After sitting out the entire 2010 season without a contract offer, Joe Crede’s baseball career looked to be finished. Despite Scott Boras’s best efforts and solid performance in both 2008 and 2009, teams just weren’t willing to risk anything on a player with such chronic injury problems as Crede. But for Crede, patience has proven a virtue. On Wednesday, the Rockies handed Crede a minor league contract, giving the 32-year-old a chance to work his way back into the league.
Perhaps no pitcher in baseball experienced worse luck than Chad Qualls last season. After posting two strong seasons in Arizona, Qualls faltered in the closer role and was shipped to Tampa Bay at the trade deadline. While the change of scenery helped somewhat, Qualls still finished the season with a 7.32 ERA. The San Diego Padres were willing to look beyond that number, however, signing Qualls to a one year deal on Wednesday. With Qualls looking to build his value, this is a signing that makes perfect sense for both sides.
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Previously on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the gang tried to learn the secret of the haunted lagoon, only to run into a veeeery scaaaary surprise. Also, we took a crack at figuring out the Most Valuable Player in Baseball.
As a reminder, here are the ground rules:
Every active player who has played a game in the major leagues is eligible. Every team has the same budget, and the same salary commitments (which is to say, none). Every ballpark has the same neutral dimensions. Leagues and divisions are abolished. We’re assuming that every team magically evaluates every player exactly right, so a sneaky-good player with “hidden value” (say, Daric Barton) isn’t the answer.
Finally (and perhaps most importantly), every player would be a team’s to keep for the rest of his career.
Under those conditions, which player would be most in demand? In other words, who is the most valuable player in baseball, no conditions attached?
Platooning is a smart idea for teams having trouble filling a position. However, it requires the right players to make it work. While the Dodgers have a nice idea in trying to use a platoon in left field, by populating it with Jay Gibbons and Marcus Thames, they are probably going to get weak overall offense, potentially horrible defense, and an unwieldy roster.
This is the first in what will be a series on the disabled list. Here’s a link to the data.
I recently posted a projection formula (here and here) that estimated the chance of a starting pitcher spending time on the disabled list. To say the least, it generated several questions.
So I’m going to take a step back and show historic DL numbers for starting pitchers. For the purpose of this post, I’m only looking at pitchers with 20-plus starts and more than 120 innings from the previous season.
It has been a long road back for Joel Pineiro. After producing two excellent seasons for the Mariners in 2002 and 2003 he began a swift decline. It started with an elbow injury in 2004 and continued through 2008. During that time he had pitched for three teams, though his last destination, St. Louis, appeared the most attractive. That’s where he worked under the tutelage of pitching coach Dave Duncan. A year and a half after acquiring Pineiro from the Red Sox, the Cardinals found they had struck gold. He pitched 214 innings in 2009 and finished with a 3.49 ERA.
As much as we at FanGraphs and other analytically-flavored websites preach against it, ERA is still the most commonly used measure of pitching performance (I would hope that we as a collective baseball fan base have dropped W-L record down on such a list). Whether it’s a Hall of Fame debate (Jack Morris) or recent transactions (Matt Garza), it’s almost natural for us to first look at a pitcher’s ERA in order to make a quick evaluation. Jonathan Sanchez has improved his ERA dramatically in the past few seasons, going from a 5.01 ERA in 2008 to a 4.24 ERA in 2009 to a 3.07 ERA in 2010. When looking at such numbers, my first inclination is that he got better every season, but I will also remember to look at peripheral statistics and stats such as FIP and WAR.
After the Cubs shuffled him between the bullpen and the rotation for four seasons, Sean Marshall finally found his home in the bullpen. In 80 relief appearances, Mashall allowed only 25 runs, striking out nearly 11 batters per nine innings en route to a 2.28 FIP and 2.2 WAR. The Cubs see Marshall as their setup man of the future behind closer Carlos Marmol. To that effect they handed Marshall, eligible for arbitration the first time this season, a two year contract worth $4.7 million ($1.6 million in 2011 and $3.1 million in 2012).
The Washington Nationals
2010 MLB Record: 69-93 (5th in the NL East)
Minor League Power Ranking: 18th (out of 30)
Click for: Last Year’s Top 10 Prospect List
The Prospects
1. Bryce Harper C/OF
Acquired: 2010 1st round (Las Vegas JC)
Pro Experience: None
2010 MiLB Level: Arizona Fall League
Opening Day Age: 18
Estimated Peak WAR: 7.0
Notes: In his pro debut in the Arizona Fall League, Harper hit .343/.410/.629 in nine games (35 at-bats). He showed some patience with four walks but also whiffed 11 times. It’s an encouraging start to his pro career. In the AFL, Harper was getting out on his front foot and that was throwing off his timing and balance. He’s definitely going to have to learn to stay back on off-speed pitches as he moves up the ladder. Against lesser pitching he can simply rely on his raw power and bat speed to compensate. If I’m going to nitpick, I might level out his shoulders a bit to help his swing plane. Drafted as a high school-aged catcher, his bat projects to play at any position on the diamond and he’s expected to play the outfield in pro ball. Harper is expected to move through the minors quickly, but that could be about three years as top prep hitters usually need about four full seasons in the minors. He’s spent a year in junior college but Harper is the same age as a high school player.