Thursday night linkage..
- Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN Radio talked to M's GM Jack Zduriencik, who declined to disclose how much money the club had left to spend this offseason. One baseball source told Drayer that the M's likely have "a little left, but not much."
- Scott Lauber of The News Journal tweets that Phillies GM Ruben Amaro was less than impressed after watching Eric Gagne throw yesterday, saying "He was okay." We first heard about Gagne's comeback back in December, when the 34-year-old said he would be open to pitching in the minors.
- Matt Stairs, who is still hoping to land a job at the age of 41, has dropped 31 pounds in order to get himself in game shape, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. In 129 plate appearances last season, Stairs posted .194/.357/.379 with 5 HRs.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spoke to recently signed Octavio Dotel who told him that the Pirates were the only team to offer him the role of closer. Dotel says that he's not worried about being rusty after not closing since 2007.
While looking at his numbers for last year makes it look like Stairs has no chance of returning to baseball, I am quietly rooting for him anyway. I respect a guy who will lose that kind of weight to show his dedication.
I agree about the weight. That’s impressive and takes dedication from him. Losing that much weight should definitely help him. It’s not much of a risk if a team offers him the league minimum along with some incentives if he makes the team out of spring training.
Exactly. I’m seeing lots of veterans trying to get back in the game, I’m just really impressed with Stairs clear determination to show he’s ready. I hope someone picks him up; he deserves it a lot more than some current starters in baseball. :P
Hopefully he doesn’t wind up becoming one of the veterans teams have given up on too soon just because of their age. He could be a good pinch hitter or maybe even be a cheap DH for an AL team like the White Sox.
Exactly. I would definitely feel good if I had league minimum Matt Stairs on my bench, even if he did pass the big Four Zero.
definitely
he could be a good pinch hitter off the bench for some team
Everytime I think of Matt Stairs I remember that monster homerun he hit against the Dodgers in the NLCS two years ago I hope some team picks him up
We in LA are used to watching home runs hit against us in the playoffs, as any Giants fan should know. We tend to look at the bright side: Playoff appearances since 1951: Dodgers 20, Giants 9.
I hope we sign Stairs. Nothing would give us more pride at this point than watching him hit BP every day. I’d pay the price of admission just to see that.
What is so bad about his numbers exactly? While his average was awful, his OBP was quite good at .357. Also, his BABIP was .221 which is down from around .300 the last couple of years. If you adjust for that, his 2009 was almost the same as his 2008 numbers. Likewise, if you adjust for plate appearances his HR were in line with 2008.
There’s always the chance he hits a wall next season at his age, but I personally don’t see him as washed up yet.
Heh, my post was actually mostly about how I thought he wasn’t too washed up yet. I guess I didn’t look too carefully at his 09 stats, but I just meant that I didn’t think teams would have been too impressed by those numbers, but I was impressed by his dedication to the game, and that I hoped that people gave him the chance to keep playing. I don’t think he’s washed up either. :)
It sounds like Gange is done. He had a great, but short, career. Too bad it was all roid induced…
Yeah, but I wouldn’t get on his back too much now….by this point, basically any decent player has at least minimally used steroids. We can’t just pick and choose, instead just assume most players now either use or used at least once in their career. But yeah, I see your point, that it looks like his great career was very heavily affected by the roids :P
Im pretty young so by the time I really started to follow the Dodgers, Gagne was about to start his historic streak. He was probably the first dominate closer I saw live. It really hurt when I found out him and Lo Duca were on roids. Not trying to single him out at all, just saying that he was one of the few guys in LA that all people knew, and all his success was faulty…
Ah, yeah, sure. I felt similar (although it wasn’t quite as painful I’m sure) when I read that Man-Ram was on roids; of course he was a Dodger by then so I at least took solace that he wasn’t playing for us when he served the suspension. However, it made it abundantly clear that he was on them for a while before…and of course Ortiz, who for some reason I always believed was one of those few player who might actually not be using now is involved in that stuff. *sigh* Yeah, I understand how you feel about Gagne in particular. :P Especially with the Yankees fans getting us back after all the things we’ve been saying about A-Roid (whoops, there I go again!), Giambi, Clemens, etc…hehe
I think almost most fans can say that there was a player that they looked up to and cheered for and was on roids. It sucks that it hit the game and took over like it did, but at the same time it probably saved the game with McGwire, Bonds and Sosa.
Yeah. One thing I look forward to at least is that, even if steroids are still running rampant through players right now, it looks like teams are making a point of valuing other attributes besides raw power now. In 2004, when I really started following baseball (guess why, lol…yeah I’m pretty young too, 18 in June), my team the Red Sox was very power-heavy. Sure there were good pitchers too, but it was the power that did it. I remember there being a large majority of the lineup that hit 20+ home runs, obviously anchored by Ramirez/Ortiz. Now, looking at their team this year, I feel very excited about who they are putting out there, but it’s very different: Only two mashers I can trust, Martinez and Youkilis. They will still have plenty of power, as Drew should hit 20, Ortiz hopefully will bounce back and hit 30-40, Beltre could prove us right and hit 25-30…but still. With the team we’re fielding this year, it’s clear that the focus is defense/pitching over power. Same on a more extreme level with the Mariners. Watching the rumors on these boards this winter, you see a lot more reasonable contracts, and a lot of guys who are good all around are getting signed before the one-sided power guys (I’m looking at you Damon, and you don’t even have much power….but Gomes as well, Branyan, etc.). Hernandez and Johnson just got extensions, as did Victorino. I like the trend that the game is beginning to take. :)
exactly. I think the game needed the power in the late 90s to save it and now it will get back to what the dynasties were built around(contact, defense, and pitching) in the, 50s 60s, and 70s(Im thinking the dodger dynasties with Koufax, Drysdale, etc).
And Im just 16…
I’d say 80% of the players in the 90s, early 2000s were doing steroids. And not to be offensive, but your ignorant if you think otherwise (not directed at either of you, just adding to the conversation.
RYAN, I know you said you weren’t saying it to either me or BoSoxSam, but I think what you said is a pretty ‘duh’ statement. What both of us have been saying is that young kids/teenagers who had just started significantly following the game had role models. Most, if not all, of these teenagers didn’t know or care about roids. Our role models were the great players that played in that time. It sucks that as we get older, we realized that our role models as young kids were all fakes. Thats all we are saying. We understand that almost everyone was on roids, but it sucks that the guys that were the best and many had hoped they were clean were not..
You’d be surprised how many people don’t believe that is a “duh” statement.
The Twins have 3B all ready for you Mr. Stairs.
Make it so Bill Smith!
Stop wondering how many millions to throw into a garbage can to burn with kerosene on that worthless Jarrod Washburn contract we all know you’re about to vomit up, and make a minor league contract heard ’round the world.
I want to look at Baseball-Reference.com 30 years from now and see:
Matt Stairs
2010 – age 42 – MIN AL – 408 ABs, 42 HRs, 117 RBIs, .325 AVG, 1.012 OPS
*AL Gold Glove Winner – 3B
*AL Cy Young
*AL Rolaids Relief Man of the Year
*AL MVP
*ALCS MVP
*World Series MVP
Matt Stairs – professional hitter.
Eric Gagne – rank amateur.
Octavio Dotel pitched the last two years, anyone who thinks he’ll be “rusty” just because he hasn’t closed since 2007 is being silly and overrating the closer role. Honestly, take away the “stat” associated with closing and it’s just pitching.