When the Nationals decided that Brandon Kintzler was a snitch and had to be eradicated from their "dysfunctional" clubhouse (see my overly-long Tuesday post) , they traded the right-hander to a better situation. He's now with the Chicago Cubs.
Where, in his first six games, he has pitched four innings and walked five hitters. OK, one was intentional and four innings is a small sample size, but still ... that's not good. It's also not the Brandon Kintzler we saw with the Twins. I think he's going to be fine.
The Cubs made room for Kintzler on their roster by demoting another former Twin, Randy Rosario. The young lefty has an ERA of 3.00, but he too has had trouble with the free pass, with 19 walks in 33 innings. One might want to rap the Cubs for demoting that ERA, but all those walks are a problem. He's also allowed five homes in those 33 innings, so the ERA is pretty much a mirage.
The Cubs picked up Rosario on a waiver claim during the winter, the Twins having decided that they didn't have room on their 40-man roster for him. Similarly, the Twins lost J.T. Chagrois on waivers to the Dodgers early in spring training.
Chagrois was been up and down with the Dodgers -- 37 K's in 30.1 innings and an ERA of 3.56. The Dodgers bullpen is a mess right now; closer Kenley Jansen is out after another bout of irregular heartbeat (this seems to come when he pitches in Colorado), and nothing is working out there for Dave Roberts.
The Dodgers lost Tuesday's game on a ninth-inning homer. It was their fourth straight game in which the bullpen gave up the winning run in the final inning, fifth straight game in which the bullpen took the loss. Chagrois has been part of that problem.
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