6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

I had thought that earlier comments — and now I'm just too damned lazy to look them up — about the Mets and the Wilpons getting away without paying a nickel in compensation to the Madoff victims was overstated. Just so, as today the Wilpons have settled claims against them for $162M, an interesting figure considering the 162-game baseball season; that's a million dollars a game, but a lot less than was being discussed publicly.

Labels: mets

I missed this hilarious ESPN New York story about Scott Boras' reaction to the Mets' historic drop in payroll from $143M last year to a projected $91M this year.

Speaking in generalities about big-market teams, Boras said: "When they are not providing fans with the highest quality of play, and they take an attitude of 'we're going to take on a development role,' knowing that the TV contracts, the market size and such allow them revenues that far exceed many of the clubs that have to pursue those development policies, that impacts the game. The major franchises who are getting the majority of revenues should provide a product, or an attempt at a product, that has the near-highest payrolls commensurate with the markets they are in."

In other words, he's publicly upset that the Wilpons won't be bidding up any of his soon-to-be injured free agents, and is saying as much. While I have no love for the Wilpons and their vile manipulation of team finances (which are scarcely better than what the McCourts subjected the Dodgers to), it's a sort of enemy-of-my-enemy situation with Boras. As the article points out, megabust Oliver Perez was a Boras client (3 years/$36M). Perez is out of baseball at age 29, if such a thing is conceivable — and yet Boras is lecturing the Mets on providing a quality product on the field?

Labels: haha, mets, scott boras

I'm not so convinced that this New York Post article has any meaning other than that silly season has started; the "young, defensive-oriented center fielder they crave" would surely be Peter Bourjos. Honestly, I don't see the value that David Wright brings to the table, as it looks like his .254/.345/.427 line in 2011 is an early career collapse. As BPro pointed out in the wake of Fred Wilpon's semi-tirade against his players, Wright, while a very impressive player in some ways, is no longer a superstar. To give up young talent on the off chance that Wright might recover sounds like trial balloon aimed at a tyro general manager — i.e., Jerry Dipoto. Just say no, Jerry.

Via Rotoworld on Twitter.

Labels: angels, mets, rumors

Multiple tweets about the Brewers acquiring K-Rod for cash and two PTBNLs; I'll just use this Andy McCullough tweet as representative.

Matthew Pouliot at Hardball Talk notes that because Rodriguez has a $17.5M 2012 option that vests if he gets 55 games finished this year, it is likely he will be an eighth inning man for the Brewers.

Labels: brewers, ex-angels, mets, trades, transactions

Weaver Tosses Another CG Gem: Angels 5, Mariners 1

I didn't watch this in its entirety, but Jered Weaver only really got into trouble in the third and seventh innings, giving up the opposition's only run in the third on a Brendan Ryan single. Other than that, the Angels got as much as they would need in an answering rally in the bottom of the third, posting a three spot on three hits, including a Howie Kendrick double.

Unfortunately, Peter Bourjos pulled up lame at second base during an eighth inning rally, and as a consequence the Angels made a surprise move and called up Mike Trout all the way from AA Arkansas. Here I was thinking I'd have to go there to see him (and log a visit with my in-laws at the same time — not a bad thing), but he's coming to me, tonight!

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Dodgers Break Five-Game Skid With Six-Run Shutout: Dodgers 6, Mets 0

The Dodgers were in danger of posting their longest losing streak of the year (and as it was, they already matched their longest with five straight), but somehow managed to get behind a strong eight-inning performance by Clayton Kershaw and beat up on the Mets' Dillon Gee, who gave up five earned runs for the first time this year.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Roster Notes

• Rod Barajas, whom I missed going on the DL with a ? injury, is expected back after the All-Star break.
• The Dodgers announced Wednesday Jon Garland will have season-ending shoulder surgery, which conceivably could be career-ending as well.

Fan Falls To Death In Arlington

A terribly sad happening in Arlington as a fan fell to his death trying to catch a foul ball thrown into the stands by Josh Hamilton. Video from the game is surprisingly un-disturbing; we don't see him hit the pavement. My condolences to his family.

Labels: angels, deaths, dodgers, injuries, mariners, mets, rangers, recaps, transactions

Dodger Fans, Including A Pregnant Woman, Assaulted At Angels Stadium

I'm going to start off this post with an indignant diatribe against fan violence no matter where it occurs. I generally find the atmosphere at Angels Stadium much more conducive to having a good time — more "family friendly" as they say — than Dodger Stadium, and not least because it seems there are more thugs at Dodger Stadium. But the latter has no monopoly on teh stupid, as this LA Weekly report indicates:

A poster at thedirty.com says the woman, 7-months pregnant, jumped in after her brother, in a Dodgers shirt, was jumped by a group of four Angels fans walking behind them and taunting them.

The woman was kicked and pummeled while she was down, according to the blog. Her companion, said to be her husband, jumped in too and helped to break it up.

No, really. Knock it off, now.

Dan Haren Day: Angels 2, Indians 0

Dan Haren (we may now surmise, a good trade) pitched a one-hit shutout for the Angels, their only offense being solo homers by Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos. Slumping Vernon Wells (a bad, and possibly career-ending trade for Tony Reagins) missed the start. It seems awfully sad that the Angels must work their starters so hard so early; I expect they will be forced to take it out in change at the end of the season, being all tuckered out. For now, I'm enjoying the ride, complete with a deep-space-vacuum of run suppression that Haren ended the game with: 0.73 ERA.

ESPN Box • Recap

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory: Giants 5, Dodgers 4

Chad Billingsley gave up four of the runs the Giants needed to win this one, and only lasted five innings. He's having a slow start to his season, ending the game with a 7.71 ERA, but barring injury, he's still one of the league's better pitchers.

ESPN Box • Recap

Even More Roster Moves

• Josh Hamilton was placed on the disabled list after incurring a non-displaced fracture of the humerus sliding into home plate on Monday night. He could miss as much as two months. The Rangers recalled Chris Davis from AAA Round Rock to replace him on the 25-man roster.
• Former Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado has retired.

Mike Trout Has A Very Good Day

Two homers, one of them a grand slam, an infield single, a walk, and five RBIs overall.

Vernon Wells, I suppose you should be worried about playing time, though not at this exact moment.

Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, indians, mets, rangers, recaps, retirements, transactions

There are two things we may infer (perhaps, more strongly) from this NYT story about MLB loaning the Wilpons $25M last fall:

1. The owners still aren't averse to helping out those they favor, and
2. They hate Frank McCourt.

Mr. Selig’s decision to give what amounts to extraordinary assistance to one of the sport’s most prominent and highly valued teams — one owned by Mr. Wilpon, a man Mr. Selig has long regarded as a close personal friend — could anger other team owners, who might wonder why their money is being used to rescue a team with a $140 million payroll.

...

“The fact that the loan is coming from baseball would be a jarring event because, as with the Texas Rangers, the league is effectively a lender of last resort,” said Marc Ganis, a sports industry consultant. “It would indicate the team cannot get loans from normal commercial sources, which could be taken as a sign of very significant problems.”

Labels: dodgers, haha, mccourts, mets

I must say it's about time. He was only useful as a foil for whoever the league wanted to buy their next available franchise (cough the Mets cough the Dodgers cough). After a while, it becomes obvious that you're being used, even to guys like me. It must be embarrassing for guys like Cuban.

Labels: dodgers, mets, owners

Unbelievable:

When Fred Wilpon’s son Jeff was married at Fresh Meadow Country Club on Long Island, Bernard L. Madoff and his wife were there. When Mr. Madoff’s son Mark was married at the same country club, Mr. Wilpon, the principal owner of the Mets, was a guest as well.

When the Mets negotiated their larger contracts with star players — complex deals with signing bonuses and performance incentives — they sometimes adopted the strategy of placing deferred money owed the players with Mr. Madoff’s investment firm. They would have to pay the player, but the owners of the club would be able to make money for themselves in the meantime. There never seemed to be much doubt about that, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangements.

The Mets acted as a feeder fund to the Madoff Ponzi scheme; those whom it steered included Bobby Bonilla, whose deferred salary was parked there.

As an aside, I had been meaning to congratulate my friends at SB Nation for their "get" of ex-ESPN writer Rob Neyer, who has a few thoughts on this matter.

Update: More on the Mets:

Fred Wilpon, in August 2009, told the Times' Richard Sandomir that the Madoff scandal hadn't impacted the Mets in any way.

“But Fred Wilpon felt the need to emphasize again that the finances of the team had not been affected”, Sandomir wrote. “The resources available to him — revenue from luxury suites, club seats and a nearly 70 percent stake in the SNY network and his real estate holdings — have not been compromised by Madoff, he said.”

Around the same time, Howard called into a Fox Business Network interview with Erin Arvedlund, author of a book on Bernie Madoff. Arvedlund had asserted that the Wilpons would be forced to sell at least a part of the Mets to cover Madoff losses, something the Wilpons long denied, but acknowledged last week. Howard said, in the course of disparaging Arvedlund's reporting as“outrageous, unfounded and grossly irresponsible”: “We have said from the outset that the losses incurred from the Madoff fraud have not and will not affect the operation of the Mets.”

The reality seems to be that all three men had to have known that these statements were untrue when they uttered them. As Serge F. Kovalevski and David Waldstein wrote in Tuesday's piece: “When the Mets negotiated their larger contracts with star players—complex deals with signing bonuses and performance incentives—they sometimes adopted the strategy of placing deferred money owed the players with Mr. Madoff’s investment firm. They would have to pay the player, but the owners of the club would be able to make money for themselves in the meantime. There never seemed to be much doubt about that, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangements.

“'Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets,' a former employee of the club said.”

Labels: mets, stupid ideas

Craig Calcaterra alerts us to the possibility of a new ownership group coming, not today, not tomorrow, but soon to the Mets now that the Wilpons are said to be seeking minority partners in the team. Presumably this means they're under cash flow constraints, and are looking for deep pockets who can help with that. But anyone with that kind of money might just as readily be interested in a controlling interest in the team, especially considering there is no public market for shares of major league teams.

Two additional thoughts:

1. Incidentally, isn't it odd that Frank McCourt put his hat out to Fox in the same offseason? Are players under contract paid now? Shouldn't this be more an issue in the regular season?
2. In the BTF discussion of this story, the first comment looms large:

   Thus flatly contradicting the assurances the Wilpons made in late 2008 and in 2009 that the Madoff scandal would have no effect on the Mets.

   Remember that?

Update: Calcaterra, again:

Against [that] backdrop came this tweet from Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post:

One of my sources from #Mets beat told me gov’t seeking $1B(!) clawback from Wilpon/Katz. No way they can keep the team if that’s true.

With the caveat that [...] this is just gossip at this point [...], allow me to say this: mercy.

Update 2: The New York Times confirms the $1B figure:

One person involved in the Madoff cases said it was possible that [Madoff estate trustee Irving H.] Picard was seeking as much as $1 billion from Wilpon and Katz.

Labels: dodgers, mccourts, mets, owners, rangers

Metsblog reports that former Dodger GM Paul Depodesta has moved to New York to take on a Vice President title, and to run the Player Development and Scouting departments of the Mets. Congratulations!

Labels: ex-dodgers, front office, hot stove, mets

Rob Neyer thinks the Mets taking their sweet time finding a new GM is a good sign, and more importantly, this:

I happen to think either [Josh] Byrnes or [Sandy] Alderson would do a fine job, though of course Alderson's got the more impressive track record.

This is something akin to saying that the RMS Olympic did a better job of staying afloat than the Titanic. Presiding over five seasons of the Snakes' roster, they went 383-427 with one postseason appearance that resulted in a NLCS loss (the 2007 team). Alderson's A's teams went 1,274-1,252 on his watch (1983-1998) with four postseason appearances, including three consecutive World Series appearances with one win among them.

Now, I'm generally in favor of sabermetrics — the provable is better than the opposite — but this seems to me to be a sort of reflexive nod to the Red Sox. Byrnes, who was formerly the Red Sox' AGM, was also associated with Bill James' tenure there, making him part of the club ... looking at the last four years of Alderson's tenure in Oakland, you can see why he ended up leaving: three last-place finishes, and one third place. But ... rilly? Hiring the no-managerial-experience-whatsoever A.J. Hinch as the team's manager? Did Alderson ever do anything that boneheaded?

Labels: athletics, diamondbacks, front office, mets

And by extension, Logan White will still be in the Dodgers' employ.

Labels: dodgers, front office, mets

Craig Calcaterra indulges in a little fantasizing in the wake of K-Rod's 56 text messages to his girlfriend while a restraining order was in place. Oh, my.

Labels: ex-angels, mets, stupid ideas

This hit the AP news wires as speculation on Tuesday but was lately confirmed by the Reds' official blog an hour or two ago: Gary Matthews, Jr. was signed by Cincinnati after the Mets DFA'd him on June 12. The Angels owe him $17M, the Mets, $1.7M.

Labels: ex-angels, mets, reds, transactions

So comes John Ely, possessed of mediocre peripherals in the minors (at no time did his K/9 rates exceed 9.0, and have been in decline every year he has advanced), and only three starts above AA, making his major league debut for the Dodgers. The obvious question on everyone's lips: where is Eric Stults? In Japan, you say? Well, it's not like the Dodgers need a long man who can perhaps start in the face of crippling injuries to the rotation. Oh, wait, they do?

Don't get me wrong; I don't think for a minute that Stults was going to save the team, not by himself anyway. Still, Ned Colletti's veteran fetish put Russ Ortiz and Ramon Ortiz on the 25-man roster in preference to a guy who would have been making very close to major league minimum; and April isn't over yet but the team DFA'd that Ortiz, and we're waiting to see how much longer Ramon can avoid the fork.

The lone bit of good news: Rafael Furcal should be able to avoid a trip to the DL.

ESPN Box • Dodgers recap

Labels: dodgers, injuries, mets, recaps

Due to rain.

Labels: dodgers, mets

Dodgers Extend KABC Through 2011

It doesn't seem like very long, does it? Anyway, it won't really be Opening Day (for the Dodgers, at least) until I can hear Vinny call a regulation game in the regular season.

Burying The Lede: Baseball Prospectus Fails To Notice Yankees Getting Really, Really Old

But probably not fast enough to hope for a home sweep next weekend. This Village Voice piece is something I saw while in Arizona during spring training but kept forgetting to mention:

Based on the study of hundreds of players in their declining years, Silver projects these slides for the Yanks' elders in 2010:

Jeter from a 2009 batting average of .334 to .286 this year, a drop in home runs from 18 to 11, and in stolen bases from 30 to 10. Posada from a .285 BA to .263, home runs from 22 to 12. Pettitte from 14-8 and an ERA of 4.06 to 10-11 and 4.70. Scariest of all, Rivera from 44 saves to 22, and and ERA the moves from 1.76 to 3.53.

If Silver is right, the 2010 Yankees are sunk. Worse yet, Steinbrenner and Cashman seem to have no plans for how to replace the Core Four. Last year we suggested that the Yankees were going to be in trouble if Jeter played at the level of a typical 35-year old shortstop. He made us look foolish by playing way above it. But what happens if age catches up to him this season? Where will the Yankees move him to, and who is ready to step in at shortstop? The problem hasn't gone away, it's just gotten a year older.

Yet, reading the book itself, the intro is a paean to the brains of Brian Cashman, with nary a peep about this very visible issue facing the core quartet of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera. I don't get it.

Also Slightly Old: Mets Shopping Matthews, Jr.

Already. "Maybe the Mets are anticipating [him complaining about a lack of a starting role]" says New York Post writer Joel Sherman.

OT: A More Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy

Seriously? A Star Wars animated sitcom?

Labels: dodgers, mets, offtopic, predictions, radio, rumors, sabermetrics, the horror the horror, yankees

The Angels are eating $21.5 of the remaining $23M of Matthews' deal. GMJ has two more years left on his deal.

This is one of those "great trade, who'd we get?" deals; anything to clear the deck of this very expensive fourth outfielder is a good idea. The return is Brian Stokes, an at-best league average middle reliever who will probably get eaten alive in the AL. Unfortunately, he also is arbitration eligible, and from what I can tell, the Mets haven't gone there with him.

The Angels managed to save a couple million on salary while getting an expendable commodity, middle relief. This was a deal everyone knew was coming, so yay, I guess.

Update: SOSG observes that the Dodgers got millions more for Juan Pierre, but then, Pierre still had some Beast Mode left in him.

Labels: angels, mets, trades, transactions

Jason Bay Goes To The Mets

Everybody knows by now that Jason Bay is headed to Citi Field on a deal whose preliminary specs are 4 years and $65M. He'd been mooted as a possible Angel, but I never put any stock in that talk; the Angels seemed fairly set in their outfield, and Bay has certainly put down some roots in the east coast.

Diamondbacks Sign Bob Howry

On a one-year deal with a team option for 2011; the only question is why?

Mark DeRosa A Giant

2 years and $12M. It's a good deal for San Francisco, who are probably overpaying a bit for his production. I'm kind of surprised the Cubs didn't take a pass at him.

How To Photograph Baseball

Brad Mangin's how-to includes some outstanding photography of Angels, both from spring training 2009 and during the regular season. I stumbled across Brad's site after I joined the LA Canon digital SLR group on Yahoo. Mangin is a long-time freelancer whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, and who learned under Neil Liefer, whose collected works book I reviewed a year ago.

I encountered Mangin's advice while reading a cursory test run he did recently with a pre-production Canon 1D Mark IV at a 49ers/Lions game at Candlestick, a piece of hardware I'm very interested in buying. As for the LACDG, I am absolutely humbled looking at these guys' photos; as just one tiny example, look at this month's challenge shoot, and in particular, this one from Jorge Vismara. Wow.

Labels: diamondbacks, giants, mets, transactions