Comments on: Sorry, Cubbie fans

By: Wishhiker

Wishhiker — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 00:15:15 +0000

The main reason it had little ground in reality is that Delgado wanted to stay on the east coast and the M’s weren’t willing to overpay as much as they had to to get him. They would have put Sexson in LF as long as they would have had to (which would have turned out to be about 3 months) to see if he could become adequate fielding a position he had a history of playing (LF.) Maybe he would have been horrible, but the money the M’s would have had to give Delgado for us to all find out would have probably been more horrible. It was not the reporters that brought up the idea.

Among references in the article on mlb.com written just after the Sexson signing that Lokiforever posted a link to “the organization is still talking to Delgado and Beltre, although it seems unlikely that both would sign with Seattle.” If they were still talking to Delgado where else would they have put Sexson? Once they gave up on Delgado (next day after signing Sexson) because he didn’t take the M’s any more seriously, of course the team put the spin out as if they were never interested in Delgado. Jilted lover…

By: lokiforever

lokiforever — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:24:26 +0000

Well at the time of the announcement I didn’t know much about Sexson. Needles to say, in retrospect, I’m glad it was just a rumor, as I’d hate to see him lumbering around out there….probably would make Raul look a gold glover.

That’s assuming his art along the basepaths would equal his grace in the outfield.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:12:27 +0000

In this instance, it was a popular rumor that didn’t have much ground in reality. The M’s discussed the possibility of using Sexson in left, but it was never going to materialize.

By: lokiforever

lokiforever — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:58:40 +0000

Dave – I’m not the best at knowing when Press and News are truth or purposeful fiction, but here’s the article and the critical sentence.

“At the moment, Sexson is penciled in at first base, though he would move to left field if the Mariners are successful in signing Delgado. ”

Mariners_Dec15_2004

By: Goob

Goob — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:32:30 +0000

Is there any chance that all 30 GMs are in a massive fantasy baseball league where they’re only allowed to draft players who are actually on the team they work for? Because if that’s the case, this signing makes perfect sense. Soriano is always rocking in fantasy stats and I can just see Jim Hendry sitting in his office, thinking to himself, “Screw it, if we’re gonna suck out on the field, I’m at least gonna give myself a shot to beat Minaya and Cashman!”

By: msb

msb — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:10:39 +0000

I’m not concerned with having Cat in the division. He’s a fine hitter (and I thought he’d end up a Yankee – the YES guys love him), but has an easily exploitable platoon split.

it wasn’t so much about having him with Texas, it was that they gave him a 3 year deal.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:25:11 +0000

Sexson was brought in so that the M’s could sign a good FA. Had they not signed Sexson first it would have been alot harder to convince Beltre to sign and Beltre’s not who they wanted.

This isn’t true. Beltre was a done deal before Richie’s contract got finalized. The order they announced the contracts in was not reflective of how they actually came to terms.

The idea at the time was to sign Delgado and put Sexson in LF, which Sexson agreed to do.

Also not true.

By: Wishhiker

Wishhiker — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:19:54 +0000

Sexson was brought in so that the M’s could sign a good FA. Had they not signed Sexson first it would have been alot harder to convince Beltre to sign and Beltre’s not who they wanted. The idea at the time was to sign Delgado and put Sexson in LF, which Sexson agreed to do. Hindsight shows that they still couldn’t sign Delgado and therefore needed a first baseman anyway. We would probably not have Beltre if we hadn’t signed Sexson. There was more to signing Sexson two years ago than having a slugging First-Baseman for the 2 years/$28million that’s left. Hindsight only shows that they weren’t able to get Delgado anyway and consequently couldn’t move Sexson to LF. If you want to compare Soriano’s signing to signings in the offseason of 2004 it shows how important it really would have been to sign Delgado because Sexson would likely be much more of a tradeable commodity this offseason rather than an albatross.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:43:17 +0000

Question. It has been shown that as players age and lose their batspeed they do get more selective with pitches, and their walk rate increases. Wouldn’t this actually improve Soriano’s value a bit in his latter seasons, or at least balance things out?

The increase in walks doesn’t offset the loss of average and power. It’s a trade-off, but overall, it’s a negative exchange.

.350 OBP and .600 slugging is a .950 OPS.
.365 OBP and .585 slugging is also a .950 OPS.

But that’s not how it works. It’s more like he’ll go from .280/.350/.550 to .260/.340/.470. The isolate walkrate goes up, but the lack of hits and home runs drive both the OBP and SLG down.

By: bookbook

bookbook — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:21:22 +0000

I’m just curious. I know they have a DH, but do the Yanks have no interest? He’d play a better 1B than Sheffield and Giambi.

I don’t believe the M’s actually have any serious interest in dealing Sexson, of course.