Drivel
Posted by SBG on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 8:37 am
I wish that this article was printed on newspaper so that I could use it to clean out the litter boxes.
Basically, the author says that stories of other drug cheats don't matter. The only story that matters is whether Barry Bonds cheated. The author admits that he doesn't even care about World Champion sprinters or Tour de France winners cheating. Don't want to hear about it. Don't care about that cheating, it's in an unimportant sport. But, but, but, what about the children?
Nope, that doesn't matter. The author even introduces a "Law of Sports Proportionality."
There should be some Law of Sports Proportionality, under which you can only rip as much as you cheered.
By that law, I'm thinking that the author should shut up about Barry Bonds, because I'm pretty sure that he never cheered for him. But, consider the implications of his new law. Middle relievers that use? Not important. We don't cheer them. They haven't hit 722 home runs. Faceless offensive linemen? Not important. Who cares about an offensive guard? Mark McGwire? He gave better interviews and hugged the Maris children. In fact, he should be the main target, because who got more cheers than McGwire? But, for some reason, he's not the important character. Hey, Wojo! You are breaking the law of sports proportionality! That's cheating! Boo!
No, Barry has made life tough for reporters by not giving them stories and generally being a dink. Can you say Witch Hunt? Because that's exactly what this author is saying. Any pretense about integrity is out the window. Gotta get Barry. That's what this is all about.
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Lohse apparently gone, daddy gone to the Reds.
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL -- The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have acquired minor league righthanded pitcher Zach Ward from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for righthanded pitcher Kyle Lohse.
Ward, 22, was 7-0, 2.29 ERA (114.0 ip, 29 er), allowing 74 hits with 37 walks and 95 strikeouts, with an opponents batting-average-against of .188 (74-393) in 20 games (18 starts) for Dayton (A, Midwest League) this season. His 2.29 ERA ranked fourth in the Midwest League.
The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder was selected by the Reds in the third round of the June, 2005 free agent draft out of Gardner-Webb University.
Lohse, 27, was 2-5, 7.07 (63.2 ip, 50 er), allowing 80 hits with 25 walks and 46 strikeouts in 22 games (8 starts) for the Twins this season. Acquired by the Twins in a trade with the Chicago Cubs on May 21, 1999, Lohse has a career record of 51-57, 4.88 (908.1 ip, 493 er) with 289 walks and 561 strikeouts in 172 games (152 starts).
Link?
Sorry - didn't refresh the page. Thanks!
On the surface this looks like a decent deal.
Lohse was Krivskied!!!!!
Did I mention that one of our best trades in the past couple years was sending Krivisky to the Reds?
I'm not really all that pleased with this trade. We don't need extra A-ball pitchers. Lohse could very well be the fourth best starter we have right now. Not being able to get along with Lohse could wind up hurting the team down the stretch.
So what is the meat in Jayson Stark's recent post that the Twins are all over Soriano? I can't get at it because I'm not an Insider.
And Garza could very well be the third best starter we have right now. In either case, we saved some big bucks and dumped someone who just wasn't working out that well, and opened up a spot on the roster. Now if we could do that with Hunter, I'd be really pleased.
Stark:
Rumor mongering.
In either case, we saved some big bucks and dumped someone who just wasn’t working out that well, and opened up a spot on the roster.
We saved some big bucks? Lohse is only due about $1.5M for the rest of the season, and $1.34M over the minimum. That's hardly big bucks, and it's unlikely that money will go anywhere but into Carl Pohlad's bottom line. (That is, teams don't carry savings over from year-to-year, and it's unlikely that that $1.34M will go into a significant player this season.)
And Garza could very well be the third best starter we have right now.
I would actually argue that even if you take Garza as the third best starter right now, Lohse is the fourth best. Radke had a nice run there, but he's still pitching with a torn labrum and his season stats still make him out to be a below average pitcher, despite his nice run.
Rumor mongering.
Exactly. I don't know how anyone could reasonably look at the decisions TR has made in the past and think that he'd value Soriano more than the other teams involved. But the more rumors you can spread, the more people will come to read your columns, so it pays for people to talk up stuff like this. After all, once you tell them the Twins aren't in the running, the Twins fans aren't too likely to show up again.
On demand. Will Carroll:
But I think it's too late now. That Garza piece scared me. Kubel was offered? Interesting...
I wouldn't take anything Will Carroll says too seriously. Dude's been wrong about way, way more trades than he's been right about. None of what he's saying about the Twins there makes any sense whatsoever. The Twins don't have enough OF depth to deal with losing Kubel for next year. And if Garza or Baker is required to get Soriano, TR's just not going to do that deal. The piece just lacks so little semblence of credibility that I have almost zero faith that Kubel was ever offered for anything.
Bowden's a moron and smarter GMs called his bluff.
Why does asking for the moon and the stars make Bowden a moron? Remember, the Nationals' sale just happened. Bowden probably has been in a bit of limbo trying to figure out whether the new owners would pony up to re-sign Soriano. I don't see anything crazy about trying to assess his market value.
Now, if he was serious about moving Soriano, then you can argue that he's a moron.
On Will Carroll, I have no opinion. Other than thinking that the only way Ryan offers up Jason Kubel would be if he is worried about Kubel's knee. Baker+Kubel for a Soriano rental is crazy talk.
Soriano lately has said he'd like to stay in DC, but you know he's going to make the Nats pay through the nose for 5-6 years to keep him. Not only will he want to cash in on his monster season, but he may still want the Nats to compensate him for moving away from 2B. So now the Nats look stuck with trying to wrap up a guy having his career year at age 30, and has no deep bonds to the club, by committing to a deal that will be grossly overpaying him long past the point when he's likely to be playing at this peak level anymore. It's either that, or let Soriano walk, accept the embarrassment, and hope the compensation picks pan out. Neither option seems too appealing to me.
Who knows exactly what offers he fielded this weekend, but if he saw any good prospects on the table and turned those packages down because they didn't include a kid like Garza to make the deal a slam-dunk winner for him, then he's a fool.
As far as Bowden being a moron, Frightwig covered why I think it was a bad move not to move Soriano. Does anyone know what the expected 2007 payroll will be for the Nationals?
I've just never been a fan of the guy.
Billy Beane seems to maintain gainful employment despite letting Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada walk. I think Bowden will withstand letting Soriano walk. (Well, maybe that ought to read *should* let Soriano walk.)
Billy Beane also has a track record of building and rebuilding winning teams, and he works for an owner who appreciates what he does on their shoestring budget. Jim Bowden has no such track record, he wasn't hired by the current ownership, his team is in last place, and he just failed to move one of the most valuable trading chips on the market last month. If he doesn't re-sign Soriano or bring in a comparable free agent to replace him, I don't think he'll be getting much benefit of the doubt in DC this winter.
I'm no Bowden fan either, but....
Soriano is making ~$10 million this year. How much more do you think the market will pony up for a high-strike out, mediocre-glove OF on the wrong side of 30? He's not getting Manny money ($18 million per).
Selected corner OFers who might be comps
Magglio Ordonez (32): $16.2 million
Bobby Abreu (32): $13.6 million
Vlad (30): $13.5 million
Ichiro! (32): $12.5 million
JD Drew (30): $11.4 million
Pat Burrell (29): $9.75 million
Carlos Lee (30): $8.5 million
Brian Giles (35 and declining): ~$7.6 million this year
Trot Nixon (32): $7.5 million
Raul Ibanez (34): $5 million
Jermaine Dye (32): $5 million
I have a hard time seeing Soriano getting more than around $13m-$14m per on the open market. I'd much rather have Jermaine Dye for $8-$10 million or so than Soriano for 50-100 pct more.
Jim Bowden has no such track record, he wasn’t hired by the current ownership, his team is in last place, and he just failed to move one of the most valuable trading chips on the market last month.
But what do we know about the current ownership group? For all we know, they were the ones insisting that Bowden not settle for less than a jackpot for Soriano. I agree that Bowden has made some pretty terrible decisions in the past--but Kenny Williams used to make some pretty terrible decisions in the past, too. I'm not convinced that Bowden is great just based on how he robbed Krivsky, but I guess I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this.
Besides, it won't matter how much he gets roasted in the offseason for not bringing in a comparable free agent if Zimmerman, Kearns, Lopez, Johnson etc. hit next year and put the team in contention. If ownership was willing to pony up the money for Barry Zito in the offseason, I think the Nats could be fairly close to contention as is. And the extra picks from Soriano would help cushion the blow from signing a type A free agent in the offseason.
IMO, he's getting too much credit for "robbing" Krivsky, just because the two big names in the deal went his way.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how he plays his hand with Soriano, and how he spins it if he doesn't sign his man. But right now, he's leading the DC press and fans to believe that he aims to sign Soriano to an extension. If he fails, he better have more in his other hand than hopes that the compensation picks might pan out. Considering that, and his history of stupidity, vanity, and a penchant for grandstanding, he probably will be motivated to give Soriano the moon--which, if he succeeds, I think he and the Nats fans eventually will come to regret.
Yeah, I'm probably giving Bowden too much credit in general. When in doubt, it's best to expect that Bowden will make terrible decisions.
Oh yeah, one more thing about Soriano. If Bowden does sign him to a long-term deal, I'm all about Terry Ryan trying to pry Ryan Church away from the Nationals. Otherwise, I fear Bowden is going to want to hold on to Church. Other than that, though, the Nationals just don't seem too high on Church.