Thursday, May 09, 2013
ESPN: Simon: Andrelton Simmons makes all the plays
(espn.go.com)
Entering Wednesday, Simmons had played 680 innings in his major league career and the Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) numbers have him with 30 defensive runs saved. He had 19 in 426 innings last season and already has a major-league best 11 in 254 innings in 2013.
For a little perspective, that’s an incredible number for what amounts to less than half a season’s worth of play. No shortstop has had 30 defensive runs saved in a full season since Troy Tulowitzki had 31 in 2007.
Simmons has been ...
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< 1 2And thus the dominoes of my expected-to-be-lousy FA predictions fall.
Has Kuroda officially signed yet? That would give me one. I know, everybody got that one but at least it's one.
I doubt they'll sign a high profile starter either; just a cromulent 4th or 5th starter.
Do you think they will let Burnett find another home; or will they resign him after he doesn't get the kind of money he thinks he will get from other teams?
Thanks for the memories BJ, you were one of the most important players on the 2008-12 successful Rays teams and to hell with the idiots that never recognized that.
So he was worth two dead halves of a person AND two HOF players?
That line from last year looks like a 'walk year, trade some walks for homers' effort. Career highs in HR and strikeouts, career low in walks.
Upton, B (CF)
Prado (3B)
Upton, J (LF)
Heyward (RF)
Freeman (1B)
McCann (C)
Uggla (2B)
Pennington (SS)
I'd really prefer to see the Nats avoid Bourn. Of the big free agents, I'm most interested in Swisher for the Nats
I know BJ is younger, but do Braves fans think Upton at $14M per year is great, but Uggla at $13M per year is terrible? They don't look much alike, but the two are similar players -- average or below at a premier defensive position while providing low batting average TTO-based offense, and of course similar surnames.
It won't be a surprise if Upton 2013 puts up just the kind of numbers Uggla has been posting.
Upton's 26 year old season was 2011. He's put up +3 WAR seasons in his 26 and 27 year old seasons. The Braves are banking on him putting up similar average seasons through his 32 year old season, with hopefully a spike to +5 in there as well.
The problem with Uggla wasn't the last two years. The problem with Uggla's contract is that he's locked in for his 33 and 34 year old season as well.
Then you'd oppose a Swisher contract, right?
I wonder... what would it cost the Braves?
You'd have to figure Teheran... but given his muddling last year, more, too - right? The Braves would seem to have that - Teheran + Delgado is probably too much... but maybe Teheran + Bethancourt + one of the lesser arms (Spruill maybe)? Maybe a few spare parts... Lipka? Pastornicky?
That would seem to be a perfectly good trade for both teams (working off the assumption that AZ inexplicably feels they MUST move Upton) - Teheran is still a top notch prospect, but the Braves would still have Delgado and the rotation is hardly thin. McCann scuffled a fair bit last year, but he's still under 30 so I don't think he's going Ozzie Virgil just yet...
Mark Bowman last night...
Yeesh... Simmons really had a nice burst onto the scene before getting hurt, but that just seemed so far over his head compared to minor league numbers and most scouting projections, I think I'd almost be giddy to do that if I were the Braves... and I say this as someone that had Simmons as a minor league roto keeper and plan to carry him over in 2013 as a keeper in the hopes that he proves me wrong. He just looks like Walt Weiss to me - which is certainly valuable, but not what I'd want out of dealing Justin Upton.
Uggla isn't hated because he makes $13M, he's hated because he bumped a fan favorite out of his position for no good reason and then proceded to hit .225 with embarrassingly bad defense.
For the record, this is anathema to most Braves fans, who see Simmons as one of the most valuable properties in baseball. His defense really is spectacular, so if he can hit at all he's a real asset for a team, especially in the cost controlled years. (Granted, many Braves fans may be gunshy about dealing away Simmons because they still feel the burn from the haul they lost for Mark Teixeira.)
And because the expectations from most Braves fans were too high. They thought they were getting a middle of the order masher. They got Dan Uggla. To his defense, Uggla's defense at 2B hasn't been that much worse than Prado's before him. Prado is far more valuable defensively as a +LF or a +3B than as a -2B.
I will say this. The fact that Uggla is a short little ###### who couldn't stretch to make a simple catch on a high throw from 3B may be reason enough to kill him.
It really comes down to a misunderstanding of the importance of batting average. So Upton may be seen in the same light.
I disagree. Last year he was hitting home runs, but nothing else. This year he wasn't hitting at all, only drawing walks. They already had a .750 OPS/103 OPS+ 2B in Prado. Actually, Prado is better than that. Uggla hasn't produced enough to justify choosing to add him over keeping Prado at 2B and getting a real LF. And in hindsight (which rightly or wrongly matters in terms of fan perception) Omar Infante would have been nice to have around this year.
And while I agree that Uggla is not a particularly good signing by Wren given that a perfomance decline was predictable, it seems like a majority of free agent signings nowadays are an overpay on the back end. I guess that makes the Upton deal better than many.
That's not the reaction that I saw, but YMMV.
At $14M? No. Curtis Granderson makes more and I stopped looking after seeing his salary.
Matt Kemp
Carlos Beltran got 7/$119 from the Mets, which is more years at a higher average salary.
Just to pile on: Barry Bonds, Vernon Wells, Carl Crawford, Alfosno Soriano, & Torii Hunter.
People think of him to as some un-tradeable monster asset, but that thinking might be a little outdated (this is also true to a lesser extent for King Felix).
Player WAR/pos OPS+ Rfield G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO HBP GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPSChris Young 11.7 103 45 413 1686 1476 219 359 95 3 61 203 190 363 8 17 58 19 .243 .331 .436 .766
B.J. Upton 6.4 110 -30 453 1883 1669 250 404 94 11 69 221 183 494 7 42 109 27 .242 .317 .436 .753
That Billy Bean guy might know a thing or two. He got two years of CY for Pennington 20 million. Thats a lot better deal than being locked into either one of these guys for 5 years.
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