The latest links from around MLB…
- Placido Polanco, John Mayberry Jr. and Jim Thome aren't hitting, and David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News points out that this puts the Phillies in an uncomfortable situation. Murphy looks back at some of the Phillies' offseason decisions and wonders if the team should have prioritized a hitter over a closer.
- Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald points out that two of Boston's primary offseason additions – Andrew Bailey and Mark Melancon — are no longer contributing on the big league roster just two weeks into the season. Bailey is recovering from thumb surgery and the Red Sox optioned Melancon to Triple-A.
- Ken Davidoff of the New York Post says the Rangers might have the best 25-man roster in baseball. Davidoff believes Texas can sustain its success even if prominent players leave as free agents.
- Infielder Ramon Vazquez is looking to make a comeback and some teams are showing interest, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets. The 35-year-old hasn’t played in the Major Leagues since 2009.
Re: The Phillies: Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20, so wondering about “prioritizing” is kinda short-sighted when you’ve got a $25MM a year first baseman who is on the DL and a formerly premier second baseman in Chase Utley who is technically not retired and still on the team and couple of years ago could hit bombs with precision. So your team is down a few men and the old guys/bargain bins didn’t turn into another Frank Thomas on the A’s….Big deal.
Yeah. Amaro was absolutely nuts to give a 5/$125 MM extension to a guy who plays a highly replaceable position and can’t run, field, or hit lefties.
Such a stupid move extending a player who consistently is at the top in RBI and HRs. Also lead the league last year in Game tying and game winning hits. But lets focus on his downsides without showing he is one of the strongest and most clutch hitters in baseball.
Clutchness doesn’t exist and HR and RBI are two of the worst possible metrics one can use to evaluate a player’s performance.
Disagree about HRs, but definitely agree about RBIs, those are the “wins” of batter stats.
i say RBI and Runs are the worst metrics to judge a player by
runs are one of the best metrics to measure players by, especially when it comes to counting stats.
Runs take into account who’s hitting after him.
A player can put himself in scoring position on every AB, and if the guys hitting after him can’t hit enough to have him score, he will accrue zero runs.
Team dependent, not individually dependent.
“clutchness may not” but the runs he does drive in are pretty meaningful… I think he was #1 in the league in driving in go-ahead runners… which wins ballgames.
Big Howard fan, but he hasn’t been clutch the last three years….
When he lead the league last year in Game tying and go ahead RBIs how can you say he isnt clutch.
That go-ahead home run in Game 1 of the NLDS was pretty clutch.
When he’s on the field, he gets the #1 percentage of breaking balls in the league. More than Pujols, more than Kemp, teams are afraid to throw him fastballs. I wish he’d take more of them but realistically, if he’s driving in 110-150 runs, i could care less about his strikeouts.
The season before he signed his extension:
.279/.360/.571
45 home runs
141 RBI’s
#3 in the MVP voting
One of the best run producers in a game. The Phillies didn’t want to give Pujols/Fielder/Agon a 10 year contract so they opted for shorter/higher AAV.
In hindsight, it didn’t work.
Is it fair to call any of that hindsight?
Ryan Howard was injured as the 2011 season ended–rather literally–so they clearly knew he would be on the DL before they decided what to target during the offseason. Chase Utley has been walking from one injury to another for years. I’m a fan of Polanco’s, but the only way he’s a viable third baseman offensively is when you can make up for the lack of production with beasts like Howard and Utley.
I think it’s pretty clear that Amaro made a calculated decision that with his pitching, he only needed to hit a little until those guys were able to start coming back and that would keep his head above water. I think it’s far too early to say if he was right or wrong, but I also don’t think it’s fair to say criticizing that plan is a virtue of hindsight.
Mark Silverman is obviously a very insightful individual. Tomorrow he’ll write that J.D. Drew is no longer on the roster. Saturday, he will opine that the Red Sox should have never sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
Come on David Murphy why stop there with those three players. That was a team effort last night, no one on the active roster can hit. Although, I do like Pence so let me change that to except for Pence the Philles can’t hit. :p
Silverman points out that two of Boston’s primary offseason additions — Andrew Bailey and Mark Melancon. Well this would be a great time for Adrian Gonzalez to step up and say: I am going to put this team on my shoulders and carry them through this time of rough waters!
PS Thome should have stayed in the AL as a DH and one other thing what hitter would the Phillies have picked up in free agency that would have been a fit?!?
I suppose you want A-Gon to pitch? He can be leading the league in every major offense category right now, but that’s not going to do much if the pitching staff is going to give up 10+ runs a night.
Begining to think that managing the Sox roster after Francona leaves a mental disorder behind.. I have seen too much Repco/McDonald of late in the lineup, where Sweeney has been on the bench and tearing it up. Sure sweeney has been hitting on vs RH pitchers, but Repco/McDonald can’t hit vs either. Isn’t it time to just *see* if Sweeney can hit Lefties when he is hitting .424 with a .474 OBP and a 1.109OPS? Wouldn’t it be worth a shot when McDonald is hitting an eye popper .083 and Repco .111???
Career numbers versus LHP:
Sweeney:
367 PA, .229/.301/.284
McDonald:
391 PA, .277/.340/.437
Repko:
285 PA, .236/.299/.360
In short: no, we should never bat Sweeney against lefties. Also, Repko has no business playing in the Major Leagues. (Free Lin!)
Agreed with the Let Lin have a chance part for sure!
Sweeney plays solid defense and is a plus, that is another thing in his favor over the other 2, but yeah.. Lin plays a superb defense and it really should have been Lin getting those AB over repco all along.. He is the real prospect and it’s like he is NOT getting a fair shake from the system anymore. 23YO, vs a pair of 30YO AAAA guys who still don’t bring anything to the table and neither are doing anything. The team wouldn’t miss either.. Let Lin have his chance and Let’s not forget JC Linares who is for some reason at AA because of more people EXACTLY like McDonald and repco clogging up the Pawtucket OF depth chart, other than Hassan and Lin.
McDonald has been on the roster for far too long. He didn’t hit worth a lick last year, no idea why they invited him back. I’m pretty sure a minor league OF can produce as much or better than him.
I always thought getting melancon was a big mistake. He has just been way to hittale to the AL batters.
What is going on with Dom Brown?
hes batting .241 0 HR and 9 RBIs in AAA i think the stats where
For all my negativity about the Red Sox, I actually was a HUGE fan of both of those bullpen pickups. I thought they were shrewd and gave up nothing.
That said, we still had gaps to fill. We really could have used a starter (which at the moment appears to be OK..) and we really needed another arm in the pen. The team traded Scutaro and then that extra money resulted in nothing.
Rich Hill may be ready to help in two weeks. Hopefully this will help to stabilize the Sox pen in addition to moving Doubrount and Bard back into it.
I see Cook and Padilla as the #4 and #5 starters.
A pen of Bard, Hill, Morales, Atchison, Albers, Douby and Aceves.