Our Long National Nightmare is Almost Over

To make room on the roster for Carpenter, the Red Sox placed reliever Bobby Jenks on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from back surgery.

It probably took a little bit of time because of the lack of precedent. But it certainly wasn't because of any animosity. "We were actually looking at the people involved on the emails last night and we're all really good friends. This process clearly didn't change that. There was no animosity. It was just a process that took a long time in part because we had a lot of things going on."

Carpenter -- this one, at least -- has a tremendous arm, working 96-100 mph in one-inning stints and still sitting mid-90s when he's stretched out to two innings. He'll show solid to above-average offspeed weapons, including a hard mid-80s slider, although his changeup can come out more like an average fastball that's just doing hitters a favor. He's already 26, and has a long history of injuries dating back to his freshman year at Kent State; he has never shown he could hold up under a starter's workload, while his command is consistently below-average, ruling out any kind of return to the rotation. In relief, however, he should miss plenty of bats, but whether he's a 9th inning guy or just a middle reliever depends on whether he can throw quality strikes. He's good inventory, but not an elite prospect. For the Cubs, this is probably a relief, no pun intended (OK, pun intended). They gave up a prospect outside of their top 10 in exchange for an executive who, with the front office team he's brought in, should add more wins to the Cubs over the next five years than Carpenter will likely produce in his whole career. The Red Sox can stash Carpenter in Class AAA and bring him up whenever they need a relief arm in the big leagues, with the hope that eventually he improves his command, or at least his control, enough to be trusted with high-leverage work.

Theo 1 Red Sox 0 That’s the score after the ridiculous, embarrassing, how the hell did it take this long compensation drama finally had its conclusion on Tuesday afternoon. It’s done, and from a Red Sox perspective this was bungled from the start. (insert long-ass whiney-crap with violins in the background) So the Cubs got exactly what they wanted when they wanted, and the price was an underwhelming prospect. For the Red Sox, it was an opportunity inexplicably wasted.

Silva, who by several accounts started the scuffle by jawing about the errors behind him in the first inning — including a dropped pop-up by Ramirez

After three years as a starter in the Cubs’ system, he opened eyes when he hit triple digits pitching in relief in the Arizona Fall League in 2010, and he stayed in that role in 2011, making his Major League debut last June. He was the top prospect sent from the Cubs to the Red Sox in February as compensation for Theo Epstein. The life on his fastball has long been a blessing and a curse, as he’s struggled with control and command, walking 84 batters over the past two seasons. He pitched better back in the AFL and he could be ready to make a full-time contribution to a big league bullpen this year.

Acquired RHP Chris Carpenter and a PTBNL from the Chicago Cubs for a PTBNL as compensation for allowing the Cubs to hire Theo Epstein. [2/21] After months of waiting and wondering—or in some cases, not particularly caring—we finally know what Boston’s compensation for Theo Epstein will be. Sorry, Sox fans, it’s not Starlin Castro, Matt Garza, or Brett Jackson. The good news is that it’s not a total nobody, either. It’s the NL Central’s lesser Chris Carpenter. And that is good news, since any hopes that the Sox would score a major-league regular or a top prospect were unrealistic from the start. Theo is paid very well by baseball executive standards, and his marginal value as a general manager probably can’t hold a candle to that of a player more promising than a bullpen prospect. What’s more, the Sox didn’t have a lot of leverage—once your GM gets a more attractive offer, you either let him go or risk making the man in charge of building your team mad, which might not be the best idea. Carpenter is a big, 26-year-old, right-handed reliever who throws really, really hard. He pitched only 9 2/3 innings for the Cubs last season, but in those innings, his fastball averaged 96.5 miles per hour, making it the 10th-fastest pitch in the majors. The list of pitchers with faster fastballs than Carpenter’s includes Jordan Walden, Daniel Bard, and Joel Hanrahan. It also includes Jeremy Jeffress and Mark Lowe. Throwing hard is a good thing, but not a guarantee. Carpenter used to be a starter, but his secondary pitches aren’t finished products, his velocity is even more impressive in shorter outings, and he hasn’t always been healthy—he had a couple elbow surgeries, including Tommy John, in college—so the Cubs made him a full-time reliever last season. That didn’t go especially well, as he walked nearly seven batters per nine innings in Iowa and Chicago. When a hard thrower is still getting his stuff under control, an excess of walks is often the price a team pays for strikeouts. In Carpenter’s case, though, the strikeouts weren’t there—he fanned just over seven per nine across two minor-league levels and added eight more punchouts in his Cubs cameo. That’s discouraging, but he was dealing with a strained oblique that may have impaired his control, and he recovered to strike out 18 batters against only two walks in the high-offense Arizona Fall League (which, to be fair, he may have been a little old for). According to my recently-arrived Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2012 (which ranked him 13th in the Cubs organization, compared to a 14th-place finish in Kevin Goldstein’s Top 11), Carpenter “had trouble adjusting to the routine of a reliever, and he started overthrowing and lost consistency with his mechanics.” By the end of the year, he’d reportedly settled into the relief life and tightened his slider, so he’s back on a developmental track that might lead to the late innings, assuming the Sox don’t see him as a starter. The dueling players to be named later were included in the deal because the unusual circumstances demanded that this be a player trade. Their identities will be determined by April 15th. The Cubs still owe the Padres a prospect for raiding their front office for Jed Hoyer, but that prospect won’t be as promising as Carpenter, possibly because Hoyer's hair can't compete with Theo's.Acquired RHP Chris Carpenter and a PTBNL from the Chicago Cubs for a PTBNL as compensation for allowing the Cubs to hire Theo Epstein. [2/21] After months of waiting and wondering—or in some cases, not particularly caring—we finally know what Boston’s compensation for Theo Epstein will be. Sorry, Sox fans, it’s not Starlin Castro, Matt Garza, or Brett Jackson. The good news is that it’s not a total nobody, either. It’s the NL Central’s lesser Chris Carpenter. And that is good news, since any hopes that the Sox would score a major-league regular or a top prospect were unrealistic from the start. Theo is paid very well by baseball executive standards, and his marginal value as a general manager probably can’t hold a candle to that of a player more promising than a bullpen prospect. What’s more, the Sox didn’t have a lot of leverage—once your GM gets a more attractive offer, you either let him go or risk making the man in charge of building your team mad, which might not be the best idea. Carpenter is a big, 26-year-old, right-handed reliever who throws really, really hard. He pitched only 9 2/3 innings for the Cubs last season, but in those innings, his fastball averaged 96.5 miles per hour, making it the 10th-fastest pitch in the majors. The list of pitchers with faster fastballs than Carpenter’s includes Jordan Walden, Daniel Bard, and Joel Hanrahan. It also includes Jeremy Jeffress and Mark Lowe. Throwing hard is a good thing, but not a guarantee. Carpenter used to be a starter, but his secondary pitches aren’t finished products, his velocity is even more impressive in shorter outings, and he hasn’t always been healthy—he had a couple elbow surgeries, including Tommy John, in college—so the Cubs made him a full-time reliever last season. That didn’t go especially well, as he walked nearly seven batters per nine innings in Iowa and Chicago. When a hard thrower is still getting his stuff under control, an excess of walks is often the price a team pays for strikeouts. In Carpenter’s case, though, the strikeouts weren’t there—he fanned just over seven per nine across two minor-league levels and added eight more punchouts in his Cubs cameo. That’s discouraging, but he was dealing with a strained oblique that may have impaired his control, and he recovered to strike out 18 batters against only two walks in the high-offense Arizona Fall League (which, to be fair, he may have been a little old for). According to my recently-arrived Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2012 (which ranked him 13th in the Cubs organization, compared to a 14th-place finish in Kevin Goldstein’s Top 11), Carpenter “had trouble adjusting to the routine of a reliever, and he started overthrowing and lost consistency with his mechanics.” By the end of the year, he’d reportedly settled into the relief life and tightened his slider, so he’s back on a developmental track that might lead to the late innings, assuming the Sox don’t see him as a starter. The dueling players to be named later were included in the deal because the unusual circumstances demanded that this be a player trade. Their identities will be determined by April 15th. The Cubs still owe the Padres a prospect for raiding their front office for Jed Hoyer, but that prospect won’t be as promising as Carpenter, possibly because Hoyer's hair can't compete with Theo's.