Jody Gerut had a great first half last season, but no way will he grace the
confines of Coors this year unless he really comes on and even then it will
be only as a September callup.
Also, what is your "EqA" supposed to measure? The EqA's for some Rockies
players make no sense at all even if your park effects are much greater
than those commonly employed elsewhere, which they seem to be. It's an
interesting home park effect indeed that penalizes a player to a point far
below his road stats.
Rarely agree, never fail to be interested . . .
--Ed
I'll agree Jody Gerut is more of a best-case scenario than a reasonable
one, given the presence of Edgard Clemente and Derrick Gibson in
Colorado Springs. However, I don't think either of these two have a better chance
of being a star than your favorite NFL player has of avoiding serious jail time,
and Gerut is more advanced (and projectable) than Choo Freeman. He didn't have
any trouble with the wooden bat last year, and is very polished for a second-year
player.
EqA is "Equivalent Average", a component of Clay Davenport's Davenport
Translations. We've got all the information you need
right here.
Thanks for the note.
--Dave
Every team can be criticised. But Chris Kahrl has a serious problem in
analysis. Everyone harped on Ash for getting Bush in the Clemens deal.
Everyone that was harping has shut their mouths. I guess Kahrl insists on
making a fool out of himself, but so be it. How did Ash screw up the Segui
deal. He signed him for $4.3 million, $1.3 million a year less than Seattle
offered him in July. He doesn't even know a salary dump when he sees one.
Chris Kahrl is an amateur and it would be in the best interest of your
website to hire professional writers.
--Don
Howdy Don,
Your belligerence aside, you're right. I do have a serious problem in
analysis, because I get really boggled by rationalizations for indefensible
moves. I'm even more surprised by moves made when no move had to be made,
and when there seems to be very little thought to what that move's
repercussions might be. And finally, these sorts of things bug me when it
looks like they'll adversely affect a team that ought to be in the
playoff hunt, but seems to keep hurting itself with this sort of willful
stupidity.
Let's take a good look at what Homer Bush brings his team. In the
field, both our fielding translations (103 versus 100 average) and Range
Factor (5.39 versus 5.06 average) have him as slightly above average. As
much as we can divine anything from fielding stats, it looks like Bush is
pretty good, and it helps that he hangs in on the deuce. What about his
hitting? Last year, he posted a .261
Equivalent
Average.
Interestingly
enough, .260 is average for both the major leagues and major league second
basemen. That isn't to put him down: he does have his strengths. Teams can
usually use somebody who hits .320, and Homer can run or drop a bunt.
On the down side, his power is negligible and he won't take a walk. The
problem is that hitting for average is his only offensive skill. For all of
his mighty single-thwackability, he isn't an outstanding offensive player
right now, and if he isn't hitting .320 (and chances are he won't), he won't
be doing his team much good. But if he's young, he'll get a lot better, right?
Unfortunately, Bush is already 27, so its very likely that he's as good as
he's going to get.
That still doesn't make him a bad player. On a good team lacking an
alternative at second base, he can be handy for the next year
or two. Of course, the Jays do have a good-looking group of middle
infielders in the organization, but now one of the two positions they
could get a shot at is manned by a mediocre player through at least 2002.
Further problems crop up with the Jays and their avowed salary crunch. If
the Jays are really tied up financially, as Gord Ash claims, then why should
they surrender their control of Bush's career (he isn't eligible for free
agency until after 2003) to give him oodles of cash, when at his best he's
a very average player? Bush's ability to hit for average is uncommon,
but there are plenty of minor league second basemen just as capable of
contributing just as ably to a team's offense. Scott Sheldon,
Brian Raabe, and Jason Hardtke all come to mind, and they're
minor league free agents every year these days, available for considerably
less than it now costs to have Bush around. If we're going to take Ash's
poormouthing seriously, then we have to wonder what he's smoking to make
this kind of deal with this kind of mediocrity. Worse yet, if Bush fades
from last year's high, the Jays are still on the hook, without even the
option of non-tendering him, as they could have if they hadn't given him
the guaranteed deal.
Maybe we can consider it to the Jays' credit that they're deferring $4
million of the $7.375 million they're giving Homer Bush. But on top of
locking in the franchise for guaranteed money for a mediocre second baseman,
Ash has also blown more of his financial wiggle room because of David
Segui's arbitration-induced raise of almost $2 million, to $4.35
million. The first major problem is that Carlos Delgado has stressed he
expects to play first, which is fine in itself, because it isn't like he's
Frank Thomas around the bag.
What it really means is that the Jays,
while claiming poverty, are now paying David Segui for his bat. While you
might cut Segui some slack for his putative value to a team as a first
baseman because of his good glove, as a DH, we're talking about a 33 year
old who's hit twenty homeruns once in his career despite playing every
day during a historic offensive explosion. He was one of the worst-hitting
first basemen in all of baseball last year (26th out of 30 in
Equivalent Average,
ahead of a young Richie Sexson and three other stiffs: Jeff
Conine, Wally Joyner, and Rico Brogna). That doesn't
sound like good DH material to me. It doesn't help that just as there are
at second base, there are plenty of minor league players who are better
hitters than Segui right now, and who will hit better in the future. The
Jays have their share of these kinds of guys already hanging around: Kevin Witt
and Andy Thompson are both better hitters than Segui, and both are young
enough to keep improving. And together, they'd cost about a tenth of what Segui
costs. You can play make-believe and call this a salary dump, but I see the Jays
paying $4.35 million for a lousy DH, while the Mariners have some guy Gord Ash gave
up for the immortal Robert Person and cash, who turned into Paul
Spoljaric, who got thrown away in the Hentgen dump.
The troubling repurcussion is that if Ash is being honest about his team's salary
problems, then the signings of Bush and Segui figure to hurt the team even more
than either player's "contributions" on the field. If these signings in
tandem create more pressure to dump Alex Gonzalez or to trade Jumbo
"as old as and even more inconsistent than David Cone" Wells,
then Ash will have done a great job of undermining his team's playoff chances
for a third straight season.
So Don, thanks for your venom. I'm always happy to talk about that wacky
Gord Ash, because he's one of a kind.
--Chris
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