2009 David Aardsma

Anonymous asks:

Is David Aardsma owned in your league? Im thinking of throwing a bid his way as he's looked sharp so far. I get that (Brandon) Morrow is pretty ingrained in that role - but if the M's keep playing well, it has to get tempting at some point to move Morrow into the rotation (especially if Silva keeps pitching the way he has) Thoughts?

For starters, Aardsma was purchased for $2 in my league by the owner who froze Morrow at $10.

Bidding on Aardsma if he's available is a good idea, even if you don't own Morrow. He already has two saves, and the Mariners are treating Morrow with kid gloves so far. I doubt that the Mariners are going to keep winning at a .750 clip, but there still will be times where Morrow has pitched on back-to-back days and the M's will rest him. So far, Aardsma looks like the fallback option.

I doubt that Morrow's going to be moved into the rotation. It's my understanding that he wanted to move to the pen because he was having trouble controlling his diabetes symptoms as a starting pitcher. If the Mariners were going to shift gears again and move him back to the rotation, I don't think they'd do it midseason.

As far as Aardsma goes, the knock on him is still control. He walked two tonight in an inning of work, and when he loses the strike zone he'll either start throwing harder and lose the strike zone even more or take something off of his pitches and start getting battered (like he did in his last stint for the White Sox). He's 27 years old and has taken his lumps a few times throughout the league so maybe he's learned something. But I want to see more than one week's worth of data before I'm convinced.

But, again, Aardsma is a decent FAAB option at this point if he's available in your league. If Morrow does wind up closing, you've only lost a few FAAB bucks and still might get 5-10 saves for your investment.