Monday, April 21, 2008 |
Beat Me To It: Juan Pierre's B-Ref Page Now Sponsored
Thursday, June 21, 2007 |
The Real Reason The A's DFA'D Bradley
A's DFA Milton Bradley
Speculation is all over the map as to why, from the A's just getting sick of his DL time and his on-and-off-field antics, to the possibility that they have a deal waiting, to the possibility that maybe he will pass through waivers unmolested. One thing's for sure, no matter whose colors he's wearing, Bradley will always be entertaining.
Monday, June 18, 2007 |
Bob Timmermann On Ken Landreaux
Labels: angels, dodgers, history, players
Thursday, May 31, 2007 |
The Devil's Press Release: LA Weekly Limns Scott Boras
Friday, May 18, 2007 |
The Clinker: Pierre vs. Matthews, Jr. Redux
"You can't go wrong with either one," Figgins said.Quoting Jon (see comment 40):That opinion was far from unanimous during the winter, after Matthews and Pierre each signed a five-year deal to play in the Southland.
The Angels paid $50 million for Matthews, and the critics howled: way too much for a guy coming off a career year! The Dodgers paid $44 million for Pierre, and the critics howled again: way too much for a singles hitter with a spotty on-base percentage!
Yet, if you base the early returns on the standings, the investments are paying off. The Angels are in first place with Matthews, the Dodgers are in first place with Pierre, and isn't that the point?
"To some people," Pierre said.
The Angels are getting all of what they wanted from Matthews, the Dodgers most of what they wanted from Pierre.
The Dodgers are in first place with me as a fan and my kids waking up feisty and the skies being hazy this morning. There's stuff that's relevant, and stuff that's irrelevant. Pierre is not relevant to the Dodgers being in first place this year, and part of the reason the Pierre harangues never shut down is because this is what they come up against.Exactly. Pierre currently owns a -0.6 VORP score, meaning he's about as valuable as ... Alfredo Amezega. Meantime, Gary Matthews, Jr. is tied for fourth-most valuable centerfielder, with Ichiro Suzuki, both having 12.9 VORP. Factor in defense (GMJ has a 103 Rate2, slightly above average, while Pierre is slightly below average at 96 Rate2), and this one isn't even close. While I do expect the two players to converge a bit over time, Pierre's failings haven't improved; and so far, Matthews, Jr. has managed to make his 2006 look like it might just be repeatable.In 190 plate appearances, Pierre's TB + BB + HBP + SB - CS are 72. That is an objective negative. You can touch it up with sacrifices or running from first to third if you want or his general good-guyness, but I'm pretty convinced there are other good guys that can do better. His EQA is .240. It's just not good. An article like this only serves to rejuvenate the anti-Pierre campaign.
I've never felt that Pierre would make or break the Dodgers this year, but to credit him for being in first place, or for him to say people are picking on him unfairly - I just can't get on board. The criticisms may be all too frequent, but they're not off target.
Update: There is one thing that I had forgotten about, a justification the Angels have used for using Chone Figgins as a leadoff man: he scores a lot of runs. Just so, Pierre is currently tied for second in the league for runs scored by a centerfielder, only one behind Aaron Rowand of the Phillies and tied with Carlos Beltran of the Mets at 26. (You may notice that he isn't, however, first on the team in this category; Russ Martin beats him with 27.) Bill James said that scoring runs was an underrated ability, and so maybe there lies some means of recovering a bit of value; but with GMJ having scored 28, it's still tough to sell that Pierre = Matthews.
Labels: angels, dodgers, players, times
Thursday, March 15, 2007 |
Gagne Throwing Great — In AAA?
Labels: minors, players, spring training
Rangers Add Sosa To 40-Man
Labels: players, spring training
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Charlie Babb BRO b. 1873, played 1904-1905, d. 1954-03-19
Jack Bolling BRO b. 1917, played 1944, d. 1998-04-13
Clyde Wright CAL b. 1941, played 1966-1973, All-Star: 1970. The Rev had him ranked 52nd on his Top 100 Angels page, but by career win shares, he's actually 25th overall. That's despite being below league average as a pitcher for all but two years of his Angels career. One of those years, 1970, he learned to throw a screwball and polled sixth in the Cy Young balloting. After the Angels dumped him for a handful of players in 1973, he spent a few years in the Japanese Leagues. There, he earned the name "Crazy Righto" due to an episode with the Yomiuri Giants where he at refused to leave the mound after being pulled in the sixth. When he finally did go, he tore off his uniform, threw it in a bathtub, and kicked over a garbage can. He subsequently won a Japan Series game (including a rare homer), but lost a Game 7 when his interpreter failed to make his request to get him pulled clear to his manager.
He now operates a baseball school where he teaches youngsters the fundamentals of pitching. He is also the father of the injury-plagued Jaret Wright.
Opt Out Of Your Opt-Out, A-Rod
Murray Chass makes a little mention of J.D. Drew's opt-out clause in his Dodger deal as a troublemaker for A-Rod:Yes, he could simply not exercise the clause at the end of the season — the seventh in a 10-year deal — but the clause would still be there, looming.No, A-Rod has to get rid of the clause; otherwise it will plague him for the entire season, and he doesn’t need that distraction. He has enough potential problems that he can’t do anything about.
His agent, Scott Boras, of course, would not allow him to opt out of the opt-out. That’s Boras’s baby. He used it this winter to get J. D. Drew out of the three years he had remaining on his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers and to gain a contract with Boston for $70 million, more than twice the $33 million the Dodgers would have owed him.
Baseball officials and executives of other clubs have suspected that the Red Sox tampered with Drew, letting Boras know that if Drew walked away from the Dodgers, more money was awaiting him.
When I reported these suspicions earlier this winter, Boras was irate, feeling that the accusation belittled his ability to analyze the free-agent market and figure out that Drew would be better off financially by becoming a free agent.
The Dodgers ultimately chose not to file a tampering charge with the commissioner’s office.
One general manager joked that the Dodgers didn’t want to file a complaint because they were afraid they’d get Drew back. But a Major League Baseball official who talked about the possible tampering last week was not joking, saying the Dodgers were furious, spoke to the commissioner’s office and discussed filing a complaint. The official didn’t want his name used because no complaint was filed.
God Is A Bullet
- Derek Lowe for opening day.
- Greg Miller might go back to starting.
- Jonathan Broxton is growing up:
"I was trying to go out and turn heads and keep everybody to where they'd look at us and try to give us a chance instead of going out and backing down and waiting until it was game time to turn it up," Broxton, 22, said.
A similar story from the AP.The approach didn't work. Both pitchers began the season at the Triple-A level but quickly made their way to Los Angeles. Broxton was promoted May 1, and Billingsley debuted for the Dodgers in mid-June. Now that they are one year older and have some major-league experience, they're being noticed - for the right reasons.
"Last year they were like a couple of kids who were battling to impress somebody any chance they got, starting at Day One," Little said. "(Sunday) they went about their business like a couple of major-league pitchers. They weren't fighting every pitch and throwing at maximum effort with every pitch. They were doing their work like they've been in the major leagues for a long time. That was pleasant to me."
- Mike Scioscia details the open positions on the Angels roster:
"I think there's going to be a lot of competition for spots on this club," Scioscia said Monday at Angels training camp. "It's going to be performance that's going to get them playing time. That's where the real competition is going to take place."
Catcher, first base, third base, and maybe one of the outfield jobs... - Howie Kendrick can relax now that he's back at second.
- Jered Weaver could be back on the mound as early as next week.
- Jose Mota was extended as the Angels' Spanish-language color man through 2010.
- Eric Gagne threw off the mound for the first time with the Rangers, a 37-pitch session in which he reported no problems.
- Khalil Greene's finger is still giving him trouble even six months after the initial injury.
- Former Angel Bobby Jenks minded his P's and Q's in the offseason:
"Everybody sits on their couch a half hour a day, at least," Jenks said. "Take that half hour and spend it on a treadmill. Spend it going back to the gym and go on the elliptical. Run. Go outside. Take your dog for a walk. People don't realize those are important things. You lose your motivation.
He also told people at the Chisox Fanfest that he had lost 25 lbs., but turned back on that when he confessed he hadn't weighed himself. Uh..."You want to just sit on the couch, but don't do it."
- And for the love of all that is holy, vote Ron Santo into the Hall. Quick, before they cut off all his remaining appendages.
Labels: angels, dodgers, hall of fame, players, spring training
Friday, February 16, 2007 |
Tim Kurkjian: Gagne "Wasn't Ready" For Rangers
Eric Gagne, who signed a one-year deal with the Rangers in December for $6M, wasn't ready for January minicamp. Uh-oh. Gagne told the dodgers how great he felt last spring, then missed most of the season with an elbow injury.It could mean nothing, of course, and it could be misreported, but who in the room would be in the least bit surprised to learn he was misrepresenting his medical status — again?
Labels: players
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves
Jamie McCourt Speaks
... to the MIT Sloan Sports Management Conference; see also David Pinto's recaps. Sounds like fluff until we get real spring training news. Thanks to Sal Baxamusa for the links.Carlos Zambrano, Newest Yankee
If he can't get a deal done with the Cubbies, anyway:“I’m ready to sign, and I would do my job anyway with the Cubs this year,” Zambrano said. “Whatever happens, I don’t want to know (anything) about a contract during the season. I want to sign with the Cubs before the season starts. If they don’t sign me, sorry, but I must go. That’s what Carlos Zambrano thinks.”Oh, jeez, he's talking about himself in the third person? So are many of the Primates, but the BCB crowd is livid.
Retrosheet Breakage
Links at Retrosheet have been broken for a while now, but supposedly at least the box scores are now working with the old links. Player links are still busted, though. I fired off an e-mail to the guy running Amazin' Avenue, who can hopefully get something done about it. (He helped them fix the box scores, probably a mod_rewrite hack.)Monday, February 12, 2007 |
"I Know! We'll Trade Some Of Our Surplus Pitching For A Bat!"
Labels: players
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