This Week in Baseball 8/11 - 8/17

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I don't see how you could fault the guy for going after a title when his team is willing to put him on the first plane out of town.

 

Because the fans has a lot to do with that, right? Giles is playing more for the fans, the same fans he grew up with as a kid, than he is for John Moores or Sandy Alderson or Kevin Towers or etc. Really, just drop it. He doesn't wanna play for your team. Get over it.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Because it would be an empty achievement. I said that already. We harbor nothing but disdain for bandwagon fans. Why not bandwagon players?

Because baseball is more of a business than we'd like to believe. Players don't play for their hometown/favorite teams, they play for the teams that drafted and assigned their contracts.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I don't see how you could fault the guy for going after a title when his team is willing to put him on the first plane out of town.

 

Because the fans has a lot to do with that, right? Giles is playing more for the fans, the same fans he grew up with as a kid, than he is for John Moores or Sandy Alderson or Kevin Towers or etc. Really, just drop it. He doesn't wanna play for your team. Get over it.

 

I am over it. This is hardly a discussion about just Brian Giles. Maybe I'm too cold-hearted, but I don't see baseball as anything other than a business for the owners AND the players.

 

I have a hard time accepting that a player wants to languish for a last place team instead of getting money and a chance to win. It's just an opinion and I have no problem with others feeling differently.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Which is why to some players, the ability to play for your favorite/hometown team is a luxury that they don't want to pass up. And even with this horrible season for the Padres, Giles still believes there's a shot for them to compete next season, so delusion or not, it's something that is going to compel him to stick it out longer.

 

edit: referring to Alkeiper's post.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Which is why to some players, the ability to play for your favorite/hometown team is a luxury that they don't want to pass up. And even with this horrible season for the Padres, Giles still believes there's a shot for them to compete next season, so delusion or not, it's something that is going to compel him to stick it out longer.

 

But Giles isn't going to be there next season. He has a team option for next season that the club will likely pass on, seeing as how ownership has to shed payroll from $73 million to $40 million. In fact, the only way he really had a shot to play for them again was to accept the trade to Boston and then returned as a free agent in the offseason on a new contract with a hometown discount.

 

In reality, he sort of fucked himself and his team. Now instead of shedding payroll and picking up some prospects that could help in the long run, they have to choose to either build around a 38-year-old leftfielder or dump the hometown kid unceremoniously.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Why do the Pads suck so bad this year anyway? They were 89-74 and missed the postseason by 1 (playoff) game last year.

[MFer 0]

I personally would've went to Boston if I was Giles, but I can see why he wouldn't want to be just a bit player on a possible World Series team (if that was one of the main reasons). I remember Mike Golic talking on Mike & Mike about passing up the opportunity to play for the 49ers at the end of his career in 1994. San Fran went on to win the Super Bowl but he had no regrets about because he didn't want to just be "along for the ride". It's a matter of pride for some pro athletes.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I personally would've went to Boston if I was Giles, but I can see why he wouldn't want to be just a bit player on a possible World Series team. I remember Mike Golic talking on Mike & Mike about passing up the opportunity to play for the 49ers at the end of his career in 1994. San Fran went on to win the Super Bowl but he had no regrets about because he didn't want to just be "along for the ride".

 

 

Okay, I swear this will be my last post about Brian Giles because I really don't care that much. Giles wasn't going to a bit player. Ken Rosenthal confirmed in an article over the weekend that the idea was for Giles to step in as the starting rightfielder, shifting Drew to center and Ellsbury/Crisp to the bench (as I speculated last week). He also would have hit leadoff and a been a key component in their offense for the stretch run.

[Boxer 0]

Shannon Stewart has been released. This was the same guy JP cut Reed Johnson to make room for.

 

Anyone else on the JP for Executive of the Year bandwagon?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Shannon Stewart has been released. This was the same guy JP cut Reed Johnson to make room for.

 

Anyone else on the JP for Executive of the Year bandwagon?

JP is awful.

 

Though it's the right move, a note on Stewart. He appeared in Scranton on rehab for one game along with Vernon Wells. Both took time to sign autographs for fans and also contributed to the ALS auction.

[Boxer 0]

Seriously, I saw NOTHING in this guy, JP, so I have no idea why there are any defenders of him left. I follow the team, so I've seen some ridicolous defenses in his behalf. At one time, people thought he was the "Colangelo" of the Blue Jays, he's more like a "Babcock" now.

 

From Dunn-Gate, to Gibbons, BJ Ryan and lying about the injury last year, trading Glaus 20 and 80 RBI's I believe this year? for an injury prone and over the hill player, OVERPAYING Burnett, the Frank Thomas fiasco, not re-signing Delgado and treating him like crap, no real farm system...........

 

Ugh, when you are in year 7 of a 5 year plan you don't deserve a job.

 

If they DO NOT fire Riccardi, I may just quit being a fan of this team.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Actually I thought the Burnett signing could have been good if not for that retarded opt-out clause in the middle. It wasn't really an overpay, but the opt-out clause screwed them in multiple ways:

 

1) Given his stuff and escalating contracts for mediocre to good pitching, they'd probably only have him for two years

 

but

 

2) If he sucked or got hurt, they'd be saddled with a bad contract

 

leading to

 

3) Burnett being a lame duck with no trade value

 

JP has been an awful GM since the beginning, with no real plan to speak of. Competing in the AL East is difficult enough in the first place, but the team has been directionless for a long time. Are they building around pitching and defense or hitting? What's going on with the farm system? I just don't know what exactly they are going for because their approach changes from season to season.

[jimmy no nose 0]

John Danks just lost his perfect game bid after 5 2/3 when he hit Ellsbury with a pitch. Still no hits or walks through 6.

[the max 0]

John Danks just lost his perfect game bid after 5 2/3 when he hit Ellsbury with a pitch. Still no hits or walks through 6.

 

Good work jinxy.

 

Youkilis with a broken bat base hit stops that.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

John Danks just lost his perfect game bid after 5 2/3 when he hit Ellsbury with a pitch. Still no hits or walks through 6.

 

It's only a 30-buck payout, but I entirely based my ProLine today on Danks' poor record lifetime against the Bosox (0-2, 8.68).

 

Of course, that didn't work too well last week when Jeff Karstens threw a two-hitter in his second start in eighteen months.

[treble 0]

They signed Stewart because Reed Johnson couldn't hit righthanders (aside from '06). It didn't pay off, but seriously, if Johnson was still on the team, they wouldn't be any better. Also, the current LF is probably the best hitter on the team, so there'd be a lesser hitter blocking Lind and the team would probably be worse for it.

 

Also, I'm not the biggest fan of the guy, but I have trouble saying that JP is an awful GM. He does some shitty stuff (the Dunn incident, lying about Ryan's injury), but the bullpen is one of the best in the league, and I think he deserves some credit for that. And aside from '04, which was due to injuries, a lot, they've never been an awful team.

 

The Burnett opt-out clause sucks, but I wonder if that's what it took to get him to sign in the first place. The Glaus-Rolen trade hasn't paid-off this year, but Glaus is an injury risk, himself. I've heard Frank Thomas being released was more of a John Gibbons thing than a JP thing, but even then, I don't think this team would be much better with Thomas in the line-up. Obviously he's a better DH choice than Wilkerson/Mench/Eckstein (ha), but maybe he'd have been good for another win or two. The Delgado thing sucked, but I wonder how much of that was ownership's doing (although, the announcement of the payroll bump a few months after Delgado left was a little suspect). I also don't think that John Gibbons is necessarily a bad manager.

 

Anyway, I'm not trying to defend him too much, and I do think he'll probably be fired in the off-season barring some miracle run (the '08 Jays will be this year's '08 Orioles), just that he seems to take a lot of shit for some things that he might not deserve.

[Annabelle 0]

reed johnson would have been useless on the jays anyway. they're grooming adam lind and travis snyder. for a seasonal stop gap, they thought stewart would produce better than johnson.

 

unrelated note, justin verlander blows right now. no control. no precision. just overthrown curveballs missing the zone and underthrown fastballs left up.

[KingPK 0]

I was starting to think that the Rays weren't going to fade in the East, but now that Crawford AND Longoria are headed to the DL, that might change things.

[bob_barron 0]

Because it would be an empty achievement. I said that already. We harbor nothing but disdain for bandwagon fans. Why not bandwagon players?

Because baseball is more of a business than we'd like to believe. Players don't play for their hometown/favorite teams, they play for the teams that drafted and assigned their contracts.

 

So why harbour disdain for a guy who enforced a clause in his contract that allowed him to continue for his hometown/favourite team. And I saw you called CE a wasteland of idiots, besides Marvin and occasionally snuffbox, I really don't see that to be the case at all.

 

I don't care if people swear, I just thought cheech calling a guy a fucker for enforcing a clause in his contract so he could play for his hometown made him out to be a fucker, not Giles.

[Precious Roy 0]

The Yankees need to stop losing so many games if they want to make the playoffs. I can already hear the Orioles creeping up behind them.

[jimmy no nose 0]

I was starting to think that the Rays weren't going to fade in the East, but now that Crawford AND Longoria are headed to the DL, that might change things.

Word around the trade deadline was that the Rays had something like 12 guys listed as untouchable which is why they ended up not making a deal. Unfortunately none of those 12 guys are a bat they can use right now. Unfortunately in these situations it's impossible to say whether they actually did the right thing for a few years, but if they struggle the next two weeks their management is going to take a beating in the media the rest of the year.

[Annabelle 0]

the rays shoudl trade for gary sheffield

[CanadianChris 0]

Sheffield would absolutely kill that clubhouse.

 

I was starting to think that the Rays weren't going to fade in the East, but now that Crawford AND Longoria are headed to the DL, that might change things.

Word around the trade deadline was that the Rays had something like 12 guys listed as untouchable which is why they ended up not making a deal. Unfortunately none of those 12 guys are a bat they can use right now. Unfortunately in these situations it's impossible to say whether they actually did the right thing for a few years, but if they struggle the next two weeks their management is going to take a beating in the media the rest of the year.

That's incredibly short-sighted, given that this is the best team the franchise has ever fielded, and they're only going to get better. How could anyone bitch about the best season in franchise history?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

the rays shoudl trade for gary sheffield

 

Peter Gammons mentioned in his blog today that Detroit offered Sheffield to the Rays, but they weren't interested. I'm not sure that he's enough of a bat anymore to justify putting up with his bad attitude. They'd be better off just signing Bonds if they were looking for a malcontent that can hit.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Freddy Garcia has signed with the Detroit Tigers.

 

Link

 

I'm surprised that Garcia didn't take a chance with one of the teams in a pennant race, but for a guy looking to rebuild his value Detroit might not be the worst place in the world.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Paul Byrd is a Red Stocking. I guess he can take Wakefield's starts in the rotation.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

[Cartman 0]

Nah, they already replaced wake for a couple weeks with Zink (Pawsox Knuckleballer) Byrd will let them send Buchholz back to AAA where he belongs.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Its kinda dumb there have been more big name moves after the trade deadline than before.

 

 

[Guest]

Sabathia, Harden, Manny, Bay, Pudge, Griffey, Nady, Teixeira - Dunn, Byrd, Garcia

 

Man, you are fucking dumb.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Sabathia, Harden, Manny, Bay, Pudge, Griffey, Nady, Teixeira - Dunn, Byrd, Garcia

 

Man, you are fucking dumb.

 

First off, Sabathia and Harden went well ahead of the deadline so I dont even really think they count as much for deadline deals. Manny and Jason Bay were in the same trade.

 

Not to mention big names that were put on waivers and could have been traded (Street, Giles) but were blocked one way or another.

 

My real point was, why hype the deadline so much if just as big/important trades can happen in August. I understand that waivers complicate the trades more, but if Adam Dunn and Paul Byrd can clear waivers then I dont see the big problem.