Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Waiver Claim

Today we claimed RHP Brian Falkenborg on waivers from the Dodgers. This will be his second tour of duty with the Padres, and it was actually his second tour of duty with the Dodgers.

Brian was a 2nd round pick out of Redmond High School is 1996 by the Baltimore Orioles. At just 21 years old, Brian made his Major League debut pitching three innings over two outings. However, it would be five more years before Brian would make it back to a Major League mound.

Fortunately for Brian, he has had stints in the big leagues in each of the past five seasons with the Dodgers, Padres, and Cardinals. Brian has always had a good fastball/curveball combination, but his stuff has really exploded in the past year. Typically armed with a 91-93 mph, Brian has been regularly touching 95, 96, and even 97 mph this season out of the bullpen.

Always showing solid command along with his stuff, this year he walked just 2.1 per nine innings and struck out 10.5 per nine innings before getting the call to the big leagues. So far he had pitched just 11.2 innings in the big leagues, giving up 11 hits, four walks, and striking out nine before being placed on outright waivers.

Our scouting reports from both Chris Gwynn and Randy Smith indicate that he has become an aggressive reliever whose fastball has been overpowering at times. We're excited to have him back in San Diego and anticipate giving him a good look between now and the end of the season.

7 comments:

Wazzel Sport's Humor said...

If there is one overlying theme that describes the Padres front office, it's that they can find dominate bulpen arms out of guys that other organizations cast off (albeit, the Padres did cast him off at one point as well).

Falkenborg, on paper, seems to be a different pitcher than he was 3 years ago in his first tour with the Pads, so maybe he can be the latest success story for the Padres bulpen

Howard Lynch said...

Why did the Dodgers let him go?

Paul DePodesta said...

lynchmob,

I believe they needed to make a roster move when Brad Penny was activated from the DL.

Anonymous said...

do you think the padres are going to be able to sign Brett Mooneyham? he seems like a steal if we can sign him.

Cpt Top Off said...

lynchmob, I think the 6.17 ERA had something to do with it as well. I'm not getting excited over this one.

Peter said...

you know me,

The paper said that he was askin for $2m. I think the Padres are offerin somewhere in the high-6 figures...

David Harris said...

cpt top off,
That ERA was over ~11 innings, so it doesn't really hold a lot of weight. Look at his minor league numbers this year and the other numbers (i.e. 9 Ks). One bad inning does not a reliever make.