Clint Barmes plays second base for the Colorado Rockies. In seasons in which he obtained at least 300 plate appearances, his OBP has vacillated wildly, from a high of .330 in 2005 to a low of .264 in 2006. For his career, his OBP stands at .299. He does have some power, with a slugging percentage of .415 and an isolated power of .157.
Barmes is actually a much worse hitter than that. Away from Coors, his slash line stands at .222/.262/.351. It’s actually quite amazing that Barmes gets as much playing time as the Rockies give him. Then again, if they find a league average second baseman to replace him, the Rockies would greatly improve at the position.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:05 pm | Players, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 29, 2009
Birthday Closer
Happy 40th birthday to Mariano Rivera!
Update: It’s also Vin Scully’s birthday.
Posted by David Pinto at 2:10 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
November 29, 2009
Players A to Z, Brian Barden
Brian Barden plays third base for the St. Louis Cardinals in a utility role. At age 28, he received his first extended opportunity to play in the majors during the 2008 season. Barden hit poorly, posting an OBP under .300. He actually hit right-handed pitching okay, which is unusual because he hits right-handed. He might be a nice reserve for someone who plays Strat-o-Matic baseball, as reverse platoon players have some value.
Brian’s minor league numbers were decent. I would not have expected him to be this poor a hitter in the majors. Since he only received 147 at bats in the majors, it’s possible he’d be a much better hitter if given the chance to play full time. However, Barden is at an age where if you haven’t made it in the majors, you’re not going to get another chance. He’s a free agent, and some team looking for a cheap solution to the problem might give him a chance. The one caveat is that much of his minor league record came in Tucson at a good hitter’s park, We may be seeing a double whammy of moving to a tougher league and a tough hitter’s park. I’m guessing Barden signs a minor league deal with some team and only plays in the majors due to the injury of a starter.
Posted by David Pinto at 1:23 pm | Players, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 29, 2009
Players A to Z, Josh Bard
Josh Bard caught for the Washington Nationals in 2009, and is currently a free agent. Bard put together two excellent offensive years in 2006-2007, followed by two extremely poor ones in 2008-2009. He still draws a good number of walks, but that’s about the only good thing to say about his hitting right now. The change happened right was Bard moved out of his peak years into this 30’s. Unless he can somehow find the stroke that made him a good offensive catcher, Bard will need to find a job as a backup.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:54 pm | Players, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 29, 2009
Grady Sizemore can Hide his Penis with a Tea Cup
Deadspin has the photographic evidence, as Grady Sizemore takes some beefcake photos for his girlfriend. Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to let the tea steep in a pot for five minutes before pouring it into a cup?
By the way, I’d say the photos are not safe for work, or for browsing during a Sunday sermon.
Update: This post is dedicated to Dan Wechsler.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:37 am | Players | Permalink | No Comments
November 29, 2009
Players A to Z, Daniel Bard
Daniel Bard pitched in relief for the Boston Red Sox. A first-year rookie in 2009, Bard turned in an impressive performance. The 24-year-old struck out 63 in 49 1/3 innings, 11.5 per nine. His walks were a bit higher than the Red Sox might like at 4.0 per nine innings, but it was actually an improvement over his minor league numbers, where he walked six per nine innings. Much of that came at the lower levels of the minors however. Bard is somewhat unusual as his K’s and BB’s improved as he rose through the Red Sox system. That’s probably why some are projecting him as a closer.
Daniel Bard gets his tongue into the action. Photo: Icon SMI
The idea would be that in two years, the Red Sox let Papelbon go via free agency and promote the more cost effective Bard to the closer role. If Daniel shows he can pitch consistently well at the major league level, the Red Sox might even score a couple of good prospects for Jonathan along the way. We’ll see. The Red Sox, with players like Lowell and Varitek, have shown a tendency to keep fan favorites longer than they should.
Bard will also need to show he can get out lefties. They punished him for a .379 OBP and a .487 slugging percentage in 2009, hitting four of the five home runs against him. For his career, Papelbon is actually better against lefties than righties.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:23 am | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 28, 2009
Players A to Z, Rod Barajas
Rod Barajas caught for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2009. He currently stands as a free agent. Barajas set a career high for a season in playing time with 125 games and 429 at bats. He also turned in one of his worst offensive seasons. The only thing he did well with his bat was hit for power, with 38 of his 97 hits going for extra bases. With a .258 OBP, however, he was an out machine. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as he played 2009 as a 33 year-old and has a .284 career OBP. That kind of decline for a catcher, especially one that poor to being with, should not be unexpected.
His value comes from his glove, as Bill James online rated him with six defensive win shares, or two wins defensively. He’s not a useless player, just one whose price tag should be very low. He should hook onto a team that needs a good defensive backup.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:36 pm | Players, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 28, 2009
Players A to Z, Brian Bannister
Brian Bannister pitches as a starter for the Kansas City Royals. Bannister is a favorite of the sabermetric community due to his embrace of advanced statistics. Brian tries to minimize hits walks and home runs allowed, while maximizing his strikeouts. In other words, Bannister pitches to minimize his FIP, his Fielding Independent Pitching stats. Over the last two years, Bannister’s projected ERA from his FIP is about half a run lower than his actual ERA. That indicates a good defensive team would improve his pitching a great deal.
Bannister upped his strikeout rate each season he pitched in the majors, and kept his walk rate below three per nine. He’s not a great pitcher, however. At best, Brian’s strikeout rate is below six, meaning no matter how good his defense plays, opponents put a lot of balls in play against him, and many of those will fall for hits. His walk rate is good, but not great. Brain would win with a good defensive team that scored well, like the Dodgers.
In fact, his greatest asset to the Royals came from his tutoring Zack Greinke in the ideas of fielding independent pitching. Greinke is a much more talented hurler, and his pitching to his defense earlier in the count and going for the K with two strikes on the batter helped him win the Cy Young award this season. I like the way Bannister actively tries to improve himself and searches the stats to find ways to do that efficiently. On the right team, he won’t be a star, but he’ll give them lots of good innings and will win more often than he loses.
Posted by David Pinto at 5:22 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 28, 2009
Moyer Recovering
Jamie Moyer underwent surgery for a blood clot but expects to be ready for spring training. That’s good news.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:25 pm | Injuries | Permalink | No Comments
November 28, 2009
The End of Bud?
Bud Selig told owners who want him to stay on that he’ll leave the job of commissioner after his contract expires in 2012. I’ll believe when I see it.
Bud is getting up in years, so even if he does stay on past 2012, he won’t be around for ever. Who should MLB hire as commissioner after Bud? Should they go for another owner? I would love to see them bring the players in on the choice. If both sides are paying the commissioner, he’s more likely to be neutral in dealing with both sides should a labor crisis arise again.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:50 am | Commissioner | Permalink | 5 Comments
November 28, 2009
Boston’s Shortstop
Via BBTF, Bob Ryan comes down hard on Theo Epstein over the Red Sox shorstop situation. What’s more interesting is Evan Brunell’s take on the situation. Since the Blue Jays signed Alex Gonzalez, Marco Sutaro is the best shortstop on the market. If the Red Sox sign him, they give Toronto a first round draft pick:
Toronto has then not only plugged their hole at shortstop but has forced the Sox into a situation that may be tough to maneuver out of. Either downgrade from Scutaro and sign a weak alternative, or find a trade partner and somehow pull off a trade. (Which would almost certainly require some trade pieces Boston is hoarding for a possible Roy Halladay/Adrian Gonzalez/etc. trade.)
Of course, it’s possible the Red Sox take a step back and regroup. This is something Theo wanted to do when he ended up in the rift with upper management and left the team for a winter. A team with Adam Everett vacuuming balls at shortstop would still compete, which is all the team really needs to keep fans in the seats. How the Red Sox go about plugging the hole at shortstop will tell a lot about their expectations for 2010.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:57 am | Free Agents, Management, Team Evaluation | Permalink | 3 Comments
November 28, 2009
Baseball Fiction
Damian Hughes wrote the first Australian baseball novel, The American Dream: From Perth to Sacramento
Posted by David Pinto at 9:10 am | Books | Permalink | No Comments
November 27, 2009
Players A to Z, Josh Banks
Josh Banks pitches for the San Diego Padres as a starter and a reliever. Over the last three seasons he’s pitched in the minors and got called up to the majors with the same results. He posts excellent strikeout and walk numbers in the minors, then his walks go way up and his strikeouts go way down. For his career, he strikes out 7.2 per nine and walks 1.6 per nine in the minors, 4.2 and 3.0 in the majors. His major league walk rate is fine, but not with that low a K rate. Until he starts striking out batters in the majors, he won’t have a steady job for the Padres.
Posted by David Pinto at 9:20 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 27, 2009
Players A to Z, Grant Balfour
Grant Balfour pitches in relief for the Tampa Bay Rays. Apart from being the worst named pitcher since Bob Walk, Balfour over the last two years demonstrates just how inconsistent relief pitchers perform from year to year. In 2008, Balfour used a very high strikeout rate, 12.8 per nine, combined with a great defense to allow just 28 hits in 58 1/3 innings, good for a 1.54 ERA. In 2009, his strikeout rate dropped to a still good 9.2 per nine innings, but he allowed 59 hits in 67 1/3 innings, and his ERA zoomed to 4.81. His walks and home runs were up as well. If you look at his career prior to 2008, however, his 2009 season is much more in line with that performance. What he got right in 2008 just didn’t last long. Still, with a high strikeout rate, Balfour is more than worth a place in a major league bullpen. If can get the walks down again, he might not post a sub-2.00 ERA, but he’ll have a very good season.
Posted by David Pinto at 6:00 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 27, 2009
Special Accomplishment
Tim Lincecum’s two Cy Young awards makes his arbitration case more complicated:
Theoretically, because of a “special accomplishment” provision, the arbitration process allows Thurman to negotiate without regard to service time, meaning Lincecum could be compared with any pitchers, meaning teammate Barry Zito (averaging $18 million annually) and CC Sabathia ($23 million average) could enter the conversation, meaning open the vault.
Article VI Rule F (12) in the basic agreement states the arbitration panel must consider comparisons with others who have similar service time.
But it adds, “This shall not limit the ability of a player or his representative, because of special accomplishment, to argue the equal relevance of salaries of Players without regard to service, and the arbitration panel shall give whatever weight to such argument as is deemed appropriate.”
I wonder if there is going to be a huge discrepancy in the salaries submitted to arbitration, and if that might not work in the Giants favor. I could see where Lincecum’s agent might put Tim between Zito and Sabathia and ask for $20 million. I can see where the Giants might come in at $11 million, giving Tim a record for super-two’s, instead of $14 million, which Tim is probably worth. The mid-point is lower in the first scenario, so settling costs the Giants less, but there’s also the chance the Giants win at $11 million, which would be huge for the team.
As for a long-term contract:
Lincecum is under the Giants’ control for four more years and isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2013 season. One reason the Giants aren’t rushing to sign him long term involves an insurance issue. Sabean said it has become tougher to insure long-term contracts.
This happened earlier in the decade as well, and free agent contracts briefly became shorter term. That’s something else to watch this winter, how many players get offered something longer than three years.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:38 am | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
November 27, 2009
Bob Sheppard Retires
Bob Sheppard gave up trying to come back to his job at Yankee Stadium:
Sheppard, 99, hasn’t worked a game since late in the 2007 season due to illness.
“I have no plans of coming back,” Sheppard told the Web site in a telephone interview. “Time has passed me by, I think. I had a good run for it. I enjoyed doing what I did. I don’t think, at my age, I’m going to suddenly regain the stamina that is really needed if you do the job and do it well.”
Sheppard combined a great voice with a pitch perfect delivery, almost singing the name of the players. Alvaro Espinoza was by far my favorite. You’ll still be able to hear him at the stadium, however, as his recording will continue to announce Derek Jeter.
I hope I’m still blogging when I’m in my late 90s.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:10 am | All-Time Greats | Permalink | 1 Comment
November 27, 2009
Black Friday
Amazon is offering great deals, and you can help out Baseball Musings by going through this site for your shopping.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:31 am | Other | Permalink | 2 Comments
November 26, 2009
Zeile for Lists
The Todd Zeile for Hall of Fame movement begins.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:39 am | Humor | Permalink | 1 Comment
November 26, 2009
Bedard and the Orioles
Geoff Baker in Seattle notes that the Orioles may end up with Erik Bedard:
This story in the Baltimore Sun indicates that Bedard is at the top of the Baltimore Orioles’ wish list. How big a coup would that be for O’s president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail? Not only does he get to reap the continued rewards of the five players he recieved from Seattle, but then gets to have Bedard back as well just when his rebuilding team is poised to make a climb up the standings? Sounds good to me. Given what went down two years ago in the two weeks before Bedard’s trade to Seattle, I’m sure MacPhail will do all the medical due dilligence humanly possible on Bedard. But MacPhail indicates in the story that he is willing to take a risk this winter on a high upside guy. Stay tuned.
The Orioles actually did the same thing with Sidney Ponson a few years ago. That didn’t work out too well.
Posted by David Pinto at 10:36 am | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
I wish all my readers a happy Thanksgiving and hope you spend a wonderful day with your loved ones. I’m thankful you for all your support over the years. This site is a pleasure to write, and your comments and email make it that much better. Thanks for keeping me going. Have a great meal today!
Posted by David Pinto at 9:26 am | Other | Permalink | 2 Comments
November 25, 2009
Red Sox Want a Royal
The Red Sox acquired Tug Hulett from the Kansas City Royals. Why would the Red Sox want a player who was DFA’s from one of the worst teams in baseball? He has a .393 career minor league OBP. You would think that a team that supposedly wanted to improve its OBP last year would have found a place for Tug. The Red Sox saw something they could use and pounced.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:58 pm | Trades | Permalink | 3 Comments
November 25, 2009
Andruw Goes White
Andruw Jones joins the White Sox for a $500,000 base salary. Jones posted his third poor season in a row in 2009, although his power came back. 35 of his 60 hits went for extra bases and his isolated power was a healthy .245. He also drew a good number of walks. If Andruw can get his batting average up 50 points, this will be a very good deal for Chicago.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:48 pm | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
November 25, 2009
Moyer Hospitalized
Jamie Moyer is in the hospital, but reason reported yet. Here’s wishing Jamie a quick recovery from whatever is ailing him.
Update: It appears to be related to his groin surgery.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:40 pm | Illnesses | Permalink | No Comments
November 25, 2009
Players A to Z, Collin Balester
Collin Balester pitches as a starter for the Washinton Nationals. The biggest problem during his major league career comes from his propensity to allow home runs. So far Collin allowed 22 dingers in 110 1/3 innings, 39.9 per 200 innings. While some pitchers can find success with home run numbers that high, Balester doesn’t keep batters off base enough for him to get away with allowing that much power. Thirteen of his 22 home runs came with men on base.
The good news where Balestar is concerned is that his seasonal age for 2010 comes in at 24, so there’s still plenty of room for improvement. On top of that, home runs haven’t been a problem at the minor league level, where his rate is 1/2 of what he allowed in the majors. I suspect he has the chance of being a decent starting pitcher at some point.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:05 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
November 25, 2009
Tim’s Payday
Dave Cameron looks at how much Tim Lincecum might earn in arbitration, using Roger Clemens as a base. Dave pegs him at $12 to $14 million, which seems about right to me. Of course, the Giants should try to lock him up for five years so they don’t need to worry about arbitration or him leaving early due to free agency.
Posted by David Pinto at 3:11 pm | Pitchers | Permalink | No Comments
November 25, 2009
The Strikeout Paradox, Revisited
At the major league level, a paradox exists in which pitchers who strike out a lot of batters tend to do very well, and batters who strike out often also do very well. I’ve argued in the past that truly high strikeout hitters never make it to the majors. The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective publishes minor league data to show that’s true. The lower you go in the minors, the more batter strikeouts have a negative correlation with production.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:16 pm | Statistics | Permalink | 2 Comments
November 25, 2009
The Push for Halladay
The New York Daily News reports that the Red Sox are trying to swing a deal for Roy Halladay before the winter meetings start.
To land Halladay, Boston would likely have to give up Clay Buchholz, the organization’s top young pitcher, as well as Casey Kelly, the pitcher/shortstop who signed with the Red Sox in 2008 after being recruited by Tennessee to play quarterback. Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is said to be smitten with Kelly, which could be a sticking point in talks with Toronto if Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos insists on the 20-year-old being included in a deal.
Theo smitten? That’s a bad sign for a general manager, who should be cold and calculating when dealing with players. It’s one thing to believe that two young potential stars are not worth Halladay, another to be blinded to reality by emotion. I doubt Theo is so “smitten” with Kelly that he won’t trade if for the right deal, but with the Red Sox having been unable to fill the shortstop position over the last few years, I can see why he doesn’t want another Hanley Ramirez on another team.
Posted by David Pinto at 12:09 pm | Trades | Permalink | 5 Comments
November 25, 2009
Too Much for McDonald
Alex Anthopoulos is failing his first test as general manager as the Blue Jays are about to sign John McDonald for $1.5 million dollars. As a fellow native Connecticutian, I’m happy that John’s getting a big pay day, but he’s not worth the money. As a poor offensive player, McDonald needs to shine on defense to justify something over league minimum, and he hasn’t done that for two years. He’ll play 2010 with a seasonal age of 35, meaning he’s likely in a decline phase that won’t reverse itself. The Jays will cry poverty as they trade away Roy Halladay, so they shouldn’t be wasting money on free agents who can’t produce.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:24 am | Free Agents, Management | Permalink | 1 Comment
November 25, 2009
Crisp in Chicago?
The White Sox are talking to Coco Crisp. With the signing of Omar Vizquel, it looks like the White Sox are trying to improve their defense. The were middle of the pack in terms of DER in 2009.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:22 am | Free Agents | Permalink | No Comments
November 24, 2009
Complaining and Transparency
Maury Brown looks at revenue sharing and decides the figures Scott Boras cites are in the ballpark. He also has this advice for MLB:
Major League Baseball can’t have their cake and eat it too. If the league wishes to stand on the grounds of the revenue-sharing figures being proprietary – a lack of transparency – so be it. But, don’t get defensive if column after column there are questions as to how some clubs are receiving considerable funds to assist them competing with large revenue-makers only to claim that, woe is me, we’re losing money due to the recession. If MLB wants that discussion to dry-up, simply release the figures.
Posted by David Pinto at 8:36 pm | Management | Permalink | No Comments
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