Monday, May 20, 2013
Joe Maddon calls ump’s position ‘baseball anarchy’
(www.tampabay.com)
Is this the MLUA
Or is this the MLBPA
Read More...Rays manager Joe Maddon insisted Monday he was right — and the umpires were wrong — in the interpretation of replay rules on Sunday, saying it was “baseball anarchy” and “sandlot” for crew chief Gerry Davis to “make stuff up on the field.”
But an MLB review found that that Davis did follow guidelines properly in awarding the Rays’ Matt Joyce a home run.
...“Regardless of what they say, that rule is not in the book where you can change a double to a ...
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1 2 3 4 5 6 >Out of context, this is way too much in prospects to pay for James Shields. In context, it still doesn't make sense.
Agreed. The Rays just reload again. Very impressive to watch them work. Wish my team was as shrewd in it's decision making at this point in time.
If I squint I can see the Royals winning 85 games with a rotation of Shields, Guthrie, Santana, Davis and Chen, if Hosmer becomes good, and all their starting players play up to their talent. They do get to play the Indians and Twins a lot. The bullpen seems OK. They still gave up more than they got in my opinion, but if Moore was going to be fired after 2013 if they didn't win, they really didn't give him a better option than to trade the farm for guys who can pitch now.
If I'm the fans I blame Glass for playing it half-way -- not extending Moore now, nor firing him now.
EDIT: Coke to Ivan for the 85 wins.
-James Shields is under contract this year for $9M with a $12M option for 2014.
-James Shields is 31 years old.
-Since becoming a regular at age 25, Shields has averaged 220 IP with a 108 ERA+, good for about 2.5 WAR per season
-For reasons I'm not 100% clear on, fWAR likes Shields a lot more than bWAR, despite little overall discrepancy between his ERA and FIP. fWAR has Shields worth an average of just under 4 WAR per season since 2007.
I mostly agree with this. But perhaps the Royals see Hosmer and Moustakas taking major steps forward, Escobar and Butler improving a bit and Perez giving them what he did last year but for a full season. That's optimistic, but given the pedigrees of their players, I don't think it's crazily optimistic.
I mostly don't know what to make of this trade though. Shields is very good, but he's not great, and he's only signed for 2 more seasons. Myers is an excellent prospect, but the Ks scare me a bit, and I can't write off 2011 entirely, even knowing of the wrist injury. The other players in the deal look mostly like window dressing, though I suspect Odorizzi is the most valuable of the lot. Ultimately, I think the edge has to go to the good team trading from surplus over the bad team trading to fill a need and a desire for the GM to save his job.
Rany's take.
Alfonso Soriano is available.
But I guess he wanted an ace to save his job, and not value for his incredible valuable property.
They're not old and expensive enough on short term contracts for Moore to give up prospects for.
I'm thinking the exact same thing with regards to the Reds and Mat Latos. I like Latos, and he had a nice season last year. However, this is an outstanding package of players, and I would definitely consider trading Latos for them.
But Matt Garza is. We'd have thrown in SPJ or Feldman or Baker or Wood or $10 M.
Well, it's depressingly possible that "we" does not include Theo and Jed.
It'd at least be interesting if they were in on Josh Hamilton.
For the Rays. Davis would have been the Royals third or fourth best starter last year. (Not that it makes it a good deal.)
I agree. But the Royals starters though were so bad this year that he's actually an upgrade. Luke Hochevar gave them 32 starts of 5.73 ERA/71 ERA+ and -1.7 WAR. They had only 2 starters with more than 1 WAR, same number as 2011 (I'll say that 0.9 is close enough). Davis is a fungible player for sure (however on a non-fungible contract), in a vacuum isn't the worst move for the Royals, who apparently have a hard time developing and acquiring fourth starters. But of course this didn't happen in a vacuum.
Not that I'm defending this trade for the Royals. I can't believe that Friedman had the balls to turn down Shields for Myers and ask for more and actually hold the line until getting this haul though. Major props to him for that, because I think most GMs would've taken a far less favorable deal rather than risking Moore walking away over the additional guys.
How do the Rays reinvest the payroll they cleared here? Between Shields and Davis they've freed up about $12M from this year's payroll and ~$17M for 2014. Do they turn around and make an offer to Youkilis to fill their hole at 1B/DH? That's the real kicker - after winning this trade straight up on talent, the Rays are also going to use this newfound payroll flexibility to fill a hole or two on offense.
I don't know anything about the Royals prospects so I can't really pass judgment on the trade. But I don't think there's anything wrong with the 2013 Royals trying to add a good veteran starter - what are they supposed to wait for before they're allowed to do something like that? If the price was too high, that would be true regardless of what kind of shot the Royals have at the 2013 playoffs.
If I'm a Royals fan, tho', I'm not keen on the deal. . . .
bWAR adjusts for the quality of team defense, and presumably the very good defensive squads the Rays have had the last several seasons are causing a large adjustment on Shields's WAR numbers here.
I wouldn't count on it. They've got Santana, Guthrie, Shields, Davis and Chen under contract too. Also Mendoza (their best starter in 2012), Duffy, Mazarro, Paulino, Will Smith -- some of whom have been hurt I know but still depth. Tendering Hochevar was as stupid as it gets but I don't see them eating salary to keep him in the rotation over Chen (who gets $4.5). Assuming nobody wants Hochevar or Chen, it's surely past time to find out if Hochevar is one of those guys who will make a decent reliever.
This sure looks like an extremely dumb move. Time to eliminate the process!
Would you give up one of the top prospects in baseball for a good but not great 31 year old on a two year contract? Especially when you are not a contender? It's not like they got, say, Madison Bumgarner or Cliff Lee.
Heh, Shields' 5th best similarity score is... Ervin Santana.
But is it the age that matter in this question? I would be equally happy to trade for a good but not great 31 year old on a two year contract, a good but not great 25 year old on a two year contract, a good but not great 37 year old on a two year contract...
(for pitchers, anyway)
Coming off a non-fluke 72 win season and with no other major overhauls, you'd give up a top prospect for a 37 year old?
If you're going to trade your best prospect and a top five guy overall, might as well trade for the actual Cy Young winner and get him to sign an extension.
My point is merely that I think the emphasis on the Royals' record and on Shields' age is misplaced. There's nothing wrong with the Royals acquiring a veteran starter, and nothing wrong with them trading young talent to do so. Shields is not so old that you would worry about him falling apart any time soon (and he has shown no signs of doing so), and the Royals are very well placed to make big leaps in the near future. They can't wait until they win 85 games before they go into contender mode.
That doesn't mean I think it's a good trade - just that Shields' age or the Royals' success cycle stage wouldn't really enter into my judgment of it.
I would have been happier to see them traded to a team closer to contention though, I doubt the Royals are making the playoffs (and may well fail to have a winning record) so they aren't going into an ideal situation. At least it's a crap division with no dominant team.
Lee to the Phils with 1.5 years on his contract brought back crap
Greinke, one year removed from his awesomeness, 2 years on his contract brought back Escobar, Cain and Odorizzi
1 year of Halladay and $6 M brought back 3 pretty good prospects, one of whom might turn out OK :-)
2+ years of a fragile Peavy brought back Clayton Richard and not much more
3 years of Haren brought back a ton of guys of whom the A's traded away the best one :-)
4 cost-controlled years of Latos brought back Alonso (meh) and Grandal (he could be something pretty special)
Did I forget any "big" pitchers traded recently with 1+ years?
I can see an argument that Shields is close enough to Greinke and Latos (but 4 years!) to be equal but generally (given years, cost, quality) he'd be at the bottom of this heap but Myers & Odorizzi is probably second only to the Halladay return. Odorizzi was top 100 in both 2011 and 12 (BA) ... and with over 9 K/9 and good control I wonder if he's under-rated but I ain't no prospect hound.
Why? I know they signed Hunter which will hopefully fill one of their gaping holes. OK, the return of VMart and a full season of Infante (not great but an improvement) ... I guess I can see it if they're mostly healthy.
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