Spitball
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Everything posted by Spitball
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How could Baker have undermined his team at that point? When the Rolen decided to come back, the Reds had already reached or exceded their budget for 2013. Jocketty had Frazier and Donald in place as the third basemen. It was Jocketty's job to put the roster together and Baker's job to manage them. We are not talking about the Dodgers, Angels, Yankees, or Red Sox here. Forbes Magazine recently ranked them 24th in team value. They have to play their own form of Money Ball. From 2004 through 2011, the Reds ranked 12th, 13th or 14th in N.L in attendance. Jocketty, who built winning teams in St. Louis, is doing pretty well in Cincinnati with a very limited budget. Baker's job is to manage the players he has been given and not to mingle in Jocketty's job which he does well. Rolen would never have signed a minor league deal and would have been foolish to have signed a discount for Cincinnati when there are other options out there. This story is about money and not about Baker's desires.
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Fred, Fred, Fred, you are asking us to believe your word over Dusty Baker's. That doesn't make sense. No, this isn't a fact. A fact can be looked up for varification. You are making this up. In fact, if you even bothered to look it up, you would know Baker had nothing to do with Rolen coming back. As I said before, it was between Walt Jocketty and Rolen. Rolen announced his retirement and the Reds went on and reached budget. When Rolen changed his mind. It was too late...and you can look that up on Google.
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Fred, you are absolutely making this one up...and that absolutely isn't fair. Dusty Baker is not the reason Scott Rolen is not returning to Cincinnati. It had to do with Rolen's timing and budget restraints. Rolen waited too long to decide to come back. The smaller market Reds have to watch their payroll closely. Rolen's contract was off the books. The Reds then signed Joey Votto to an Adrian Gonzalez-like contract and extended Brandon Phillips to a big contract. The Reds now have their budget at nearly $75 million. By the time Rolen decided to come back, the Reds could't afford him and had acquired Jack Hannahan to back up Todd Frazier who was third in the Rookie of the Year voting. Dusty Baker is not the dictator that Larry Bowa was. He may have an ego like LaRussa, but he is a players' manager and prefers veterans to young players. Baker obviously is supportive of the franchise's choice to go with the talented and inexpensive Frazier, but he did not decide against Scott Rolen.
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I agree, Dojji. He won't hold up for 162 games at this point, but he would bring a great glove and leadership to the Red Sox' bench.
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Any young player should be looking over his shoulder. Let him work his butt off to keep his job. Honestly, I doubt Rolen will sign with Boston. He wants to start, and the Sox have a starting third baseman. I just want it to be clear that Rolen is not a negative player. Anyone who has followed baseball knows this. He is a boarderline Hall of Famer who has clashed with two managers who have a history of issues with players.
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Sorry but this is an uninformed post. Scott Rolen has a strong personality and leadership skills. He clashed with Bowa and LaRussa because they were both dictitorial jerk managers who resented and feared his leadership. When Walt Jocketty left St. Louis for Cincinnati, he went after Rolen to bring leadership to that franchise which is now one of the strongest in the NL. Joey Votto has spoken volumes about Rolen including this resent comment, " He changed my path as a player. He was a shining example of the type of player I want to be because of how quiet he was and how consistently respected he was throughout baseball." If Rolen is willing to accept a bench role, he would be a great addition.
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I am all for the patient approach. That does not mean the batter should avoid swinging at the first pitch...which is often the best pitch he will see.
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Former Red Sox that played for the Yankees
Spitball replied to kgsmith's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
Sparky Lyle was a big one. Also, Lou Clinton, Ken Brett, Elston Howard (Yankees to Red Sox), and Bartolo Colon. -
I don't know what Rolen is looking for at this point. Apparently, he was wanting to return to Cincinnati but not as Todd Frazier's back up. The Reds wanted him back because he has great leadership skills and is still a very good defender. He just had to be willing to take a bench role to return to the Reds...which he wouldn't accept. It might be that Rolen felt third base in Cincinnati was his position, but the Reds wanted to go on with their future which would be Todd Frazier. Maybe Rolen would be willing to accept the back up role with a different team. By the way, I'd love to see Rolen in Boston. He was a great third baseman. I have seen the great Brooks Robinson, Clete Boyer, Mike Schmidt, but believe Rolen was the best defensive third baseman ever.
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:thumbsup:
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I read your post incorrectly. I can't imagine why the second baseman would be cheating towards the bag with a left handed batter up. The first baseman will try to hold the runner until the last possible moment to keep him from getting too good a jump. I'll have to watch for this.
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As has been mentioned, there are some variables to account for in a700's scenario. The abilities (speed of base runners, type of batter) of the players and the pitcher are factors. Also, a visiting team will defend differently than the home team. A visiting team does not want give up the tying run or obviously the winning run, so they will guard the lines as Jung mentioned to try to prevent the extra base hit. They also want to prevent the runners from getting great jumps and thus taking extra bases. With no out and a poor hitter/good bunter up, ther the visiting team also has to watch for the possibilty of both runners being sacrificed into scoring position with one out. If I am managing the home team with a two run lead, the defense is going for outs and avoiding a big inning. I play for the double play and don't worry about the opponents scoring a run. Even if they score runs, my team has a chance to bat again.
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There was a relief pitcher discussion on another thread, and I think Bellhorn04 had a good idea. There are a lot of strategy discussions to be had. The use of set up men and closers, stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, the shift, line up construction, etc. Anyone want to start?
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Oops! That was a typo. He was errorles in his last 17 games. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=middlwi01&t=f&year= He did make 7 errors in his first 41 and 2 more before going errorless in his last 17 games. Sorry about the carelessness, but he did show marked improvement.
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This is kind of rambling, but I believe you are saying that it does not matter when quality relief pitchers are used. Is that corrcect? I believe that the manager should be responsible for determining when is the best strategic situation for the best relief pitcher to face the best batters in order to win a given game. If the manager decides his best relief pitcher should just face the last three batters (even if they are the 7, 8, and 9). then he is avoiding a strategic decision.
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I believe Tony LaRussa is guilty of creating the closer role. Why? In my honest and unbiased opinion,LaRussa was one of the most egotistical managers in the history of baseball. He was afraid of being second guessed (see Whitey Herzog's book You are Missing a Great Game). The closer role took the responsibility for the 9th inning away from the manager and straight onto the closer appointed with the responsibility of closing the game. It was a brilliant idea if you want to take the responsibility for strategy away from the manager. Closers rarely pitch with runners on base. Shouldn't the best relief pitcher be used in the strategic opportunities when runners are on base and the best batters are coming to the plate? The term "Fireman" from the 1960s was born because the best reliever (see Dick Radatz) was brought in to stop a rally (fire) and not to simply end a game against any three batters.
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As I and others have said before, he made 9 errors in his first 56 games but none in his last 47 games. I believe he worked through his early problems.
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Please elaborate. I have witnessed a lot of third basemen. I have coached and played third base. Scott Rolen was easily the best I have witnessed, and he basically threw side arm. The same could be said for Buddy Bell who was a superior thid baseman. Mike Schmidt was great defensively and threw 3/4 and side arm much of the time. The key is not the arm slot but the footwork before the throw.
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Right. He is being underrated defensively here. After a very good defensive career in the minors, he started out slowly defensively in the major leagues. He made 9 errors in his first 56 games but none in his last 47 games.
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Of course I read your post. I posted the links to three players because you posted the entire roster which was misleading. Eight players is misleading because three players, Seager, Pena, and Robinson, barely played for the team. That said, what is the difference? He had a very good season at Tacoma which is better than having an average or bad season. No one is suggesting Mike Carp will be a star in Boston. He is nothing more than a left handed component to balance out Gomes and Napoli. He is a better option than Oversby.
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Pena played in 13 games with Tacoma, Langerhans 57, and Robinson 3. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=pena--002wil http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=langer001rya http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=robins001tra The PCL is a hitters' league and the stats do have to be viewed from that perspective. But...I really can't fault Carp for having a good season no matter what.
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Wily Mo Pena played 13 games for Tacoma in 2011. Of those other players OPSing over .900, Trayvon Robinson played three games for Tacoma and Kyle Seager played 24.
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Thanks, Lucienbel. Keep us posted.
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Information on the great Teddy Ballgame
Spitball replied to RedSoxfanforlife305's topic in Boston Red Sox Talk
Legend has it that in the off season of 1947, Tom Yawkey and Yankee GM Lee MacPhail were drinking heavily at the baseball meetings and agreed to trade Ted Williams for Joe DiMaggio and prospect Yogi Berra. When MacPhail sobered up, he refused to add Berra and the deal fell through...according to legend.
