The Tribune's Phil Rogers reports that the White Sox could swing a three-way trade with the Yankees and Angels. The rumored deal would have Jose Valentin and Paul Konerko going to the Angels, Troy Glaus going to the Yankees and Jarrod Washburn and Darin Erstad going to the White Sox.

Oh for crying out loud, why would either the Angels or White Sox do this? All these players suck outside of Glaus, they're either old or overrated or injured. Morons.

Going way back to the Shingo Takatsu post, I think he's gonna flop. I finally found a website that has Japanes stats, and his aren't very good.
And from Yahoo: throws 84 to 86 mph and averaged only 5.8 strikeouts per nine innings against Japanese hitters the past two seasons.
Plus, he only was willing to sign with a team that promised him the closer job, which is going to lead to problems once he fails at it.

And here are some stats from last year (Avg/OBP/Slg):
petagine .323 .457 .683
alex cabrera .324 .418 .705
tuffy rhodes .276 .391 .608
nakamura .236 .357 .459

Guess we got lucky on Nakamura. I'm still convinced Alex Cabrera should be our RF. Admittedly, I have no idea about his defensive ability in RF, but he did play 11 games there for the DBacks.

Amazingly Brad, that question was just answered for me a couple of hours ago.
Apparently, when the clause was drafted many moons ago, some owners thought pickup basketball was a good way for players to keep in shape during the offseason (this was before most players trained during the offseason) so they specifically wanted it kept in the contract.

I don't get it though, why pro league bball and not pro league anything else?

unless......unLESS......UNLESS THAT WAS AARON BOONE IN DISGUISE AS MICHEAL DOLEAC COMING OUT OF NOWHERE TO DROP 18 POINTS AGAINST THE HEAT LAST SATURDAY AT THE GARDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

seriously, with no stats to back me up, i make the claim that modern professional athletic training has left modern athletes far more succeptible to their beer-drinking, cigarette smoking ancestors.

as biz pointed out, john vadner waaal tore his acl recently....shoveling snow from his yard.

also, aaron boone looks like johnny knoxville who looks like josh duhamel from 'win a date with tad hamilton'

just sayin' tho.

I don't know where the media gets its info, but after reading the standard contract, I don't see how the Yanks can void Boone's deal.
Players are prohibited from engaging in skiing, auto racing, motorcycle racing, sky diving, or in any game or exhibition of football, soccer, professional league basketball, ice hockey or other sport involving a substantial risk of personal injury.

I'm not thrilled with Spencer, but I think the platoon should do okay. I estimate that they should be able to platoon to around an .840 OPS (unadjusted for Shea), which would rank them around league average for RF (10th out of 21 RFs last year). And for that league average production, they're only paying about $1.3 million, which is very little, and allows them the financial flexibility to upgrade if they're in a playoff race.
I think platooning in general is under-utilized. There are a lot of situations where 2 cheap, below average players can perform better than a more expensive regular.

By the way, the math I used to get to .840 was approximating their OPS based on the last 2 years, and multiplying by the typical platoon advantage (which is 1.17 for LHBs and 1.08 for RHBs). That came out to .854, but I arbitrarily downgraded it a bit, figuring that there would be times when the platoon didn't work out because of multiple relievers.

If you looked at their actual platoon splits the last 2 years, they'd wind up around .810, which is still around average.

So, I think in conclusion, I'll estimate somewhere in the .800-.850 range.

"The Mets are expected to sign outfielder Shane Spencer to a minor league
contract. A Karim Garcia-Spencer platoon in right field would be adequate
for the Mets."

Not adequate for me. Luckily, I have TWO trash bins here in which to throw up.

Boone in '05 for the minimum, or else we reveal his past in animal porn.

did you guys here about the japanese pitcher named tadano in the indians' minor league system who admitted to starring in a gay porn?

no, no seriously.

Boone has a one year deal, then will be a free agent.

Zeile for Boone, with the Yanks picking up Boone's salary. Then we have Boone cheap in 2005.

as an alternative to this project to get fielding stats, they could just simply require every major league team to replace the grass infield with a hollywood 'blue wall' surface for the ground, and have every player wear those little balls all over their body that they use to record motion for video games and shit.

what the hell am i talking about?

all i know is, who the hell tears their acl playing pickup hoops? maybe it's becuase all these modern athletes are too diesel and toned and take too many supplements which makes their bodies too tightly wound and succeptible to ligament injuries.

although, look at furds, he's NEVER been the same athletically since that fateful day senior year at stuy when john migdahl stepped on his ankle at the battery park courts. poor kid, he used to be the b'nai bird, now look at him.

The Mets traded Jamie Cerda to clear roster space.
Stupid.
Cerda's been very good his entire minor league career, pitched well in one stint in the majors, poorly in the other. He throws hard and he's a lefty and has a much better chance of being an effective reliever this year than Franco, and probably Stanton.
Good look at Cerda here if you scroll down a little.

Interesting article about MLB's plans to track fielding data:
Here

Aaron Boone may be out for the season. He injured himself playing basketball (another good reason not to play basketball) in violation of his contract, so the Yanks could try to void the deal.
I'm sure the Yankees will figure out a deal to replace him, but there's really nobody out there and Drew Henson clearly isn't ready. Maybe we can trade them Todd Zeile.

Yay!

First baseman Mo Vaughn admitted during a banquet on Friday night that his career is over, the Boston Globe reported. "My career is over," the slugger said. "I have an injury no doctor can fix, but I have no regrets." Vaughn announced earlier this month that he would not play in 2004 due to a degenerative left knee condition. He remarked that he has 31 bone spurs in the knee as the result of bone grinding on bone in the absence of any cartilage. Vaughn would knee to have the knee replaced in order to play again.

i remember selig's proposal from the papers in the months before the 'three-division' alignment was proposed (which i absolutely detest btw). selig's plan was indeed radical. it would have been a total disolving of the traditional leagues in favor of geography and rivalries. if i recall correctly, the mets would have been in the same division as the yankees, red sox, phillies, and expos.
i gotta say, now that the walls have been broken down aka interleague play and everything, i would be in favor of such a radical restructuring. especially since i hate the division the mets are in. i grew up hating the pirates, cubs and cardinals. the braves were some mysterious team in the nl west. while i certainly hate the braves now, the marlins and especially the expos provide no juice because those teams have absolutely no fan base, so watching a road game in their stadiums is like watching a spring training game.
perhaps to strike up an old argument on the schedule, i demand more games against the cards, cubs, pirates, dodgers, astros and giants.

Japan's career leader in saves, Shingo Takatsu, has signed a one-year, $1 million deal to close for the White Sox, according to the Associated Press. Takatsu, whose contract is contingent on a physical and includes a club option for 2005, has 260 career saves and passed former Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki last year for the top spot in league history. Nicknamed "Mr. Zero", Takatsu has not allowed an earned run in the Japan Series and has closed out four championships for his Yakult Swallows. According to baseball sources, the White Sox were the only team offering the closer's role to Takatsu, who was not going to leave Japan to fill a setup role in the States.

-So we couldn't offer him $1 mil per year, instead giving Looper $3 mil-plus?

a little birdie told me that david cone is available for the fifth starter job.

oh wait, it's 2004.

The Mets are looking at free agents Todd Ritchie and Rick Reed as candidates to become their fifth starter. Ritchie missed most of last season with a partially torn rotator cuff. The Mets also plan to take a look at Maels Rodriguez and Orlando Hernandez and were one of the teams that watched Scott Erickson throw yesterday.

I enjoyed the subtle yet scathing indictment of the Zeile signing.

Comparison of 2 third basemen:

Player A: 96 & 98 OPS+ last 2 years.
Player B: 78 & 89.

Player A: 28 years old.
Player B: 38 years old.

Player A: Left handed (helpful to spot start or platoon w/Ty Wiggs)
Player B: Right handed

Player A: signed to a minor league deal.
Player B: signed for a still undisclosed amount, but reportedly around $1 million.

Player A is Russ Branyan, signed by the Braves.
Player B is Todd Zeile, signed by the Mets.

i'm not sure if the comment about this year's super bowl is sarcastic, but i am looking forward to this year's super bowl. i think it's awesome that carolina gets to go this year.

let's not forget that it's not only the salary cap that allows wildly different teams to go to the bowl every year. in football, the head coach, in my opinion, is far, far more important than in baseball. a good coach can enter a seemingly mediocre situation and install an offensive/defensive system tailored to his parts and make it work.

furthermore, it's easier to make the playoffs. furthermore, once in the playoffs, where it's one-and-out, a good coach can design a game plan to shut down the strenghts of the other team, plus there is the weather factor. it's quite possible that there would have been a different result in the pats-colts game if it had been played in normal weather.

still, something needs to be done with baseball's economic system. this topic has been beaten to death. one huge obstacle is the lack of national tv revenue. one good starting point would be to share merchandise revenue equally, as the nfl and the nba does (i'm not sure about the nba). this seems anti-capitalistic, but baseball owners need to think in more socialistic terms, as the nfl did in the 1960's and the nba did in the 80's and after the lockout, (i love the nba's revision of rookie income)

meeeaaaaah! youse guiz playin' stickball? ahhhh, my arm still huitz. i been tryin' dis acupunctuh, it don't work none. ahhh, that mo vaughn, dat fat piece of shit! and what's the best kid dey got? tys wigginston? ahh, fuck him. fuckin' mets. you seen mo around?
-howie

Ryan, I don't care what all those stupid stats are, Thomson sucked when he came over, and there was no reason for the Mets to keep him.

I hate Karim Garcia too, but not as much as I hate John Thomson, and on an equivalent level with how much I used to hate Jay Payton, before he got good. What a tangled web I weave. If only I could just hate everyone, like Kenny does, it would be so much simpler.

The Japanese robot ballparks would not be CGI effects! To enhance the sense of realism, we would actually build transforming stadiums (stadia?). The budget on that has not yet come back from the R&D department. I think they all had heart attacks.

900,000,000,000.00 USD
United States Dollars = 95,576,794,354,038.38 JPY
Japan Yen

if pratt joined turk, franco and bobby v in japan that would necessitate a whole 'nother trilogy, making it a total of 12!!! parts in the tank story!!!!!! twelve!!! of course, the trilogy taking place in japan would be ultra-stylish and full of brazy action sequences involving invisible strings and slow-motion and domed stadiums that transform into brazy huge robots. the early estimate at the total budget for all three japan-themed tank movies, tenataviely titled "The Deader the Better: Tokyo Tank" is $900 billion,or 17 trillion Yen.

Just for the record, the "crap" we got in return was John Thomson, who we foolishly did not bring back last year.
Here's a comparison of them last year with a few different stats (Payton's #s 1st):
Win Shares - 15 vs. 11 (Payton better by 1.33 wins)
WARP3 - 6.2 vs. 5.8 (Payton better by .4 wins)
VORP - 5.1 vs. 22.1 (Thomson better by 17 runs, or 1.7 wins, but doesn't take fielding into account)

Averaging all those out, they appear even, but even looking as favorably as possible at Payton (who made a half mill more), it was only about a 1 win difference. So, it's not exactly a disastrous trade.

According to Klapisch, the Mets are going to sign Karim Garcia for 850k, which sucks because I hate him. But not as much as Josh hates him. Under a more neutral analysis, it's probably not a bad pickup, but they need to pick up a righty to platoon with him. Hmm, maybe stick with Raul Gonzalez? Or get Brian Buchanan from the Padres now that they have Giles, Klesko, Payton, Nady, and Long.

And Turk Wendell may join Agbayani and Matt Franco on the Marines. Maybe they should make Pratt their starting catcher.

I am full of useless Mets-related tidbits today!

The Mets have decided against making an offer to Greg Maddux after
learning that he's still asking for too much money. The Mets will pursue a
lesser starter, perhaps Rick Reed, and could jump into the bidding for
Maels Rodriguez later this month.

First baseman Matt Franco has signed on with the Chiba Lotte Marines of
Japan. Franco, who has spent the last two years on Atlanta's bench, will
be reunited with former Mets manager Bobby Valentine in Japan.

The Astros may be moving closer to finding a taker for Richard Hidalgo and
the $14 million remaining on his contract. The Mets probably
won't be interested unless the Astros are willing to take Roger Cedeno.

Padres GM Kevin Towers: "I've always been a big Jay Payton fan, going back to my scouting days," Towers said. "I turned him in higher than Nomar Garciaparra when they were at Georgia Tech. He was a better hitter then."

Maybe that's why the Padres stink.

Payton had 28 home runs. Would have easily been the Mets best power threat. As much as I was not a fan, I hated trading him for whatever crap we got in return.

Kevin Mitchell received TWO Hall of Fame votes!!

Perhaps he threatened the voters' pets.

Mondesi seems like a Phillips-esque signing, meaning he's a headcase and the Mets wouldn't consider his make-up. It seems like Duquette really is trying to steer away from that though, so I personally think Mondesi ain't comin.

As I said on December 20: "Seems like Mondesi might be the best bet."

I don't know what those numbers came from, but according to Baseball Prospectus' Park Factor, EnronMaid ranks 7th with a 1037 PF (3.7% increase in offense over an average park) and Yankee Stadium ranks 19th with a 977 (2.3% decrease from an average park). Baseball Reference uses a slightly different method, and has very similar results of 103 and 97. In total, this works out to about a quarter of a run per game. Of course, Clemens will be pitching in the NL (without facing a DH) and have a better defense behind him this year, so his ERA shouldn't be rising.

In the end, though, the park factor is largely irrelevant unless you're preparing for your fantasy season. Clemens helps a team just as much whether he's in a hitting park or a pitching park. If he's in a hitter's park, he'll give up a few more runs, but that will be balanced out by the offense scoring a few more; it doesn't make a difference in how many games the 'Stros win.

The more relevant issue (and the one initially raised by Saro) is whether the park is particularly poorly suited for a pitcher like Clemens. Ideally, you would look at park factors for a bunch of different stats (how much it increases/decreases HR, K, BB, 1Bs, extra base hits). Without doing that, we all seem to believe that Enron primarily increases homeruns, which would hurt pitchers who give up a lot of flyballs. As I said earlier, I don't think this is a huge problem for Clemens, without doing a lot of math, I'd guess he's around average. For Pettitte, on the other hand, this is a benefit because he's a groundball pitcher who gets a lot of Ks. So, he should be benefited by pitching in Enron (because he probably won't give up many more runs than in an average park, while his opposing pitchers will).
Of course, Pettitte was probably also slightly benefited by Yankee Stadium because he's a lefty. (I have no math to back me up on that).

OK, now that I've been writing this, I've become curious enough about Clemens to do the math. Out of the 92 pitchers who qualified for the ERA race last year, Clemens ranked 31 for the least flyballs per inning. Pettitte ranked 17th.
So, they are both well suited to pitching in Enron, particularly Pettitte.

Um, ok, maybe it wasn't Jim Caple, but consarn it, I know I saw those numbers somewhere.

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees hired former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause in a scouting role on Monday.

Krause, the Bulls' GM between 1985 and 2002, added the pieces around Michael Jordan to form a championship puzzle that won six NBA championships. Krause, 64, retired late last season, citing health problems.

A two-time NBA executive of the year, Krause was a baseball scout for four teams over 16 years before coming to the Bulls. His keen eye for talent was the primary reason why George Steinbrenner himself decided to hire him, The New York Daily News reported.

I have a timely nugget to contribute! Jim Caple on espn.com says that Minute Maid Park (boo) was 16th in offense last year, while Yankee Stadium (boo) was 17th. So it's reputation is undeserved. Clemens will dominate the Mets, and we still have no one who throw hard enough to merit throwing at him.

The general consensus on best Mets prospects is Justin Huber (C) and David Wright (3B). Victor Diaz (2B we got in the Burnitz deal) is apparently the real deal offensively, but stinks at defense.

I believe that Clemens's GB/FB ratio was about average last year. With all the Ks he gets, that's not a lot of fly balls.

Esix Snead and Royce Ring.

Everyone at work was like, "Oh, it was planned the whole time, now Clemens and Pettitte can pitch together." Umm, what were they doing the past 4 or so years? Ryan, who would you say are the Mets best prospects right now outside of Kazmir? And none of this Danny Garcia crap, cuz everyone knows he sucks. He looks like Tyner for crying out loud!

WS- 'Stros vs. Angels

Blau.

Clemens signs with Astros
$5 million. The Astros are clearly the favorite in the Central, and maybe in the NL altogether. Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte, Miller, Redding is a stacked rotation. The only question is whether their aging offense (Bagwell, Kent, Biggio) suddenly drops.
I'll make a very early prediction:
NLCS - Astros vs. Phillies
ALCS - RedSox vs. Yanks
Think of the possibilities: Billy Wagner against the 'Stros; Clemens & Pettitte against the Yanks; Schilling against the Phils.

Man, the good old days. Derek Bell, living on a boat, wearing Hammer pants, looking like Droopy Dog. "Operation: Shutdown" was no joke.

The Mets are not smart enough to sigh someone like DaVanon. They'll just trot Cedeno and Timo out there, with maybe a dash of Gonzalez. Sweet.

Francesa, a known pro-yankee anti-met fan, was OUTRAGED that the Mets didn't get Vlad, saying "they have turned bungling big negotiations into an art form", and if you're going to get your fans hopes up like that, go all the way and make a big splash. Compared the potential effects of Vlad to when they got Piazza, plus the marketing effect of all the millions of Dominicans in NY. A caller claimed to have $11,000+ worth of season tickets and was throwing them away. Right.

But wait- who needs Vlad?
"Mets re-signed outfielder Esix Snead to a minor league contract. He finished last season with a .220 average and a 581 OPS for Triple-A Norfolk."

New idea for RF - Jeff DaVanon
Now that the Angels have Vlad, it seems their plan is to move Erstad to 1B (which is stupid because Erstad is not a good hitter, but is a great defensive CF) and go with an OF of Vlad-Guillen-Anderson and Salmon at DH. That leaves Jeff DaVanon on the bench and presumably available if the Mets offer something decent. DaVanon had a .287 EQA last year and a 118 OPS+. When healthy, he has put up huge minor league #s for years, so there's no reason not to think his performance was for real.

It's hard to say who would be the fave in the West, since the A's have the pitching, but now the Angels have the hitting. Plus they just got Colon. I'd give it to the Angels though.

Vlad to the Angels. D'oh! Reportedly $70 over 5. Angels are gonna be damn good next year, but I think the A's are still the favorites. Close.

I'm pissed the Mets didn't get him, but I'm glad they at least made an effort. I'm still not sure if it's wise to give him 5 years with the bad back, and my feeling along was that he wasn't thrilled with the idea of coming to NY.

NO MO! Very happy. We save something like $13 million. (75% of whatever he's owed this year).

Turk Wendell is done. He somehow managed a decent ERA last year, but he walked more than he struck out. Probably won't survive the whole year in the majors.

I haven't heard anything about Reed, but I wouldn't mind bringing him in to battle Heilman for the 5th spot. He's still decent.

ERA+ is ERA vs. the league average. 100 is average. 200 is twice as good as the league average. 606 is amazingly 6 times better than the league average.

As for Pete Rose, I think he's coming off terribly in all this. Not apologetic at all. I'm still narrowly in favor of putting him in the Hall, but there is no way he should be allowed to manage again. I wouldn't be shocked if he bet on his team again.

My HOF ballot would have been:
Eck
Molitor
Blyleven
Sandberg
Trammell (probably)
Gossage (probably)
Hernandez (just to keep him on the ballot)

Too bad about Mex. The problem for the voters is that he doesn't fit in with the other 1B in the Hall. They're mostly in because they're great power hitters. Keith's value comes from D and a high Avg/OBP. I'm still not convinced he belongs, but I think it's close.

Good statistical analysis about what hitters belong.

From CBS Sportsline:

"The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported free-agent reliever Turk Wendell, being pursued by the Rangers and the Mets, was close to making a decision, according to major-league sources."

I had no idea they were interested. Would they go for him now even though they signed Looper though?

And I know Rick Reed is, like, 4000, but what about him as a fifth?

HALLELUJAH!!!!!

Mo Vaughn will not play baseball in 2004 and is doubtful for 2005 because of an arthritic left knee.

The injured New York Mets first baseman went on the disabled list May 3 with joint and cartilage damage in his knee and didn't play again last season.

He hoped to come to spring training but after working all winter, Vaughn said in a conference call Thursday that he had been advised not to try a comeback.

"From what the doctors say, it would be tough this season and it's not very bright for years to come," Vaughn said. "It doesn't look good at all. It's a bad situation."

Griffiths IS a Gigante, though, how appropos.

"Jose Reyes will miss this week's Mets minicamp because of a visa problem."

Clearly, he is a terrorist.

ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reports the Mets are seriously looking into possibly signing Guerrero.

Well, how about that? See, how hard was that? Just make an offer and see what happens! What harm is there in that? He's arguably one of the top 5 players in the game. Gee, wouldn't hurt to have him on the team.

i think pete rose should MOS DEF be in the hall of fame. especially after learning on mike and the mad dog today that some nfl players were caught gambling including alex carras (packers??) and some other guy who are in the football hall of fame who were caught gambling on nfl games and only given one-year suspensions, whereupon they returned to playing.

i mean, look at this guy, what a sad schlump, let him in the hall, don't let him manage (even tho he REALLy needs the money apparently).

let in shoeless joe too.

(also let in mex hernandez)

What's ERA+ again?

I think Eck and Molitor deserved to get in, but not the others (although I would accept an argument for Ryne-o).

The real question I have is: Who thinks Charlie Mother F'n Hustle deserves to be in? I say he should based on his on-field performance. But I would never let him manage again.

Granted he was a reliever, but Dennis Eckersley's ERA+ in 1990: 606!

Whee!

Tug died. Boo.

the mets basically said they'd be hunting for a closer. it seemed a misguided goal from the start. what games are there to save? complete waste of money.

2 and half months until pitchers and hitters report for stickball spring training. the catcher (the wall) has reported already.

Indeed, boo on Looper, way too much money for mediocrity. When a team signs Boonitez over a pitcher they already had, maybe that's a sign that he's NO GOOD.

Bergen Record: "The Royals and Juan Gonzalez reportedly have agreed to terms on a one-year, $4 million contract. The deal could be worth $6 million if Gonzalez stays healthy."

That's about what Cedeno makes, but I suppose he burned his bridges with the Mets.

Where did you hear about the Looper deal? I haven't seen it anywhere.

It's not the point that they got outbid for an old, overweight pitcher, but that they now know what it feels like to be basically every other MLB team and have the Yankees crap all over you. Evil Empire indeed.

Boo Looper.

BOO. Why pay that much for Looper? Over the last 2 years, he's only struck out 6 batters per 9 innings. And his K/BB ratio is under 2.
In other words, he's not particularly good.
Not even as good as Weathers.
That money could have been much better used on Rhodes or Batista.
I'm disgusted.

Ha, sucker Yankees, now they know what it feels like to get outbid. Punks.