Bloomquist To KC
And Willie officially says goodbye. He got 2 years, $3 million from the Royals. Good for him. Good for the M’s not matching.
Imagine being a Kansas City fan this winter. Your team has now spent $11.5 million of the 2009 budget to acquire Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Jacobs, Horacio Ramirez, and Willie Bloomquist. That’s a replacement level reliever, a replacement level first baseman, a replacement level reliever, and a replacement level utility player. Even if you give them extremely optimistic forecasts, you’re looking at something like +1 win over what it could have cost to grab guys for the league minimum.
The Royals have spent about $11 million on free agents, and they might not even get one win out of it. Toss in Jose Guillen’s big salary from last year to be slightly above replacement level, and the Royals are tossing about $25 million down the drain. Nice job, fellas.
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Any idea who leads the league in salary locked up in 0 win players? I’m sure it’s something easily found at FanGraphs if I knew where to look…
I thought he’d go to the National League for sure…
Is KC where Mariners go to die?
Ramirez, Meche, WFB, Olivo and Guillen…you can have them all!
I thought Dayton Moore was supposed to be a smart guy but some of these moves are head scratchers. He has built up the farm system quite nicely and recently hired Mike Arbuckle from the Phillies. But the big league club looks awful. Guillen, Ramirez, Bloomquist? KC is trying to emulate the M’s “glory years” of 2007 and 2008…
Guillen, HoRam, now Bloomquist….
Does KC think that since the Meche thing worked out, the best strategy is to just grab anybody that Seattle lets go? At least when Gillick was collecting M’s cast-offs it was guys he had picked up in the first place and had a good idea of what he was getting.
Well, Bloomquist felt under-appreciated and wanted to test free agency. Be careful what you wish for….
Now his ponies will have more room to roam!
KC passed up their chance to acquire the Dobber when he was available for nothing. I’m thinking that burned into them so deeply that they’ve now decided to not let a scrappy ex-Mariner get past them ever again.
Hmm. Think they’d be interested in a starting pitcher (or two or three)?
Dayton Moore must be a poor franchise’s Bill Bavasi . . .
Nice to read about somebody else making DUMB moves for a change rather than wincing about our FO’s moves.
Now you’re really in for it. All of those angry Royals fans from the fangraphs thread are about to raise holy hell.
Someone signed Horacio Ramirez?
Good God, why?
To benefit from the post-Mariners bounce, of course.
Check out his 2008 line (small sample size alert).
Now you’re really in for it. All of those angry Royals fans from the fangraphs thread are about to raise holy hell.
Wait til they see the post going up in an hour.
The catalyst for much conflict on USSM. We’ll miss your debate-prompting-ness, Bloomie.
These quotes are classic…
Outstanding. Hopefully we don’t get started with another, ‘You’re a f****** idiot’ this time.
Oh, and I’m gonna flame the first poster that uses GM DM.
Fail. Willie’s best position is riding around one of the ponies. But whatever.
Looking at Willie’s UZR on fangraphs, it’s true that 2nd base is one of his better positions, but CF certainly isn’t. Though I could’ve told you that from actually watching him, too. He’s not a huge liability, and he he certainly has his uses on the base paths, but that’s not a great use of $3M. As the 25th man on a big-budget team it might be defensible; for the Royals, well, that’s not how the Twins or A’s overcame their small-market status.
Are the Royals so bad that the league decided to move them to the NL? I mean, I thought Bloomquist was destined for the “we pinch hit for pitchers alot” league.
Actually, I thought he was destined for the Phillies.
Anyway, I wish him luck. I hope he’s one of the guys who beat his projections.
2009
Willie Bloomquist = $1.5 Million
Russell Branyan = $1.4 Million
Oh dear.
I bet Vidro has already put a call into them offering his services.
Now that’s hilarious.
Oh dear, indeed. WTF is going on over there? Royals fans are a little upset. Teehee.
To repeat an earlier thread, it seems like the Royals have an awful lot of people to man their two outfield corners, their two infield corners and DH. Wouldn’t they like to give us Billy Butler or Kila Ki’aihue? Please?
Dave, given the choice of being stabbed (Jacobs, Willie, Horacio, Farnsworth) or being shot (Guillen), I’d prefer to be shot.
If the Royals want to keep picking up washed up ex-Mariners, we can give them a head start by sending them Carlos Silva. Or even Washburn.
Please? Pretty please? I’ll send my limited edition Moose Caboose along!
Wow. I’m even more grateful for Z and the new-look M’s after reading that KC thread.
Dave’s post about Willie is up at Fangraphs. The title had me cracking up.
That is classic!!! Well done Dave!
To put it in a nice rhyming scheme:
“The pitcher so (not) nice, they signed him twice.”
After the M’s released him last spring(and gave him 30 days termination pay), the Royals signed him to a minor league contract in May, brought him up in June, and used him out of the bullpen, where he was, uh…effective?(I know, small sample size).
So KC used that small sample size to convince the White Sox to trade for him in August in exchange for a minor league outfielder, and it was with the White Sox that he went back to the HoRam we know and hate(still out of the bullpen, though).
So being a free agent this offseason, Dayton Moore was too happy to give him a 1-year contract back in December…with incentives!
Hey, if it worked once…er…uh…well, maybe not.
And I can only think what weird things will transpire with Bloomquist, HoRam, and Guillen all on the same team again.
I’m having a hard time making the mental adjustment to someone else’s front office being used for case studies in bad decision making, but I think I’ll be able to handle it.
Coming back around to M’s fandom, do we now assign our version of the captain’s “C” to someone else, or do we retire the f’n “F” in Willie’s honor?
So wait…. Who will be the new Ignitor?
I am pleased to announce the Mayor Nickels has designated August 27, when the Royals make their first appearance in Seattle this year, as “Grit Day.”
In keeping with longstanding tradition for Grit Day, all the sand on the streets and sidewalks will remain on the streets and sidewalks until after August 30, when the Royals and our beloved Willie leave town.
If I was a Royals fan and was already having a bad day, this would have had a Michael Douglas in Falling Down affect on me.
“Someone signed Horacio Ramirez?
Good God, why?”
Well, somebody had to. He’s got to suck throwing pitches somewhere, it’s in his nature.
“He’s an on-base guy, a speed-type player and a hustler,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “He’s a Craig Counsell-type who really plays hard, hustles and knows how to play.”
Um, I’m guessing most of the 750 players at the major league level know how to play the same. Also, does he realize that The Igniter (I know is almost impossible to believe) is now on the wrong side of 30? His best hustling days are behind him. He wasn’t just a FAST baserunner, he actually was a GOOD baserunner. But he was losing a step or so the last season or two.
Are we sure Dayton Moore isn’t just Bavasi in disguise?
Yet,they’ll probably still end up finishing with a better season.
This has to be part of a David Glass plan to tank the season and relocate the team.
Are we sure Dayton Moore isn’t just Bavasi in disguise?
If that’s true, Bedard will be traded to the Royals for every good prospect in their system.
After all, if the Royals had Bedard to go along with Meche, they would have TWO ACES(tm)!
And we all know that just guarantees a playoff berth, right?
“Former Mariners utility man will get a chance to be an everyday player in Kansas City.”
now Willie will finally have the chance to prove himself, just like Raul did.
I think this proves that Scott Boras is a genius.
so Dayton Moore has Rizzsy scouting for him?
Good luck Willie!
the gems just keep coming from Moore:
“”He’s never really been an everyday player, but he’s always had good people ahead of him like [center fielder Mike] Cameron, [shortstop Yuniesky] Betancourt and [second baseman] Jose Lopez,” Moore said. ”
ah, for the days of Rob & Rany.
Well, if he thinks Yuni is so good maybe he’d be interested in a trade?
Neyer ripped Moore’s on-base comment, saying: “Really? He’s a hustler and he hustles? Do you get double-secret extra credit for that? And this might be the first time that a player with a .322 career on-base percentage has been described as “an on-base guy.” At least by a modern, (presumably) Web-equipped baseball man. Why not also describe Bloomquist as a “doubles guy”? After all, he did hit one double last year.”
I suspect Willie will end up with the last laugh on this one.
Firstly, I’ll be surprised of the Royals don’t end up with a better record than the M’s this season.
I also suspect that if he’s given the chance to play every day, barring injuries and depending on his role with the team, he’ll end up with better numbers after 2009 than he had during any year for the M’s.
Numbers in the sense of at-bats and RBIs?
My take is Moore has it half figured out. Pick up inexpensive players with some upside to fill out your roster and hope they break out or overachieve and you have some value.
The half he hasn’t figured out is you have to buy them cheap not pay them based on their upside. My mind boggles at the idea that coming off a serious injury, Bloomquist is a commodity you’d want to lock up for 2 years. Setting that aside at $1.5M total, rather than per year I understand the deal.
If they’d spent $5 total and expected to get 1-2 WAR, I think the set of deals would be fine.
The comments on some of the local news sites are hilarious with people defending Willie. The KOMO article is here for some enjoyable comment reading:
Willie Article at KOMO
I guarantee that the M’s will be marketing that Royals series in Seattle as “your chance to see Willie Bloomquist’s return to Seattle”.
I’m a bit surprised that Willie didn’t end up in the National League. His multipositionness has double switch written all over it.
I am still searching for a reason that Scott Boras represents him. I suppose there are other pedestrian players in Scott’s entourage, but I sure don’t know of any.
However, the really shocking thing to me is that the Royals will pay Horacio Ramirez $1.8 million to suck this year.
ah, for the days of Rob & Rany.
Here’s Rany’s take.
Rany on the Royals
I don’t know about that. By Pythag the Royals overachieved last year (75 wins vs predicted 72) whereas the M’s underachieved (61 wins vs predicted 67). So far this offseason the M’s have significantly improved (one of their biggest liabilities — outfield defense) and the Royals really haven’t; meanwhile the Angels, who really beat up the M’s last season, have actually gotten weaker, while none of KC’s in-division bête noires (everybody except Detroit) have. Of course the offseason is far from finished, but as it stands at the moment I could see the M’s easily making up that 5 game difference. I’m not as enthusiastic as some people around here looking for the M’s to contend — I think .500 is a fine target to shoot for, and might actually be a stretch — but I would be surprised in 2009 if they didn’t outperform even a Williefied Royals team.
I wonder if the Cubs put out any feelers to reunite Lou and WFB. Having said all that, a two-year deal AND an alleged chance to start would seem to good to pass up under any circumstances.
And, GOOD for WFB. The guy never did anything off the field to bring attention to himself, and I hope he has a nice run as KC’s 2B. For all the grief he gets (and I give it, too) I hope the guy has success.
Interestingly, Marcel projects Willie with four home runs in 2009. Given his career total of six home runs in 1389 PA, that’s an unexpected number (James projects 1, Chone a generous 2). They all project a guy who had exactly one XBH in 2008 to have between 11 and 14 in 2008.
I’ll be taking the under, though as Bill Simmons might lament, you can’t find anywhere to lay a bet on things like this.
Why is there so much hate towards a guy who has a .327 AVG .462 OBP with 10 SB the last 2.5 months he played in last year. He doesn’t need power, if he can steal second(successful 81% in his career). If he plays everyday, I see no reason he can’t have 40 SB.
I’m not necessarily looking forward to Willie putting together a couple flukey good months (before reverting to the mean, of course) with the local beat writers writing dozens of articles talking about how stupid we were to let him go.
Okay, far be it for me to defend Dayton Moore (although this is the official weekend wherein I defend bad GMs, apparently) but this really isn’t a big deal at all. Is Moore dumb for signing WFB and Horacio Ramirez and Kyle Farnsworth and Mike Jacobs (in the latter case, no, because if Jacobs can work the same magic with this club that he did with Mike Tyson in the 1980s, the Royals are going to KO the AL Central)? Yes, yes he is. Could they have packaged all that stupid money to get a guy who could actually help the team? Sure. Nonetheless, $11M is not a lot of money in today’s environment, even with a team with a highly limited budget like the Royals. I have friends who are Royals fans who think the team could win 80 games this year, which I guess could almost put them in playoff contention in that division, but it’s not a really great chance I don’t think.
However, it will be nice to see WFB out of here. Of course, the Mariners will just need to bring in another backup middle infielder, who will likely be
whitegritty and full of clutch, and all of us will be crying from the safety of our mothers’ basements about how well-loved he is by the Seattle sports media. It’s just the way of things.That komo article is classic. My favorite comment so far:
Best value player in the franchise!?!?!?! I almost sent hot chocolate flying out my nose!
Another classic:
I didn’t realize being from Washington meant a lifetime contract with the Ms…
Aaron M.