Wondering what your team still can or should do to improve before the start of the 2014 season? ESPN.com's Jim Bowden lays out the "missing links" he sees for each of the National League's clubs. On the free agent side of things, he thinks that the Reds (Nelson Cruz), Pirates (Kendrys Morales), and Mets (Stephen Drew) could all stand to add an impact bat. Elsewhere around the NL …
- In an interesting piece on Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr., Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the Phils' top baseball man will continue to "take swings" at arguably risky acquisitions. "There are only so many chances to be a champion, and I will never stop believing that if you have a chance, you take the opportunity," Amaro says. "if you don't take a chance on Adam Eaton, then maybe you don't take a chance on Jayson Werth." (Of course, Amaro was referring to Eaton the retired pitcher, not the young outfielder by the same name.)
- Amaro discussed his philosophies in relation to some of the club's recent moves, He acknowledged that the signing of Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez was a risk, but called him "a guy with a tremendous ceiling." And while Marlon Byrd will earn $16MM over two years to be "a decent role player" for Philadelphia, in Amaro's words, the GM explained that he had to balance the team's needs. "If I go get Carlos Beltran," said Amaro, "then I can't take a chance on Roberto Hernandez. We've got a lot of holes to fill, and our job is to try to make the right decision 70 percent of the time, not the wrong decision 70 percent of the time."
- The Nationals recently added another bench piece in Jamey Carroll, and Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post expects that the veteran will make the club out of Spring Training. But that does not mean that GM Mike Rizzo is done fiddling with his reserves, says Kilgore. Possible additions include a catcher, a left-handed bat such as Lyle Overbay, or a right-handed corner option like Mark Reynolds. Likewise, another southpaw reliever could still be added.
- The powerful right arm of reliever Erik Cordier earned him a guaranteed deal with the Giants even though he's never thrown a big league pitch. MLBTR's Tim Dierkes has learned that Cordier's new club had good reason to offer him a MLB deal, as two other clubs were likewise willing to use a 40-man roster spot on the 27-year-old. (Twitter link.)
Um Ruben, not being able to take a chance on Roberto Hernandez because you got Carlos Beltran isn’t a bad situation to be in….. Food for thought.
I get what he’s saying… clearly he needs to fill a number of roster spots so he can’t go all in on one guy but you have to question some of the guys he has “taken a chance on”. And Byrd is a major overpay for someone viewed as a reserve or “role player” at this point in his career.
Yeah, I agree. I get his point, just the examples he gives us as support (Byrd, Hernandez) don’t really help his case.
How is Byrd a role player or reserve at this point in his career? He was a solid All-Star caliber starter last season.
But do you think he will sustain that level of production for the next two years? The contract covers his next two years, not the previous year.
Personally, I don’t think he will be a reserve player, but I also don’t see him repeating last year’s season as well.
He doesn’t have to replicate his 2013 season to be worth the deal. He just has to fall in line with his career numbers (as a regular). If you take 2013 and 2012 as outliers (his best and worst years) and go back to when he was a regular (2007-2011), he’s averaged a .290/.350/.440 line with 45 XBH a season. He’s also produced a 2.8 WAR (per season) over that time line. It’s the same kind of risk they took with MY (from an offensive standpoint). Difference is, Marlon isn’t an out-of-position, rapidly declining defender who’s dWAR will cancel out his oWAR.
You are always paying for past production, that’s how sports contracts work. Otherwise Pujols would have never gotten his contract for 10 years. Do you really think ANYONE in baseball thinks Pujols is going to be worth $25 million when he is 41? No, but that was the cost to get him to leave St. Louis and go to the Angels.
Players and more specifically agents are not unwise. There is a reason players have a career year in a contract year, because they want more money. Whether or not Byrd can sustain that level of production is a gamble that the Phillies are taking. But no one, not even you, can say definitively that Byrd will be a poor player in 2014 or 2015. You can say definitively that he was an All Star in 2013.
Amaro himself dubbed Byrd “a decent role player”.
Hey Ryan, how about you do some research. Ruben is to do what he’s told. It’s David Montgomery and John S Middleton who are to blame. Stop spamming RUBEN RUBEN RUBEN RUBEN.
Call out the right people, not the puppet.
Middleton is a limited partner who has zero say in the running of the organization. He has nothing to do with the day-to-day decision making and is basically the equivalent of a non-voting shareholder who gets a dividend from them every year. Montgomery is the only member of the ownership group involved in the running of the team and I would agree that he has way too much influence on decision making in the FO.
Is that true? Montgomery is the only member of the ownership group involved in the running of the team?
Is it that known around baseball or do you have a source?
If it is known fact I’d assume it would be spoken about much more than it is now, which is never.
“We’ve got a lot of holes to fill, and our job is to try to make the right decision 70 percent of the time, not the wrong decision 70 percent of the time.”
I think the better option would be to try making the right decision 100 percent of the time, while realizing that there is a margin of error (perhaps as high as 30 percent).
Going .700 in baseball is pretty darn good! That’s a 113-49 season!
Or a .700 batting average!
My point was that it is odd to hear a GM state that his goal is to be wrong 30 percent of the time.
That phrasing was wicked odd. But as someone else pointed out I doubt there’s much that Amaro could say at this point that wouldn’t net him a tremendous amount of scrutiny.
yea, i thought that was kind of a hum-dinger quote also…hoping to be average? 70/100? That’s a “C” in school
I’m sure Ruben will take your comment into consideration.
RAJ tries to be an optimist – Phillies fans slam him for being unrealistic.
RAJ tries to be a realist – Phillies fans slam him for being too pessimistic.
I guess he could try being a pessimist, like most Phillies fans. But them I’m sure he’d get slammed for being “too negative”.
Dude, it’s not Ruben’s fault, it’s David Montgomery and John S Middleton! Do some research!
Has anyone signed Jeff Baker? If not, he might be an option for the Nationals if they can’t get Reynolds.
Baker should probably be the primary option, not Reynolds.
Okay, Ruben had made some mistakes in past offseasons, but putting his entire history behind him, he actually had a good offseason given his position. He had to add talent in RF, SP, and C and with only $22 million, that is not easy to do. I would have done things a little differently, but in reality, my moves wouldnt have made both our team better and our budget possible. I still think we should have traded Brown, but I understand if the return wasn’t suffice.
His only mistakes were giving Mayberry a contract and giving Ruiz a third year, but in a market where Skip Shumaker got 2 years, 5 million, Mayberry’s deal is plausible and the market demanded a 3rd year for Ruiz. So we’ll see how well his moves will work, but I have good feelings about Byrd.
The Ruiz signing is horrendous. Especially after seeing the deal salty got. Would it kill this guy to sign someone who isn’t in his mid 30’s??
The Salty signing did hurt, but he wasn’t a fit for us and he clearly wanted to be more than a 7 hole hitter. His defense is average, while Chooch’s is always superior, but yes I am suprised overall Ruiz got that kind of deal. Doesn’t mean he can’t live up to it.
Kendrys Morales is 100% not a fit for the Pirates for 2 reasons.
1. He’s a DH.
2. No way they surrender a 1st round draft pick for any player.
And people wonder why Bowden is no longer a GM. smh!
I’d rather have Fontenot make the Nat’s roster over Carroll
Seriously,I have never heard Bowden explain why he thinks ANY NL orginization would give up a no. 1 pick for a DH that should never pick up a glove more than once a week.
I’m confused… Does he think the phillies have a shot to contend this year? Guy is an absolute joke of a general manager. For the love of god, let us reload our roster. He’s trying to scrape togethor another 2008 season from a roster that simply not as good, and clearly on the decline. Not looking forward to another dreadful season this year.
I think if the Phillies could get 200 innings out of Matt Garza and production from Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, they could push for a wild card spot.