Mariners’ reliever Brandon League has been traded to the Dodgers for Leon Landry and Logan Bawcom, two minor leaguers.
League was originally acquired from the Blue Jays along with Johermyn Chavez for Brandon Morrow. League served as the traditional closer for most of his Mariners‘ career, posting a 2.4 fWAR in the little over the two and a half years with the Mariners. He had a 3.12 ERA (124 ERA +) with a 6.7 K/9IP and 2.7 BB/9IP with the Mariners, so a solid bullpen piece (obviously not worth Morrow of course).
League had a bad start to the year here in 2012, eventually yanked out of the closer role in favor of Tom Wilhelmsen after a 6.48 ERA in May. He walked 7 batters and struck out just 6 in that month. More concerning, he was clearly having some problems with his release point and had lost velocity. He gained some of it back (and a lot of his effectiveness with a 3.48 FIP on the year), but it is pretty obvious that he is not as good of a pitcher as he was in 2011. One concern for League’s new team is that his SIERA still sits at 4.51, his worst since 2005. His GB/FB rate, while still well above league average, is at a career low and his line drive rate is at a career high (in a bad way). His swinging strike percentage (that is, swings and misses) is at the lowest it has been for him since 2007. Hitters are also swinging less than they have been in recent years. This all points to a loss of stuff at age 29.
Leon Landry is a left-handed batting outfielder in A + who has a .917 OPS this year. Logan Bawcon is a right-handed relief pitcher currently in AA with a 2.60 ERA and 9.3 K/9IP. Of course, we will have more about these players on the site tomorrow.
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Favorite general sports moment: The Texas versus USC college football national championship comes to mind, as does Gary Matthews Jr. catch on July 1st 2006.
Favorite Seattle Sports Moment: King Felix throwing a perfect game against the Rays
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