Tender and Non-Tender Thoughts
Before beginning, I would like to take a moment to reflect upon the tragic death of Tony Dungy's 18 year old son, James. A situation like this reminds us of the sheer triviality of whether or not a football team is going to win all its games this season. No family should have to go through what the Dungys are going through right now. My thoughts are with them and hope that they will manage as best they can through this ordeal
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On to the thoughts for today...
I would like to first establish the ground rules as I perceive them for this blog. I have said that my entries will be daily, and so far, in my mind, I haven't failed. I do not consider the daily deadline to be midnight, but, rather, when I go to sleep. Considering how often I wake up at noon (ok, 1:00)(ok, sometimes 2:00), midnight doesn't really resonate with me as a time to conclude all activities for that "day." So that should shut you up, Adam.
A few things of interest to discuss. First is Matt Lawton's admission that he was well aware that he took the steroids that resulted in his suspension. This is refreshing. I've grown tired of hearing the litany of excuses: "I speak Spanish and couldn't read the packaging." "I thought what I was eating was Pez." "I routinely take horse tranquilizers, how should I have known they were banned?" "I thought my teammate was only shooting me up with heroin." "I was really sure it was just Viagra." (Rafael Palmeiro only) Nice to hear a player just admit he screwed up. Now, do we believe him, that it was only this time? I'm not sure. I do know this - if Matt Lawton has been on steroids the whole time and the best he could do was a career high 21 homers in 1998 - yikes. I don't blame him for wanting us to think he only just started doing them now. Steroid speculation just doesn't interest me, so I'll leave it to you guys to decide when he really first did them.
The Angels send Steve Finley to the Giants for Edgardo Alfonzo. If you didn't see it coming that the Angels would quickly regret the idiotic contract they gave Finley last year, then you probably also were surprised when the USA beat the Soviet Union in Miracle. Who signs a 40 year CF to a 2 year deal with that money? Dumb. But I have to hand it to Brian Sabean. I would have put money down that the Giants could not possibly have gotten any older, but he found a way to make it happen. Jerry Crasnick has reported that they also intend to trade Lance Niekro and sign Willie McCovey to a two year deal, but that hasn't been confirmed. Anyway, Finley is the presumed 4th OF in SF, with Bonds, Winn, and Alou (Moises, not Felipe) starting. Whatever. My rule of thumb is that we don't say that a 40 year old suddenly had a "bad year," we say he is now "washed up" and should probably "retire." But the Giants wanted to move Alfonzo, Finley might help with late inning defense, the deal is a financial wash, and the team can gain extra revenue by hosting AARP events at SBC Park.
As a Mets fan, I hate to see Alfonzo struggling. We loved him in NY and still do. I was at a Mets-Giants game at Shea this past summer and even now, three years into his Giants career, Alfonzo got a long standing ovation when he came up. So I hope he can have a nice year in Anaheim, although he has no assurances of a starting job. Chone Figgins moves to CF, but McPherson and Kennedy are the presumptive starters at 3B and 2B, respectively. Fonzie's power numbers have become truly abysmal for a 3B, and Kennedy is coming off a good year. No disrespect to Fonzie, but I'm glad that the Mets gave their $26 mil over 4 years to Cliff Floyd instead. But I do wish the Fonz well.
I'd also like to discuss the non-tenders. I don't mean that as introduction to a discussion. I mean I'd really like to discuss them but have nothing much to say. Ah hell, let's try something - don't want to lose respect as the baseball authority that I am. A few notables:
Eric Byrnes. Wow, talk about turning to shit in a year. This guy looked like a reliable 20-20 type of player just a year ago at this time, and I was very comfortable having him on both my roto teams. After much deliberation, I do not believe I will draft or bid on him this year. I have to imagine he won't sign for that much, and he could rebound and make a team look pretty good.
Chad Bradford. One of the guys Michael Lewis wrote about in "Why Billy Beane is Amazing and I, Michael Lewis, Want to Have Sex with Him," I mean, "Moneyball." He's a situational righty, and can probably help a good number of teams. Then again, in this day and age, you could be a 400 pound blind man with no arms and still help about half the teams in the pen.
Joe Borowski, Lance Carter, Dan Kolb. Former closers. Kolb was very good for Milwaukee, just a bit less so for Atlanta. Borowski was decent too when he served in that role. Lance Carter made the All Star team, which makes a prima facie showing of having been good. Good thing that all prima facie showings are rebuttable.
Wade Miller. Non-tendered by the Sox to be the living reminder to other teams that most players are non-tendered for a reason, and you shouldn't too strongly expect to be picking up a sleeper through this process.
Dewon Brazelton, Kurt Ainsworth, Alex Escobar. These guys were big prospects once. They are not big prospects anymore, as evidenced by the non-tendering and Brazelton's immense suckiness since reaching the bigs.
Shawn Camp. They shouldn't non-tender this guy, he needs a contract. He's got 9 illigitimate kids to feed. He was pretty good on the Sonics though.
Ok, if I don't stop myself I'll come up with some stupid remark for every non-tender, as is shown by my little Shawn Kemp joke. Jesus, what is wrong with me. More again tomorrow folks.
_________________________________________
On to the thoughts for today...
I would like to first establish the ground rules as I perceive them for this blog. I have said that my entries will be daily, and so far, in my mind, I haven't failed. I do not consider the daily deadline to be midnight, but, rather, when I go to sleep. Considering how often I wake up at noon (ok, 1:00)(ok, sometimes 2:00), midnight doesn't really resonate with me as a time to conclude all activities for that "day." So that should shut you up, Adam.
A few things of interest to discuss. First is Matt Lawton's admission that he was well aware that he took the steroids that resulted in his suspension. This is refreshing. I've grown tired of hearing the litany of excuses: "I speak Spanish and couldn't read the packaging." "I thought what I was eating was Pez." "I routinely take horse tranquilizers, how should I have known they were banned?" "I thought my teammate was only shooting me up with heroin." "I was really sure it was just Viagra." (Rafael Palmeiro only) Nice to hear a player just admit he screwed up. Now, do we believe him, that it was only this time? I'm not sure. I do know this - if Matt Lawton has been on steroids the whole time and the best he could do was a career high 21 homers in 1998 - yikes. I don't blame him for wanting us to think he only just started doing them now. Steroid speculation just doesn't interest me, so I'll leave it to you guys to decide when he really first did them.
The Angels send Steve Finley to the Giants for Edgardo Alfonzo. If you didn't see it coming that the Angels would quickly regret the idiotic contract they gave Finley last year, then you probably also were surprised when the USA beat the Soviet Union in Miracle. Who signs a 40 year CF to a 2 year deal with that money? Dumb. But I have to hand it to Brian Sabean. I would have put money down that the Giants could not possibly have gotten any older, but he found a way to make it happen. Jerry Crasnick has reported that they also intend to trade Lance Niekro and sign Willie McCovey to a two year deal, but that hasn't been confirmed. Anyway, Finley is the presumed 4th OF in SF, with Bonds, Winn, and Alou (Moises, not Felipe) starting. Whatever. My rule of thumb is that we don't say that a 40 year old suddenly had a "bad year," we say he is now "washed up" and should probably "retire." But the Giants wanted to move Alfonzo, Finley might help with late inning defense, the deal is a financial wash, and the team can gain extra revenue by hosting AARP events at SBC Park.
As a Mets fan, I hate to see Alfonzo struggling. We loved him in NY and still do. I was at a Mets-Giants game at Shea this past summer and even now, three years into his Giants career, Alfonzo got a long standing ovation when he came up. So I hope he can have a nice year in Anaheim, although he has no assurances of a starting job. Chone Figgins moves to CF, but McPherson and Kennedy are the presumptive starters at 3B and 2B, respectively. Fonzie's power numbers have become truly abysmal for a 3B, and Kennedy is coming off a good year. No disrespect to Fonzie, but I'm glad that the Mets gave their $26 mil over 4 years to Cliff Floyd instead. But I do wish the Fonz well.
I'd also like to discuss the non-tenders. I don't mean that as introduction to a discussion. I mean I'd really like to discuss them but have nothing much to say. Ah hell, let's try something - don't want to lose respect as the baseball authority that I am. A few notables:
Eric Byrnes. Wow, talk about turning to shit in a year. This guy looked like a reliable 20-20 type of player just a year ago at this time, and I was very comfortable having him on both my roto teams. After much deliberation, I do not believe I will draft or bid on him this year. I have to imagine he won't sign for that much, and he could rebound and make a team look pretty good.
Chad Bradford. One of the guys Michael Lewis wrote about in "Why Billy Beane is Amazing and I, Michael Lewis, Want to Have Sex with Him," I mean, "Moneyball." He's a situational righty, and can probably help a good number of teams. Then again, in this day and age, you could be a 400 pound blind man with no arms and still help about half the teams in the pen.
Joe Borowski, Lance Carter, Dan Kolb. Former closers. Kolb was very good for Milwaukee, just a bit less so for Atlanta. Borowski was decent too when he served in that role. Lance Carter made the All Star team, which makes a prima facie showing of having been good. Good thing that all prima facie showings are rebuttable.
Wade Miller. Non-tendered by the Sox to be the living reminder to other teams that most players are non-tendered for a reason, and you shouldn't too strongly expect to be picking up a sleeper through this process.
Dewon Brazelton, Kurt Ainsworth, Alex Escobar. These guys were big prospects once. They are not big prospects anymore, as evidenced by the non-tendering and Brazelton's immense suckiness since reaching the bigs.
Shawn Camp. They shouldn't non-tender this guy, he needs a contract. He's got 9 illigitimate kids to feed. He was pretty good on the Sonics though.
Ok, if I don't stop myself I'll come up with some stupid remark for every non-tender, as is shown by my little Shawn Kemp joke. Jesus, what is wrong with me. More again tomorrow folks.
posted by Eric at 2:34 AM
4 Comments:
For those of you who were having trouble vomiting and wanted some help: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/sports/baseball/23damon.html
GREAT post. Hilarious. The idiot was on his game today...
My favorite post to date
y'know, you are so often sarcastic, I couldnt but wait for the sarcasm at the end of the Dungy post. Odd.
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