Boone’s a Twin
Traded to Minnesota for a PTBNL. Financial details scarce, but the M’s are likely picking up almost all of his salary for this year.
“I’m pretty happy,” Boone said this morning. “This is where I wanted to go all along.”
“If it goes through it would be a good fit,” an American League scout said this morning. “The Twins are a team that focuses on strong defense, which Boone can still play, but in need of a pick-me-up, especially at second base.
I never understand why all scouts are quoted anonymously all the time, especially on something this innocous. Also: sure, he can play strong defense. The problem is that he doesn’t do it all the time any more. You get the stellar, impressive Boone along with a new, weaker-fielding version that gets the bulk of the playing time.
The Seattle Mariners Official Site has it now. I hate, hate, hate the auto-playing video clips.
Twins @ Mariners August 8-10th.
Mariners @ Twins August 18-21st.
I wonder what the reunion’s going to be like.
Crowd: Boo! Boo!
Boone: Ron…are they booing me?
Gardenhire: Uh, no, they’re saying “Boo-ne! Boo-ne!”
Boone: Are you saying “boo” or “Boo-ne”?
Crowd: Boo! Boo!
Hans: I was saying “Boo-ne”…
(adapted from The Simpsons)
Comments
119 Responses to “Boone’s a Twin”
I saw both Perconte and Amaral play, and I’ll stand by my statement. Both of them were singles hitters who didn’t K a lot, both would take some walks and could steal a base, and both were kinda “meh” defensively at 2B but underpowered for other positions. Amaral stuck around more because he went the Willie Bloomquist route into the OF, I think (and if Willie B. grows some as a hitter, he probably ends up with Rich Amaral’s career, now that I think about it).
The fact is that this kind of “Texas League” hitter has a long, long history in MLB- the good ones are the Tony Gwynns and Ichiros who combine the ability to bloop hit .280 with enough line drive power to get to the .330-.350 range regularly. The not so good ones end up as Rich Amaral or Jack Perconte.
At least Pozo never did anyhting. Batted .189 in a grand total of 26 major league at bats. Never lived up to his .299/.361/.474 amassed minor league stats
re 101
I never thought I would be defending Rich Amaral’s defensive skills, but here I go: saying that Perconte and Amaral were both kinda “meh” at second is really selling Richie short by comparison I’m afraid. Amaral stuck around not just because of luck or the fact that he was a marginally better hitter than Perconte, but because he could throw and not look horrible at numerous positions. The fact that Perconte never played a single game in the majors anywhere other than 2B would tell me that he can’t throw at all and is a pretty awful defender, even if I had never seen him play. That Richie played 40+ games at every position other than catcher in his career made him a (somewhat) valuable utility guy for seven years or so. Hitting ability aside, Perconte’s inability to play anywhere other than 2B makes the comparison rather moot.
If you’re talking about how minor league ability translates to the majors, this is a reasonable statement. But since you’re responding to a post comparing major league hitting numbers, who cares what the hit chart says? The numbers say Perconte could hit a little, and if it was dribblers and bloops that got him hits at the major league level rather than sharp singles, what’s the big difference? A single’s a single.
Well the best thing to come out of this whole situation is that the Seattle Mariners still hold the best active baseball player on their roster. Hell not even active the best baseball player to ever walk onto a field. You all know who I am talking about. The one the only the ladies pet the every man regrets, he is Scott Edward Spiezio.
Good day
To me, it sounds as if the M’s organization really dropped the ball on this one, but I could be wrong.
What would have happened if we didn’t trade Boone? Would the team that picked him up had to pay his salary?
Getting 150k and a PTBNL in exchange for over 4 million dollars seems like a pretty bum deal. When has a PTBNL ever been a contributing factor?
It sounds as if the DFA might have came back to bite us in the backside.
#106 – only if somebody claimed him off waivers in the next 2 days (which was improbable). If he cleared waivers and then went to play somewhere else, the M’s were responsible for his full salary minus the league minimum.
Trading him to Minnesota doesn’t accomplish much different than that, financially, but it does honor Boone by sending him somewhere he wanted to go, and that kind of thing is remembered by other players as making you a “nice organization”. Can’t hurt.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/232154_aguy12.html
1st letter. Hilarious…to me, anyway.
‘stupid bats without Boone’s signature, how could they do this to him? Oh, the humanity!’
#106:
Stories I have seen indicate the cash the Mariners are sending to the Twins is probably Boone’s remaining salary for the year less the prorated portion of major league minimum salaray. In other words, it’s the same financial outlay the Mariners would have made had they released Boone and Boone later signed with another team. The actual dollars might be a little bit different, not very much.
The difference is that in making the deal with Minnesota, the Mariners also get the PTBNL. So the Mariners arguably received a tad bit more than they would have received had they just simply released Boone. Most likely, though, the PTBNL is simply minor league roster filler and doesn’t have any real added value as compared with simply releasing Boone.
VORP SIGHTING!
In today’s Seattle Times, John Paul Morosi refers to VORP. It makes me happy, like eating a cinnamon roll.
The M’s dropped the ball on Boone LAST YEAR – when they allowed 2005 to become guaranteed by allowing him to reach the PA threshold specified in his contract.
Of course, 20-20 hindsight goggles on, I would have dealt him after 2002 when it was apparent the M’s team age was a liability.
In today’s Seattle Times, John Paul Morosi refers to VORP. It makes me happy, like eating a cinnamon roll.
It’s the PI and he uses VORP wrong.
wrong
incorrectly.
I pointed it out to give kudos to a “mainstream” journalist advancing the public’s knowledge of the game. It doesn’t detract from your fine work so don’t be jealous.
It’s the PI and he uses VORP wrong.
Good point Derek. Morosi should have concluded from VORP that Ibanez was the best overall HITTER. He forgets or doesn’t know that VORP doesn’t account for defense so his statement that Raul is the best overall PLAYER is not correct.
I pointed it out to give kudos to a “mainstream†journalist advancing the public’s knowledge of the game. It doesn’t detract from your fine work so don’t be jealous.
Yes, because clearly, the only time I can point out that someone is wrong is if I’m jealous. Thanks, that’s nice of you.
114 – Not quite. VORP is adjusted for position, so someone could be a better hitter with a lower VORP if he played a less demanding defensive position. The only reason it works in the case is because Raul is the DH.
Hitting ability aside, Perconte’s inability to play anywhere other than 2B makes the comparison rather moot.
Uh… 2B is arguably the second-most difficult defensive position on the field (SS being first). It’s at least tied with CF. Nobody gets kept at 2B because other defensive positions are too tough for them- unless you think guys like Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch were moved from 2B because their defense was needed at other positions.
Perconte’s lifetime fielding percentages and range factor at second were right at league-average. Amaral’s were both well below. If Perconte was an awful defender, that statistics don’t show it.
103 re: Rich Amaral
Amaral was a fine outfielder, but a terrible infielder. Some of you may recall that he was the team’s startng 2B for a time in 1994 but made a bunch of errors (11 in 42 games there, a .943 fielding pctg) and rarely played the middle infield for Seattle after that (less than 40 total games the next four seasons).
Great story — Amaral was back in town for the M’s ’95 reunion on July 2nd and was on KJR and told an interesting story about the deciding Game 5 vs. the Yankees that year. Many remember that A-Rod was on deck when Edgar hit the double that won it. Amaral says that he was told by Lee Elia that he’d be pinch-hitting for A-Rod (if Edgar didn’t win it) and then replacing Rodriguez at SS the next inning — after not having played even one inning in the infield all season! That’s how little the M’s thought of A-Rod’s hitting that year!
I’m looking forward to the ptbnl because the Twins are supposed to have one of the best farm systems in baseball and i was getting tired of fatboy boone