The Blue Jays have acquired Carlos Villanueva from the Brewers for a player to be named later, according to the team's Twitter page. The 27-year-old right-hander posted 11.4 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 52 2/3 innings of relief last year. He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen after starting games in each of his first four big league seasons.
Arbitration eligible for the second time, Villanueva will get a raise from the $950K salary he earned in 2010.
Defense independent pitching stats suggest Villanueva's 4.61 ERA was inflated in 2010. That suggests his ERA could dip with a similar performance in 2011, but moving to the homer-friendly Rogers Centre could be challenging for Villanueva, who allowed more fly balls than ground balls last year. Villanueva has handled both lefties and righties successfully throughout his career.
We don’t know to who? I’m sorry, but this reaks of a KW move. Under the radar, unbeknownst to every one…
To a team to be named later.
Edit: Boo. That joke worked better before BNS cited the Jays as the trade partner.
Minute after I post…dont you hate that?
the brewers got somebody who they already have
TORONTO BLUE JAYS have acquired RHP CARLOS VILLANUEVA from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a player to be named later.
Headline: bluejays acquire carlos villanueava
First line of article: Brewers have acquired villanueva from the bluejays
bit of a rush to post this? deep breaths we can wait a moment or two – accuracy better than speed sometimes
Weird? A team that lack pitching (Brewers) trades a pitcher to a team that has surplus pitching(jays)? I said this was weird right?….I guess the Jays could use some years in the BP?
Brewers have a shortage of viable starters, but a surplus of relievers.
Villa is not a great pitcher.
Lets hope he does better than Charlie Villanueva for a Toronto sports team
? Charlie V was all nba rookie first team, and then traded for TJ Ford. His short stint was more then successful. He also set the Raps rookie scoring record at 48 against Milwakee.
It was soft rookie class, and he was a 7th overall pick, succesful? maybe, but IMO he underachieved, but yea I just wanted to throw a Villanueva chirp in there
Wait. So if you pick a player 7th, and he finishes SECOND in ROY race, behind Chris Paul no less, and he still underachieves?
Overachieve to you must mean Finals MVP, then cure AIDS during the offseason huh?
lol what has he done since? he average 13 ppg and 6 rpg … should we throw a parade for him? not to mention the fact that he squealed like a little girl because KG called him names.
Garnett is one of the biggest douches in the league. He called him a cancer patient. Kind of a mean thing to say to a guy with a skin disease.
I agree… but theres a way to handle things. If someone insults you, either get in their face or sucker punch them, or quietly go to the league… Going home and tweeting about it is an even douchier thing to do
than sucker punching someone? really dude?
it was cowardly to not make an issue right then n there but go home and tattle on kg on the internet.
You know who would be cowardly right? haha If someones insults you..you sucker punch him. That’s worst than going on the internet and tweeting what KG said. Going on the internet and tattling on someone to the world is cowardly but to go up to someone and sucker punch him is beyond cowardly!!!!!!
Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Andrew Bogut, Danny Granger, Andrew Bynum, David Lee, Raymond Felton, thats a really soft class..
His claim to fame is how he whined and “told” on kevin garnett.. not exactly a stellar top 10 nba pick.
As a Pistons fan, I have to agree with KG that he is a “cancer” to our team. Him and Ben Gordon are riding around on their albatross contracts, not playing any D, and basically ensuring Joe Dumars is handcuffed from acquiring any good value for the next few years.
the mighty pistons have fallen pretty quickly…. oh well, you still have the tigers !
meh..I didn’t know the red wings is a bottom dweller now..
His claim to fame is playing in the NBA and helping kids who has the same condition he has and always helping the community.
The Blue Jays need a decent long relief option and if anyone goes down to injury he’s a huge upgrade over Brian Tallet spot starting :).
Yes, but does he play the game the right way?
Jo-Jo Reyes? Mark Rzepcynzki? David Purcey?
They’re all likely candidates for long relief.
man this is a nice lil pickup for the bullpen, cost probably a low level prospect and got a guy who can be servicable at the least , i do like the k/9!
He was a nice fantasy baseball option, depending on your league format, with that nice k9, and SP/RP eligibility listing in Yahoo last year.
Interesting. I haven’t heard of him, but his numbers suggest that he has good stuff, a lot of k’s, but lacks some control, a lot of walks. Maybe Jays coaching can help his control. Either way, it’s cheap and it might pay huge dividends. Good pick imo.
exactly what AA is doing every year. buy low, sell high.
Carlos is the type of pitching who starts out great, but will eventually come down to earth when everyone starts seeing the pitches he throws. This is why he could never be a starter, players start hitting off of him come the second and third time through the batting order.
I was really high on Carlos Villenueava a couple years ago, I was expecting him to take over as the Brewers closer but he really didn’t handle the few opportunities he got very well.I thiink he will make a nice middle reliever though, something that the Jays need.
This has me a little confused until i see the PTBNL. Villanueva was a perfectly useful option out of the bullpen and always did a decent job at whatever the brewers asked of him (spot starting, long relief, etc)
AA probably used his jedi mind trick. Melvin had no choice.
You don’t need jedi mind tricks to fool Melvin.
Very true.
Don’t the brewers need pitching? and the jays have like a million arms… weird for the brew crew to give up on him .. but not bad for AA to pick up another option
We had a nickname for him… Failnueva. Plus we need starting pitching and Carlos isn’t a good option for that.
While the Jays may have a number of good young starters, I wouldn’t say they have a million arms. AA knows he has to rebuild a bullpen that will lose Gregg, Downs and Tallet (not to mention the loss of Accardo from AAAA). Adding Carlos V to Frasor/Camp/Purcey is a good start.
Does this guy have no eyebrows too?
he does, they’re not as thick as Gallardo’s though.
For what it’s worth, Carlos Villanueva was dominant on the road holding batters to a .200 batting average against, but pretty bad at home. I’m not sure if it means anything but the Brewers did kind of jerk him around a bit making him the closer, then a starter, then a middle reliever, then sending him to the minors, etc.
So…you’re saying as long as we don’t put him in during an away game vs the Brewers we should be good?
I guess you could look at it that way, but what I was really saying was that maybe he needed a change of scenery because he couldn’t pitch well at home for one reason or another.
I agree completely with you about the moving him around all the time, although it was nice to finally see them give him a full time relief role this year. He had a VERY hot start to the season, then unfortunately cooled off as the year progressed
solid depth move
Clearly the Brewers are freeing up cash to go after Russell Martin.
CV was great at times, mind-bogglingly bad at others. Hate to see the Brewers give up on him, I was a fan.
Martin? What makes you say that? The Brewers have Jonathan Lucroy, George Kottaras, and Mike Rivera at catcher. Why would they go after another one?
Agreed though, I did like Villa. He has a nasty changeup, but he just needs to get more consistent. Solid pickup for the Jays, and I’m hoping the Brewers get someone useful.
Umm, the guy made $950,000 last year. in payroll terms, chump change. Even if his salary tripled it’s still cheap. How does selling a cheap arm help?
As a Brewers fan, I’ll say that Villanueva is a decent reliever. He can also spot start if needed. He isn’t a world beater or anything, but he’s a decent arm to have in the bullpen. He can go multiple innings if needed. The Brewers were just going younger (Loe/Braddock/Axford) and are trying to save some money to hopefully put towards starting pitching.
What does he throw? and whats his out pitch
He throws junk mostly. His fastball on a good day might reach 90 MPH but his primary out pitch is his changeup. When that pitch is on it is incredibly effective and is the main reason why his k/9 ratio is so high. This is also why he is good against left handed hitters. Lastly, this is the main reason his walks are so high, his curveball is highly average and his fastball is hittable so if his changeup isn’t being located properly hitters will lay off or wait until he hangs one.
Well, he’s going to a team that specializes in the changeup. Should be interesting to see what Walton does with him.
Stockpiling arms make me happy.
Agreed. Adding another veteran to the ‘pen can’t hurt.
An excellent buy low move by AA. Not to compare him too much with his acquisition of Morrow, but I think Villanueva will benefit from having a defined role and being the yo-yo between the rotation/bullpen/closer role (much as Morrow did) and will perform adequately in the bullpen as a possible long reliever. He doesn’t fill the closer void, but this adds depth and could allow the Jays to move out a guy like Janssen who I’m entirely sold on.
I like what I had seen from Carlos. Too bad the Royals didn’t go after him.
I’m annoyed with Melvin (no surprise). This is the second or third pitcher he’s traded IMO too early — Jorge De la Rosa was another one I felt he’d traded too early in his development, and look how well he’s done for the Rockies — and the only thing Melvin did right this time was trade Villa to the American League, where it’s less likely Villa is going to come back and hurt us.
But how does it help the new manager, Roenicke, and the new pitching coack, Krazlik (or whatever his name is), when Coffey (servicable when his fastball is on) and Villa (very good at times, average at times, but can start and relieve and never complains about being bumped around in the bullpen) aren’t even given a chance to show the new manager and pitching coach what they have?
Oh, and as far as the defense goes — the Brewers defense was very bad for much of the year. It improved later — Weeks has improved up the middle, and Fielder improved a bit as a first baseman — but it was just horrible for much of the year. (How’s that JJ Hardy trade working out for you, Melvin? For that idiot, Carlos Gonzalez, who can field when his head’s in the game but is a center fielder? And where Escobar didn’t really mature enough to be a starting shortstop in the NL or in _any_ league?)