This is the kind of deal a team makes after the waiver trading deadline. You pick up a veteran and a salary in return for a prospect that’s probably already proved himself to be a suspect. And then you hope. The Yankees did that last night when they picked up Chad Gaudin (4-10, 5.13) from the Padres.

Now the question is when to use him. Carl Pavano has pitched well against the Tigers (3-0) and White Sox (2-1), shutting down the Tigers on one run over eight innings opn Sunday. His next scheduled start for Cleveland was going to be Saturday — and I hope that Gardy decides to give him another shot at the Tigers in place of Glen Perkins. That way, Pavano stays on schedule and then faces the Royals next Thursday instead of his old team next Friday.

It also buys another few days to pick up a patch for Glen Perkins. In other words, Bill Smith’s work is not done here.

As for R.A. Dickey being sent down instead of Bobby Keppel? Not a good option there either way. Keppel is now clearly the 13th pitcher on a 12-man staff and I suspect the Twins may try to put Dickey in the Rochester rotation in the hope that he can figure out why he’s been so ineffective — and perhaps be available in September if the Twins need a starter because of the weather or because others (Liriano/Perkins) have run out of chances.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.