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Bring out the "Anybody, Anytime" t-shirts back.
I would also hope - if I were a D'backs fan - that it weren't Brown or Barnette.
-- MWE
This isn't being done for baseball reasons obviously, but he can't hurt any worse than what is on the bench now. Since Byrnes is out for the rest of the year, this won't cost to many PA's for the Jackson/Tracy/Reynolds troika.
Oh, and it will be Scott Hairston's 2 run homer that provides the margin of victory.
A reliever in high A. Wicked K/B ratio... but also seems to be an extreme flyball pitcher.
He'll probably end up being the Padres closer of the future and will retire with 537 career saves.
So, while I have not heard about "chemistry" being an issue with the DBacks, I will be interested to see if Clark is seen as having any macro-effect beyond his own play.
Sorry for bad link. Don't know what happened.
How about his Baseball Cube Page Check out he jump in k rate from College to Pro. Thats pretty crazy.
Robin...this move is all about the kids, especially Young and Upton, needing a steadying influence. The team doesn't have bad chemistry, but they obviously feel the kids need some help that Melvin and the coaching staff can't give them and they are looking to Clark for this. A little more pop off the bench in PH situations won't hurt either. But bringing in Tony Clark to fix the D Backs offense is the proverbial band aid on a bullet wound. This is all about the intangibles and bringing in a defacto hitting coach for Young and Upton.
78, 98, 128, 126, 120, 124, 131
Nothing odd there, came up struggled, found his groove, hit consistently well for 5 years...
and then:
47
100
95
154
60
103
91
FWIW Scott Hairston is .266/.314/.541 as a Padre
That's an OPS+ of 129
Since he became a Padre, he has outhit (by OPS+) every single Diamondback with significant PT...
BTW, the DiamondBack with the highest OPS+ 2007/08 with 100+ PAs is Micah Owings...
Well, JPWF13, some of us here feared that...
I've always liked Hairston. I've always wanted him playing LF for the Dbacks over Eric Byrnes. I've always argued that if he were given a full time starting gig by the Dbacks, instead of being jerked around by Josh Byrnes and Bob Melvin, he would produce, and would produce very well. And I've always felt that Hairston was a guy who would do better if he played full time, rather than being reduced to a part time/pinch hitter role. And I'm not surprised that Hairston and Quentin would've been the best Dbacks hitters right now. The Dbacks front office has a very real, very serious problem with talent evaluation--they SUCK at it.
Trust me, I am painfully aware of that fact and have chronicled it almost daily for my D backs Friends.
The Day of the trade, after reading a bunch of stupid comments by some of my fellow d backs fans, I wrote the following:
Mark me down as someone who says that
A) Anyone who thinks Hairston was "given a chance" doesn't really understand what given a chance really is.
B) Scott Hairston playing in San Diego will come back to haunt the D backs. Take that to the bank.[
As the months wore on in that same thread, and into this year, I continually updated his progress. Link
Trading him and Quentin, and keeping Byrnes was just so incredibly stupid. Trading Hairston to a division rival compounded the mistake several fold.
I'm in NY, but years ago Hairston was farm pick of mine in my NL only keeper league- the DBack's misuse of him drove me nuts... I kept thinking, just stick him in the OF and tell him to hit homeruns... he would have matched or exceeded either Green's of LGone's production for a fraction of the cost...
He signed a shirt for me, I still have it. Fun times.
Ever notice that there's a bunch of posters who will insist that a player (any player) got a fair chance- the guy could have 75 ABs spread over 3 years, but some poster will say, ok So and So hit .325 in AAA, but he failed in three shots in the majors, or if he was any good they would have given him more than 75 abs...
Ron Shandler had a few phrases for this in Fantasy Baseball, he called them post-hype sleepers or the AROD 3 step process to success (Arod hit .204/.241/.204 in his cup of coffee, .232/.264/.408 in 48 games the next year- it's amazing how many fantasy leagues the NEXT year he went undrafted in intitially)
it goes like this:
Stud prospect comes up, people get excited, hits .225/.275/.350 in 90 at bats... people get less excited, "he's not ready" they cry
prospect gets sent down, rakes, is recalled, the people cry, "let's see if he's ready this time" prospect is platooned for a few weeks, goes ofer4 two games in a row, finds his keister nailed to the bench before he's demoted - months maybe a year later he's promoted to replace the team's supersub who is out with an oblique injury, gets 60 abs in 45 games...
Some people insist to high heaven that such a player got a fair shot.
Look at Nate McLouth, he hit .257/.305/.450 followed by .233/.293/.385, he started the next year nailed to the bench - he didn't play himself into the CF job, he got it because Duffy was both terrible and hurt- McLouth didn't start playing well until he was left alone as the starter for a month (Their minor league careers look superficially similar- McLouth's a little better than Duffy's but if you line up Duffy's minor league career with McLouth so their ages match- McLouth leaps ahead since Duffy was 2 years older at every level).
McLouth was hitting .241/.320/.375 in 120 PAs at the half last year- what if DL, instead of trading for Matt Morris traded for a CF? McLouth would have been completely buried- proabbly on someone else's AAA team to start this year- if his name was brought up as a possibility for a team needing an OF, some posters would have said, "that bum? he failed three times, he's a AAAA guy.
How about a similar player to Hairston (just not as good), Val Pascucci, 64 MLB at bats in 32 games, yet someone insisted on Metsgeek a little while ago that Val had a shot and failed, AAAA.
You'd be ok with Brooks Brown for Tony Clark?
Um. What does this have to do with that?
Andy Marte
You'd be ok with Brooks Brown for Tony Clark?
Brooks Brown might be overpay for Tony Clark, but he isn't looking like anything special. I am guessing it is your UGA bias there ! :)
How about a similar player to Hairston (just not as good), Val Pascucci, 64 MLB at bats in 32 games, yet someone insisted on Metsgeek a little while ago that Val had a shot and failed, AAAA.
I don't really see Pascucci as remotely similar to McLouth or Hairston. The latter two were athletic prospects who were projected in the minors to become MLB starters and they just had a rough time getting established.
Pascucci isn't remotely comparable to any of those guys. He is slow of bat and slow of foot. Not a good combination
I mean... I am a huge Dawgs fan but Brown is looking fine.
He might be a power reliever instead of a starter but right now it looks like he could still be a good starter.
Even though he doesn't have the sexy K/BB that many like to see from pitching prospects he is still pitching well and plenty of major league pitchers didn't have minor league K/BB numbers that people seem to demand to call a minor leaguer good. Apparently his stuff is just as good as ever, which is pretty darn good.
I wouldn't want to give up any young, athletic power starter for a pinch hitter.. and I'm usually someone in favor of trading prospects for pennant race help.
I love that you are saying this now because when I mentioned that I thought it was a mistake to give Byrnes such a long extension so quickly, you disagreed vehemently.
Young yes.
Drew, I have little faith in, I think he's healthier version of Bobby Crosby- they'll be years where he's ok, he'll never be a star
He's a similar HITTER to Hairston (just not as good)
McLouth is quite a bit more mobile afield than Hairston, Hairston is closer to Val on that spectrum.
Oh. You mean Marte/Blake relates to the discussion about prospects not proving themselves rather than Tony Clark?
I though the poster was saying that the Indians could/should have signed or traded for Tony Clark to play 3b, which is why I was puzzled.
I really, really don't see why Casey Blake gets so much crap. He isn't spectacular, but he is solid.
I don't see why Tribe fans want Marte starting over him. Maybe now that they are out of contention but since their goal the last few years has been to win I don't see why you'd start Marte over Blake. It isn't just that Blake has been a solid MLBer and Marte has sucked, but Martes AAA OPSs have been worse than Blakes MLB OPSs. Marte isn't some good AAA player who can't get a break.
That's Marte's problem, he seems to have peaked at 20 and has been steadily heading downhill
Exactly my reaction.
Actually, I was being a bit harsh on the Dbacks FO in my previous post. I think they have a bunch of smart guys out there, and JB definitely knows more about baseball and being a GM than I'll ever learn in 10 lifetimes. And he's assembled a pretty talented group there.
The problem, as I see it, is that they have way too many cooks in the kitchen, and in particular they have a meddlesome owner in Moorad who thinks he should be the GM; a GM who (I suspect) may be more in love with some of the guys he drafted/acquired than some of the guys he inherited; a marketing department that seems to think that you market your team by choosing the oldest guy to be the face of the franchise... and permeating through it all, sick fascination with gritty scrappy white guys who play in left field and resonate with the hearts of the old ladies in Sin City West.
I think the owners didn't have the patience to wait on guys like Hairston and Quentin, especially when Eric Byrnes was providing cheap thrills for the masses; and I also think the baseball people underestimated what they had in the younger guys like Quentin and Hairston, and what they could expected from the older guys like Byrnes and Johnson... so regardless of where the talent evaluation problem lies, whether it's with the owners, the GM, the coaches, the rest of the front office, the reality is that that they've been pissing away young cheap talent over the last one year for the likes of Eric Byrnes, and that's just that's just inexcusable
In general, it seems a position player isn't likely to be very good if the Braves are willing to trade him.
What they should probably want is Blake in some combination of LF/RF/1B/DH with Marte at 3B.
Hairston's been flying under my radar. Did he start off really badly this year? I had no idea he raked for San Diego the second half of 2007. And the K-rate's not extreme (1 per 4) and his on-contact numbers are nice but not extreme (340/670). You'd like a better OBP but that SLG in that park more than makes up for it. He's 28 so unlikely to get any better but an average-ish hitting corner OF for the next few years is a nice thing.
So that probably wasn't such a great trade. But don't get too worked up about losing Quentin -- no doubt, he'd have been gone in the Haren trade anyway.
What do you think about Matt Murton?
Even if you believe that is true, is not being "the problem" enough to warrant job security through 2015?
Is that for performance reasons or for "the season it lost anyway" reasons?
If the answer if the former it is preposterous, if it is the latter it is understandable.
Lots of people have good stuff. But usually that is not enough to carve out a successful major league career. His K rate has gone down, his BB rate is up, and only thing he does well is that he prevents HRs. He is a decent enough prospect, but for a Friday starter, he has been a bit underwhelming.
I don't see why you think he will make a good power reliever. He never has had outstanding K rates to warrant that definition.
I know that prospect hounds tend to focus on K rates a lot, but that is not to say it is totally useless. A prospect with good k/BB, HR prevention and success is a good prospect, no matter what the K rate is. Brown is iffy on the first and third parts, and HR prevention is a skill which translates the worst when moving to the majors.
They used to say that about pitchers Braves traded. Wainwright and now Feliz seems to have put an end to that. No matter how good your talent evaluation team is, if you make enough prospect trades, you are going to give up some blue chippers. People should get ripped only when it looks bad without the benefit of hindsight.
The Quentin and Hairston trades were not well received right then, so I think it is groovy to pile on. Not so much, OH DAN UGGLA NO!
And the Braves should get ripped if Feliz fulfils his potential. That was overpay. Not so much if Salty and Andrus do what they are supposed to do.
Though I am starting to get a bit disillusioned by Salty. Where has his power gone?
I don't see why you think he will make a good power reliever. He never has had outstanding K rates to warrant that definition.
His stuff seems to profile a little better and he has always been more of a "raw talent" than a "polished pitcher," which also seems to indicate bullpen.
A guys K-rate as a starter doesn't seem to have a huge impact on a guys K-rate as a relief pitcher. It is such a different role that many players who struggle to use their plus stuff to miss bats in the rotation find that ability in the pen.
Daniel Bard is one example that immediately pops into my head. Granted, it is an extreme example but the general point shows.
Bard had one of the best pure arms I have ever seen from a college pitcher but didn't miss too many bats as a starter, but did manage to force weak contact (hard to do with metal bats), but would also go through horrible stretches of pitching. The second he became a pro he collapsed in an almost Neighborgall-sophomore-year fashion but since the Sox have moved him to the pen his K rate is sky high.
Jimmy Gobble is a great example of a K-rate not carrying over between the pen and rotation.
Believe me, the alternative (a Joe Jr. type GM with Moorad calling all the shots) would be infinitely worse
Not sure whose performance you're referring to, Marte's or Blake's. But yes, under the idea of "might as well find out if Marte is ever going to be anything" logic. Now, peeking at the Indians' numbers, I see they are giving Francisco time in LF and he's doing well. But you still have Garko at 1B, Gutierrez in RF and bum of the day at DH. Marte is unlikely to hit much worse than any of those folks so moving Blake could work.
The harder question for me were I Shapiro/Wedge is which combination of Cabrera, Gutierrez, Marte, Choo, Francisco, Garko do I want to be sorting out at the ML level, the minors or just stick to mostly rot on the bench (Garko is a candidate). At the moment, seems to me you probably only want 3 at most to get regular ML time. And I'll grant you, on closer inspection, I'm not sure I'd choose Marte as one of those 3.
The only time I've seen Brown pitch was for one inning Monday night, and as I said before he made one mistake, which Doug Deeds hit about 420 feet. Mobile will be here in early August, and I've got three of their games on my schedule - when I see the rotation I'll figure out if I want to do one of the other two. Barnette's pitching tonight.
-- MWE
According to Paul Depodesta:
Link
I stand corrected. I haven't seen him pitch, and normally these days when I hear "breaking pitch" from someone they usually mean "slider". But he apparently doesn't have a third pitch, and he's been a reliever from day 1 (and except for his stint at South Bend, not the closer, either). I still think he needs to be at AA.
-- MWE
I think long term contracts for GM's make a great deal of sense, assuming you are convinced you have the right GM. Short term contracts create a substantive incentive for GM's to make decisions to maximize wins this season at the expense of weakening the team in future seasons. For example, it makes perfect sense to sign Alfonso Soriano to a 8 year deal even if you know the last three or four years will be a disaster, if you are convinced that Alfonso will save your job for one more year. Alfonso will be some other GM's problem then, most likely, and if he's your problem that just means your decision accomplished it's purpose of getting you that extension.
But in the Diamondbacks case, it doesn't matter if your GM is rational, has all the right incentives, if ownership over-rules their most important decisions, and constantly pushes a "win now" mode despite handicapping said GM with a short term maximum payroll size that would make Billy Beane laugh.
But of course, for all their failings, the DBack's ownership still isn't as clueless as the Met's ownership.
I think he's a tweener, good enough to play, not so good that you have to play him...
Basically he was the Cubs LF in 2006, was decent not really good, but not terrible, plus he was 24, he started off absolutely terribly in 2007- hitting .250/.313/.295 in April, started to hit in May .295/.377/.426, but his numbers on the year were still bad, so the Cubbies said, "well we gave him time he's still not hitting" so at the end of May his PT got sporadic, start of June he was reduced to pinch hitting, then benched until August after being given a start mid June and going 0 for 3...
He was hitting .250/.313/.295 to start May, at the end of May he was hitting .276/.350/.371, but he "wasn't hitting" and Soriano in CF didn't seem to be working out, and they wanted Pie to get some PT, and Pagan and Jaque Jones and Cliff Floyd... and he was squeezed out.
On the year Murton hit .281/.352/.438
Pie hit :.215/.271/.333
Floyd hit:.284/.373/.422
Pagan hit:.264/.306/.439
Jones hit:.285/.335/.400
So year end no one stood head and shoulders above anyone else (well Soriano did, .299/.337/.560, but that's why he got the big bucks :-)
That's awesome.
Thats from Nick Piecoro and I'm sure he heard that directly from a D Back scout or coach. So does Depodesta not know what type of pitches the guy he just traded for throws? Mike, you now stand correct. ;)
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