Random Baseball Observations

[Theraflu 1,035]

I was pretty drunk, which was how I managed to not make the post to begin with, but I really have no idea what stance I took. My usual one has been pretty much in agreement with you.

[timwakefield 68]

To be honest, I actually really hate having a poor-defensive catcher. Remember when Tony Pena was our catcher? I fucking loved that guy, even though I was too young to be really analytical about his skills. In other words though I'm fine with our catcher being good or great defensively and hitting 8th, as long as the rest of our lineup is solid. I couldn't find a picture of him in his classic one-leg-out catching stance, so this will have to do.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Even if he was a full-time first baseman, he would be extremely valuable (although probably not $50m valuable).

This really isn't true. Martinez's bat is incredible for a catcher, but it plays pretty "meh" at 1st base and really "meh" for DH. The market these days isn't serving up $12.5 million a year for decent (but not great) first basemen/DHs. Martinez potentially being worth 4 years/$50 million is almost entirely tied to whether he can stay at catcher (or at least play there a good amount of the time) and not drop even more down the ladder defensively, as well as maintaining his bat while he plays the most draining position on the field while heading into his mid-30s. Like I said, all things considered, I think it's close. I might have still offered that contract, but it's far from a devastating mistake that the Sox decided to pull out.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

I was going to say something about the Martinez non-signing, but it looks like that's been covered.Does Derek Jeter really want 6 years, $150 million? If true, I'd probably react the same way if I was the Yankees.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Does Derek Jeter really want 6 years, $150 million? If true, I'd probably react the same way if I was the Yankees.

Meh, he's just shooting super high with his side's opening bid; I doubt he really expects it to be taken seriously. I wouldn't read too much into it.

[timwakefield 68]

I also heard a report that the $150m never happened, and was fabricated. It is somewhat bizarre though that he's trying to get a contract based mostly on how awesome he's been for the last decade, because there's very little argument about how good (or not good) he's going to be 4 years from now. I thought 3 years at $45m seemed pretty reasonable from the Yankees.

[bmtphs05 0]

Adam Dunn to the White Sox (4 yrs, 56 mil) , and they're still gonna attempt to keep Konerko.

[timwakefield 68]

Red Sox trade for Adrian Gonzalez!

[El Guapo 8]

Jason Werth 7 years, 128 Million for the Nationals. He is 32 right now.Is this signing equivalent to the Jim McIlvaine signing the Sonics did years ago?

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

McIlvaine got money for being tall; at least Werth has performed well.It's a ridiculous contract, but a team like the Yankees can afford it. What's that? The Nationals???You know, a better NBA comp would probably be the Gilbert Arenas contract. Man, when you factor in all the Redskins nonsense, Washington is just not good at giving out money. There's probably a political statement that could be made here...

[El Guapo 8]

I guess he had 3 good seasons, i was thinking it was just two.But that much money for a a guy who has:Hit of 30 HR's onceNever hit 100 RBI'sScored over 100 runs onceNever hit 300Is 32 years old and did not really start playing regularly until he was 29He does have a great arm though.

[timwakefield 68]

It's such a horrendous contract, it's almost hard to believe.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

It's such a horrendous contract, it's almost hard to believe.

Only takes one GM to make it happen, I guess. This isn't as atrocious as the Zito, Vernon Wells, or Howard contracts, but it's still quite bad. More than anything, I'm really wondering what kind of leverage this might provide Crawford for his own long-term deal. Crawford is both better and likely to age more smoothly, and I didn't foresee even Crawford getting 7/126.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

More than anything, I'm really wondering what kind of leverage this might provide Crawford for his own long-term deal. Crawford is both better and likely to age more smoothly, and I didn't foresee even Crawford getting 7/126.

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb/news/story?id=5901372Question answered.

[timwakefield 68]

HOLY SHIT I GUESS IT TURNS OUT WE REALLY ARE GONNA COMPETE LIKE MOTHERFUCKERSp.s. if we don't trade ellsbury, we have the best defensive outfield in baseball, that is if the crawford deal is REAL PLEASE HOLYSHIT!

[GOCUBSGO 77]

HOLY SHIT I GUESS IT TURNS OUT WE REALLY ARE GONNA COMPETE LIKE MOTHERFUCKERSp.s. if we don't trade ellsbury, we have the best defensive outfield in baseball, that is if the crawford deal is REAL PLEASE HOLYSHIT!

if you guys do end up signing Crawford, you guys just got scary good.

[timwakefield 68]

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe broke the story last night, and his story this morning leaves no doubt about it. Sox sign Crawford for $142mI don't see how there's any way this isn't true. All he needs to do is pass a physical.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

That's a lot of money. Is Crawford really worth that?Note: I'm not disputing that Boston is a better team with Crawford than without him.2nd Note: When discussing whether he's worth that, let's pretend the Werth contract doesn't exist.

[timwakefield 68]

My feeling is: well, it ain't my money. Well...I guess it sort of is in a way, with massive ticket prices and whatever. Point is, if the Sox wanna spend like the Yankees, fuck it, why the hell not?! If we had made this deal before or instead of Adrian Gonzalez, I would be confused and/or upset that we threw all of our resources at Crawford. But we got both of them. If John Henry wants to overpay Carl Crawford my position is, oh hell yes bring it on, since he's obviously not skimping in other areas. One thing the Werth contract should remind us of is that the owners are making ungodly amounts of money. It's not like it's gonna send ticket prices sky-high - they already are. This is an effort to revive the tv-watching base, and I think it'll be quite successful in that regard, at least in the short term.This is like some shit the Yankees always pull - just go out and get whoever the hell they want and pay them however much and laugh your way to the playoffs. It feels awesome to be on the other end of it. I mean the Sox have obviously had more 'incredible' transactions than signing Crawford (Pedro, for example), but I can't ever remember us pulling in multiple HUGE names in the same offseason, or season. Most of Boston, rather than comparing it to Werth's contract, seem to be comparing Crawford's contract to Manny Ramirez's expired 8/160 contract, and questioning if Crawford is worth it. Nobody seems to be mentioning that that was nine years ago. Nine years before that was 1992, a time when paying any player $160m would have seemed ludicrous. Bottom line: we just went from a team that looks really good to a team that looks like it could be a serious powerhouse over the next 5+ years.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

This is an effort to revive the tv-watching base, and I think it'll be quite successful in that regard, at least in the short term.

You would probably agree, however, that that's not a very good reason to do something, right?

This is like some shit the Yankees always pull - just go out and get whoever the hell they want and pay them however much and laugh your way to the playoffs. It feels awesome to be on the other end of it.

It must be weird to be a Red Sox fan. Your biggest rival by a million miles is the Yankees, so you end up with this feeling about it being unfair or something about how the Yankees spend. Of course, every other team feels the same way about the Red Sox.

[timwakefield 68]

You would probably agree, however, that that's not a very good reason to do something, right?

Well, I'm not sure about that. Tv is a major, if not the major, income source for a team. And it's not like we only got him to boost tv ratings - we also got him to boost our team's ability to compete. Like, the reason teams do things is to get fans to watch the games.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

I just think that you should make moves based on winning. That other stuff will follow winning. Now, if you were looking at two identical players and one was more exciting than the other...sure, get that guy, but it's never going to be that clear.There was an article recently that was sort of about the Josh McDaniels firing. A big part of that article (which I'll try to find) was how Art Modell made moves for the fans and one of those moves was firing Bill Belichik. Because of this, Belichik does not make any moves for the fans, he is solely concerned about the team. Ok, here is the article.Now, this guy might be wrong about McDaniels. From what I've heard from other sources, McDaniels was a pretty awful human being to work for and that more than anything else was why he was fired. But I think the Belichik lesson still makes sense.This is kind of getting away from the main point, which is that Crawford almost certainly makes Boston markedly better. But by asking if he is worth it, I just mean to ask are the Red Sox really getting a $142m player?

[timwakefield 68]

I just mean to ask are the Red Sox really getting a $142m player?

Thanks for the article, I'll read it later. Well here's the thing: Theo Epstein has, in his relatively short reign as GM, brought us TWO world championships, breaking the curse, all that (and brought us to the brink of another WS berth in '08). So he pretty much has my trust for the rest of his career.

[timwakefield 68]

Yeah the big problem is that we don't have another bat to fill his spot.

Victor who?

Basically, I won't be satisfied until we play the Tigers and steal at least 3 bases off him.

This has also just become vastly more likely.

[Skeleton Jelly 2]

Well here's the thing: Theo Epstein has, in his relatively short reign as GM, brought us TWO world championships, breaking the curse, all that (and brought us to the brink of another WS berth in '08). So he pretty much has my trust for the rest of his career.

He's no Dayton Moore, that's for sure.From Joe Posnanski:Matt over at Fangraphs pointed this out but it's worth pointing out again. The three least valuable players by FanGraphs WAR from 2008-2010 are Jose Guillen, Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeff Francoeur. Dayton Moore signed the first to the richest everyday player contract in Royals history, traded for the second when the Mariners were at their wits' end and just signed the third to a $2.5 million contract.* The man knows how to acquire ludicrously bad hitters.