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Friday, January 14, 2005 |
Pickoff Moves
Snakes Alive
Aaron Gleeman unravels the D'backs offseason moves, and declares them an improved team, but probably a 75-game winner at best, but likens them to the 2004 Tigers:Just like Detroit, rather that [sic] rebuild the team around young players in the hopes of competing in the future, Arizona has signed and traded for a number of established veterans in the hopes of accelerating the whole process of remaking the team.Like most everyone else, he also raps Arizona's knuckles for making a whole slew of bad moves in the offseason:
- Acquiring overpriced Russ Ortiz, who "has a strikeout-to-walk ratio that is sliding dangerously close to even (143-to-112 in 2004) and now takes his 4.00 career ERA -- which has come exclusively in pitcher's ballparks -- to the hitter's haven known as Bank One Ballpark."
- Picking up SS Royce Clayton, who "hit just .259/.315/.334 away from the greatest hitter's ballpark in baseball history last year".
- Retaining the services of Luis Gonzalez, whose gimpy shoulder completes a trifecta of aging injury risks, along with Troy Glaus and Shawn Green.
Administrivia: Updated Links
Not necessarily today, but recently, anyway, and in no particular order:
Added: what's left of Aaron Gleeman's blog (he's moved most of his baseball writing to The Hardball Times), Waiting for Boof, Halo Herald, and The Ranger Rundown.
Dropped: the sadly defunct Mariners Wheelhouse, and Beer and Whiskey.
DePo Proposes, Rich Opposes
Nothing like a little controversy, still, about Drew's contract. Well: all it takes is one dumb GM with some cash to burn. I certainly didn't mean to make it look like I thought this was a good signing, but there are a bunch of ameliorating factors here:- The market heated up, fed by record attendance.
- Early signings of mediocrities (Kris Benson) to large dollar/year contracts provided a big jump.
- Anti-collusion steps at MLB HQ put a kibosh on teams "just calling up" the commissioner's office to get a dollar figure on a given player.
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