I was worried there for a minute, but it looks like my Giants won the Podsednik sweepstakes.

Lucas May could never catch in the majors, and Elisaul Pimentel was a 22 year old pitcher in Low-A.

I would miss Pimentel more than May easily but the Dodgers best prospects are in starting pitching, and giving up the 6th or 7th best one is not a bad idea if you need to trade for somebody.

Now that somebody is Scotty Pods... Uh....

Ladies and Gentlemen please put your hands together for the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers starting left fielder. . . .Scott Podsednik.

Do you really "get" Scott Podsednik? Or are you diagnosed with him.

#4 made me almost spit-take.

Wasn't Garret Anderson starting a lot for the Los Angeleseseseses? Pods is a hell of a lot better than that. He's probably a better fourth outfielder for this season than Xavier Paul, too.

This gets Garrett Anderson out of the lineup.
Getting him off the roster, that's another story.

Awww, that's cute. They missed Juan Pierre.

i guess this puts to rest the rumour that the Parking Lot Attendant's divorce would hamstring the Dodgers in trades...

Thank god he's out of the AL Central. And safely away from KW. Actually, maybe KW can trade Slappy for Pods straight up and call it a day. Pods is kicking Juan's ass this year.

Ladies and Gentlemen please put your hands together for the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers starting left fielder. . . .Scott Podsednik.

Until Jerry Sands mashes his way to LA.

I don't believe that he torched the Yankees and then promptly got shipped out of town.

He killed them in that series.

This gets Garrett Anderson out of the lineup.

thank ####### god

Remember, it’s pronounced POD-sed-nik.

ESPN's editors also have "Miguel kah-bray-RA" and "Magglio or-DOAN-ez." Sometimes I think they must have hired a copyediting intern from some non-baseball-speaking country.

ESPN's editors also have "Miguel kah-bray-RA" and "Magglio or-DOAN-ez." Sometimes I think they must have hired a copyediting intern from some non-baseball-speaking country.

I qualify for that, where can i sign up? :P

Luke May must have the worst glove in the world if he's available for Podsednik.

Every contextual adjustment pushes his value downward, but an .848 OPS in AAA is a nice place to start.

Pimentel looks like a perfectly acceptable live arm in the low minors.

As far as I'm concerned, it looks like a great trade for the Royals.

I live near the Single-A affiliate of the Dodgers. Now I'm kicking myself for missing the chance to see a guy pitch in person that was eventually traded for the mighty Scott Podsednik.

So in roughly 400 at-bats for each of them this year, Pods has a .753 OPS (better than this his career, mark, but not immensely better) and Ichiro(!) has an OPS of .744 (worse than his career mark, but not immensely worse). Their stolen bases are basically a wash. Ichiro(!) is worshipped here; Pods is a target of non-stop derisive remarks and snide comments. I just don't get it.

In general players who steal a lot of bases but aren't great defensively are despised here. The idea is:
"Stolen bases" = "Overrated" (because his fantasy value surpasses real value)
"Overrated" = "Bad"

Similarly, closers are overrated, which means they are bad.

Here's the thing, though. Scott Podsednik actually is bad.

Uh, Ichiro is a career 117 OPS+ with great defense, vs. 89 OPS+ with poor defense.

It's possible that I am underating Pods because his last two years are significantly better than anything else he's ever done. If he is suddenly a real 100 OPS+ player than that is a new and terrifying thing.

It also appears that Ichiro has gone all Saberhagen on us, last 6 years are 105, 127, 102, 122, 106, 113.

[19] Podsednik gets caught enough on the bases to negate any gains his SBs would give. And his defense is beyond atrocious. I watched a little bit of his scorched-earth rampage against the Yankees, and while he definitely stuck it to NYY (and my fantasy team) at the plate, he was sticking it to the Royals in the field -- late jumps, bad paths, bad form. Watching Pods field is like watching late-career Bernie Williams run the bases.

bfan,
Podsednik has hit for his career .341/.383 and Ichiro .377/.431. As a result, Podsednik is 54 batting runs below average for his career and Ichiro 152 batting runs above average. Podsednik's base running, steals, and DP avoidance have been worth 15 runs above average, and Ichiro's have been worth 86 runs above average. Posdenik has been 60 total zone defensive runs above average in his career and Ichiro 132.

This year they have been similar in pure batting, but this year is also on pace to be Podsednik's second best hitting year of his career and Ichiro's third worst. Podsednik is Ichiro-lite in the way that Jeff Francoeur is Vlad Guererro-lite.

I assume career differences relate to Ichiro having 6500 career AB's and Pods 3500 career ABs, so where they are for their career in counting totals seems irrelevant, except maybe as some test of future performance. And as for future performance, I would think the last 3 years would be a pretty good indicator (this one and the last 2).

Both steal bases and get caught at a rate which would make that element of their game just background noise.

Let's face it; they are both fast guys whose game involves hitting a lot of singles (and 1 makes $18 million and one makes $1.5 million). Some years, Ichiro hits a whole lot of singles. This year, not so many. I do understand that Ichiro chooses to be a .310 singles hitter, instead of a 30 HR a year, .280 guy, but we have to deal with what he is and how he actually performs.

I'll prorate their career value components to a per 700 PA rate:
Scott: -9.5 batting +2.6 base running +10.6 defense (which I don't believe) +18.0 position/replacement = 21.7 runs above replacement
Ichiro:+15.2 batting +8.6 base running +13.2 defense + 16.1 position/replacement = 53.0 runs above replacement

Scott has been close to average over his career if you believe he has great defense, but I think most people don't. Scott also had half of his career value in 2003, and if you exclude that fluke, he is consistently well below average (only 12.6 runs above replacement/700 PA).

This gets Garrett Anderson out of the lineup.

I prefer to think that this clears Matt Kemp for trade to Atlanta now that the Dogs have another starting CF.

It is a testament to Pods' work ethic that he was basically out of baseball in 2009 and on the path to a halfway forced retirement when KW called him up (or vice versa). He performed decent enough for the Sox on his second go-around and then earned himself a deal with the Royals.

That said, he still isn't very good, especially for a corner player that is mediocre defensively at best.

Atalanta is where CFs go to commit career suicide.

I don't know if Podsednik is overrated underrated, or just happy to be alive, but I think Ichiro is terribly overrated at this point...especially when you consider the salary.

Good for the Royals buying low, and selling high. They may not get anything in the long run out of the two guys they acquired, but at least this is the right idea...

Atalanta is where CFs go to commit career suicide.

Well, if she'd stop killing them when they put up a poor season . . .

Yeah, I'm not sure I get the Podsednik bashing. He's getting paid $1.75 million this year, and he's on pace to repeat his 1.8 WAR season of last year, so it's not like he's overpaid. He's being brought in as Manny insurance, so he'll be the Dodgers' fourth outfielder -- what exactly is the problem with that? How good are the prospects that the Dodgers gave up? If they're not in the Dodgers' top ten (or so), I don't really get the consternation over the deal. Seems pretty reasonable from both sides.

Pods was traded for Bobby Witt in 1995. I hadn't realized how long he was in the minors.

I worry this trade might prove detrimental to his quest for a coveted third career caught stealing title.

How good are the prospects that the Dodgers gave up? If they're not in the Dodgers' top ten (or so), I don't really get the consternation over the deal. Seems pretty reasonable from both sides.

Sickels had May at #17, grade C. Pimentel not rated.