The Scoop
By Dalton Del Don
It doesn’t get much more impressive than Hiroki Kuroda’s performance Monday night. Facing just 28 batters, Kuroda needed only 91 pitches in the gem. And it’s always more satisfying when that first hit is legit, which Mark Teixeira’s certainly was. Kuroda was facing a Braves team that had flown across the country after waiting through a 1-hour, 50-minute rain delay in a 17-inning victory over Houston on Sunday, but nothing should be taken away from Kuroda, who has two complete game shutouts (17:0 K:BB ratio) in two of his last four starts.
Jacoby Ellsbury has really slowed down, stealing just one base over the past 18 games and having been caught on each of his past three attempts. He’s going to be an extremely valuable fantasy commodity for years to come, but he’s also not exactly a superstar in real baseball. Outside of hitter-friendly Fenway Park, his line sits at .243/.302/.324 on the year.
Speaking of speedy outfielders playing for big markets, Brett Gardner is a must add (and it’s probably too late) for any team looking for help in the stolen base department. With Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui sidelined, there should be plenty of opportunity for the rookie who had racked up 34 SBs in 282 Triple-A at-bats this season. As a 22-year-old, he swiped 58 bases and has a career success rate of 83 percent in the minors. As someone who can take a walk, Gardner could even outplay the disappointing Melky Cabrera.
I’m not sure who looks more pathetic at the plate right now, Wily Mo Pena or Andruw Jones, but either way, it’s ugly.
Not that this is a new fad, but was there a rule passed without my knowledge disallowing the words “Brett” or “Favre” ever to be uttered separately? Speaking of whom, has anyone heard anything about what he’s been up to these days during his retirement?
Since 2003, no major league outfielder has more RBI than Carlos Lee.
After watching Miguel Cabrera this year and J.D. Drew over the last two, I’m more convinced than ever that the impact on hitters switching leagues cannot be underestimated. It’s a definite issue in the short-term.
J.R. Towles needs to be reconsidered now back with Houston. His ceiling won’t be too high if he continues to bat eighth in the lineup, but he did post a .954 OPS with five homers and three steals in 61 at-bats after getting sent down to Triple-A. Sure, his first stint in Houston was dreadful, but since he plays catcher, the pickings are thin, and Towles offers unique HR/SB potential.
Making sense of the Rich Harden deal: I trust Billy Beane fully, but I’m surprised he couldn’t get a bigger prospect in return, instead going with the quantity over quality route. Not to say there’s no quality in return, as the three major properties in the deal have all failed to live up to expectations in no small part because the Cubs have mishandled them. Matt Murton had a .977 OPS in Triple-A last year and possesses very good plate discipline. However, the power has disappeared this year, and it’s unclear how the A’s will use him. One thing’s for sure, it will be an improvement on how Chicago did. Eric Patterson has good speed with some pop, and his .875 OPS in Triple-A this season could translate into an adequate regular, especially if moved to the infield. Sean Gallagher is young enough to develop into the key of this deal, and he also might be the most fantasy relevant right away. As for Harden, his value gets an obvious boost with the move to the NL and to a team with a loaded lineup and excellent bullpen. But after looking at the return the A’s got, my guess is Beane thinks Harden’s arm is about to fall off.
An easy schedule has certainly helped, but watching him pitch (a sometimes dangerous way to evaluate), Ricky Nolasco looks simply fantastic. Where did this stuff come from? I recently wrote about him, so I won’t repeat myself, but would it be crazy to currently treat him like a top-25 starter? Or is that a perfectly sane food to eat?
July 9th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Personally, I think this Favre guy is wearing out his welcome. It is just unbecoming to retire and then unretire every year.
I too was shocked that Beane didn’t get much for harden. Maybe the GMs aren’t as universally stupid as they seem.
I disagree that Jacoby is not a real superstar. He sure seems amazing to me. But then again, I’m a sox fan.
Really, how about this Chris Davis kid? 5 homers in 37 at bats? I can’t believe his lack of hype, considering that he is doing a pretty good ryan braun impersonation.
As a guy who really needs to add an arm, if you can give any heads up, for the rest of the year, on any underowned arms who could help me win this thing would be great.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Chris Davis does deserve more hype. He’s got legit power…Favre is annoying…I’ll be on the lookout for any possible underowned arms, rest assured.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am
As a longtime resident of the Great State of Wisconsin (’79-’02, possibly ‘08-?), I can tell you that something on the order of 95% of Packer fans could give a shit about the drama, Aaron Rodgers, or Ted Thompson. Favre IS the Packers, in the sense that Hutson or Nitschke or Starr are, and would be welcomed back with open arms. You guys don’t and can’t understand, you weren’t here during the horrors of the late 70s and 80s when retired stars like Starr and Forrest Gregg helmed shitty, underfunded, hopeless teams praying for a shot at .500 at best, while maybe sticking a knife in the playoff chances of the far superior Bears or Vikings. The franchise was so badly off that it nearly folded–the only thing that saved it was agreeing to play a bunch of home games in Milwaukee every year to help boost revenue. I still remember the games at County Stadium, with the home and visitors’ benches on the same side of the field. Our only player was James Lofton, and he was hard to root for due to a host of character defects. You have no concept of the euphoria that attended the miraculous near-playoff run of the 10-6 1989 squad under Lindy Infante and Don “Majik Man” Majkowski. Even when they didn’t make it in the end, we felt grateful for even having had a prayer on the last day of the regular season. Then we felt embarrassed, for having fallen so far. Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren and Favre changed all of that, wiping away the two decades of misery and restoring the franchise’s status, as if in the twinkling of an eye.
Favre is basically to Packers fans what Nelson Mandela is to the Xhosa people. He’s entitled to a little pensiveness in the twilight of his career, no one here cares much about the retirement “saga”–that is mostly manufactured drama courtesy of the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network anyway. Getting all up in people’s shit over private decisions and relentlessly hounding them is NOT a Midwestern trait, that’s straight London tabloid (or ESPN, of course). I suspect most Wisconsinites would frankly have no problem with cutting Aaron Rodgers outright AND firing Ted Thompson for even one more year of Favre. I think he’ll eventually be an ok QB, but if it comes down to it, fuck Rodgers, we have Brohm anyway. Fuck Thompson, he’s made some nice moves, but his treatment of Favre, whatever their differences, is shitty, and if he wants to force a “pick me or him” scenario, well, don’t let the doorknob hit you in the ass on the way out, Ted. I hear Wolf may be contemplating a return to the front office. And I can’t see why real football fans wouldn’t want the guy around, I really can’t. This isn’t Jordan or Magic or Reggie White coming back from real retirement, years later. Favre was playing in January. He has had his own offseason program for years, he could easily be exactly where he was last season at this time. He plays hard, he’s undeniably fun to watch, and apart from maybe Javon Walker (who subsequent events have shown to be one of the shadier operators in the league), you’re not going to find anyone, coach, teammate or opponent, with a bad word about the man. I suspect you’re letting the coverage of him, which he can’t help, affect your impressions of him. It’s not his fault that ESPN are a bunch of dullards completely incapable of finding another story. He can’t help Madden’s slavish man-love, any more than he can make the grass to grow, or the sun to shine. As a player, he’s a net asset to the NFL (arguably it’s single greatest asset, for over a decade now), and watching him play is a fine way to waste three hours on an autumn afternoon.
Re: Harden. Wow. It’s a fucking horrible deal for the A’s. Beane is entitled to a certain degree of trust, but it’s obvious they could have gotten far more, all they had to do was wait a week or two. That’s it. He is not even a FA, he has a $7M option for next year. Scott freakin’ Linebrink makes about $5M a year, as do a host of middle relievers. To put it simply, Harden could make at least three 15-day DL trips over the course of 2009 and still be worth more than that.
So what was the freaking rush? The deadline isn’t up. Having lived in Chicago for a while now and having seen plenty of him, my impression of Patterson is that he sucks, and will be lucky to be a league regular. He can’t play OF to save his life right now so I hope they’re serious about him at 2b. Gallagher might–might–make an adequate 3rd or 4th real-life starter some day, and while Murton is better than the Cubs’ treatment of him would have one believe, the fact of the matter is that they have destroyed his value by yanking him around for years, and thus acquiring him is no longer any feat, he’s just filler. As for this catcher no one has ever heard of, I am reading that he was laying an epic turd this season and held in little regard by anyone.
They easily could have gotten a premium prospect. As a Brewers fan, I would totally have been on board with Gamel for Harden. Given the Wang situation and the hugeness of the egos involved, you can bet Little Stein just blew a gasket, I’m sure he would have surrendered far more from a much better system. The Rays? Dodgers? Phils? Cards? Friggin’ Detroit (although about the same class of system)? The take seems so low, it’s not even worth bothering with. With FDLS/Gonzalez/Anderson/Cahill/Inoa, why do the A’s even want a possible back-of-the-rotation guy like Gallagher anyway? They are right in the friggin’ race, and their run differential is like 3-4 TIMES better than the Angels. If no one else stepped forward with a real offer, why not just ride the tiger and see what happens? If he falls apart, well, big deal–your “loss” is Gallagher and Patterson. So what? If he stays healthy, shit, maybe they go to the playoffs. Maybe he finishes in the top-3 in Cy Young balloting and they DO get a real trade offer. Even if they never dealt him, if they got even one compensatory pick, why couldn’t the A’s scouts do better with that pick than Gallagher/Patterson? Why not roll the dice, if the stakes are so low?
And I thought the same thing, DDD. He must have an MRI result in his desk drawer showing Harden’s labrum is down to like 5% structural integrity. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If his arm doesn’t fall off before the trade deadline, though, I cannot help think he did his team a big disservice with this one. Anyway, for as long as they held onto the guy, and as much as they babied him, they sure gave him away for a song in the end, and without a fight at that. Lame as hell, Beane.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I am contemplating this scrub for scrub move, any thoughts:
Who to drop: EE or Chad Tracy?
Who to pick up: Corpas or Izzy?
July 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Dreamweapon - Great stuff. And I concede part of my frustrations with Favre is solely based on ESPN deciding to use 90 percent of its resources on him. The Pack have a strong running game, a solid defense and a terrific WR unit, so it is still built to win now. I would like to see what Rodgers can do, but I understand Favre was playing at a high level last season.
Do you think he secretly wants to play elsewhere? Or is that nonsense?
Ya I don’t know why Beane couldn’t get more - maybe this “dead arm” period means he felt he better sell Harden now or it’ll be too late by the time his next start rolls around. And I hear ya about the A’s having a better run differential than the Angels. However, they’ve ran out some pretty pathetic lineups, and Duchsherer will come back to earth, Lackey missed the first six weeks, no way they can win the wild card, etc. They just dealt Swisher and Haren, so I applaud him sticking to the rebuild plan. However, the execution was highly questionable, b/c as you say, they already have 5 better SP prospects than Gallagher. It’s clear the organization likes him a lot more than the common view of him as a prospect.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I’d keep EE over Tracy.
Tougher call, but I guess Corpas - at least he’s healthy. And it really looks like Fuentes is getting dealt and Corpas is going to get another shot at closing, in no small part b/c of the recent contract he signed.