]

This is how you build a bullpen...not going out and signing "closers."

Can you tell this to Doug Melvin?

The worst thing that JP Ricciardi ever did here was sign BJ Ryan (even though he was a total badass in the first year) to a pointless 5 year contract because of pressure from the fanbase to get a "real closer."

Such a waste of resources.

[5DOM]

I hope he doesn't become a cancer to our team and the league.