Vetoed Trades, Part Three
This is, as you may have surmised from the title, the third in a series on trades that players have vetoed, as is sometimes their right. You can find the first two parts here and here.
Archive for Daily Graphings
2012 and Bunting for Power
Look over last year’s league bunting statistics and you might find yourself raising your eyebrows. You see a .393 batting average and you figure people should just bunt like all of the time. Of course, that ignores all the sacrifice bunts, and the failed bunt attempts, and most importantly the game-theoryness of it all, but there were nearly 600 bunt hits. That’s a lot of bunt hits. What might draw your eye is that there were 586 bunt singles. What might draw your eye next is that there were two bunt doubles. We have this statistic called ISO, and it’s slugging percentage minus batting average, and last year the league ISO on bunts was not .000. This is a strange thing to know.
What is a bunt double? We’ve all joked about bunt doubles and triples and homers, but few have probably ever seen a real bunt extra-base hit. It seems imperative that we review last year’s two, and we’ll even separate them, for reasons you’ll shortly come to understand. What we find is a true bunt double, and something of an honorable mention. Prepare yourself to read a little about Juan Pierre and Quintin Berry.
Is the Corner Outfield Profile Changing?
The Indians outfield defense is going to be really good. As Jeff Sullivan noted, the addition of Michael Bourn makes the outfield defense very good as it pushes two good center fielders (Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs) to the corners. That last part is what really struck me about the move. Over my roughly 17 years of watching baseball, I’ve always been told that a corner outfielder is a guy who can hit and hit for a lot of power, indicating that it’s an offense-first position. But during the past five years or so, we’ve seen players like Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford, Ben Revere, Brantley, and now Stubbs moved to a corner, seemingly indicating that teams are more willing to accept less power in exchange for more OBP, speed, and defense. So I decided to do a little investigating.
The first step was to look at how the offensive production of corner outfielders has changed in the recent past.
A Walk Through The Early Over/Unders
We’re still six weeks from opening day, but the first sports book over/unders were released the other day, and while this is not an endorsement of gambling, it can be fun and informative to look at how the Vegas proprietors see each team stacking up before the season. So, let’s take a look at the early numbers.
Less Pink, More Slink In Women’s Baseball Gear This Season
This is a story about the business of baseball. It’s a story about the women who make up 45% of all baseball fans. And it’s a story about MLB-licensed merchandise made for and marketed to those female fans.
Revenue generated from the sale of MLB-licensed gear goes directly to the league’s “central fund” and is shared equally by all 30 teams. This includes sales of all MLB-licensed products at ballparks, team-sponsored stores and online at MLB.com. Every T-shirt, every baseball cap, every sweatshirt, every key chain, every everything with an MLB team logo benefits the fund and, in turn, every franchise.
This is a story about the diversity of interests and tastes among women baseball fans. For myself, and my 9-year-old daughter, I prefer women’s and girls’ cut clothing in traditional team colors. We are Giants fans. That means lots of orange, black, grey and white T-shirts, sweatshirts and the like. I don’t like pink baseball gear. Or “PINK” baseball gear — the brand MLB cross-markets with Victoria’s Secret. Nor do I like rhinestones or sequins on my Giants shirts.
How Much Time the Pitchers Took
More than anyone else on staff, and possibly more than anyone else on the planet, I like to look at and think about pitcher Pace. I’ve written about it here on several occasions, because watchability is a major concern of mine. Of course we just want there to be baseball, but if we all had our druthers, there would more consistently be entertaining baseball, and Pace plays a part in determining entertainment value. There are times when it’s better for things to slow down, allowing tension to build. More often, we’d rather a guy go faster than slower.
As is, though, Pace is expressed in seconds. By definition, Pace is the average amount of time between each pitch, and while we can see major differences at either extreme, we’re still thinking about it in terms of seconds. Seconds feel insignificant. Drink a glass of water. That took you several seconds, assuming you followed my order. You’ll feel like it took you no time at all. Now drink several glasses of water. Practically drown yourself with water! That took you longer, assuming you followed my order again for some stupid reason.
A Kyle Lohse Back-and-Forth
Below, a back-and-forth.
Jeff Sullivan
Michael Bourn finally got signed, right before the start of spring training. Bourn’s signing leaves only Kyle Lohse among available free agents of consequence. Lohse, of course, is going to sign somewhere eventually, if only because spring training means starting pitchers will get hurt, but it’s hard to identify a destination, as no one’s — publicly — a sweepstakes favorite.
A big problem is that people don’t seem to trust Kyle Lohse. Another big problem, and maybe a bigger problem, is that Lohse was extended a qualifying offer, meaning he’d cost a signing team a draft pick. Teams this offseason have been highly protective of their draft picks, and the Mets, for example, decided they’d rather have a first-round pick than Michael Bourn. I’m curious, then, about a Kyle Lohse hypothetical. Let’s say that Lohse were available at the league minimum for the cost of a first-round draft pick. He’s not, presumably, but: would you do it? In other words, how highly do you value that early selection?
Chad Cordero Signs a Minor League Deal
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim signed Chad Cordero to a minor league deal, and Cordero tweeted, “comeback has officially begun.” The 30-year old right-hander — amazingly he’s still just 30 years old — hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 9 2/3 innings in 2010, and hasn’t pitched a full season in the majors since 2007, which is when he recorded his last save. He announced his retirement in 2011, which came after 128 saves in Montreal and Washington, then shoulder surgery in 2008, three subsequent years of rehab, and the death of his daughter, Tehya, in 2010 due to SIDS. Now he’s trying to make it back to the majors.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Potential Marlins Park Park Factor Factor
It took almost no time at all for Marlins Park to develop a pitcher-friendly reputation. Its debut saw a number of long fly balls drop dead in the outfield, and of course, plenty of people were watching. Among those watching were the players participating in the game, and here’s Lance Berkman:
“It’s the biggest ballpark in the game,” Berkman said. “It’s huge. If they don’t move the fences in after this year, I’d be surprised.”
To my knowledge, the Marlins haven’t yet touched the fences. But Berkman’s was a popular sentiment, and indeed, in Marlins games last season, there were 113 home dingers, and 157 away dingers. One can conclude only so much from a single season of play, but the early evidence is that Marlins Park takes long fly balls and spits on them. The way it played in that regard mirrors the way it looks like it should play. It’s meaningful when the numbers match the expectations.
The Rise of the John Lackey Clause
When the Red Sox signed John Lackey as a free agent in December of 2009, they had some concern about an existing elbow injury, but not enough concern to walk away from the deal entirely. So, they (or maybe his agent) came up with a pretty creative solution, adding a league minimum club option to the end of the deal if Lackey missed significant time due to an elbow issue. Sure enough, Lackey’s elbow became problematic, and after the 2011 season, he underwent Tommy John surgery and spent the entire 2012 season on the DL, triggering the club option for 2015.
As a result, the Red Sox now own the rights to Lackey’s 2015 season at a salary of around $500,000. Given the recovery rates of Tommy John survivors, it’s quite possible that Lackey could still be a useful pitcher in a couple of years, even at 36-years-old. If he rebounds and becomes something like an average starting pitcher, that option could end up holding $10 to $15 million in value, which wouldn’t quite make up for the fact that the Red Sox paid Lackey $15.25 million to spend last year rehabbing, but it would certainly help balance the scales.
Well, it seems like that contract stipulation might be gaining in popularity. Yesterday, Felix Hernandez signed his seven year, $175 million contract with the Mariners, and it included a stipulation that might very well come to be known as The John Lackey clause.
