Sunday, July 17, 2005 |
Select Deals In Review
- Auld Lang Spiezio: A little late, but it's still around to pick up: after a miserable 2004 in which he barely hit (.265/.326/.453) in the first year of his three-year, $9M contract, Scott Spiezio finds himself displaced at Seattle's third base by Adrian Beltre and barely getting any playing time (2005 line: .050/.174/.100 in only 20 AB). Are there fans in Anaheim who pine for Scott? Well, he certainly wishes he were down south:
"I never regretted my decision (to leave the Angels and sign with the Mariners),' Spiezio said Saturday. "At the time, it was the best decision for me. I had an opportunity (to start) and didn't capitalize on it. Off the field, I had some things that were tough to deal with, but I had an oppportunity and didn't capitalize on it. Basically, it's my own fault.'
Spiezio still has another year on his contract and at 32, hopes to continue playing after next season. He's already sold his home in Seattle and bought one in Orange County. Hmmm.
"As soon as I left, I missed it here,' he said. "I love the stadium, I love the fans. The team we had in '02 will probably never happen again as far as chemistry. I still keep track with all the guys, everybody, in the marketing department and the parking lot attendants.'
- Garbage In, Garbage Out: Once upon a time, Ramon Ortiz had the nickname "Baby Pedro", partly because he resembled (to a half-drunk myopic) superstar Pedro Martinez, and partly because of his allegedly brilliant stuff. (He did, to his credit, have a great year in the minors in AA Erie in 1999, with a 2.82 ERA and a 9-4 record.) Ortiz now sports a 6.30 ERA with a 4-6 record over 16 starts; his average against is .344 this year, with an eye-popping 1.029 OPS against.
The return the Angels got on that trade, Dustin Moseley, once upon a time was the Reds' top pitching prospect; Baseball America ranked him the Angels' fifteenth best prospect. Moseley got badly battered at AAA Louisville last year (4.65 ERA, 2-4, 6.03 K/9, 1.41 K/BB), and is suffering even worse poundings in the thin air at Salt Lake (5.00 ERA, 4-5, 5.24 K/9, 1.21 K/BB).
- Hee-Seop Saenz vs. Shawn Green:
Player VORP Salary =================================== Shawn Green 21.7 $2.5M (Dodgers portion) --- $10.0M Olmedo Saenz 12.5 $650k Hee Seop Choi 8.8 $350k
Which means the Dodgers are basically paying Olmedo Saenz and Hee Seop Choi a combined $1.1M to man first base, and also $10 million for Shawn Green not to play first for the Dodgers. That means for this year and this year only,
the Dodgers are actually getting far less on this deal than they would have had they held on to Green, especially considering that Tracy has a decided deathlock on Choi's playing time. Of course, this analysis ignores the future value of Dioner Navarro, but then, he's not exactly tearing it up in the PCL's hitters' havens (.278/.376 /.415).Update 7/18: Okay, I'm being an ass. It was late when I put this one to bed, so I'll use that as a convenient excuse; yes, the Dodgers actually are doing well on this move relative to what they could have been paying Shawn Green had they let him stay on for another year. However, my point was that, if you look at production and actual dollars paid for this year, the deal doesn't look so great, but as Fearing Blue mentioned, $10M of Green's existing previous contract with the Dodgers (that portion paid out to Arizona) was a sunk cost no matter what.
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