Midweek Roundup
Lets hit on a few things that have been happening with the Twins and around the league these past few days:
- Derek Lowe signs with the Braves for four years, $60 mil. Without a no-trade clause. That isn’t a terrible signing, considering he is a Boras client. Doesn’t Boras almost always get no trade clauses, and opt out clauses for his clients? I’d say the Braves won this one.
- The Braves also signed Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami for 3 years, 23 mil. He projects to be a starter. The Braves did a good job this week rebuilding their starting rotation.
- Michael Young asked the Rangers to trade him because he doesn’t want to switch positions. The Twins popped up as a potential suitor, but I hope Smith and co. respond with an emphatic “No Thanks”. Young is bad defensively at short,despite “winning” a gold glove. (I think the term “given” is better than “won” when referring to a gold glove). His OPS, along with almost all his other offensive numbers, have declined steadily in each of the last 4 years. He might be the single most overrated player in the AL.
- Manny and Dunn still are unemployed. Dunn will probably sign a one year contract somewhere in the hopes of signing a big money, multiyear contract after the 09 season. Manny will probably wait too long, and come out with a contract that is only slightly better than the money he would have earned had he stayed in Boston. We will all laugh at this.
- Jermaine Dye’s name is still floating around, but nobody seems willing to trade for him. The Angels are the latest to express no interest.
- Mark Prior has been given another chance. Signing a one year, minor league deal with the Padres. Who is second guessing the drafting of Mauer now? That’s what I thought.
- The Twins spent another week sitting on their hands. As we discussed earlier, this is probably a good thing as prices on free agents are dropping faster than shares of Citigroup.
- Bert Blyleven was again denied admission to the baseball hall of fame. I want him to make it to the hall, but I don’t think he should get upset over what a few hundred sports writers think of him. Baseball people (GMs, owners, players) know he was great, fans know he was great, and he has a few rings. Everything else is out of his control. I was watching the Mike and Mike radio show before work on Tuesday, and he sounded very frustrated. Hopefully they get it right next year, but if not he shouldn’t let it bother him. Easier said than done I’m sure.
- Anything else I missed?
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I don’t see why Michael Young decided to torpedo himself like that. If the Rangers can’t move him, he becomes the whiny guy who wanted to be traded (can’t think teammates were too impressed). And if he does get traded, he’d better raise his game or be branded as the whiny guy who got traded, wasn’t worth it, and should have just moved over to third.
I was watching the new MLB network Monday, and I actually heard one of the writers (Jon Heyman?) claim “it’s not about numbers and stats” when explaining why he didn’t vote for Bert for the Hall. That’s probably why Bert’s so frustrated- some of these guys aren’t even thinking rationally.
If its not about numbers and stats, what is it about? Did he explain himself? is it about who gave the writers the best soundbites or who was the nicest to them? That makes me frustrated.
Also, is the mlb network worthwhile? I’m thinking about buying it.
The writer used the “Bert doesn’t feel like a Hall of Famer” argument. Not dominant enough, didn’t strike fear into opposing batters- as if this writer knows what those hitters were thinking.
mlb network: Probably not worth it right now, but maybe once the season starts. They’ve been re-running some World Series games, which is cool, and they’ve had some good interviews with current players, but content is a little light since it’s the offseason. It showed up for free with my basic cable package last week, so you might be able to preview it.
I haven’t watched the MLB Network for more than a few minutes, so I can’t really evaluate it. It’s channel 410 for me, which is well outside my normal 169-224 range, and it’s also not offered in HD, which blows enough to force me to avoid it.
In addition to Young declining offensively and defensively in each of the last 4 years, his offensive numbers are inflated by the Rangers’ home park, and he has the worst contract in baseball (outside of Zito). He’s not moving, and the Twins better not try to make it happen.
FanGraphs put Lowe’s market value at 4 years, $57-60M, so the Braves managed not to overpay an aging Boras client. Good for them; Lowe is probably a better signing than Burnett.
Kawakami supposedly has a really nice curveball — but apparently the ball is smaller in Japan than it is in the US. People are wondering whether he’ll still be able to get the same action with the larger ball. I don’t blame the Twins for passing on him, even if a lot of people saw the opportunity to drop $25M on a league average pitcher.
I understand where Bert’s coming from, regarding the Hall of Fame. He wants to get in, and it’s pretty clear to anyone willing to pay attention that he deserves to be there. He’s one of the best pitchers of all time, and the fact that he’s not in the Hall of Fame is not a blight on his record; rather, it’s a blight on the Hall itself. That said, I think we’re not that far away from a day when people stop caring about the Hall of Fame entirely. It’s meaningless, and is just one final way for newspaper-sportswriters to make themselves feel important. It’s just as dumb as All Star voting and Gold Glove voting, and people put way too much stock into it. When 28 people can vote against RICKEY HENDERSON (are you kidding?), it takes away from the entire institution. When Boston has pumped enough pro-Red-Sox sentiment into the “national” media that they can start pushing a-little-better-than-mediocre corner outfielders into the Hall just because he played for the Red Sox, it makes the Hall of Fame seem to matter just a little less.
Really, who cares?
I know I dont care… Big giant SNORE whenever I hear anything about awards or hall of fame votes.. blah blah blah, I stopped caring years ago.
I for one wasn’t worried about the Twins ever signing some type A free agent and overpaying for them… so it doesn’t bother me they’ve been standing pat.
Bottom line, Bert should be in and everyone who has a clue knows it.
I think you’re right on the money there.
What’s weird to me is how much Bert cares. I mean, I understand that he wants to be in the Hall of Fame and he feels that he deserves it. He does.
But given that election to the Hall is intrinsically a measure of what OTHER PEOPLE think of you, I don’t get why Bert cares about it that much.
This is a guy who wore an “I (heart) to fart” t-shirt, dropped the F-bomb on network television, and allowed one of the players to shave his head. It seems to me that he doesn’t care what other people think.
He should relax about the Hall. Because as MarkW said, he “should be in and everyone who has a clue knows it.” That’s more important than the plaque, I think.