MLB and Umpires reach agreement
Not getting a lot of press on Chirstmas Eve, either, but the
I’ve talked about this before, but it’s good news that this got resolved amicably.
The… less good news is that as part of the agreement, a couple of umps are coming back. It looks like Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion, and Ed Hickox will return. There’s also finally a settlement on severance pay and benefits for six umpires not re-hired after their disastrous mass resignation.
The two sides also seem to have reached an entirely reasonable Questec arrangement:
To resolve the grievance over the computer system, baseball agreed that umpires whose ball-and-strike calls are rated below standard by QuesTec will be evaluated by umpire supervisors based on videotape and in-game inspection.
I don’t like Questec, but the technology and the concept is sound, and I’m happy to see this resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.
Eckstein to Cards
So I thought Eckstein would be a cool pickup for the M’s, more for intangible and amusing-me reasons. Jason agreed. We both felt if he was cheap enough, you could use him at short, or SS/2B, keep Lopez in Tacoma converting to 2B to take over for Boone… so like 1y, $1m. Maybe $1.5 or something?
Eckstein signed in St. Louis for $10m over 3 years. Word is he’ll be an everyday shortstop and lead off. This off-season continues to get weirder and weirder.
Free Agency Rankings
One of the questions on the survey at the feed (results to be posted sometime, I promise) was “which contract signed this offseason is the worst for the signing club”? There seemed to be a significant amount of interest on the subject, and so I’ve drawn up a quick free agent rankings through 12/23. Below are what I consider to be the ten best and ten worst contracts signed to date as randomly judged by me.
As of: 12/23/05
Best Contracts of 2005
| Rank | Player | Team | Years | Total |
| 1. | A. Beltre | Seattle | 5 | $64m |
| 2. | M. Clement | Boston | 3 | $25.5m |
| 3. | W. Miller | Boston | 1 | $4m |
| 4. | B. Radke | Minn. | 2 | $18m |
| 5. | N. Garciaparra | Chicago | 1 | $8m |
| 6. | J. Kent | LA | 2 | $17m |
| 7. | T. Walker | Chicago | 1 | $2.5m |
| 8. | W. Williams | San Diego | 1 | $3.5m |
| 9 | R. Hidalgo | Texas | 1 | $5m |
| 10. | C. Counsell | Arizona | 2 | $3.1m |
There’s a pretty obvious trend here. I favor short term contracts for high reward players who won’t be a long term burden if they fail to work out but still provide the possibility of solid return. I figure most people will agree with most of these, though Craig Counsell at #10 is a bit out of the mainstream thought. Counsell is what the Giants hope they’re getting in Vizquel; a steady glove at shortstop who isn’t completely useless at the plate. Getting a player who played tremendous shortstop defense for $1.5 million is a bargain for Arizona.
Worst Contracts of 2005
| Rank | Player | Team | Years | Total |
| 1. | R. Ortiz | Arizona | 4 | $33m |
| 2. | R. Sexson | Seattle | 4 | $50m |
| 3. | J. Wright | NYY | 3 | $21m |
| 4. | T. Percival | Detroit | 2 | $12m |
| 5. | P. Martinez | NYN | 4 | $53 |
| 6. | O. Cabrera | Anaheim | 4 | $32m |
| 7. | V. Castilla | Washington | 2 | $6.2m |
| 8. | C. Koskie | Toronto | 3 | $17m |
| 9 | M. Matheny | San Francisco | 3 | $10.5m |
| 10. | O. Vizquel | San Francisco | 3 | $12.3m |
More patterns emerge. I’m pretty staunchly against long term deals for mid-tier players, especially ones on the wrong side of 30. I expect a lot of people will be upset about the absence of Troy Glaus and Kris Benson from this list, but I don’t think those contracts are as bad as they’re being made out to be.
Big Board!
Hey now! I just posted an updated Big Board, so y’all can quit bugging me about it.
Please note that the BB is most accurate at the major league level, and even then, you never know; We came up with what we thought the roster would look like if the season started tomorrow. In the minors, I didn’t even try to project who’d be where, who’s getting promotions, who the starters are, etc., so please don’t complain about that. What you are allowed to complain about are links that are wrong or don’t work, or if you notice I have a guy listed as left-handed who really isn’t, stuff like that. In that case, drop a note in the comments.
Oh, and as requested, I added “last updated” dates to the links on the left, for both the Big Board and Dave’s Future Forty. Thanks to whoever suggested that in the comments recently.
P-I
The P-I has a nice article on the offseason up. It’s well-written, makes a solid point, and is a nice change from the analysis we usually get from the local dailies. It’s definitely worth reading.
And I hear the author’s a pretty good guy.
Randy Winn and the Giants
There’s long been talk that the Giants are a possible trade destination for Randy Winn. In my opinion that talk took a hit today, as San Fran signed Moises Alou to a two-year deal. You have to assume Barry Bonds will be in left and Alou in right, leaving Marquis Grissom and Michael Tucker to split time in center; that wouldn’t make a horrible platoon, come to think of it. Barring another move, the Giants don’t have room for Winn at this point.
Wade Miller to Boston
So much for that — Miller signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox worth up to $4.5M. The base salary is only $1.5M, with the rest in incentives. Miller’s agent didn’t list the Mariners as one of the club’s interested in his client’s services.
Beltre, slacker
One of the things I’ve heard from people who don’t like the Beltre signing is that in his Dodger years he only really cranked it up late in the season, when the team was starting to think about trading him. But that’s not true.
In 2003, his best full month was September. But there’s an excellent case to be made that this is where the Return of Beltre starts to happen — his first-half OPS is .642, and then he get better, better, and better to finish the year. Except even his peak OPS wasn’t that good. And also that in 2002, his September was terrible. His best months were July and August, and those looked like September 2003, but overall… there’s no pattern here. Beltre wasn’t cranking it up whenever trade rumors surfaced.
And that makes the 2003 dip even weirder. If you thought his 2002 second-half improvement was him getting stronger, then 2003 was a step back, followed by a slow ascent to the level he picked it up for 2004.
But this — it’s like reading a stock chart and trying to ascribe causality without there being clear news. It’s not as if analysts issued a “strong buy” advisory ahead of July 2002 and then yelled “sell” before September began.
What we can tell is that Beltre’s not some 90% slacker. Whatever’s going on, random fluctuation or health issues or whatnot, it’s not that he only concentrated for the last eight weeks every year.
Drew vs. Sexson
Excuse me while I hop back on the “Sexson contract bad!” soapbox.
ESPN is reporting that the Dodgers have agreed to a deal with JD Drew worth $55M over 5 years. If you recall, the M’s signed Richie Sexson to a deal worth $50M over 4 years.
Not only is Drew a better hitter, he plays a more important position. He’s also left-handed, which this team needs desperately.
I hear some of you out there screaming, “But he’s so injury prone!” and yeah, maybe he is. I’ll bet you his shoulder doesn’t fall off, though, which might be more than we can say for Sexson.
Beltre on Perez, other good stuff
Good stuff in the PI: The M’s are working on Odalis Perez, and his friend Beltre’s part of the full-court press. But even better for me was this toss-off at the end:
The non-tender process will create a new pool of low-priced free agents. General manager Bill Bavasi has said he’ll take a good look at the non-tender pool.
I looooooove hearing stuff like this. Gillick had a kind of open disdain for building full rosters, occasionally tossing money at a Colbrunn when it crossed his mind — which is why his benches sucked, and the Gillick M’s were often unprepared for injuries. Knowing that team’s paying attention to stuff like this, even if they ultimately do nothing, makes me happy.
I wonder if Bavasi knows this about the hard-core M’s fans and is just saying stuff like that to buy our affection. (pause) Well, it’s working then. Go Bill go!