Monday also holds no interesting news
DMZ · January 29, 2007 at 10:04 am · Filed Under General baseball
I mean really, ESPN’s running a headline with “Gonzalez, Hollins looking to aid Yomuri” and it’s Luis A. Gonzalez.
Or what, Clemens isn’t sure if or when he’ll come back next year? Can’t you just write “cross-apply last year’s articles on this topic?”
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Don’t forget Barbaro.
what? but Richie Sexson is looking for a fast start this year! Dave Sims is anticipating his new gig! Felix really did work hard this off-season!
actually, I’d like to know if the PI’s headine writer was intentionally punning with “Felix’s exorcise regimen”
Note the carefully-placed word “intersting” in the posts heading.
It was news to me that Felix has a 16-month old daughter. I also found it odd that they’re staying in a hotel up here – I’d think a player would have some kind of place – be it an apartment, a condo, or whatever – in the city where they play half of their games.
msb-Wouldn’t it be more interesting if the article was about a player who says, “I expect to suck for April and part of May, after that I figure my legs will go and I’ll be on the DL until September”
Does anyone have thoughts on the potential Todd Helton trade? It seems like the rumored deal has the Red Sox surrendering too much.
I didn’t actually think they were all that interesting. I guess my exclamation points weren’t mocking enough.
re: Felix, in Geoff Baker’s piece last November, the plan was to move them up to Seattle once the season began, but maybe they decided to come together to find a new place. Perhaps the previous one was not baby-proof…
msb – I know, I didn’t think they were either, just filler pieces. Who’s going to say they are going to start slow, etc.(although what I wrote would probably fit Vidro and one or two others!)
It’s slow today, but wait for the “M’s sign World Series hero!” pieces tomorrow.
Well, with the Sexson article, we can scratch off “bad player vows to improve thanks to new offseason regimen” story from the list of obligatory puff pieces that the local media will run between now and the first spring training game. Others we can look forward to:
Ex-Mariner hero adjusts to retirement. Excerpt: Jeff Nelson has found that old habits are hard to break. “I still wake up at 6 am every morning, but instead of starting my offseason workout program, I drive the kids to school and sometimes stop by the principal’s office to complain that they should spend more money to acquire better teachers.”
Ex-Mariner hero adjusts to new team. Excerpt: Jamie Moyer has found that the more things change, the more they stay the same. “During my last few years in Seattle, the roster turned over so much that I just took to calling everybody ‘hey kid’ or ‘hey man,’ so I feel right at home.”
Ex-Mariner bad mouths organization. Excerpt: When informed of Bavasi’s recent comments, Gil Meche was hurt. “I gave everything to that organization, well, most of the time anyway.”
Veteran player holds charity event. Excerpt: Although Raul Ibanez does not like to talk about his generosity, an unmistakable look of immense satisfaction flashed across his face when the nurses wheeled Sparky, a three-legged, deaf-mute Lhasa Apso displaced by Hurricane Katrina, into the banquet room.
Popular local player spends offseason doing stuff at home in Arizona. Excerpt: With a new contract extension in hand, Willie Bloomquist allowed himself to splurge a little. “I bought a new dune buggy, and a trampoline, and they opened a new Applebees right by our house, so we ate there every night for like a month. It was awesome.”
I believe that is actually his official name, now, “World Series hero Jeff Weaver”, as in “World Series hero Jeff Weaver will join his sixth team in as many seasons.”
FWIW, the SL Post has an interesting piece on losing Weaver.
I hate Bloomquist more and the more each and every time he opens his stupid looking mouth.
sweet debate team reference!
err…Egaas…I think that was a made-up-joke Bloomquist quote. Don’t hate him for that, anyway.
some official news, finally– the M’s have sent out a email, but no release up on their site, yet:
MARINERS SIGN RHP JEFF WEAVER TO ONE-YEAR DEAL
The Mariners added another arm to their starting rotation, signing RHP
Jeff Weaver to a one-year deal. The 6-foot-5 Weaver starred for the
World Champion St. Louis Cardinals this past postseason, notching
three wins and a 2.43 ERA over 29 innings.
“We felt that signing Jeff gave us a great opportunity to add another
veteran starter to our young mix,” Mariners General Manager Bill
Bavasi said. “Jeff has consistently pitched deep into ballgames, and
gives his club a chance to win.”
Weaver, a native of southern California, attended Fresno State. His
younger brother, Jered, pitches for the Los Angeles Angels.
It’s a small chance, sometimes, but it’s true, teams do consistently have a chance to win.
Veteran reference? Check.
SoCal reference? Check.
Playoff hero? Check.
Family angle? Check.
Ignoring the rest of his stats? Check.
Recycled quote from GM? Check.
They must throw these phrases into an automatic press release generator and change the names. But since they weren’t able to add a 2001 reference or throw in a ‘NW roots’ tie in, perhaps they had to tweak this one a bit.
What would you propose they say:
M’S SIGN WRONG WEAVER
Despite his mediocre statistical package, the Mariners announced today that they were fooled by a small set of playoff performances into overpaying for veteran free-agent starting pitcher Jeff Weaver. (etc.)
18: Yes, there is a template — go back and read the press releaseas for the last few signings. Paragraph 1 is the announcement. Paragraph 2 is a “quote” from Bavasi. Paragraph 3 is a recap of the player’s best stats (for Weaver, the playoffs; for Rhodes, his career stats, etc.). The next paragraphs provide the other stats and career highlights. The last is a “did you know” paragraph stating a few interesting facts about the player — high school, home town, records, national team, etc.
Yeah, I’d love to hear Bavasi or any GM for that matter to list off players who didn’t give their team a chance to win.
Corey Brock’s version is now up
NO interesting news!
Good God man. With the signing of Jeff Weaver, the Mariners have just completed assembling the best collection of back-of-the-rotation starters and mediocre proven veterans in baseball history!
If that doesn’t make you excited for the 2007 season, you sir are not a baseball fan.
Here’s something potentially interesting…. rumor has it that the Ms scouted Shannon Stewart Friday during private workouts in Miami…
oh, man, it hurts just to think about it– he’s had plantar fasciitis in both feet the last few years.
Shannon Stewart may have plantar fasciitis, but she’s hot.
Geoff Baker on the signing:
“It wasn’t the offseason makeover most Mariners fans had been expecting.”
Heard a somewhat telling quote from Hargrove during a radio interview this week:
If Vidro and Guillen have just an average year for them, we would be 57 runs better than last year.
Is this honestly how they project team improvement? Take a new player’s career average and add it to last year’s total? By that logic, if we signed Sosa, Palmeiro, Bernie Williams and Vinny Castilla, and they all had their average years, we would “project” to have the best lineup in the majors.
Leaving aside the question of whether career averages are a basis for projecting these guys’ performance, I’m intrigued to hear Hargrove use total runs as a basis for projection. That’s more statistical analysis than I would have expected from him. Do you suppose he’s heard of Pythagoras?
Yeah, he’s heard of Pythagoras. But you’re not allowed to run directly from second base to home, so he didn’t think his theorem would apply to baseball.
Yeah, he’s heard of Pythagoras. But you’re not allowed to run directly from second base to home, so he didn’t think his theorem would apply to baseball.
Now that form of agressive baserunning isn’t for just anyone. You have to be a real Hargrove to tell your team to do that.
There should be a new interactive fan game at Safeco Field called “Bill Tees It Up, You Knock It Out Of The Park.” Just imagine what could be done with this dawdling fastball in the sabermetric strike zone:
“We changed a lot with this signing,” Bavasi said. “To be able to add a guy who could end up near the top of the rotation … the upgrade in the rotation I hope is obvious.”
I almost threw up when I saw this quite from Armstrong:
“We have a third baseman in Adrian Beltre, a second baseman in Jose Lopez and we have the best utilityman in all of baseball in Willie Bloomquist,” Armstrong said. ”
This was his response to talks the M’s were interested in David Bell.
I bet even Willie Bloomquist threw up upon hearing that.
I had no idea that Willie moonlighted at Seattle City Light.
#33– FWIW, as (loosely) transcribed by Deanna, it was just a fan question that Armstrong responded to …
Fan: “I had a question for you guys — now that he’s available again, have you guys considered re-signing David Bell?”
Armstrong: “No.”
Fan: “Err. Why not?”
Armstrong: “We have Adrian Beltre playing third base and we have the best utility player in the major leagues in Willie Bloomquist. Where would we put David Bell?”
When the team doesn’t realize that David Bell >>> Bloomquist, then something is wrong. Is the concept of OPS completely foreign to them?
Bell doesn’t play anything now besides 3B. At 34 years, I don’t think he would be converted to a Utility player. Sorry to say but Bloomquist is more valuable to the Ms than Bell.
34yo 3B with annual back injuries, $4.5M
2006 33G 145AB .270BA .337OBP .399SLG
29yo utility player who has stayed healthy, $925,000
2006 28G 102AB .247BA .320OBP .299SLG
With the Weaver introduction yesterday, Hickey looks at what happened in the offseason (and the market) to bring this rotation to the M’s, and
Thiel puts in his 2 cents. In the Times, Baker reports on the press conference, and
McGrath gives the columnist’s view.
#38 – Based on the numbers msb provided in post #39, I’d have to disagree with your sentiment. I think David Bell would be more valuable than Bloomquist even if Bell had to go make his way to the plate with a walker.
You have to look beyond Willie’s empty .250 average and his grittiness when drawing a conclusion.
To emphasize the point more, here’s the career line of Mark McLemore (who never set the world on fire as a hitter, but was a serviceable utility player):
.259/.349/.341
Compared to Willie’s career line:
.257/.312/.329
And before you argue “well, McLemore did better on the back end of his career. McLemore was no better than Bloomquist at age 28″, examine this:
McLemore (age 28): .284/.353/.368
Bloomquist (age 28): .247/.320/.299
I am talking about value to the Mariners.
Based on OPS, of course Bell >>>> Bloomquist. But Bell can only play 3B. Beltre >> Bell. Based onversatility Bloom is more valuable than Bell. (It does pain me to say that.)
However if you can make the point that Bell >> Vidro and sign him to DH, I can conceed. But that’s not happening this year.
I’m not talking about McLemore either. I am not even saying that Bloomquist is good. He’s not.
But situationally, if I had to pick right now between having Bloomquist or Bell, I would put Bloomquist on my roster. That’s all.
But what does Bloomquist really offer? The only halfway positive thing I can say about him is that he doesn’t completely embarrass himself in the field or on the basepaths. There are plenty of guys that are lingering in the minors that we could obtain that could do just as well as Bloomquist (if not better) and not get paid $925,000/year to do it.
Bloomquist is not even a replacement level player in terms of productivity. His “versatility” in the field and the fact that he can swipe a bag here and there doesn’t change that fact.
You are changing the discussion.
Other replacements >> Bloomquist? — Yes.
Prime McLemore >> Bloomquist? — Yes
Bell OPS >> Bloomquist OPS — Yes
Is Bloom overpaid — Yes
So I agree with you on all those points. Still, are you seriously take Bell $4M as a utility player over Bloomquist $1M?
Saying a guy is better than Bloomquist is certainly damning him with faint praise. Besides, what is it about David Bell’s OPS that you like? His lifetime OPS is 716. That’s better than Bloomquist, sure, but pretty lousy in its own right.
I think I still would take Bell at $4M (for one year, not a multi-year deal) over Bloomquist to be a utility player. I would do that if it meant that I never had to see Bloomquist kill a rally at the plate or needlessly dive for a ball when he’s in CF.
I guess my point would be that David Bell might not be the end-all, be-all player either, but he’ll do less to hurt you at the plate or in the field than Willie does.
My main contention (originally) was with the ignorant statement that Chuck Armstrong made about Willie being the best utility player in MLB. That was more of what I was trying to convey rather than endorsing the acquisition of Bell. I can understand why they might not want Bell, either. But their logic behind not wanting Bell (Willie being the “best” utility player in MLB) is crazy.
If you’re a major league executive who just signed a mediocre player to a contract extension, and you’re asked if you want to sign an overpaid, aging, mediocre player to fill the same role, what would you say:
No, I think David Bell is an aging, overpaid, mediocre player and even though Bloomquist sucks, I don’t think I’d want to take on Bell just to get rid of him.
of
No, Willie is the best utility man in baseball.
Of course extending Willie was kind of a dumb move. But that’s a done deal. Having made that deal, you can’t expect Armstrong to say anything other than what he said.
I don’t know, maybe it’s the “best” part of that quote that really irks me. I’m probably splitting hairs here, but I think there would be another way to address that question (if I’m Armstrong):
“We have no interest in David Bell at this time, due to the fact that we believe that Willie Bloomquist can fill the team’s needs better”
I think it’s the “Best utility player in MLB” superlative that has me concerned with their talent evaluation.
I guess as I think about it, Bell could work in the roster:
Backups
OF – Reed/Jones
1B – Broussard
2B – Vidro
SS/3B – Bell?
C – Rivera or whoever
With 12 pitchers 8 in the field, that makes 25.
Anyway — I’m just scratching for some USSM discussion.