Links for Thursday…
- MLB.com's Adam McCalvy has the details on the Jim Edmonds contract. Bottom line: Edmonds earns at least $850 if he makes the team. He can make $1.75MM more in incentives if he makes 525 plate appearances.
- O's righty Armando Gabino cleared waivers, according to a team press release.
- MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch points out the intricate points system behind the incentives in D.J. Carrasco's minor league deal with the Pirates.
- Maury Brown says the Giants' three-year $37MM offer is good, but probably not enough to tempt Tim Lincecum.
- Corey Hart and the Brewers didn't come to a last-minute agreement before today's arbitration hearing, according to the AP. We can expect a ruling tomorrow.
- Elijah Dukes, who is not yet eligible for arbitration, agreed to a $444K salary this season, writes MLB.com's Bill Ladson.
- The Mets signed 22 year-old shortstop Rylan Sandoval out of the Arizona Winter League.
- The White Sox signed 32-year-old righty reliever Orber Moreno to a minor league deal, reports Billy Russo of El Universal. Said Moreno: "Oswaldo Guillen told me that he believes in me and that he will give me the opportunity." Thanks to Nick Collias for translating.
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports chatted with free agent outfielder Jermaine Dye, who noted that the Cubs offered $3MM. Dye says it's not about the money, but "there are still guys getting money that I feel I'm better than."
- Dave Cameron of FanGraphs applauds the Royals for giving Kyle Farnsworth a shot at starting this year.
- MASN's Roch Kubatko runs through the worst Orioles rumors of the offseason.
- Bill Plunkett of the O.C. Register talked to free agent Darin Erstad, who still wants to play but hasn't found the right opportunity yet.
Dye getting the Bobby Abreu treatment this year.
At least Bobby Abreu had something to negotiate with. Dye is still remembered by his .179/.293/.297 line after the all star break along with his inability to field.
Nah, that’s Damon.
I would rather the Braves sign Dye then Damon. He can still hit for power and his defense can’t be much worse the Damon’s and if Glaus gets hurt he could step in as the RH power clean-up guy. Plus we could probably get him for the same as Damon 1yr 3-4 million 2-3 defered over two years. Not a bad deal!
Can’t be much worse than Damon’s? Have you seen the two play difference? Compared to Dye, Damon is a gold glove winner.
They both had 5 Errors last year and dye had 3 more Assists along with a 0.002 better fielding %. I would have to say Dye is the better option because he puts up 25 HR and 80 RBI a year which is what the Braves need.
I’d rather take Damon’s range and speed in the outfield for defense.
UZR150 puts Damon at 11.9 and -12.1 in 2008 and 2009 (a substantial decline last year).
Dye checks in at -21.4 and -24.5.
Damon is substantially better. FPCT, E, and Assists are pretty hollow stats.
Of course Dye had a better fielding percentage, he is too slow to get to the balls that Damon can get to. All that stat shows is that Dye catches balls hit directly at him. His UZR as a member of the White Sox: -2.2, -22.5, -21.6, -19.4 and -20.0.
Damon’s UZR as a member of the Yankees: -11.6, -2.1, -7.8. Not great, but significantly better than Dye.
UZR sucks it has Mark Texiera as a -3.7 last year and he is one of the best fielding 1B in MLB. I’m just saying I would rather have Dye in LF with not so great range and over Damon who’s speed and range might fall after playing OF for a pretty full year and no DHing which his speed is one reason why they would want him.
It’s always been said that:
A) 1B should not use UZR/150 to determine defensive ability, as they don’t get enough chances/
B) You need to use larger sample sizes than one season to determine a player’s defensive ability with UZR/150.
So learn about the stat before saying it sucks. It’s the best defensive metric available, and even if it isn’t great, it’s a hell of a lot better than using errors and assists and fielding %.
Alot of baseball writers(Ken Rosenthal for one) don’t like this “stat” and most teams (Atlanta Braves for one) don’t use it so how do they grade players fielding? Maybe fielding %, errors, and then scouting which I don’t have!
Team’s don’t use the stat because they have something as a resource – scouts. Team’s don’t need to use the stat because they have scouts, which of course are better.
Rosenthal is one of the worst writers in the game. Good writers, such as Dave Cameron and a ton of others over on Fan Graphs (and at ESPN, Keith Law) use the stat…correctly.
I said they have scouts but if it was such a great “stat” why wouldn’t they just use it instead of scouts. And how can you say Rosenthal is one of the worst writers when he is one of the most talked about in baseball
Uh, he writes for one of the bigger magazines, how about that? Rosenthal breaks a lot of news, he’s good at that but there are so many topics he makes himself look like an idiot on.
And again, where are you getting this “great” stat thing from? I NEVER said that. I said it is better than the stats we as fans have today, but if I had 5 scouts available as a fan I’d much rather rely on those guys.
Yet again I didn’t quote you, you just act like it’s such a great thing. and just because you make yourself look like an idiot doesn’t mean your a bad writer.
and just because you make yourself look like an idiot doesn’t mean your a bad writer.
No…that just makes you an idiot. Which doesn’t always make for good writing.
Farnsworth starting could be interesting to see… Are they giving up on him being a reliever?
Might as well, 29 other teams have given up on him being a pitcher.
The Royals’ Mascot job is still open…could be an option for him if this whole “pitching” thing doesn’t work out…
I figured they give that job to Betancourt, at least then that $7M they owe him won’t go to waste.
No, they just have nothing to lose.
Dye says, “it’s not about money… it’s about [other guys] getting money…”
It’s not about the oxymoron, it’s about the contradicting statements…
You beat me to it. I’ve always liked Dye, but that is a very stupid comment on his part.
….sooooooo it IS about the money then.
Dye still has it… his 2nd half sucked last year but same thing happend in 06 or 07 going into contract year and KW didn’t want to negotiate… his first half was great last year.
The only thing I’m not crazy about is his Defense, but he busts his ass out there. I’d like to see him play 1b… very capable of .300 35HR 90RBI, I have no idea why he isn’t signed yet.
Because he’s old, and can’t field he can’t really hit clutch either.
Jermaine Dye regression in the 2d half last year was was a huge problem for the Chisox and cannot be underestimated. The same for 2008 as well. He was a tremendous player and one of the most overlooked power hitters in the AL. That said, he needs to realize that his 2d half of 2009, coupled with his age, will really restrict his earning potential.
He’s still worth atleast 5 mill if bozo’s like Tavarez were set to earn 4mill this year…. Nobody on the Sox hit in the second half except Beckham (struggled towards end of season), Pods (very hot and cold), PK, and AJ (also very hot and cold)… Rios, Dye, Nix, CQ all struggled big time in 2nd half.
I’d still like to see Dye or Damon on the Sox as “Rotating DH’s”… and a team can never have enough depth, especially with injury and slump problems that may occur with CQ, PK, Rios, Jones, Pierre. I’d really like to see Andruw Jones do good and play full time, but I don’t even think it’s a 50/50 chance he pans out better than Colon did last year.
I think when this “DH” thing backfires and we start losing a ton of one run games with our stellar pitching, KW will make a move. But it will be a day late and a dollar short like last year. Damon is the best fit, and I wish they’d spend the money and get him.
“Nobody on the Sox hit in the second half except Beckham”
How many of them saw a 123 point drop in AVG, 82 point drop in OBP, and a 270 point drop in SLG? Just one.
Dye was the worst and it’s probably his fault he knew the Sox not wanting him back get to his head.. but he can still be a productive hitter. He was one of the best Sox hitters from 05-06-08-first half 09. He was hitting over .300 last year at allstar break.
07 was very similar to 09 in it being a contract year and his numbers sucking in the 2nd half… in 08 he bounced back to .292 34HR 96RBI .344OBP.
Dye’s production plummeted in the 2d half- admittedly, many struggled but his numbers just fell off a cliff. If the Sox were going to pick up someone at this point for the role advertised, it would have been Jim Thome. Simply put, neither Damon nor Dye are worth anywhere near what they are holding out for and both are not yet realizing this fact .
I really hope KW holds his fire here and does not pull the trigger on neither Damon, nor Dye. Personally, I think that this rotating DH theory is just a stop gap measure in order buy time to pursue a bigger fish in May or June. KW is not done yet…
The White Sox are going to be interesting this year. I keep forgetting about that whole Jake Peavy for every good White Sox Minor Leaguer trade last year. I believe Mark Teahan will play well for them, however I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ve seen the best of Carlos Quentin. But they’ve lost two (antique) power hitters. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens on the Southside this year.
Does Corey Hart still wear his sunglasses at night?
/cheapjoke
it’s about gettin’ his just due respect and not being looked at as less valuable as the players of similar abilities.
“MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy has the details on the Jim Edmonds contract. Bottom line: Edmonds earns at least $850 if he makes the team. He can make $1.75MM more in incentives if he makes 525 plate appearances.”
I believe there is a typo… I doubt Edmonds gets just $850 if he makes the team…
At least Jimmy Edmonds will walk away with $850 no matter what he does… That’s like a 50′ Plasma… NICE!