Thursday, May 30, 2013
Braves call up Alex Wood, designate Juan Francisco for assignment
(www.ajc.com)
With their bullpen depleted by season-ending elbow injuries to left-handers Jonny Venters and Eric O’Flaherty and taxed after covering seven innings behind Kris Medlen Wednesday night, the Braves have called on left-handed prospect Alex Wood.
Wood, the Braves second-round pick last year out of the University of Georgia, has been recalled from Double-A Mississippi and is expected to join the Braves’ bullpen Thursday in Atlanta.
David O’Brien tweets about the Francisco DFA.
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< 1 2True, but we can be pretty confident that Jones isn't the former (he's averaged around a 120 OPS+ for the last 3 years and has missed about 40 games a season, including this season), which was my original point. And we don't have to look for a guy who's the former because we have veterans who didn't make the roster who are clearly still performing at an All-Star level.
To be fair, Jones has played well enough over the last week or so that he's made a pretty good case for himself. And he's now on the roster anyway now.
You really do have to give it to these Cardinals fans, they are true fanatics, and there are an awful lot of them.
Clearly, he's subtly disrespecting Chipper!
If two players are performing at roughly an equal level, I might give the future HoFer a preference. But when you've got a rookie who's clearly outperforming that future HoFer in the first half of the year, I'd go with the rookie every time. I absolutely hate the idea of selecting players whose current performance doesn't merit it, because I want to see the best players of today, not the best players of 2 or 12 years ago. Chipper's earned his spot, but if he were around a 105 OPS+ rather than 135, it wouldn't matter to me in the slightest that he's a slam dunk HoFer six years from now.
I agree with this. Maybe not Jim Thome because he's not playing full-time. Willie Mays's All-Star appearances in his last two years look kind of weird.
Chipper Jones, sure. Hanley Ramirez, sure, why not. The again one might say "How will Ian Desmond ever become a so-called "STAR" if he can't get elected to the All-Star team until he is already a star? Kind of a Catch-22."
As for Ryan Cook it seems that the A's are specializing in having apparent flashes in the pan as All-Stars.
2008 - Justin Duchscherer in his first year as a starter
2009 - Andrew Bailey, rookie relief pitcher
2010 - Andrew Bailey again, Trevor Cahill in his second season
2011 - Gio Gonzalez in his second full season
2012 - Ryan Cook, rookie relief pitcher
The last time the A's had an All-Star over 30 years old was John Jaha (a flash in the pan of a different sort). Before that it was Mark McGwire. Before that it was ... you guessed it, Steve Ontiveros.
But that brings up the question: Is first-half performance really enough to decide that one player is better than another? All-Star Bryan LaHair is hitting .293/.371/.536, while non-All-Star Albert Pujols is hitting .273/.335/.463. For some people, that's ample evidence that the right person will be at the game, but I highly doubt that LaHair is really any better than Pujols. I expect Pujols' numbers will surpass LaHair's long before the season is over.
But Harper isn't clearly outperforming Chipper.
Hell, Harper's not clearly outperforming Andrelton Simmons. (Actually, he's clearly not at this point in the season.)
But multiple legacy picks happen repeatedly, Jeter, Ripken, O. Smith (and that's just at short). Why should we begrudge Chipper going this route (particularly when we know that his legacy selections will be capped at 2?)
Looking at his numbers, I'm fine with Chipper's inclusion. This little bit, however, is not entirely inconsequential.
This is a good point. And is there any doubt at all that if Pujols was producing the same exact numbers he is now but was still on the Cardinals, that he would be in the game again? If the ultra-rabid hyperfanatic Cardinals fans hadn't voted him in, which they almost certainly would have, LaRussa would certainly have put him in.
Well, I'm pretty sure that if Chipper were on the shelf he wouldn't have been selected at Kemp's injury replacement.
(That is to say, the calculus for his being an All Star is "can he play in this one game and produce if needed." It's not like he's signing a two year extension or something.)
But multiple legacy picks happen repeatedly, Jeter, Ripken, O. Smith (and that's just at short). Why should we begrudge Chipper going this route (particularly when we know that his legacy selections will be capped at 2?)
I don't begrudge Chipper anything, there are just other players I would prefer to see on the squad this year instead. Johan Santana, for example. There's probably someone on the squad worth bumping in favor of both of them, although I haven't looked at it the team closely enough.
Does anybody announce that "this season will be my last season" anymore? Did Brett Favre destroy this concept forever?
Chipper Jones.
Both teams have 13 pitchers, they had 13 pitchers last year as well. If you want to include Santana, it wouldn't be at the expense of a position player, because MLB is clearly only taking 13 pitchers.
Rob makes another fair point at the end of the article:
But that brings up the question: Is first-half performance really enough to decide that one player is better than another?
Of course not, but for the All-Star game I'd rather see new talent that's performing at a high level over old talent that's not. I've got all the memories I need of former greats who are playing out the string**, and I'd like some new memories of (possibly) great players who are just starting out. For instance, for sentimental and fanboy purposes, I might want to see Derek Jeter make an appearance, but since I see Jeter play every day already, I don't have any particular need to see him play in the All-Star game when Asdrubal Cabrera is having a better year.
**Jeter's not quite in that category yet, but he's been showing his age again lately.
Both teams have 13 pitchers, they had 13 pitchers last year as well. If you want to include Santana, it wouldn't be at the expense of a position player, because MLB is clearly only taking 13 pitchers.
In the AL, the Final Vote candidates were all pitchers, indicating (unless I'm missing something) that MLB is fine not only with having 14 pitchers on the roster, but on having different numbers of pitchers on the two squads.
True enough for a few elite HoF-ers of the 50s-60s-70s at the ends of their careers. Besides Mays and Aaron, this also happened with Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Mickey Mantle despite their not necessarily being the best possible options available at their positions late in their careers every season. Most were admittedly above replacement level with their OPS+ by season's end, though.
If you're the fan of an AL team, should you be voting for the player that least helps La Russa?
Fair point, but the Final Vote is an addition, not a replacement. So I would amend my statement to say they want at least 13 pitchers.
And really, at the end of the day, it's all about you, isn't it?
Fair point, but the Final Vote is an addition, not a replacement. So I would amend my statement to say they want at least 13 pitchers.
Yep, and adding one more pitcher to the roster obviously wouldn't reduce the number of pitchers, so I'm not sure what the problem is, especially when the AL already has one more pitcher than the NL.
I would vote for whichever players have had the best stats during the week prior to the All Star game. Gotta play the hot hand and all.
I'll take Justin Ruggiano and Alexi Amarista against your Josh Hamiltons and Prince Fielders all day long.
Don't blame America. It's St. Louis' fault.
Ah yes, the time-to-kill hayseed factor, which explains the previous fan vote winners from New York (2), Boston (3), Philadelphia (3) and Chicago (3).
Your guy lost because their team has many more fans than your team. Get over it.
And I should make it absolutely clear that even though I'm a huge fan of the guy, Harper certainly wasn't the one who deserved to win the vote either. On pure merit it definitely should have been either Bourn or Hill, and probably Bourn.
Hayseeds come from all parts of the country, but I also can't quite understand the rationale behind multiple voting. I suppose if the only purpose of the All-Star game is to drive page hits and sell advertising, it makes sense to let people with more time on their hands outvote those who don't, but somehow that doesn't seem to make for much of a meritocracy.
BTW I thought it actually was limited to 25 votes per person, but even that's absolutely nuts.
That applies for the regular vote, but apparently you can vote as often as you like for the Final Man.
Never have I agreed more with a Joey B post. Low bar, but still.
Yeah, but Pujols isn't the only (or virtually only) semi-good player on a sh1tty team. LaHair is. (Well, was until Rizzo was called up. That Rizzo was instantly the Cubs' best hitter speaks volumes about how bad they've been.)
Why do you think that limiting the number of votes per voter, while a worthwhile cause in itself, would have had any effect on this year's vote? You've offered no evidence that the too-much-time-on-their-hands ballot stuffers were responsible for this electoral travesty. So if your original post was intended to connect vote flooding with the results of this year's NL election, you failed miserably. If that wasn't the point, why did you bring up the fact that the least deserving candidate won?
2008 - Justin Duchscherer in his first year as a starter
2009 - Andrew Bailey, rookie relief pitcher
2010 - Andrew Bailey again, Trevor Cahill in his second season
2011 - Gio Gonzalez in his second full season
2012 - Ryan Cook, rookie relief pitcher
I don't know exactly what "flash in the pan" is supposed to mean, but shouldn't it be something that only happens once?
In this case, Duchscherer made two All-Star teams (2005 and 2008) and never really had a bad season -- he was just injured all the time. Bailey made two All-Star Games in a row, in his first two seasons, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in more if he gets his health back. Gio Gonzalez is back at the ASG this year, his second in a row. Trevor Cahill probably peaked in 2010, but he's only 24 and he seems to be at least a better-than-average pitcher, maybe he'll be an All-Star again.
Ryan Cook might truly be a flash in the pan, I guess.
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