Older Posts

The Jorge Cantu/Chris Davis platoon lasted zero days, as Davis was sent packing to Oklahoma City right after the trade with the Marlins. Chris Davis is stuck. He has nothing to prove in Triple A, but hasn't been able to do anything during his big league at bats. He's dangerously close to getting tagged with the dreaded Quadruple A label.

It's sad, but it happens every year. Prospects become minor league veterans. Sometimes, players shake the tag and succeed as late bloomers. Jack Cust is a recent success story, as a player who had been given up on more than once.

After hitting 1 Homerun for the Rockies in 2002, 4 HR's for the Orioles in 2003, and 200 Minor League Homeruns for various organizations, Jack Cust hit 26, 33, and 25 Homeruns for the Oakland A's in 2007, '08, and '09. Jack Cust was 28 years old when he took advantage of his opportunity in 2007.

Which brings us to the story of a young ballplayer who many believe is wasting his talents on Triple A fields for the Omaha Royals. The Scott Podsenik to Los Angeles trade may have opened up an everyday spot in the lineup for the Big Walking Hawaiian.

Kila Ka'aihue turned 26 years old during Spring Training this season. That is the prime age for hitters these days. He has compiled hall of fame minor league numbers, if there can be such a thing. In 2008, he triple slashed across two levels AA/AAA .314/.456/.628, with 37 Homeruns in 124 games. He followed that with a .252/.392/.433 in is first full season in Triple A. After a good spring training this year, he didn't make the big league club. His performance at Omaha has been a dominant .319/.462/.593, with 23 HR's. Since the start of the 2008 season, Kila Ka'aihue's strikeout to walk ration has been a stupendous to 220 K's to 292 BB's.

Kila's ability to control the strike zone makes him a good bet to be a solid Major League hitter. His negatives are a lack of speed & raw power and an apparent inability to catch a moving baseball. If you're like me, and you had Chris Davis on your fantasy team (again), you'll want to find a replacement. It will not be hard to find someone who'll be able to outperform Davis, as he was one of the worst hitters in the American League.

Personally, I'd look at picking up Domonic Brown or Logan Morrison first. If they're gone, and your league uses OBP, then I'd definitely keep an eye out for a report that the Kansas City called up Kila Ka'aihue.

If Kila won't get a shot from KC, then make sure to take a look at Mike Moustakas. He's only 21 years old, and he batted .347, with a 1.100 OPS, and 21 HR's in just 66 Double-A games. As could be expected of a 21-year old, he has not dominated Triple-A pitching since being called up to Omaha a few weeks ago. If Dayton Moore's process doesn't get in the way, the Royals have a bright future in the perennially winnable AL Central. We were serious about that Royals bandwagon in 2013.

Matt Garza just no-hit the Detroit Tigers in front a thrilled home faithful. There was another interesting spectator, a member of the Detroit Tigers: Armando Galarraga.

Back in the glory days of Sports Talk radio in the mid-90s, we would sometimes try to make White Sox fans sound even more like complete morons than they really are. Before the days of caller ID, and thus before spoof, we would call a radio program repeatedly with different personas. Much of the background can be found. Our accents were key to characters like HP Bob, Jorge from LA, Christian, Tutti, Milk, Roheet, & Balfro, whom we described in our “What’s Up with Yonder Alonso?” post.

One time, I’ll never forget, Reggie from Gurnee called in as a Sox fan. This was during the apex of Cal Ripken fever, merely weeks before he’d break Lou Gehrig’s record. Cal was bringing people back to the game of baseball, with everyday class, signing autographs until everyone was satisfied, being available for the media, for the fans, for his team, and for Baseball.

So, Reggie called in with what appeared to be a bit of slur in his speech, but passion in his voice. He wanted to vent at the media for – in his words – “Why everyone gotta always talk about ‘When Cal Ripken gonna break the streak? When Cal Ripken gonna break the streak?’ Why is no-one talkin’ about Frank Thomas, best player eber?”

Often times, our craziest outbursts would result in getting hung up on and having the last 5 seconds of our call dropped from the broadcast. On this blessed evening, though, the hosts decided to have a go at it. One of the guys shrieked, “Cal Ripken is single-handedly bringing fans back to baseball. He’s signing kids’ autographs for hours before and after every game!”

Reggie would have none of it, “I don’t think they should want him autograph! He no good, no more.”

Cal wasn’t really playing at his Hall of Fame peak, being 34 years old and presumably not on EPO. Still, he was in the midst of the 4.1 WAR season. The train sort of went off the track when Reggie started whining that not enough people talk about Harold Baines and Jack McDowell, who “everyone knows is the best pitcher ever!”

We got to the point where one of the hosts calmly, took a step back, and softly stated, “This is the most insane rhetoric I’ve ever heard.”

He was right. Reggie didn’t have a wobbly leg to stand on. Frank Thomas had just won his 2nd consecutive MVP award, which is voted on by the media.

As nonsequitorial introductions go, I’m pretty comfortable with that anecdote. We’re here to take a quick peek at another highly anticipated baseball prospect to get a grasp of how excited we should be for his debut & career. Today’s guest will be Toronto Blue Jays farmhand, Catcher, J.P. Arencibia.

We heard a couple of years ago that this guy was another version of the truth. A power hitter who wears the tools of ignorance will be valuable to some team, much like any left-hander who can basically throw strikes.

J.P. was the 21st overall pick in the 2007 draft, which when talking catchers will always be thought of as the Matt Wieters draft.

Since becoming a professional, he’s actually shown more power than in college. 27 HR's in 2008, 21 HR's in 2009, and 29 HR's already this year! We are here for the power, and it's trending very nicely for the Blue Jays. A common calamity that prospects suffer from, strikeouts, also afflicts Arencibia. His strikeout percentage coming into this year, by year and level…

2007 Low A: 22.5%
2008 High A: 17.6%
2008 AA: 20.0%
2009 AAA: 22.8%

This year in AAA, he’s improved his strikeout to a still to 18.7%, but his BB% is, albeit a career high, still only 7.8%.

Interestingly, looking at his Minor League Splits has shown that he hits lefties better in odd years, with better results versus righties in even years.

Staying on the very nice Minor League Splits website, we see that Arencibia’s stat line, adjusted for park effects and luck is a robust .316/.370/.633. His Major League equivalent numbers project 19 HR's, but a more pedestrian line of .251/.296/.488.

It looks like he could be a good catcher, but not an overall offensive force no matter where you play him. Maybe he's as good as Buster Posey. I don't think he'll be as good as Carlos Santana. Maybe Matt Napoli can be a comparable player, but that’s just a gut feeling. Who knows? Maybe he can be like Gary Carter and get inducted into the Hall of Fame like the other Expo, who’s going in today, Andre Dawson.

Congratulations, Andre. You’re the best. We can’t wait for the speech, from a man of few words.

Good friend and brilliant reader, Jason, comment on our Top 50 Baseball Player series: “Bad contracts can [be] almost as harmful as good contracts can be helpful.”

Since this will always be a place for the readers, we’ll deliver on his earlier request for “the opposite post, starring Alfonso Soriano [sic]”.

The following is our humble attempt to list the worst MLB players in the game.

Players included either do not perform well enough to merit their place on a Major League roster, or they are grossly overpaid.

There are subtle ways to consider the question “Who are the worst players in baseball?” I mean, are we asking who are the least valuable players in the Majors? We're obviously not talking about the worst players in the minors who could be working at Sears in a few months. But, are we asking who has the most untradeable contract? Who has the worst skills? Worst production?

This is a tough exercise because of the cost of dollars varies from team to team. Unless you’re a Yankee or Red Sox fan, if your team has an albatross contract assigned to someone playing below All Star levels, your team is going to suffer. (See: Chicago Cubs)

Usually, it’s about the money. Dave Cameron’s Negative Trade Value column concluded with Alex Rodriguez as the player with the most negative trade value. He’s certainly not the worst player in baseball.

Looking at production value calculators, like this sorted list on fangraphs, show Adam Lind is having a really bad year – 3rd worst among all active players. He’s not the 3rd worst player in the Majors.

Pedro Feliz and Brandon Wood are the two players who eclipse Lind in the futility of their production but I’m also not sure how terrible they are. They’ve had their moments, and Wood still presumably has a future. They rate so low because their teams gave them so many opportunities.

We’re going to try and look at the league’s players through the prism combining salary, skills, production, perceived value, opportunity cost, true talent, and perceived talent, and true talent – which, unfortunately, often takes a back seat to the other influences.

We do not like to be perceived as too negative here on the ol’ blog. Instead of focusing on who are the most overpaid, underperforming players, we can look at this as an exercise to see who the Best Agents are.

Which agents get teams to overpay their clients the most? Who is representing MLB players who aren’t much better than other veteran players who are out of jobs? Yeah, that’ll work. Let’s try to have some fun with this.

Based on popular demand, we present the BAseball Reality Tour 50 Worst MLB’ers:

50. Josh Beckett, Red Sox
49. Kosuke Fukudome, Cubs
48. Ryan Theroit, Cubs
47. Reggie Willits, Angels
46. David Eckstein, Padres
45. Ryan Rowland-Smith, Mariners
44. Craig Counsell, Brewers
43. Brandon Webb, Diamondbacks
42. Robb Quinlan, Angels
41. Garret Anderson, Dodgers
40. Todd Coffey, Brewers
39. Randy Wynn, Cardinals
38. John Grabow, Cubs
37. Ian Snell, Mariners
36. Todd Helton, Rockies
35. Jason Bay, Mets
34. Mike Jacobs, Mets
33. Wily Taveraz, Braves
32. Jason Kendall, Royals
31. Willie Bloomquist, Royals
30. Nate McLouth, Braves
29. Dontrelle Willis, Giants
28. Aaron Rowand, Giants
27. Jeff Suppan, Cardinals
26. Randy Wolf, Brewers
25. Latroy Hawkins, Brewers
24. Barry Zito, Giants
23. Matt Holliday, Cardinals
22. Aaron Miles, Cardinals
21. Kei Igawa, Yankees
20. Vernon Wells, Blue Jays
19. Chone Figgins, Mariners
18. Derek Lowe, Braves
17. Kyle Lohse, Cardinals
16. Gil Meche, Royals
15. Milton Bradley, Mariners
14. Garrett Atkins, Orioles
13. Pedro Feliz, Astros
12. Jeff Francouer, Mets
11. Brandon Lyon, Astros
10. Chad Qualls, Diamondbacks
9. Jason Marquis, Nationals
8. Carlos Lee, Astros
7. Oliver Perez, Mets
6. Yuniesky Betancourt, Royals
5. Gary Matthews, Jr., Reds/Angels
4. Travis Hafner, Indians
3. Eric Chavez, A’s
2. Carlos Zambrano, Cubs
1. Alfonso Soriano, Cubs

I don’t claim to know everything. In fact, I’m closer to knowing nothing. This has always been a forum for discussion. Please let us know who else should be on this list. Who are we underrating? Is Josh Beckett still a stud? Did we err by omitting the big contract club of Arod, Holliday, and Ryan Howard? Brandon Webb was only included because his $8.5 million option should never have picked up.

Overall, who’s bad? Who’s worse? Also, what does it say for your favorite franchise? Do they have a player, or two, or more on the list? What does it say about teams like the Rangers, who don’t have any players listed? The Reds, also should be excluded because Gary Matthews, Jr is still the Angels problem, financially.

It's upsetting to think of the Cubs future with Soriano and Zambrano eating up most of the budget and post game buffet for the next few years. Maybe I'm being to harsh on them, by including five Cubs on this list. They're lucky that I didn't also include Carlos Silva and Ryan Dempster. They were in the running the whole time. In fact, I had Silva as high as 14th on the list until I decided to formally acknowledge his useful first half.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 599th homerun tonight, but a couple of days ago, in his latest blog post, Ken Rosenthal raised an interesting point about Alex Rodriguez:

A-Rod, with each homer, gets closer to $30 million in potential bonuses: $6 million each for tying Willie Mays at 660 homers, Babe Ruth at 714 and Hank Aaron at 755, and tying and breaking Barry Bonds’ record of 762.

The late George Steinbrenner, in his heyday, might have attempted to void those suckers after A-Rod’s admission of steroid use. As it stands, the Yankees figure to receive little of the marketing benefit they anticipated when they included the milestone bonuses in A-Rod’s 10-year, $275 million contract.

Rosenthal goes on to elaborate on that last point with examples of how Arod has personally lost marketability.* Since signing his extension, he lost his standing as the best player on his team, in his division, and at his position. Lastly, Rosenthal shows ways fans have lost the fever to follow a home run chase. The entire post is worth a read.

*I wonder if Tiger had anything to do with that.

When Jason Giambi apologized for nothing in particular about five and a half years ago, there were whispers that the Yankees may try to void his salary because they were duped by a steroid using cheater.

For once, I agree whole heartedly with Ken Rosenthal. I would love to see the Yankees make an example of Afraud and file a grievance with the Commissioner's office. How else may we try to preserve our preferred view of the All-Time Homerun Leaders list?

Henry Aaron ~ 755
Babe Ruth ~ 714
Willie Mays ~ 660
Ken Griffey, Jr ~ 630
Frank Robinson ~ 586
Jim Thome ~ 575
Harmon Killebrew ~ 573
Reggie Jackson ~ 563
Mike Schmidt ~ 548
Mickey Mantle ~ 536
Jimmie Foxx ~ 534
Willie McCovey ~ 521
Frank Thomas ~ 521
Ted Williams ~ 521
Ernie Banks ~ 512
Eddie Matthews ~ 512
Mel Ott ~ 511
Eddie Murray ~ 504

Whenever sharing opinions of who’s better, who’s best in baseball, like in the very good reading & reference book: Elliot Kalb’s “Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Baseball?”, debate will be sparked.

Last night, at 11:40pm, we published our list of Top 50 Baseball Players. Three hours and nine minutes later, 2:49am, the slightly used comment board perked up with a post from good friend and reader, Jason, who said…

"I don't think you can have a pitcher in the top 10. Way to injury prone (Wood, Zambrano, Prior, Peavey, Beckett, etc.)

Longoria has to be 1 with that cheap contract. Also, where's Jason Heyward?

You need to do the opposite post too starring Alfonso Soriano."

Let’s forget, for a minute, the first point about pitchers being injury prone. Also, we’ll forget, for much longer than a minute, about the last suggestion of 50 least valuable players. Let’s focus on the “Also” part of the second line. Where’s Jason Heyward?

Reading those words made me grateful for our work environment around the ol’ blog being very forgiving with oversights, lack of adequate research, and the occasional disregard for basic journalistic fundamentals. An editor would have been handy on that. Heck, and editor RIGHT NOW would be handy to make sure this piece isn’t worth less than the paper it’s not being printed on. So please, kind readers, if you're a fan of anyone who should be listed here, please let us know. Be heard!

As I responded on the comment board, Heyward settled comfortably at #5 on our current Top 50 board. I’m also glad that we mentioned last night that the list “could change from day to day, or certainly month to month”.

It is in that spirit that we quickly share an updated snapshot of the list.

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons does an NBA column like this every season. He calls it the NBA Trade Value column, and he decides to rank the Top 50 most valuable players in the NBA. Age, future performance, and contract status affect overall value. So, the key is that it’s not just who’s better, but overall whom would a team rather have on their roster. For example, Johan Santana is better than most pitchers in professional baseball, but his contract makes him unobtainable for some teams, so his trade value is not as high in comparison with his peers as his overall talent level.

As another example, CC Sabathia is probably considered a better pitcher than Yovani Gallardo by many talent evaluators. (Not us, but surely by many.) Anyway, due to the big difference in contract status, we think most teams would take Gallardo. As you’ll see in a few moments, Yovani is ranked 48th on our list.

Joe Posnanski has hinted, most recently in this post last week, that he will be getting to his “The 50 most valuable players in baseball” post. I thought it could be fun to beat him to it and later see how our lists compare. Not only that, I saw that the always awesome Dave Cameron started his Top 50 series this week. I purposely avoided reading his posts because I want to compare our lists after going through this exercise.

So, without further ado, here is our countdown of most valuable baseball players.

50. Logan Morrison, Marlins (minors)
49. Aroldis Chapman, Reds
48. Yovani Gallardo, Brewers
47. Justin Smoak, Mariners
46. Brian Matusz, Orioles
45. Cliff Lee, Rangers
44. Domonic Brown, Phillies (minors)
43. Ian Kinsler, Rangers
42. Brian McCann, Braves
41. Josh Hamilton, Rangers
40. Prince Fielder, Brewers
39. Phil Hughes, Yankees
38. Andrew McCutchen, Pirates
37. Buster Posey, Giants
36. Jay Bruce, Reds
35. Colby Rasmus, Cardinals
34. Matt Wieters, Orioles
33. Shin-Soo Choo, Indians
32. Justin Morneau, Twins
31. Mat Latos, Padres
30. Carlos Santana, Indians
29. Tommy Hanson, Braves
28. Clayton Kershaw
27. Joe Mauer, Twins
26. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals
25. Carl Crawford, Rays
24. Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox
23. Justin Verlander, Tigers
22. Chase Utley, Phillies
21. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox
20. Francisco Liriano, Twins
19. Adrian Gonzalez, Padres
18. Zack Greinke, Royals
17. David Price, Rays
16. Roy Halladay, Phillies
15. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers
14. David Wright, Mets
13. Robinson Cano, Yankees
12. Tim Lincecum, Giants
11. Albert Pujols, Cardinals
10. Felix Hernandez, Mariners
9. Jon Lester, Red Sox
8. Joey Votto, Reds
7. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals
6. Josh Johnson, Marlins
5. Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies
4. Ryan Braun, Brewers
3. Evan Longoria, Rays
2. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
1. Stephen Strasburg, Nationals

We talk about the AL East being the most competitive division in baseball. In the NL East, fans of the Phillies, Braves, and Mets argue for their team to win the division. Look at the other NL East teams, the Marlins and the Nationals, taking up four of the top seven players on this list. Sure, this list is just our list. Anyone can come up with this list.

The insane person in your neighborhood could have his, or her, own list. The fair weather fan from your office might have his own ideas. We fully acknowledge that this is, again, just a relatively meaningless list that could change from day to day, or certainly month to month. Still, looking at our list and seeing the Nationals and Marlins with 4 of the top 7 spots is incredible.

The list below is exactly the same, plus it includes contract details.

50. Logan Morrison, Marlins (m)
49. Aroldis Chapman, Reds, 6 years/$30.25M (2010-15)
48. Yovani Gallardo, Brewers, 5 years/$30.1M (2010-14), plus ‘15 club option
47. Justin Smoak, Mariners, 1 year/$0.400M (2010)
46. Brian Matusz, Orioles, 4 years/$3,472,500 (2008-11)
45. Cliff Lee, Rangers, 1 year/$8M (2010)
44. Domonic Brown, Phillies (m)
43. Ian Kinsler, Rangers, 5 years/$22M (2008-12), plus ‘13 club option
42. Brian McCann, Braves, 6 years/$26.8M (2007-12), plus ‘13 club option
41. Josh Hamilton, Rangers, 1 year/$3.25M (2010)
40. Prince Fielder, Brewers, 2 year/$18M (2009-10)
39. Phil Hughes, Yankees, 1 year/$0.447M (2010)
38. Andrew McCutchen, Pirates, 1 year/$0.4225M (2010)
37. Buster Posey, Giants, 1 year/$0.4M (2010)
36. Jay Bruce, Reds, 1 year/$0.44M (2010)
35. Colby Rasmus, Cardinals, 1 year/$0.418M (2010)
34. Matt Wieters, Orioles, 1 year/$0.4M (2010)
33. Shin-Soo Choo, Indians, 1 year/$0.4611M (2010)
32. Justin Morneau, Twins, 6 years/$80M (2008-13)
31. Mat Latos, Padres, 1 year/$0.4078M (2010)
30. Carlos Santana, Indians, 1 year/$0.4M (2010)
29. Tommy Hanson, Braves, 1 year/$0.435M (2010)
28. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers, 1 year/$0.44M (2010)
27. Joe Mauer, Twins, 8 years/$184M (2011-18)
26. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals, 4 years/$15M (2008-11), plus ‘12-‘13 club options
25. Carl Crawford, Rays, 1 year/$10M (2010 Option)
24. Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox, 4 years/$41.125M (2009-12), plus ‘13 club option
23. Justin Verlander, Tigers, 5 years/$80M (2010-14)
22. Chase Utley, Phillies, 7 years/$85M (2007-13)
21. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox, 6 years/$40.5M (2009-14), plus ‘15 club option
20. Francisco Liriano, Twins, 1 year/$1.6M (2010)
19. Adrian Gonzalez, Padres, 4 years/$9.5M (2007-10), plus ‘11 club option
18. Zack Greinke, Royals, 4 years/$38M (2009-12)
17. David Price, Rays, 6 years/$8.5M (2007-12)
16. Roy Halladay, Phillies, 3 years/$60M (2011-13), plus ‘14 option
15. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers, 8 years/$152.3M (2008-15)
14. David Wright, Mets, 6 years/$55M (2007-2012), plus ‘13 club option
13. Robinson Cano, Yankees, 4 years/$30M (2008-11), plus ‘12-‘13 club options
12. Tim Lincecum, Giants, 2 years/$23M (2010-11)
11. Albert Pujols, Cardinals, 7 years/$100M (2004-10), plus ‘11 club option
10. Felix Hernandez, Mariners, 5 years/$78M (2010-14)
9. Jon Lester, Red Sox, 5 years/$30M (2009-13), plus ‘14 club option
8. Joey Votto, Reds, 1 year/$0.55M (2010)
7. Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals, 5 years/$45M (2009-13)
6. Josh Johnson, Marlins, 4 years/$39M (2010-13)
5. Ubaldo Jimenez, Rockies, 4 years/$10M (2009-12), plus ‘13-14 club options
4. Ryan Braun, Brewers, 8 years/$45M (2008-15)
3. Evan Longoria, Rays, 6 years/$17.5M (2008-13), plus ‘14-‘16 club options
2. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins, 6 years/$70M (2009-14)
1. Stephen Strasburg, Nationals, 4 years/$15.1M (2009-12)

Thanks again to Cot's Baseball Contracts for the salary info.