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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, November 09, 2009
The next step in the Royals’ offseason makeover is to acquire a catcher before Dec. 12 and therefore provide an alternative to offering a contract to arbitration-eligible John Buck.
“We led all of baseball (last season) in passed balls and wild pitches,” general manager Dayton Moore said. “That will be fixed in 2010. Our defense in general is our main objective to fix before next season.
“And it starts behind the plate.”
Moore arrives today in Chicago for the annual GM meetings, which typically set the groundwork for possible trades. The meetings run through Wednesday, but the hot stove is already bubbling.
One rumor to watch: A deal sending second baseman Alberto Callaspo to the Los Angeles Dodgers for catcher A.J. Ellis, a 28-year-old rookie who currently projects as a backup to Russell Martin following the anticipated free-agent departure of veteran Brad Ausmus.
Uh, A.J. Ellis is probably backup catcher material at best, but sure, why not?
Tripon
Posted: November 09, 2009 at 05:43 AM | 57 comment(s)
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Also, Callaspo's defense wasn't good. But Getz is below average defensively. Betancourt (who Moore traded for) is the worst SS in baseball. Fields is awful.
Ellis is 28 (bad), hasn't proven himself to be good enough to even be a backup (bad), has a strong arm (good) against AAA runners (who run more and suck at SBs more than MLers), and should hit a lot worse than Callaspo (bad)
Dayton needs to be told that last place teams usually get rid of their worst players, not their best players.
I reiterate an earlier statement that I could assemble a front office (say top five positions) soley from BBTF regular posters that would be better than multiple current MLB front offices.
I don't think this is true. He's not going to win any gold gloves out there, but he's above-average.
I guess this is progress. In the past, Dayton would have just signed Brad Ausmus.
When I asked one of the managers how that contributed to "synchronization", his reply was that they were going to "synchronize" the copy machine usage. It was clear to me that he had no clue what the word meant. (I pictured 100s of copy machines in a row, with indentically dressed secretaries making copies in unison, with the GM symphony orchestra playing in the background).
Someone must have told Dayton Moore that "defense is good", but hasn't told him yet what it means.
From what I've heard / read, Olivo's bat can't even begin to make up for his glove. And his performance this past year (something like a .260 EqA) is the best that can be expected from him, & shouldn't be expected going forward.
Dayton knows Yorvit Torrealba is available, right?
I have no idea about Olivo's glove, but he does have a career 700 OPS, 781 in 2009. For a catcher, that's far from terrible.
It would seem KC has about 20 other holes that are far more glaring, e.g. every pitcher not named Greinke or Soria and ever position player not named Butler or Callaspo.
Waltzing Molina! Waaaaltzing Molina! Yooou'll come a-waltzing Moliiiina with meeeee!!!!
Buck had a 104 OPS+ as his backup this year, too.
So Moore is looking to trade one of his 2 or 3 best position players from the 2009 team to get a career backup to replace the catching tandem that gave them above average production?
Outstanding! Why am I not a major league GM?
Well, to be fair, they've already declined Olivo's option for 2010, which was for an absolutely outrageous sum of $3.3M. After all, offensively league average catchers are readily available for sums much less than that.
Well, improving the defense would help the pitchers, right?
Most studies of really bad teams conclude that they tend to be worse on the pitching+defense side of the ball than they are offensively (that's why James, for one, settled on a 52/48 defense/offense split when developing Win Shares), and IMO bad teams tend to improve more quickly by focusing on the defensive side of the ball first. So Moore's strategic approach isn't necessarily a bad thing - the question then becomes how well he executes it. Having seen Ellis catch, and without knowing much about Callaspo's D, I would NOT look at Callaspo for Ellis as being a particularly good way to execute a defense-first strategy.
-- MWE
By reputation, not great, but not horrible, either.
Sure, but do we have any idea if Ellis is better defensively than Olivo? Much less better enough to offset the offensive difference (I know nothing about Ellis but I'm assuming a 28 year old catcher stuck in AAA can't hit, otherwise he wouldn't be stuck in AAA).
Wouldn't SS and OF be a better place to look for some gloves? Of course Moore thinks Yuniesky Betancourt is a good defensive SS, so who knows what's going on there.
It's also possible that he just can't field. Tom Wilson was in the minors until he was 30, mostly because his defense was terrible. Either way, if a C is 28 and has yet to make the majors as even a regular backup, the odds are good that he's got a major hole in his game.
That's true. I mistakenly gave Moore the benefit of the doubt for 10 seconds. Thanks for bringing me back to reality.
That would be a classic follow up to the Betancourt disaster, trade a good offensive 2B for a "defensive catcher" who can't field.
On Callaspo's D: not to be simplistic, but... his range is okay, but he's error-prone, right? (working from memory) That sounds like a guy Moore wouldn't cater to...
That said, I don't believe this rumor.
UZR has him as below average, but not terrible (-3/150, but in only 190 GS, so SSS), -6 in 2009. Range and errors both negative.
However, he seems solidly above average with the bat and is only 26. Strange player to look to move if you're KC.
I haven't see Olivo. I have seen Ellis. He wouldn't be in the upper echelon of defensive Cs in the majors. He throws well, but that's about it.
-- MWE
He wouldn't be in the upper echelon of defensive Cs in the majors.
Would anyone claim this? (Maybe Moore - I dunno.)
He hasn't developed as much as I expected, but he's still a decent enough player. I wouldn't mind if the White Sox picked him up to be the backup this year.
I don't know. But before you go and trade one of your better players for a defensive catcher, you'd better be damn sure he's an elite defensive catcher.
Sure. Of course, no one here is claiming that this is a good idea (or, in at least my case, that this is plausible). Ellis has never really had much trade value in the past - I don't see why he would now [short of Callaspo having pulled a Jeremy Giambi type deal, which is a different thing].
Which catchers who are that good offensively are signed for less than 1 yr/$3.3M?
I think he would have to be, given what he's likely to hit in the majors, to justify giving up Callaspo for him.
EDIT: Or what Snapper said.
-- MWE
I think that was sarcasm.
You might want to click here.
At the moment they are.
Based on the bumblings of this season, it looks like Toronto might be trying to take a run at the title.
Unquestionably. There's very little that they do well / having going for them.
Well, maybe, but I do think the Rios/Halladay decisions were probably the right ones, as bad as the PR for Rios was.
If they choose to cut payroll drastically, I may agree with you. But, they still have tons more talent than KC: Halladay, Hill, Lind, Snider, Romero, a bunch of average SPs and good RPs, etc.
To quibble with #2... logic didn't prevail, Alex Gordon got hurt. The Royals don't like Callaspo, he's a good percentage player, walks a lot, and runs the bases really well. He doesn't fit their organizational philosophy at all.
At this point, the Royals best bet is probably going with Brayan Pena and finding some minor league FA/Rule 5 catcher who is great with the glove, but not so much with the bat. I wouldn't trade players of actual value like Callaspo to fill that need though. HEED THE WARNING OF ED HEARN!!
Fun stat of the day:
2009 Royals catchers: .270/.310/.504 31 HR 99 RBI
2009 Royals DHs: .209/.281/.374 24 HR 84 RBI
Yes, the Royals are the laughingstock of baseball. The children are right to laugh at you Dayton.
Yeah that clearly needed upgrading. Wouldn't want to spend $6M to get that production at C.
2009 Royals DHs: .209/.281/.374 24 HR 84 RBI
How bad is it if take Butler's ABs out?
They're past laughing. Now they've moved on to throwing rocks.
Try bricks instead, more consistent flight path due to uniform dimensions.
How bad is it if take Butler's ABs out?
A bit worse. Butler only had 11 games there. Olivo hit .294/.342/.735 in 11 games at DH. Its mostly Mike Jacobs sucking though, although he was helped by the oddity that John Buck and Brayan Pena (combined 91 PAs at DH) were terrific offensively at catcher, and just absolutely horrid at DH (Pena .472 OPS, Buck .235)
Yeah that clearly needed upgrading. Wouldn't want to spend $6M to get that production at C.
In fairness to Dayton, I don't think anyone thinks that is sustainable. Olivo is certainly going to regress quite a bit - he's never slugged over .450 before, and his .278 career OBA is a killer. And he's terrible defensively. Buck posted the best rate stats of his career, but also missed a lot of playing time and I'm not sure he really had a career year - more likely just a good stretch and a fluctuation with small sample size.
Is he at least a good baserunner, or am I just a know-nothing today?
Callaspo is an okay baserunner, although a terrible basestealer. Seems to have decent speed and isn't a total knucklehead on the basepaths like his teammates. I also think he could learn to play outfield and become a useful utility player.
Callaspo looks like he should be able to run, but no. He has zero skills beyond hitting for average. Can't run, lousy range at second, throws OK I guess, power is questionable although he did hit 11 homers this year.
Pardon? What is ISO-OB?
His career ISO is 116, 156 in 2009, which is far from terrible for a 2B. 41 2B, 8 3B and 11 HR is a decent amount of power.
The Royals have an organizational philosophy?
What is it, nihilism?
It seems more like anarcho-syndicalism to me.
Trading guys who aren't all that great for guys who are worse appears to be a key component of The Process.
I know AG#1F answered this ably above but Butler didn't DH much last year because Mike Jacobs apparently surprised the Royals with his inability to play first base to the degree that Butler was deemed a better defensive option after the first week of games.
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