Posts tagged EricPatterson at FanHouse

When I first found out yesterday that the Oakland Athletics had traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, my first reaction was "Why?" I didn't even know who Oakland had gotten in return from the Cubs, and already the deal didn't make that much sense to me. Then I heard who the A's got, and the deal made even less sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I think Matt Murton has the potential to flourish in Oakland as he's finally found an organization that can appreciate what he's capable of (Matt has struggled this season, but does still have a career OPS of .810 without ever getting regular playing time), and Sean Gallagher could end up being a very effective pitcher for the Athletics. Eric Patterson is probably just an insurance plan should Mark Ellis not re-sign with the team after the season, as the A's are pretty thin at second base in the minors, and I don't know anything about John Donaldson.

But why now, Billy Beane? Why pull the trigger on this deal when your team is only five games out of first place in the AL West, and only 3.5 behind Boston for the wild card? There is no way that Beane can honestly think his team has a better shot at making the playoffs this season without Rich Harden.

Yet, while on the surface this deal makes absolutely no sense to me, I also realize that Beane knows what he's doing and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just tired of being held hostage by Harden's injury history and is tired of having to build a team around a pitcher who may or may not be available at any given time. If you look at Beane's history of letting his pitchers go, he seems to have great timing, as Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have never been the same since leaving the bay area.

It's still way too early to tell if this was a mistake or not, but I have to say, at the moment I don't think this was one of Beane's finest moment.

Just days after the Brewers made a splash by trading for CC Sabathia, the Cubs countered by acquiring an ace of their own, picking up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, minor leaguer Josh Donaldson and ... wait, that's it? Whoa. Advantage: Cubs.

Harden is obviously a huge injury risk, but no one can dispute that he's one of the most dominant pitchers in the game when healthy. In 13 starts he's been one of the best in the AL this year, posting a 2.34 ERA (1.14 WHIP) while averaging better than 10.7 strikeouts per nine.

And while Gaudin is clearly an afterthought, he's not all that bad himself, capable of eating innings from the bullpen or starting rotation.

What did it cost Chicago? Some intriguing prospects, sure, but absolutely nothing in terms of players capable of helping the Cubs win today.

ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst and baseball Hall-of-Famer Joe Morgan isn't exactly the most beloved figure in baseball or the blogosphere. I mean, the man has a blog dedicated to rooting out the idiocy in the sports media coverage of the game named after him (I live for the day I write something stupid enough for FJM to attack me).

The reason for this is that Joe says a lot of things that are poorly-informed or just outright incorrect. The latest instance took place on Sunday night while Joe was working the Cubs/White Sox game.

In the fifth inning, when Eric Patterson hit a two-run homer into the wire basket that overhangs the right field wall, Morgan referred to the basket as "Banks Boulevard," and then went on to talk about how many Ernie Banks homers ended up in the Wrigley bleacher baskets back in the day - the implication being, of course, that many of Ernie's 512 career homers were cheapies, and that he would have hit considerably fewer without the help of those right- and left-field baskets.

It turns out that "Banks Boulevard" is a phrase that Joe has been using for a while when describing the nets at Wrigley Field, and that he maintains that's what "everybody" referred to them as while he played.

Just one slight problem: the baskets weren't put in at Wrigley Field until 1970, and Banks retired after the 1971 season. How many of Ernie's 512 career homers came at Wrigley during that span? Seven, including his 500th which was hit well into the seats.

This discrepancy has caused Cubs blogs and fans to threaten boycotting ESPN until Morgan issues an apology, and though I find that to be incredibly idiotic, I still offer my full support for the movement. I'll do anything that could possibly lead to not having to deal with Joe anymore.

(Arm bash to Walkoff Walk)

Literally three days ago, Alfonso Soriano went on the DL, the Cubs called up Eric Patterson, and I wondered why Patterson got the call instead of former Cubs' starter Matt Murton. Well, after only two games, Patterson was sent back to AAA and Murton was summoned to Wrigley to be the fourth outfielder for the remainder of Soriano's injury. Why are the Cubs making such manic roster moves? Lou Pinieilla tries to explain:

"We're going to be facing some left-handed pitchers, and the teams we're playing have some left-handers in the bullpen," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "At the same time, if I want to rest [Ryan] Theriot or [Kosuke] Fukudome a day, we have a right-handed bat here that can help out. Murton has experience and he's had success at the big league level. He can hit right-handed and left-handed pitchers."

That makes sense ... but why call up Patterson for two days? It has to be to send a message to Murton, but what message could they be sending that didn't get across by demoting him to AAA to start the year? Murton's been hoping for a trade out of Chicago since mid-March or so, but I doubt he'll get much playing time to improve his stock while he's with the Cubs. Murton's certainly no All-Star, but I honestly have no idea what the Cubs have against him.

Alternate title: Jim Hendry Hates Matt Murton

In what's not terribly surprising news, the Cubs just announced that they're putting Alfonso Soriano on the DL after he strained his calf in last night's game. General scuttlebutt has been that Mark DeRosa and Reed Johnson will get at-bats in left field with Felix Pie and Mark Fontenot will fill in for DeRosa and Johnson in their regular positions. The Cubbies are insisting that Soriano's not hurt that badly, but apparently they'd rather be cautious this early in the year. Accordingly, Soriano's going on the DL and Eric Patterson is coming up.

Wait, what? Not Matt Murton? Eric Patterson? They'd rather split time in left field between a middle infielder and a guy that got released three weeks ago instead of Murton, who's got some decent pop and the definite ability to get on base? And they'd rather have Patterson on the bench? Really? Either Jim Hendry wants Murton to stay in AAA and play every day to showcase him or he just really, really, really hates his guts.

As for the main issue here, I think the Cubs are probably making the right move with Soriano, even if he'll be ready to play again in a week. He wasn't all that durable last year, playing in only 135 games, and having him healthy at the end of the year is much more important than having him healthy now. Taking two weeks off in April and early May won't kill the team, and it may make Soriano that much stronger down the stretch.

Life can't be easy for Eric Patterson. If you saw his name and thought, "I wonder if he's related to Corey Patterson," the answer is that he's his brother. And he plays in the Cubs organization, Chicago being the place where Cory Patterson's name is practically a four-letter word synonymous for "bust." GIven that family history, I kind of thought Eric would do whatever he could to make a good name for himself in Chicago. I thought wrong.

On Monday, Patterson (who was a September call-up for the Cubs after a short stint with the big club earlier in the year) showed up late to the park for the Cubs game against the Dodgers and was promptly told to go home. For the season. Says GM Jim Hendry on the incident:

''Obviously, he made a mistake. He's a good young player. He's a good kid. He's got ability, and he'll have a heck of a chance to make the ballclub next year.

''But I didn't think it was something to look upon lightly. It's a privilege to be called up from the minor-league system in September in the middle of a pennant race.''

I think I see the logic in Patterson's brilliant plan here, now everyone will remember him as the guy that got kicked off the team for being late rather than Corey Patterson's brother. Brilliant!

It's not Eric Patterson's fault that his brother, the one and only Corey Patterson, is one of the most spectacular busts of a prospect in the history of the Chicago Cubs. I mean, it's statistically improbable that they share more than half of their genes so they very well could be very different people. Don't try telling that to Cubs' fans though. Clearly, Eric has his work cut out for him. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The very name elicited a few boos during the Cubs Convention over the winter, and Eric Patterson knows -- if only from all the media attention the last couple of years -- that he won't escape his older brother's sure-thing-to-bust shadow anytime soon.

[...]

''Really, the best thing you can do is put that out of your mind,'' said Patterson, who spent one year in the Cubs' system before Corey was traded to Baltimore after the 2005 season. ''Corey's his own person, his own player. I'm my own person and player. I try not to buy into it too much.''

As difficult as it would be to be the brother of a good baseball player, I think it might be even tougher to be the brother of a disappointing one that plays on the same team as the brother did, which is the exact situation Eric finds himself in. There are so many things for a young player to have to overcome to succeed in the bigs that having a bad family reputation can't make things easier.