Looking at Broxton Acquisition

It was announced earlier today that Jonathan Broxton was acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals. While not initially sounding too appealing, you have to remember who the Cardinals are. It was said back when they acquired Cishek, the Cardinals know how to develop relievers.

You can send it back to 2011, the acquisition of Octavio Dotel. Dotel was a known veteran but fans didn’t know how to react due to his common inconsistency. Well the Cardinals definitely changed that.

Dotel finished the season with the Cardinals going 3-3 with a 3.28 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP. This was something you knew that he was capable of, but nothing that you would see coming.

Skip forward a year, acquiring Edward Mujica. Like Dotel, he had experience, going into his sixth season in the majors, but he never put up flashy numbers. Fans were unaware how they felt about him, mostly because they just didn’t know too much about him.

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Boy were we wrong again. In 2012 Mujica would appear in 29 games, post a 1.03 ERA, and a 0.87 WHIP. Move into 2013, with Jason Motte down to injury, he turned into one of the best closers in the league.

That year he had a 2.78 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP while converting 37 of 41 save opportunities. Again like Dotel, his production was nothing that you would’ve seen coming.

So now we move into 2015. The Cardinals have acquired proven relievers in Steve Cishek and Jonathan Broxton. Both players have impressed in the past, it should be no surprise if they can do the same now.

We know Broxton can be a dominant pitcher, most notably shown in his days with the Dodgers. It should be no surprise if he can take that previous success and let it be shown while in St. Louis.

Why should we be so confident that Jonathan Broxton can succeed? That’s what the St. Louis Cardinals do.

Next: August will be exciting for Cardinals