News Roundup: Reds Sweep Doubleheader, Ruin Daniel McCutchen's Good Debut
by Charlie on Aug 31, 2009 10:29 PM EDT
40 comments
The Associated Press: Reds beat Pirates 4-3 before empty seats
There were less than 2,000 people in attendance for the day game today. Which is too bad, and it's also too bad about the way the Pirates lost it, because Dan McCutchen was actually pretty good, grabbing a quality start and five strikeouts while only walking two batters. Joel Hanrahan struck out four batters, too.
Except for a big homer by Andrew McCutchen, and some shut-down relief from Denny Bautista, the second game of the doubleheader today was downright forgettable, unless you're Jesse Chavez. (Who, uh, also won't be forgetting the first game.) So let's move on. But before we do, I want to good-naturedly suggest that we nickname Dan McCutchen "No Relation."
Moore will be extended through 2014 - Royals Review
This post from Royals Review about the ludicrous four-year extension Kansas City GM Dayton Moore just received reminds me of some of the unfortunate apologies for Dave Littlefield people stopped posting on the internet in, oh, about 2005.
Moore looked like a good GM in his first year or so when he was mostly just cleaning up the previous management's trash, but the decisions he's made at the big-league level since then have been terrible by the standards of today's GMs, who tend not to be idiots. When a GM sets money on fire the way Moore has with Jose Guillen, Yuniesky Betancourt, Mike Jacobs, Kyle Farnsworth, Willie Bloomquist and others the way Moore has, he deserves to be fired. When someone who spends as much on veteran players as Moore did this offseason and still finishes the season 30 games below .500, he deserves to be fired. And Royals fans who settle for 28th best or 30th best or whatever Moore is isn't aren't doing themselves or the team any favors.
It's true that Moore is doing a much better job than Littlefield at building through the farm system, but there's no reason to have any confidence Moore will be able to put together a good team even if he graduates a bunch of solid players from the minors.
I don't mean to pick on the blogger who posted this. It's hard to know how to respond to a tough situation. We've all been there. And the comment thread is hilarious.
Minor League Baseball: GCL Blue Jays 2, GCL Pirates 1
The Bradenton Pirates finished their season today. It was a decent season overall, I suppose. The hitters generally didn't fare that well, but most of them were very young, and outfielder Rogelios Noris and catcher Ramon Cabrera showed promise. Also, the GCL tends not to produce impressive-looking offensive performances. The Pirates' pitching, led by Trent Stevenson, Brooks Pounders, Jhonathan Ramos and Zac Fuesser, was very good, and I look forward to seeing some of these guys in full-season ball next year.
Also, 2009 bonus baby Zach Von Rosenberg made his pro debut today. He faced six batters, struck out two, got groundouts from three, and got one to pop up to the catcher. Not bad at all.
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Why pay to watch...
them play road games? At least the home town crowd gets to see them win regularly.
by IAPiratesFan on Aug 31, 2009 11:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Is this late power surge enough to get Cutch in the ROY discussion?
by Mr. E on Aug 31, 2009 11:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Sucks for the KC fans nowadays
All they got are the Chiefs, Royals, and the Sprint Center for all those 1st-2nd round NCAA Tournament games.
Thank Almightly God the Steelers and Penguins seasons are just around the corner.
by BadAndy on Aug 31, 2009 11:26 PM EDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs
The McCutchens aren't brothers
Joke, ‘s ok if you don’t get it.
by Schide on Aug 31, 2009 11:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
After reading the Royals Review comments...
I’ve come to the conclusion that we aren’t nearly creative enough :)
by Thunder on Aug 31, 2009 11:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Are you sittin down FusilliJerry88?
Neil Walker has made it to the Big Leagues according to the Indy Indians Main Blog.
I’d provide the link but my internet’s down so I’m mobile for awhile.
by BadAndy on Sep 1, 2009 12:03 AM EDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs
VV coming back too...
sounds like those two will report to Cincinnati tomorrow.
by Thunder on Sep 1, 2009 12:15 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I think you’re off-base somewhat on Dayton Moore. In his tenure, their main objective is to build through the minor league system. That’s the polar opposite of Littlefield. They’ve improved since he took over, to where their minors are roughly in the same position as the Pirates. They don’t have the headliner as we do with Pedro Alvarez, but they have depth in young players with upside (from using the same over-slot draft strategy as the Pirates). It’s only Moore’s third year, so he hasn’t had the time to completely transform the Royals system.
Outside of the Guillen extension which was very bad, the spending you mention haven’t been horrible. Bloomquist’s contract and production is the same as Ramon Vazquez. Mike Jacobs at $3.2 million doesn’t hurt the franchise’s future.
The Farnsworth deal was weird. But believe it or not, he has fantastic peripheral numbers this year (hugely improved K/9, BB/9, HR/9) with a high BABIP of .380 like what Hanrahan dealt with on the Nationals. Betancourt (acquired midseason) is young, so it’s too early to tell with him.
In summary, You gotta see how it plays out much like we Bucs fans have to with Huntington. The two clubs are taking similar strategies with young talent. It doesn’t really matter whether Mike Jacobs at 1 year $3 million pans out. It matters how Hosmer, Moustakas, Melville, Montgomery, Crow, etc. perform in the end.
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 1, 2009 12:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The issue with Jacobs isn’t his contract, it’s the fact that he sucks and the Royals gave up Leo Nunez (yes, that Leo Nunez), a very good reliever, to get him. By the way, the Royals bullpen has been a disaster this year.
And unlike Huntington, Moore hasn’t really done anything to develop the farm system except draft guys and hope they pan out. He hasn’t traded veterans for prospects. On the contrary, he traded prospects to get Yuniesky Betancourt, who’s quite possibly the worst everyday SS in the big leagues.
And lest we forget, Dayton Moore is the guy that said this:
"The defensive statistics – I still really don’t understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don’t. When you watch baseball games every single day, its very apparent who can play defensively and who can’t."
It’s completely inexcusable for a GM in 2009 to believe nonsense like this. If you don’t buy into all the advanced defensive stats, fine, explain why you think they may be misleading, but to simply ignore data because you won’t take the time to understand it is dereliction of duty in my book.
Basically, Dayton Moore is in over his head. He should be a scouting director working for a GM who understands scouting and statistical analysis, like Jack Z in Seattle.
by maguro on Sep 1, 2009 9:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Don't forget...
…that he also deliberately, and with malice aforethought, brought in Sidney Ponson for one of their rotation spots this spring. Or that he signed Horacio Ramirez… twice! Or that he blew $6M on Yasuhiko Yabuta, and $3M on Willie Bloomquist – $3M here, and $3M there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Or that he got taken to the cleaners on Ramon Ramirez for Coco Crisp.
It just keeps going.
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 9:47 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Sure, Moore made some free agency gaffes (almost none of which go past 2010). But they are far less important than the work done in the minors. If the Royals had signed Russell Branyan instead of Jacobs, that would be wonderful. Until the end of the season, when he hits free agency. Whereas their work through the draft collecting well-regarded high school players could pay dividends for years.
(If Crips stays healthy, then his acquisition looks great because he is a plus defender. Ramon Ramirez peripheral numbers are terrible).
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 1, 2009 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
None of his moves is fatal in and of itself, but as a whole his acquisitions seem to indicate that he’s not any good at evaluating talent. He’s spent a lot of money on a lot of bad players, that’s not encouraging. Even if some of their draft picks develop into good players, will Dayton be able to spot them in his own farm system?
by maguro on Sep 1, 2009 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It wasn't just a matter of him adding Jacobs.
It was a matter of him trading something he needed (a solid, minimum-salary reliever, i.e. Nunez) in order to pay above-market $ for something he didn’t (i.e. Jacobs), and in so doing block a ML-ready prospect playing the same position (i.e. Kila Ka’aihue).
If the case for him comes down to spending money in the draft, how much of a genius do you have to be to know that a small market franchise with a terrible farm system needs to spend money in the draft?
(“Terrible” is a terrible overstatement of Ramirez’s peripherals. He’s a minimum-salary arm with good stuff and a career 3.64 FIP. And Crisp, while decent enough when healthy, put them on the hook for a minimum of $6.25M, between his 2009 salary and 2010 buyout. And he’s 29, and thus a marginal target for KC, in that he’ll be old and declining before they’re good. To say nothing of the fact that they could’ve just kept DeJesus in CF and picked up a corner guy…)
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The case for him comes down to whether the talent he drafted pans out or not, which we haven’t had the time to evaluate yet. And the more recent moves (Guillen contract aside) haven’t been disasters. Jacobs is a bad player but the salary/dollars are managable. Crisp might’ve been productive, and was on a decent tract before the injury. Two close to mediocre middle relievers doesn’t do much damage to the franchise to warrant firing the GM, and it doesn’t have to be verboten to spend money on the major league club as long as you’re building the farm (in Keith Law’s top 10 before this year, and Baseball America #11). We as Bucs fans know how much that matters. If Crisps plays like he used to, the team could have traded him for more upside than Ramon Ramirez, for example.
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 1, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
They aren't disasters...
…but they all look misguided from the get-go, and they’ve all turned out badly. You don’t see anything worrisome about that?
Trading for guys like Jacobs and Crisp are win-now moves: veterans acquired to improve the immediate quality of the product on the field. In this their acquisitions were a failure, both because Jacobs and Crisp (predictably) did not perform better than internal alternatives, and because Moore was unable to replace the production that he would’ve gotten from Ramirez and Nunez. He traded something he needed (in that the 2009 Royals had one reliever with an ERA under 4, and only four with ERAs under 5) for something that he didn’t. That’s a bad move, any way you slice it.
Right now, Ramirez is setting up for a division leader, and Nunez is closing for a playoff contender. Do you really think that if they both hit the market right now, they’d be in less demand than a healthy Coco Crisp with his good glove and 90 OPS+?
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not to the point where you’d fire him. It’s not like Leo Nunez is Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz.
Nunes is another reliever with poor peripheral numbers. He’d get a lot in return, but just because GMs care solely about ERA above all else (see Jarrod Washburn, etc. getting a lot of interest on the trade market as a case study).
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 1, 2009 8:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
What?
“GMs care solely about ERA above all else?” Where does that statement come from? It’s just patently wrong in virtually every case. Citing Washburn who had a good run of games to start the season doesn’t make it true.
And I don’t know what peripherals you are looking at for Nunez but he has 53Ks in 57 innings and a whip of 1.18 this year.
by dtoddwin on Sep 1, 2009 9:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Or more accurately…Franklin Gutierrez, Endy Chavez, and Ichiro had a great run of games. Washburn was along for the ride, pitching like he always has.
I didn’t say all GMs worship the earned run average.
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 1, 2009 9:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Prior to this year...
…Washburn’s lowest single-season ERA+ was 90. And he’s left-handed. That’s going to have at least minimal value on the trade market, even without the 2009 numbers.
And it’s not like Detroit gave up huge value for him, either: Luke French and Mauricio Robles.
by Vlad on Sep 2, 2009 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
So the main lynchpin of your defense...
…is that Moore only inherited a collection of small resources, and was therefore unable to squander anything of real value, insofar as he didn’t have it available to waste?
That’s quite the compelling argument.
by Vlad on Sep 2, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
RIght, not to the point where he should be terminated.
Now, the minor league player development is a much bigger concern. The players they’ve taken look good on paper, but the results haven’t been there. Eric Hosmer isn’t producing in his first year of pro ball. Same with some of the others. I think if in 2-3 years (whatever window they need to evaluate) the system is a disaster, then it is cause for termination. These one year contracts to these players, even 2 years.
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 2, 2009 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
It’s too early right now, though, to say that Hosmer and some of the other HS kids Moore drafted are failures.
by Gorkys n' Beans on Sep 2, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
So if he'd inherited a more valuable roster...
…and delivered a performance of equal value (i.e. losing nearly every trade and FA signing he participated in), you’d be fine with firing him immediately?
by Vlad on Sep 3, 2009 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
In summary, You gotta see how it plays out much like we Bucs fans have to with Huntington.
Your complimentary membership in the PBC Blog has been revoked.
by WTM on Sep 1, 2009 10:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The White Sox are now OFFICIALLY flying the white flag.
They traded Thome to the Dodgers and Contreras to the Rockies tonight.
http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4436350
Dodgers have also traded for Jon Garland.
I don’t know what the Dodgers are thinking…because the only way that Thome is more than a PH…is if they bench Loney. Of course…that’s possible…with a 1B that has a .740 OPS. Thome has played ONE game at 1B since the end of the 2006 season…and hasn’t played it regularly since 2004.
by Thunder on Sep 1, 2009 1:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The Rios move and their lack of contention really forced their hand on the payroll issue. Still, if you look at it a certain way, the Sox traded Thome and Contreras for Rios, Fuller, Hynick and cash.
They saved some significant millions of dollars, jettisoned two over the hill players, acquired an outfielder who could bounce back to put up big numbers next year and got some minor league fodder.
Its not brilliant business but it isn’t terrible really.
by MrPedriqueIfYoureNasty on Sep 1, 2009 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Looks like...
JJ Hardy is just a little PO’d at the Brewers FO. He will get recalled by the Brewers tomorrow. He was down for 20 days. Had he been down for 1 less day…he would not have lost any service time. Now…instead of being eligible for free agency at the end of the 2010 season…he won’t be eligible till the end of the 2011 season.
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/56430412.html
Wonder what they’d want for him?? With Escobar at SS, and Weeks coming back at 2B…no room at the inn for him.
by Thunder on Sep 1, 2009 1:07 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Something pretty good, I bet.
Even at his 2009 level of offense, the glove makes him basically a league-average starter.
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 9:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Possibly a back end of the rotation starter...
since we seem to have 8 or 10 of them…mainly at AAA.
by Thunder on Sep 1, 2009 11:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I would imagine that he’d be worth more than that…we will see though.
by MrPedriqueIfYoureNasty on Sep 1, 2009 11:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
He'll go for more than that.
The FA market for SS really sucks this year, and you’d be getting two seasons’ worth of team control.
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don't doubt that he goes for more than that...
but you have to have a starting point for discussion. Milwaukee isn’t exactly loaded with pitching…and we seem to have an overabundance of 5th starter/AAAA materiel. I doubt it would be 1 for 1…unless Melvin wants to get rid of him BAD.
by Thunder on Sep 1, 2009 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'm just saying...
…that I think Melvin’s going to go to market hunting bigger game than a package fronted by a 5th starter.
He’d probably want Maholm, say. And where we are right now, I don’t think that’s a good trade for us.
by Vlad on Sep 1, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
chuck finder
his writing wears me out, by the time I’m done reading, I feel like I just finished spinning in cirlces with my forehead to a bat knob. I’m no Shakespear either, and I hate to judge, just wondering if anyone else has trouble with his writeups too
by Danatural08 on Sep 1, 2009 10:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Neyer...
Moore has been inconsistent, saying in the off-season that the team was going to focus on OBP, and then acquiring guys like Bloomquist, Jacobs and Betancourt.
Neyer, Rany and JoePoz have killed them all year. Here is Neyer’s story today:
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sweetspot/0-4-232/Bloomquist-the-perfect-Royal.html
A recent Poz post:
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/08/28/3361-words-about-the-royals/
Here’s Rany’s blog:
by dtoddwin on Sep 1, 2009 7:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Rany’s take on how all of the Royals’ vaunted minor league spending is panning out for them is awfully depressing.
by MrPedriqueIfYoureNasty on Sep 1, 2009 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The comments in the Moore article just made my day – not that I’m happy seeing another pathetic season (in W/L) terms but thank GOD I don’t feel like these guys anymore:
“What. The. Fuck. Seriously.
This is what happens when an owner has no understanding of statistical analysis and doesn’t look too hard at the composition of his own team
Don’t get me wrong, I love Dayton, I’d just love him more if he was the head of scouting and we had a stats guy as the GM
.
I’d love Dayton too, if only he were the GM in Detroit
.
in many ways, he is just like the GM of Detroit General Motors, that is
"
by 16andCounting on Sep 1, 2009 10:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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