6:35pm: Barton's deal is worth $1.25M, Scout.com's Kiley McDaniel tweets.
2:18pm: The A's announced that they have avoided arbitration with first baseman Daric Barton by agreeing to a one-year deal. The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser tweets that the two sides agreed to a non-guaranteed deal. Barton is a client of the MVP Sports Group.
While terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, MLBTR's Matt Swartz projected the former first-rounder to earn just $1.4MM in arbitration this offseason. Barton's 120 plate appearances in 2013 were the fewest he's totaled at the Major League level since debuting in 2007, but he managed a respectable .269/.350/.375 batting line. Barton has never developed much power, but he's an ultra-patient hitter at the plate, as evidenced by his career .360 OBP and 14.1 percent walk rate.
As can be seen in MLBTR's Arbitration Tracker, the A's still have seven players that are eligible for arbitration: Jim Johnson, Luke Gregerson, Brandon Moss, Josh Reddick, Jed Lowrie, John Jaso and Jesse Chavez.
Interesting….
Hopefully another non-guaranteed deal
It is non-guaranteed
Beane’s favorite guy. He will never let this guy go.. ugh.
The other MLB teams have figured out that, instead of avoiding arbitration with Barton, it is just better to avoid him altogether. 😉
If he plays the way he did in September during Spring Training, he’s gonna have a better chance to make the roster than most people think. The A’s value his OBP and defense. And if they were to use him at 1B against most righties, then Moss could do a lot more DHing and be the 5th outfielder.
He lost it during the playoffs missing a routine play that he should have made. Might have cost the A’s 1 of the games.
True. But one play isn’t a career– Miguel Tejada probably cost the A’s a playoff game by not running home after he was interfered with.
Barton always comes up big in September when pitchers are tired or hurt and there is plethora of minor league players getting a look-see in Sept. Comparing Derek “walkman” Barton” to Miguel Tejada is like comparing Ariel Prieto to Tim Hudson. He’s Beane’s favorite and nothing but an insurance policy. Freiman and Moss/Jaso will split time at 1B again and Barton will be in Sacramento where he belongs.
He’s the Greek god of walks
And also strikeouts looking, although he did improve last year.
That was Kevin Youklis.
That’s the perfect example of the “moneyball” player. Someone who would of been gone long ago on any other team but he’s sticking around because of a decent OBP. I love the concept..My Braves did the opposite by getting guys with horrible OBP and could just hit many homers. I guess both styles worked but the A’s had a much lower payroll their way and about the same amount of wins.
He really stays in the majors with his defense, though. The A’s, always odd, have a defense-value first baseman and an offense-value shortstop.
This is exactly what’s wrong with people’s interpretation of what “Moneyball” is. It’s undervalued assets, so the definition is always changing. OBP-type players were Moneyball type players back in 03-06, now it’s more platoon players and low average, good walk rates (not necessarily good OBP’s) and good ISO’s. So guys like Moss/Freiman/Sogard (although he’s not the latter so much)/Norris/Jaso are currently the “moneyball” type of players
who knows what it’ll be in 2 or 3 years
edit: and to get into more specifics, it’s also guys who are mostly flyball hitters and pitchers.
NOOOoooooooo
Small correction to make but I believe McDaniel’s tweet says $1.275 million, not $1.25 million