Dumbbutt Media 2009

Really, this isn't complicated for the Giants.

Their decision-making process about making a serious contract pitch to Manny Ramirez should take about five seconds.

And the process should go this way:

"Uh. No. Thanks."

All right, so maybe that was only three seconds.

And it only gets better.

Wait is this dumb or smart? Cuz not giving Manny the insane contract he's asking for seems pretty bright to me.

Rest of that article is pretty dumb.

I don't care if it takes 3 years, $50 million to sign Manny, I want a no-fielding, headache of a LFer who can bop, ergo it is a dumb article even if the bottom-line thesis is correct (and I want to dispute that).

Well then maybe you are a dumbbutt.

Ben Schwartz (not the dummy) on those who have been alerting Cub fans about the Ticking Time Bomb: http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=15144

How many players have thrown a punch at an opponent or teammate, thrown baseballs at opponents, or have charged a mound while Milton Bradley has been a major league baseball player? Are they considered detonated time bombs? Have they turned their lives around? What if it had been Bradley, not John Lackey, who said "... I want to throw somebody through a wall"? How many tantrums has Bradley thrown compared to, say, Jonathan Papelbon?

lol @ this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3816473&name=Neyer_Rob

never liked rickey but wtf corky

HoustonGM wrote on Jan 2, 2009 5:22 PM:
" lol hey I am HoustonGM from baseball mogul forums! How can youi gnore Ricky Henderson????? Dont you realize that his OPS was 87% higher than any other player in the 1980's! He was also the houston GM MVP 8 times in the 1980's! This is a travesty! His PLORG and VIPSA ratings should get him in alone! "

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/moore/entries/2009/01/07/andruw_good_fit_for_braves.html

oh terencemoorepaws

that's pretty reasonable by his standards tho, and they could do worse than sign andruw to a minor league deal - tons of OF talent marinating in the system so u can't really sign a guy to anything long term, but it couldnt hurt to kick the tires~~~

hey, Nationals fans!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/01/dibble_replaces_sutton_in_boot.html

"Mets fans have been clamoring for Ramirez, but if GM Omar Minaya spends $10 million a year on a three-year deal for pitcher Oliver Perez -- another Boras client -- that will swell the payroll to the $140 million area. With that kind of financial outlay, the Mets can live with Fernando Tatis and Daniel Murphy in left field. "

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3872014

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

as we know, "financial outlay" is what the Ws stand for

how a club would not want manny ramirez on their team fucking baffles me

dude has ninth best OPS of all time

Brewers, for example, have 1) no more money and 2) no bathroom hidden in left-field wall

not having money obv. is abt the only reasonable explanation for not wanting him

not wanting him on his/boras' terms being the other, of course.

he pulled quite the stunt to get himself out of Boston - i'm sure that has to be a factor with alot of teams too.

The stunt he pulled was playing 20 games in July and being the best hitter on the team over that period of time. He must've been pretty annoying behind the scenes, because his on-field performance did not merit criticism.

threatening to be "injured" unless you get your way is a pretty douchey thing to do weather you hit .300 or .200.

ya i dunno i think this basically illustrates a divide b/w fans (and GMs too). i've always been one of those ppl who thinks team chemistry (while certainly something to look out for) is kinda overrated and a stupid lazy trope of journalists, and can take a back seat to production. i mean manny's been one of the best and most consistent hitters this decade, and glancing quickly at his B-R page, his last season was considerably better than his average (HOF-worthy) season. he's 36 i think, so he's got a few great years left in him, and he's totally worth any money a club could afford to pay him.

btw hay guys im kevin. i used to be super into baseball but i didnt follow last season as hardcore as usual. i wanna be back in the swing of things this season tho. im a yankees fan btw (sorry)

He's also a lousy fielder and is purportedly asking for silly money and years.

ok tbh i have not been keeping up on my manny news. i would give him 3 years and maybe a club option for a fourth...what is he asking for?

and ya he's a below average fielder, but i'd still sacrifice that for his offense. dude played 153 games last year too, which is a good sign health-wise. plus he might be a better fit for an AL club; he'd be a great DH.

whats a fucking site at which i can find shit like a player's stats for the last three years? baseball-ref is great but i dont feel like working out averages right now

he wants 4-5 years at $25m per

ya no way is he getting 5 years. he might get a four year deal but it would have to be incentive-laden at the end imo

There is no way he's getting (or should get) $25m guaranteed no matter how many years. The idea that he would get that kind of money into his 40s is just a joke. He's an offensive force, no doubt, but again he gives a lot of that value back with his glove and he's not getting any younger.

curious case of manny ramirez

no but i agree w/ u. 25 a year is a LOT for a dude who's 36, as freakishly productive as he still is.

Esp when you have Pat the Bat fucking up the pay scale for corner OFs with horrid defense. Im sure there was wailing and gnashing of teeth at the agents of Abreu and Dunn when that contract got signed.

if boras does get him anything like that white whale of a contract, that would solidify his status as the babe ruth of agents

I can understand GMs being reluctant to sign him for more than 2, esp in the NL.

(however, the fucking Mets have the resources to give him a 'Yankeestyle' extra year given the alternative risk of flaming out yet again in the new park)

(however, the fucking Mets have the resources to give him a 'Yankeestyle' extra year given the alternative risk of upcoming flaminge out yet again in the new park)

idk dude, i wouldnt bet against manny putting up .310/35/.950. it's like the fucking sun rising in the east

the flameout is directed at the mets themselves. manny will never die.

oh no doubt

"idk dude, i wouldnt bet against manny putting up .310/35/.950. it's like the fucking sun rising in the east"

Except he didn't put up though numbers two years ago and he's two years older now so. . .

I really should remind myself never to read Joe Sheehan.

hmmm, he and Neyer just agreed that Ryan Howard is most overrated player. T/F?

i mean yeah, sure, with the caveat that 'most overrated' is a dumb conversation to get in to.

the Wisdom of Chat Questions

what are you referring to, alex

wow, i had no idea howard had a .339 OBP last year. power numbers were still there of course

.294 against lefties!

Just his moronic conservatism mostly.

yeah some of this dude's splits are just 0_o. i get being weaker against lefties obviously, but he's positively mediocre against them.

Uh try completely awful. Mediocre players usually get on base 30% of the time.

4. Andre Ethier, Dodgers: Six walk-off hits led league.

dying at the reasoning

Howard is underrated because he has the highest CONTACT-TO-DAMAGE RATIO -- not an actual stat, OK, but something valued by real baseball people who actually WATCH THE GAMES WITH THEIR OWN EYES instead of looking at laptops all day long.

i'm shocked that yorvit torrealba isn't sixth on that ballot, what with his clutch rbi double in game 4

ryan howard isn't even the second most valuable first baseman in the NL

is he even the mvp of the phils?

NL LVP (Least Valuable Player)

Milton Bradley, Cubs: Alfonso Soriano (20 HRs, 55 RBIs, .241) and Geovany Soto (positive test for pot, .218 batting average) were dreadful, as well. But Bradley was asked to leave the team for the final two weeks. Tough to top that.

oh my god

fuckin idiot

haha god i totally missed that

POT?!

wkiw soto

ffs

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9710

When Sheehan tries to be Roger Kahn he really is one of the most insufferable writers on the planet. He's been doing a lot more of this dewy fandom/"love of the game" crap over the past few months, and I'm pretty sure it's because he's trying to stump for future BBWAA membership (i.e. moreso after Kahrl/Neyer/Law/Carroll were let in).

A-Rod commanding World Series stage
- After slow start, Yankees slugger now an RBI machine -

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091103&content_id=7611436&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

-----------------------
So A-Rod's hitting .222 (only 4 hits in the first 5 games of the WS), has 7 Ks vs. 1 BB, plus an error. His OBP is being propped up by all the HBPs. Yet he is commanding the WS stage? Who writes this garbage?

His OBP is being propped up by all the HBPs.

The centaurian frame leads to more HBPs. Is that his fault?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/dysign/ilx/mylittlearod.jpg

wakeboarder hates BA and Billy Beane

On three of the four occasions in which Teixeira reached base via a hit, a walk or a hit batsman in Philadelphia, he scored. On all three occasions, Rodriguez delivered a hit behind him, twice personally driving Teixeira home. So defined by his postseason limitations in the past, Rodriguez has spent this autumn making a mockery of them.

"Alex has had an uncanny ability to every time I draw a walk or I do get one hit a game, he drives me in," Teixeira said. "It's unbelievable. I get hit by a pitch, he drives me in. I get a walk, he drives me in. I hit a double, he drives me in. He's just been doing a great job of picking me up all series."

Saddle up, Teix.

Maybe not the closest fit thread-wise for this, but I sorta chuckled at the Japan episode of No Reservations (presumably a re-run last night), where Bourdain was explaining the difference between the US and Japan styles of baseball and cited Japan's love for the "sacrifice bunt to load the bases."

Teixeira's silver lining of batting half the Mendoza line in probably the only WS he'll ever play in is: Getting driven in by @imacentaur straddling the Mendoza.

"in probably the only WS he'll ever play in"

Being Yankee haters may be the last thing that unites us, but that's some joke.

current yankees lineup entering next season (not accounting for the likely departure of one or two players, obv):

jeter - 35
damon - 36
teixeira - 29
a-rod - 34
cano - 27
matsui - 35
posada - 38
swisher - 29
melky - 25 (thought he was older)

kinda hoping (against hope?) that there are major declines due to age and/or regressions back to the mean.

matsui won't be back

I wonder if they'll have the revenue to go buy some new guys?

ppl have been expecting yanqui age regression for past several years unfortunately :(

ya. the one things that makes me sort of want the yanks to win the ws is the fear that if they don't it well set off another unprecedented spending spree.

xpost - i was one of those this year :s

: (

This age regression thing isn't some fantasy -- are we forgetting that the Yankees didn't make the playoffs last year thanks to a combination of injuries and guys having down years?

john lackey, matt holliday

and Figgins.

i really really really would love for the J's to get him (Chone).

yeah but as a whole the posada/jeter/pettite/rivera group is still going strong

really wondering how much chone is going to get on the market

do that same age table for the pitching staff and you'll see what i mean.

let's not forget Posada's 08 season. it looked like he might not have been able to catch anymore for a bit!

yeah but as a whole the posada/jeter/pettite/rivera group is still going strong

guys remember there is no test for HGH still! the only way they got Pettite was through his stupid mailing address and credit cards.

no doubt dudes are buying locally via middlemen with cash so there's no trace of purchase.

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/11/10/bradleys-buzz-vazquez-could-be-going-but-i-bet-he-stays/

A small-market team with a young slugger — say Arizona and Mark Reynolds, who isn’t an outfielder but who does bat righty and hit homers when not striking out — isn’t going to trade that guy for a 32-year-old pitcher who makes $11 million and is about to become a free agent. The trade suitor would have to be a big-market club in search of a starting pitcher to push it to the top. Like maybe the Dodgers.

If you can get Matt Kemp for Vazquez, you do it. Kemp fits the profile: He bats righty, plays center field and drove in 101 runs. But I can’t see the Dodgers giving up a 24-year-old cornerstone for a pitcher who might be a one-year rental. (There’s another Dodger who plays the outfield, bats right-handed and could be available. But he’s scheduled to make $20 million in 2010. So forget Manny Ramirez.)

Yeah, those are pipe dream deals.

But maybe if Atlanta throws in a young hitter in return, since the D's want pitching.

that's like a team message board trade.

i spent the last two days trying (failing) to explain to someone on the J's boards that the Phils would never give up 5 of their top prospects for Halladay (and two bullpen arms) at this point.

i don't know what i was doing there in the first place tbh.

http://www.murraychass.com/?p=1177

When the Toronto Blue Jays named Alex Anthopoulos their new general manager last month, the inclination was to think that they couldn’t get out of the statistically-oriented rut their departing general manager, J.P. Ricciardi had put them in. Anthopoulos, after all, had been Ricciardi’s assistant and was 32 years old. All those young new general managers practiced statistically-oriented baseball, didn’t they?

But then came word from Omar Minaya, the New York Mets’ general manager, who gave Anthopoulos his first job in baseball with the Montreal Expos in 2002.

“He’s not from a statistics background,” Minaya said. “He’s from an evaluation background.”

What refreshing news, at least to these ears. Baseball has become divided into two camps in recent years, the teams that continue to rely on scouts and their evaluation of players and those that base personnel decisions on statistics. I’m old-fashioned and I would sooner trust scouts’ eyes and judgments than numbers disgorged from a computer.

I’m old-fashioned and I would sooner trust scouts’ eyes and judgments than numbers disgorged from a computer.

numbers disgorged from a computer.

from a computer.

He's 32 years old, but I guess his scout eyes must be keen.

I wonder what orifice Murray Chass disgorged that column from.

A.J. Burnett escaped Toronto and won a World Series in his first season in pinstripes.

wow. "escaped"? it's a (roughly) .500 ball club not a fucking high security penitentiary. it's not like the douche bag was shackled and forced to pitch for them or anything. fuck this writer.

What the fuck, Rick Reilly is a Sportscenter anchor now?! UGGGGH

it is in canada though