You know, I'd apologize for not posting more if there were actually anything to post about, but there really isn't anything going on in Phillies land. In fact, all of baseball has been pretty quiet lately. About the only team making news is the recently-christened Washington Nationals, who've made a bunch of moves recently. I'm sure you've already read about the Vinny Castilla and Christian Guzman signings (if not, here's a good place to start) and the acquisition of Jose Guillen, so I'm not going to go into too much detail about them here. I will say, however, that these moves look pretty good if you're a Phillies fan (and, uh, chances are if you're reading this, you are). Sure, Guillen is a pretty decent outfielder, but Castilla and Guzman are two big wastes of money. On the whole, it looks like a negative gain for the Nats, and a sign that this is not going to be a competitive team (not that the Expos were either).
One last thing about the Nationals -- how freaking ugly is that new logo? I think the name is pretty dumb too -- I would have much preferred calling them the Grays in homage to the Homestead Grays, who often played in DC. They probably could have made a pretty penny off of merchandising with the Grays name as well, since throwback and vintage jerseys seem to be all the rage these days. But no, we just had to go for the patriotic name and butt ugly red-white-blue-and-gold (gold?) color scheme. At least they're going with the classic look on the caps, although the script "W" has nothing to do with the new logo. Dumb.
In this season's National League MVP voting, Bobby Abreu received a total of two votes. Two! One 9th place vote and one 10th place vote. He finished in 25th place. Why is this not an outrage? Abreu finished 5th in the N.L. in Win Shares and 6th in VORP.
Here's a handy little table of the voting along with Win Shares and VORP:
Rank Player Votes WS VORP 1 Bonds, SF 407 53 144.6 2 Beltre, LA 311 37 90.3 3 Pujols, STL 247 40 102.0 4 Rolen, STL 226 38 72.8 5 Edmonds, STL 160 36 88.1 6 Drew, ATL 114 34 79.6 7 Berkman, HOU 100 32 80.2 8 Clemens, HOU 61 20 61.3 9 Loretta, SD 50 33 76.7 10 Ramirez, CHC 42 22 62.8 11 Gagne, LA 30 16 28.2 12 Beltran, HOU 20 18 41.9 13 Kent, HOU 18 23 52.1 14 Finley, LA/ARI 15 18 35.8 15 Alou, CHC 15 26 55.0 16 Pierre, FLA 9 24 44.1 17 Helton, COL 9 31 99.4 18 Estrada, ATL 8 19 41.7 19 Johnson, ARI 7 25 69.3 20 Thome, PHI 7 22 62.9 21 Smoltz, ATL 6 12 26.7 22 Cabrera, FLA 5 22 54.0 23 Benitez, FLA 3 16 33.1 24 Burnitz, COL 3 18 43.5 25 Abreu, PHI 3 37 86.5 26 Castilla, COL 3 15 35.4 27 Oswalt, HOU 3 19 51.8 28 Dunn, CIN 2 32 59.7 29 Zambrano, CHC 2 19 20.6 30 Nevin, SD 1 24 47.1 31 Rollins, PHI 1 26 53.6
As you can see from the chart, Abreu's not the only player that got shafted -- look at Todd Helton's and Adam Dunn's numbers, for example.
There was an article in Baseball Prospectus today (their Internet Baseball Awards had Abreu in 8th for MVP voting, by the way) that mentioned Abreu's being overlooked and I think it's the first time I've seen it mentioned anywhere. The article is "premium content", so only special (read: dumb enough to drop $40 a year) people like me can access it. Here's an excerpt: (ssh, don't tell!)
"I propose that the men who vote for the MVP must pass certain tests that prove they know more about the game of baseball than they are letting on in their balloting. Seriously, if a voter thinks that Jeff Kent, Moises Alou, Johnny Estrada, Miguel Cabrera, Jeromy Burnitz or Steve Finley belongs higher up on a ballot than does Abreu, then it's time to weed the garden."
I agree. Just don't let John Kruk in on the voting, OK?
Hi there. I'm back. I think. Like another Phillies blogger (ugh, I still hate that word), I sort of lost interest as this past season petered out. By the end of August, I was following my second favorite team more than I was the Phils. Anyway, I think you know what happened with them. Heh.
So I'm browsing through the baseball headlines (I think I'm in baseball withdrawl -- either that or I'm sick of reading about how the Eagles had their asses handed to them by the Steelers this past Sunday) today and I sort of had a vision. Well, not really a vision, more like a premonition. Or something. Whatever the hell you want to call it, I saw in my head these three headlines:
Yankees Sign Beltran
Deal Reportedly Worth $120 Million Over 8 Years
Brown, Lofton Headed To Philly
Deal 1B Prospect Howard to New York for Veterans
Phils Sign Playoff Ace Lowe
Ink Red Sox Hero to $24 Mil, 3 Year Deal
OK, so let's say all 3 of these things happen. Also assume that the Yanks pick up half of Kevin Brown's $15 mil salary and half of Kenny Lofton's $3 mil salary as part of the deal. Not too unreasonable, eh? Add in Derek Lowe for $8 million per and you're looking at $17 million laid out for a 38 year-old centerfielder, a 40 year-old starter and a 32 year-old starter. The upside to this is that Brown and Lofton are essentially one year rentals. The downsides, however, are plenty:
- Brown is old and has a history of injuries (not to mention punching walls).
- Lofton is old and isn't fast as he used to be (7 SB last year). Rollins is a much better choice at leadoff, if that's what the team is looking for.
- Lowe's had two straight subpar seasons (ERAs of 4.47 and 5.42) and isn't exactly a spring chicken either.
So what should the team do? SIGN CARLOS BELTRAN. Seriously. What would be a better use of $17 million? These three guys or Beltran and, say, Cory Lidle (who the team could probably resign on the cheap)? I know, Beltran is a long-term commitment, but seriously, can you imagine an outfield of Burrell, Beltran and Abreu? I'm drooling right now. How awesome would this lineup be:
Rollins SS
Beltran CF
Abreu RF
Thome 1B
Burrell LF
Bell 3B
Utley 2B
Lieberthal C
I know, it's not going to happen, but I can dream, can't I?
