Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Brewers Sign Yuniesky Betancourt
(www.mlbtraderumors.com)
posted on March 26, 2013 at 03:52 PM by The District Attorney to brewers, transactions, yuniesky betancourt
|
67 comment(s)
The Brewers signed infielder Yuniesky Betancourt to a Major League deal, according to a press release from his agency. He’d been the team’s starting shortstop in 2011.
Betancourt, 31, hit .228/.256/.400 in 228 plate appearances for the Royals last year, playing mostly second base.
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
Page 1 of 2 pages
1 2 >What other crap players that no one likes are available?
Ugueth Urbina is trying to catch on somewhere.
Alfonso Soriano is available.
Does anyone really need more evidence that he is not a major league player? There have got to be 5 guys in the Mexican league as good as him.
And those 5 guys could all be had on minor league contracts, just like the 1 Yuni signed. So, ???
Freddy Galvis? One of the MLBers who is worse than Betancourt.
Any PT you give Betancourt, in ST or regular season, takes away an opportunity from someone that might actually help your team at some point.
Hey, Galvis was almost 2 WAR better than Betancourt last year. At least he hasn't proven yet that he sucks.
"Listen, we like you, we want you in our organization. We just don't want you anywhere near spring training if that's OK."
His name anagrams out to "Ban Rich Dud".
2. After the first month of the season, wherein he was shitastically brutal, Chad Durbin was one of the better relievers in the Braves' pen last year.
Chad Durbin is a perfectly cromulent middle reliever. My only beef with him is I can't keep Chad Durbin and Chad Gaudin straight in my head.
That's what people say and then the next thing you know, spring training ends and the crappy player has made the team.
Betancourt is what he is. He isn't suddenly going to get better during the offseason. So the Phillies are bringing him in with a certain (low) level of expectation and if he meets it, they are adding him to their roster.
Yup, and someone gets hurt, and instead of bringing up a minor leaguer who might actually have some upside, you give Betancourt 250 PAs and he gives you -1.5 WAR.
I agree that so long as the Phillies don't play Betancourt anywhere above Lehigh Valley, this is a meaningless bit of roster-filling. But I'd dispute that every team has a player of Betancourt's talents; no one in baseball (except maybe Tony Pena and Brandon Wood) has proven he's not a MLB caliber player as comprehensively as Betancourt. Since 2008, position players with -3 or worse WAR:
Rk Player WAR/pos OPS+ Rfield1 Yuniesky Betancourt -6.0 79 -77
2 Mark Teahen -3.7 88 -52
3 Jose Guillen -3.7 94 -38
4 Brandon Wood -3.6 41 -11
5 Greg Dobbs -3.3 88 -35
6 Juan Castro -3.2 45 -15
7 Garrett Atkins -3.2 81 -22
8 Jordan Schafer -3.0 66 -24
9 Tony Pena -3.0 -1 -7
The OPS+ is SLG-heavy, so he's worse than that. He's a terrible fielder, a poor hitter, and he's 31 and has no upside. I'm sure there are minor league free agents with NRIs who are worse, but Betancourt has to be around the bottom of the barrel among guys with any real MLB experience.
Such as Joe Mather and Greg Dobbs last year.
They don't have any. The IronPigs shortstop last year was Andres Blanco. Tug Hulett, Pete Orr, Hector Luna and Kevin Frandsen (already on the Phillies) played significant infield innings for them. The Reading shorstop was a 27-year old named Troy Hanzawa. His backup was 28.
Then get somebody. Sign the best SS in the Mexican league who's not signed by any MLB team. He's very likely better than Betancourt.
Cedeno got a major league deal from the Cardinals
That counts as a yes.
According to MLBTR, Jason Bartlett, Orlando Hudson, Alex (Sea Bass) Gonzalez, and Ryan Theriot are all available.
I'd try any and all of them before Betancourt.
Edit: Fangraphs already has a post up trashing Yuni.
I know there are not a lot of Phillies fans around here, but Galvis would be the ideal and easy candidate to fill in if Rollins got hurt. Extremely good defensive player who only played 2B last year because of Utley's injury.
And given that Rube gave the 2B job to Galvis (and considered giving him the 3B job this year), there is absolutely no chance YB would become the starting SS if Rollins went down.
The Braves are likely to carry Paul Janish. Granted, at least Janish can defend, but still. Every team has a player their fan bases hate for so much as taking up roster space.
I would, in all seriousness, rather watch any of those players than Yuni. Even Hanzawa, of whom I've never heard before now. At least a terrible player who's a Hawaiian midget might be fun to watch, and it's always nice to see a minor league lifer get a pension.
And given that Rube gave the 2B job to Galvis (and considered giving him the 3B job this year), there is absolutely no chance YB would become the starting SS if Rollins went down.
Yeah, but you're not planning on 150 games each from Utley and Young are you?
Frandsen backs them up.
This made me laugh! I live in Reading, and Hanzawa is seriously the smallest person I've ever seen on a professional baseball field. The bat looks like that big red plastic bat in his hand, except one weighted down with rocks. Betancourt I think is actually better.
And 32 is right, Frandsen is option A at 3B and would be behind Galvis and Utley at 3B. So even if two of the three of 3B/2B/SS does down, Betancourt is not your starter. If all 3 go down, it doesn't really matter who is playing.
No, I wouldn't want to use any of those guys at shortstop. But this is Yuniesky Betancourt we're talking about. We're well into "death is not an option" territory here. All of those guys have at least one thing they do well, or at least a chance of doing one thing well.
That's not quite fair. Pena posted a 4.08 ERA in AAA the last two years and improved his K rate quite a bit in 2012!
Out of curiousity, I looked up who the best hitting shortstop in the Mexican League last year was. It looks like it was Issmael Salas, who was last seen north of the border dropping out of the Cubs farm system after hitting .244/.306/.359 in AA during his age 24 and 25 seasons. He has hit a lot better than that in Mexico, though, and he's six months younger than Yuni to boot.
Christ, he looks like he's twelve years old. If you take the lead weights out of his pockets, what's he weigh, about a buck twenty?
FYI, Saltillo is at 5,200 feet of elevation. You need to apply a pretty deep discount to those numbers.
that's some combo right there.
No, he signed with the Tigers. The Hanshin Tigers.
that's some combo right there.
So, you're saying he makes up for his lack of talent with his shitty attitute?
So are these guys better or worse than Yuniesky Betancourt? If they're not better, isn't that setting the WAR baseline too high?
I know WAR doesn't exactly capture replacement value, but it bothers me that the baseline can vary so much away from 0.
I named 4 guys in [27] that are most probably better than Yuni.
I know WAR doesn't exactly capture replacement value, but it bothers me that the baseline can vary so much away from 0.
Since 2007, Yuni's has been at -1.2 WAR per 500 PA. There's got to be somebody better available, or WAR is FUBAR.
My guess is that Yuni will be cut if the Phils can find someone better via waivers/trade in late March; otherwise he'll be their 25th man.
I can understand the argument that it's just an extra body -- what I really can't believe is the Phils' pattern of identifying and acquiring horrible veteran players -- but IMO, the fact that Yuni has never been happy on the bench pretty much undoes the "it can't hurt any" argument. Of course, people do occasionally learn (especially after repeated failure), and maybe the Phils spoke to him and he understands his role. (And of course, maybe he assured them he'd be fine with it, but he won't actually be when the time comes...)
Jose Chavez.
Pro: 28 next year, so still in his physical prime. His offense seems to be trending up. Has doubles power, and seems like he can run. Was only 21 when he washed out of the US minors, so that failure doesn't say much about him currently. Switch-hits.
Con: Not a great defender at SS. Did wash out of the US minors, presumably for a reason.
Luis Borges.
Pro: Career-long shortstop. Hits for average - above .300 every year since 2008. Excellent contact rate. Put up his numbers in a reasonable offensive environment. Has never played (and by extension, failed) in the US minors.
Con: Doesn't walk. Doesn't hit for power. Doesn't have speed. At 31, could start to get old at any time.
Ricardo Serrano.
Pro: Well-rounded offensive game. Some average, some power, some speed. 27 next year, so still fairly young. Switch-hits. Seems to be trending up. Has never played (and by extension, failed) in the US minors.
Con: Has played more 2B than SS, though the numbers at 2B look good. Puebla is a crazypants offensive environment. Listed at 5'9" and 165, and as such might be too small to project forward.
Which one would you guys take?
I'd take any of them over Yuni.
Probably Chavez, but if Serrano will change his name to Pedro, I might change my mind.
Page 1 of 2 pages
1 2 >You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.