I'm going to take you back really quick to August 7th, 2006. The Nationals are one year out of a miracle .500 record after their return to DC, and they are struggling in the standings. It's time to get rid of your valuable veteran pieces, and the lucky trade candidate is none other than our current "#1" starter, Livan Hernandez. In the waiver-wire trade the Nationals sent away their legit #1 starter for a pair of pieces that Mike Rizzo had drafted, Matt Chico and Garrett Mock.
If you were able to peel yourself off of your leather sofa in the midst of the Sweat Ceiling Heat Wave of 2011 yesterday, you might have seen that the Nationals released Chad Gaudin. Well, that's not all the Nats did yesterday, they also released one of the pair that came over in 2006 - Matt Chico.
Matt Chico has had a tragic career, punctuated by an injury at the worst possible time. He had just ascended to become the Nats #2 starter as of the beginning of 2008 when his UCL tore and he was sidelined for over a year after undergoing Tommy John Surgery. He would make one more career MLB start, a spot start last year on May 8th vs the Marlins where he went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs - the Nationals won the game 5-4. And oh yeah, he racked up a 0.2 WAR in that one game.
The point of this article isn't to talk about Matt Chico however, this is to discuss the other piece that came over with Chico - Garrett Mock.
If you weren't aware, Garrett Mock is still on the Nationals 40-Man roster.
Let me say that again - GARRETT MOCK IS STILL ON THE 40-MAN!
Over the course of his career he has been known as the "stuff guy", everyone was always saying that he always had the best "stuff" of anyone. There was one problem. He couldn't do anything with it!
Somehow Garrett Mock has been able to rack up 19 starts and 55 appearances in his Major League Career and here are his numbers...
- 4 Wins - 13 Losses
- 5.17 ERA
- 1.673 WHIP
- 4.78 BB/9
- .283 BAA
- 10.3 H/9
So, some not so good numbers there. But lets check out how Mock has done this year in the minors against non-MLB talent.
0 Wins. 4 Losses. 28.2 IP. 8.48 ERA. 1.919 WHIP. 1.09 K/BB. 27 ER.
Wow. That's bad.
Granted, Mock has spent some time on the Disabled List, but he has gone on the DL several times in the past after an extended bout of some mysterious injury that only he can detect.
Now, my point here is not to say that he is faking it; I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. All I am saying is why is someone like this taking up a spot on the roster that could be used on someone who could actually help out the club.
To me it is pretty clear that Garrett Mock has fallen very far down the Nats Spot-Starter Pecking Order - behind Detwiler, (soon-to-be) Wang, Maya, Stammen, Peacock, Milone, and even JD Martin. I would rather see countless other people in Mock's spot that him. It's time to finally cut the cord.
Mock has been atrocious and as someone that regularly follows the upper minors, I totally agree with your assessment. I feel there's some money and ego tied here that keeps him around, but eventually the numbers don't lie. Why we have a 28 year old plying his wares in the GCL is beyond me. I guess some kind of "rehab", but injured stuff isn't exactly that fixable.
ReplyDeleteI feel a little bad for Chico. He went out there and grinded it out every time he was asked to, and he was simply exceeded by pitchers with greater gifts.
ReplyDeleteMock is a holdover from the days when the Nats rotation consisted of guys who embodied the famous quote from Bang the Drum Slowly, "Any one of these guys could win 4 or 5 games this year if God drops everything."