SEATTLE The White Sox wanted Reds pitcher Tim Belcher from thebeginning and got him in the end, even though he's in a slump.
The right-hander, 31, and eligible for free agency after theseason, was obtained eight hours before Saturday's trade deadline forminor-league pitchers Johnny Ruffin and Jeff Pierce.
Belcher has a 9-6 record, but his ERA is 4.47. In six Julystarts, his ERA is 7.76.
One month did not concern Sox general manager Ron Schueler. Helooked at Belcher's career record and saw a winner.
"Tim's never had a losing season," Schueler said. "He's onlyone of a couple of guys with six or seven years experience withwinning records all the time."
Belcher not only is 74-58 lifetime in 6 1/2 years, but was 2-0for the Dodgers in the 1988 playoffs despite a 4.11 ERA and 1-0 intwo World Series starts with a 6.23 ERA.
"Just the fact that he has playoff experience helps," Schuelersaid.
More important for now, Belcher is 16-7 in September and Octoberwith a 2.31 ERA.
Belcher thought teams were "cooling" on him because of hisslump, but feels he'll heat up now that he's going from a fifth- tofirst-place team.
"It's amazing what a little adrenaline can do for yourperformance," he said.
"It's kind of like when you go out and play golf with three guyswho are better ball-strikers than you. That always raises yourlevel, so I hope this will help pull me out of the slump.
"I've got a lot of confidence in my performances late in theseason. My September and October performances would bear that out,and I've had success in the postseason. I hope all that will be afactor for the White Sox. It showed a lot on their part that theywanted me."
Schueler feels Belcher's skid may have been caused by all thetrade rumors.
"If every day you pick up and read your name in the papers, it'shard to perform your best," Schueler said.
"We had him rated right at the top. I know him personally. Ihelped trade him (1987) to the Dodgers when he was a baby withOakland."
Ruffin, 22, had a 3-4 record at Class AAA Nashville with a 3.30ERA. The Reds plan to convert him into a starter.
Pierce, 24, was 3-4 at Class AA Birmingham with a 2.59 ERA and18 saves.
Reds GM Jim Bowden called Ruffin the key to the deal. "Hethrows 91 to 94 (m.p.h.) with a good, downer curveball," he said.
"Pierce is an intriguing pitcher. His ERA is always under 2.00and he has more strikeouts than innings pitched. He has a greatsplitter."
Bowden called the trade "a compromise" from his original demandof either Jason Bere, Scott Ruffcorn or Jim Baldwin.
"We'd been planning to do a deal for about a month," he said.
"We didn't feel we'd get two first-round picks because wecouldn't offer Belcher arbitration, so we did it this way.
"We reduced the payroll by $1.3 (million) for the rest of theyear and got two young arms we're comfortable with."
Schueler said it was "tough" to deal Ruffin. "Fortunately forme, Buddy Bell and Larry Monroe had been out seeing all our kids.They really liked the other kid a lot. He's got a lot of guts, butyou're going to have to give up something to get sometimes. I'mjust happy it wasn't one of our other three."
The deal ends weeks of talks for pitchers such as SidFernandez, Mark Portugal, Greg Harris, Dennis Martinez, Kevin Gross,Zane Smith and Chuck Finley.
Schueler is taking today off. No phone calls.
No comments:
Post a Comment