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Friday, January 21, 2005
Trouble Up the Middle (Again)From the moment the Twins signed Juan Castro earlier this offseason, I've been scratching my head wondering why they had to pay a utility infielder who is a career .226/.269/.331 hitter so much money for so long. Guys like Royce Clayton, Ramon Martinez, Jose Vizcaino, Neifi Perez, Pokey Reese, and Desi Relaford were all had for one-year deals worth around a million bucks, so I didn't see the need to secure Castro's modest services by committing to a two-year deal worth $2.05 million, plus incentives.Then, adding insult to injury, the Twins tendered a contract to the arbitration-eligible Luis Rivas, signing their long-time second baseman (and long-time AG.com whipping boy) up for $1.625 million in 2005. Together, Rivas and Castro will make at least $2,875,000 in 2005 and, if they both get a chance to be starters as is expected, will form one of the least productive middle infields in all of baseball while eating up over 5% of the team's payroll. All of which is why I felt nauseous when I saw the Cleveland Indians sign a utility infielder of their own last week, inking Alex Cora to a two-year deal worth $2.7 million. For just $700,000 more than they gave Castro, spread over two seasons, the Twins could have had a player who can potentially be an asset both offensively and defensively. Imagine that. Now, it's worth noting that Cora's deal with Cleveland has incentives based on playing time that could drive his price up, but Castro's deal with the Twins has similar provisions too. Of course, some might argue that $700,000 over two seasons, while not a lot of money for most teams, is quite a bit for the cash-strapped Twins. I might even be inclined to agree, if not for the fact that the team just paid what appears to be a premium for Juan Castro earlier this offseason, and then gave Rivas $1.625 million after a season in which he hit .256/.283/.432. Setting aside the monetary issues, there is little doubt that Cora is a superior offensive player to Castro. 2002-2004 PA AVG OBP SLG OPS GPAClearly neither of these guys are going to be confused with Barry Bonds, but Cora has shown the ability to avoid making outs at a decent rate -- a major skill for punchless hitters and something Castro has never been able to do. Fifty points of on-base percentage is not to be ignored, but with that said, obviously Castro's hitting (or lack of) wasn't behind the Twins signing him. Castro is considered a very good defensive infielder, and though he has played primarily second base and third base over the past few seasons, he has plenty of experience at shortstop as well. That -- and perhaps that alone -- is why the team signed him. Cora, on the other hand, has been the Dodgers' regular second baseman for the past two years, logging just 55.1 innings at shortstop during that time. However, he was Los Angeles' everyday shortstop back in both 2000 and 2001, and logged 453 innings at shortstop as recently as 2002. In fact, Cora actually has more innings at shortstop over the past three seasons (508.1) than Castro does (450). Though it's possible Cora's defensive skills at shortstop have deteriorated over the past two years, he was considered a good defender there before Cesar Izturis came along and bumped him to second base. If you're going to pay over $1 million per season for a slick-fielding infielder who is completely worthless offensively, why not pay $1.35 million per season for a slick-fielding infielder who has some actual value at the plate? And if you don't like that idea -- it would increase the team's payroll slightly, after all -- then what about signing Cora to play second base? Cora will actually make several hundred-thousand dollars less than Rivas in 2005, and for just a million bucks more than the Twins have committed to Rivas for one season, they could have locked Cora up for a second year. Just for fun, let's run that same offensive comparison, this time with Cora and Rivas: 2002-2004 PA AVG OBP SLG OPS GPAOnce again, Cora has been better than the guy the Twins have, and that's not even adjusting for the fact that Cora has been playing half his games at Dodger Stadium, consistently one of the toughest places for a hitter in baseball. Meanwhile, Rivas is a ground ball hitter who has benefited from playing half his games on turf. I don't want to sound like the world's biggest Alex Cora fan, because I'm really not. However, Castro and Rivas are neither cheap or good, and the fact that someone like Cora just signed with a division rival for similar money is very disconcerting. Cora would be an upgrade at either middle-infield spot for the Twins, but instead he'll be simply a role player on what is looking like a very strong Cleveland bench (another discouraging fact for Twins fans). All of this almost has me longing for the days of Cristian Guzman already. Almost. Today at The Hardball Times: - Phat Albert (by Aaron Gleeman) - Ranking the Relievers (by Studes) - What's In a Name? (by Brian Borawski) - It's a Funny Funny Game (by John Brattain)     
Thursday, January 20, 2005
UghSorry, nothing new today. It's going to take me a little while to get used to my Monday/Wednesday class schedule, which has me in classes until around six at night. Yesterday was my first crack at it and I failed miserably, stupidly not eating anything for breakfast or lunch. So there I was, sitting in History of Journalism at 5:30, ready to pass out. Then I waited around after class to meet with someone to discuss a writing project, which kept me food-less until about 8:15.I got home, popped in a microwave dinner, scarfed it down, searched unsuccessfully for some Advil to help my throbbing headache, and then immediately fell asleep. I missed the entire Timberwolves-Lakers game (thankfully ... I didn't need to see another loss). And, of course, when I got up this morning, my internet connection was down for the second time since I moved back in here on Monday. In fact, it's still down as I type this little message. (For those bloggers out there who are still using dial-up connections ... I feel your pain.) Assuming I remember to eat (which, for anyone who has seen me, seems like an unlikely problem for me to have) and can find a place with some high-speed internet, I'll be back with an extra-large dose of blogging tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
MunsonedI'd sooner get Munsoned out here in the middle of nowhere than lose face in front of my friends and family. --- Ishmael Boorg, KingpinMunsoned (verb) 1) To be up a creek without a paddle. 2) To have the whole world in the palm of your hands and blow it. 3) Being on a gravy train with biscuit wheels, and falling off. The Minnesota Twins signed Eric Munson to a minor-league contract earlier this week. When I first heard about the signing, I was happy about it and thought Munson had a chance to be a cheap, low-risk, decent-reward addition to the team. Then I took a look at what he's actually done in his career (rather than what I thought he had done) and became far less optimistic. After a standout career at USC, the Detroit Tigers drafted Munson with the third overall pick in the 1999 draft. While moving back and forth between multiple positions during his time in the minors, Munson never quite hit like Detroit expected him to. He always flashed plenty of power, but the highest batting average he had at any level was a paltry .266, put up during his very first pro stop, at Single-A back in 1997. For his entire minor-league career -- a span of 303 games -- Munson batted just .260 with a .482 slugging percentage. Decent numbers certainly, but nowhere near the sort of production expected from a defensively-challenged former #1 draft pick. Since coming to the majors, it has been more of the same for Munson -- low batting averages, plenty of power, and overall production that is severely lacking. Here are his career numbers: YEAR G PA AVG OBP SLG OPSEven ignoring the fact that Munson hit a pathetic .162/.260/.269 with 33 strikeouts in 130 at-bats during his first three major-league stints, his numbers over the last two years (when he's been a semi-regular for the Tigers) still aren't particularly impressive. Munson will be 27 years old in 2005 and, considering his minor-league track record and what he's done in 246 games in the majors, he has pretty much established what type of hitter he is. He'll bat in the low .200s, draw a respectable number of walks, and hit a home run every 20 at-bats or so. The end result is offense that just isn't very good, particularly when it comes along with sub par defense at third base or decent defense at first base (a position where the lack of offense is more of an issue). With all that said, is Munson still a useful spare part for a team like the Twins? Maybe. He is a left-handed hitter, and if the team uses him similarly to how they used Jose Offerman last year (spotting him almost solely against right-handed pitching), he could be relatively productive. Combined over the last three years, Munson has hit .224/.301/.439 against right-handed pitching, compared to just .215/.287/.399 against southpaws. So yes, spotting him against righties would help. But no, even if you do that he'll still struggle to keep his on-base percentage above .300, which just isn't acceptable from a corner infielder or designated hitter. Munson has enough plate discipline and power that he'd be a very useful player if he could just manage to hit .260 or so. Unfortunately, he has pretty much proven that he is incapable of doing so. Munson is a perfect guy to sign to a minor-league deal in the middle of January and there are worse bats a major-league team could have on its bench, but defensively-challenged players who strike out 25% of the time, struggle to keep their batting average above the Mendoza Line, and post miserable OBPs each year are generally to be avoided. My fear -- and this has more to do with Ron Gardenhire than Munson -- is that Munson will have 50 good at-bats during spring training, impress Gardenhire, and end up booting balls and sucking up outs all season. Because if Gardenhire gets it into his head early on that Munson is worth having, Munson will cement that opinion with the occasional long home run, leaving the Twins playing an out-machine/butcher on a regular basis. Of course, right now he's just a spring-training invitee with a minor-league deal, so I guess we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Good signing. Decent bench player. Bad starter.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Smooth Move-InI moved back into my dorm room yesterday afternoon. Those of you who are long-time readers of this blog know my move-ins and move-outs tend to go horribly, but this one went remarkably well, with no real problems or incidents. Well, aside from the fact that my internet connection still isn't working. I'm told it is a "network-wide problem," but all I know is that I have yet to move in here, whether at the start of the year or after a vacation, and have both the cable and internet hookups working simultaneously.Hopefully everything will be up and running again at some point today and I can get back to my blogging and writing routine. In the meantime, I present to you the single most sarcastic e-mail I have ever received (which is really saying something) ... From a reader named Dan, in response to my January 13 entry about going to the Canterbury Park Card Club for the second time: Just want to say thanks for today's exciting update on your poker site, aarongleeman.com! The minutiae of a small-time poker maven can be very interesting indeed, and I think I speak for many when I say that you operate the best two-bit poker blog on the internet. I know you can't take everyone's request, but I thought it might be worth a try to ask you to provide us, your loyal readers, with more updates on Jimmy Kimmel. Also, please let us know how many Sprites you have tomorrow, as well as the next day, and how these may have effected your significant bladder. Take care!Gotta love those e-mails! Today at The Hardball Times: - The THT Interview: George Brunet's Left Arm (by Steve Treder)
Monday, January 17, 2005
On TiltI watched the premiere episode of ESPN's new show, Tilt, Thursday night and it was predictably disappointing. In fact, I said here Wednesday that I was really looking forward to the show and that "I just hope ESPN can resist the urge to sensationalize every single bit of their topic for once." Well, sensationalize every single bit of their topic is pretty much exactly what they did. Everything about the show was incredibly over-the-top, from the acting and the plot to the dialogue and the poker scenes. I couldn't tell for sure if I was supposed to be taking what I was seeing completely seriously or not, which isn't exactly a good sign for a supposed drama.In particular, the constant use of poker lingo in every situation seemed very forced, like the writers wrote out all of the dialogue, turned in a finished script, and someone said, "We need to add 100 more poker-related words and phrases immediately!" The show's writers, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, also wrote Rounders, so they are very capable of writing a great script and great dialogue centering around poker. The first episode of Tilt seemed strangely like what someone who had only a passing knowledge of poker would have written. The overall theme of the show is almost identical to ESPN's previous attempt at sports drama, Playmakers, which focused on every negative thing that people associate with the world of football. In Tilt, that meant a lot of stuff involving cheating at the tables, people getting threatened and hurt, and the casino doing horrible things to support the cheating. The first show also had strangely stereotypical stuff like a poker game with a bunch of African-American guys taking place in the back of a strip club, with two guys pulling guns on each other to settle a dispute at the table. That scene was the epitome of the first episode to me, in that it could have just as easily been part of a Saturday Night Live sketch or a National Lampoon's style movie. I enjoyed the Daniel Negreanu, T.J. Cloutier, and Norman Chad cameos, although they didn't bother to give Cloutier any actual lines. I read over at Negreanu's blog that he had no idea the show would focus so much on making the poker world look dark and dangerous, so I imagine they might have some trouble getting cameos and support from poker players in the future (unless the show gets canceled before they need it, of course). If the rest of the series is like the first episode, ESPN has done exactly what I expected them to do, which is take an interesting and popular topic and turn it into nothing more than an exaggerated soap opera based on things that only vaguely resemble reality. And there was no need to do it -- people are fascinated enough with the real poker world at this point that there's no reason to invent a shady underworld. The History Channel had a show on the other night about the history of poker and it included a few segments showing the "Big Game" at the Bellagio, which features the very best cash-game players in the world playing for the biggest stakes in the world. It was incredibly tame and essentially the opposite of everything seen in the first episode of Tilt, but it was also infinitely more interesting and compelling. That is basically the problem with ESPN's new show. Oh, and I found it hilarious that just days after seemingly every ESPN employee who could get on camera found a way to bash Randy Moss for pretending to moon fans in Green Bay, the channel's big new show featured Michael Madsen's character receiving oral sex from a woman in a hotel bathroom literally minutes into the premiere episode. The show also had that ridiculous scene with players pulling guns on each other in the back of a strip club and the preview of this week's episode had a semi-nude woman giving a guy a lap dance while saying, "I've been wanting to show these to someone all day." Once again, I have absolutely no problem with any of these things, but the amount of hypocrisy involved is astounding. Coming up on SportsCenter tonight, our 42 NFL experts tell you why Randy Moss is a horrible human being for pretending to show people his butt. And don't forget to check out the second episode of Tilt Thursday night. For those of you who missed Don "The Matador" Everest smiling into the camera while it was implied that he was receiving oral sex from a woman in a bathroom in the first episode, you can catch a replay tonight at seven! Today at The Hardball Times: - The Hardball Times 2005 NCAA Pre-Season All-America Team (by Craig Burley)
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 Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com OFGoAG.com Timeline: Heidi Klum (8/2002 - 12/2003) Jessica Alba (12/2003 - 10/2004) Elisha Cuthbert (10/2004 - 11/2006) Vacant (11/2006 - 6/2008) Keeley Hazell (6/2008 - 3/2010) Mila Kunis (3/2010 - Present) OFGoAG.com Candidates: Marisa Miller Jenna Fischer Kate Beckinsale Keeley Hazell Diora Baird Top 40 Twins Prospects of 2010: 1. Aaron Hicks, CF 2. Kyle Gibson, SP 3. Wilson Ramos, C 4. Miguel Angel Sano, SS 5. Ben Revere, CF 6. Angel Morales, CF 7. David Bromberg, SP 8. Danny Valencia, 3B 9. Matthew Bashore, SP 10. Billy Bullock, RP 11. Rene Tosoni, RF 12. Chris Parmelee, RF 13. Adrian Salcedo, SP 14. Joe Benson, CF 15. Jeff Manship, SP 16. Tyler Robertson, SP 17. Carlos Gutierrez, RP 18. B.J. Hermsen, SP 19. Anthony Slama, RP 20. Max Kepler, CF 21. Alex Burnett, RP 22. Robert Delaney, RP 23. Luke Hughes, 3B 24. Ben Tootle, RP 25. Deolis Guerra, SP 26. Shooter Hunt, SP 27. Trevor Plouffe, SS 28. Michael McCardell, SP 29. Reggie Williams, 2B 30. Estarlin De Los Santos, SS 31. Derek McCallum, 2B 32. Jose Morales, C 33. Chris Herrmann, LF 34. Bobby Lanigan, SP 35. Danny Rams, C 36. Josmil Pinto, C 37. Steven Tolleson, 2B 38. Anderson Hidalgo, 3B 39. Loek Van Mil, RP 40. Joe Testa, RP |