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January 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Mark Shapiro confirmed he is not the guy to finish the Indians' rebuilding process by signing Trot Nixon to a one year, three million dollar deal. Nothing against Trot Nixon, other than he is old, in a his decline that appears to have a severe power drop off, and can really only hit right handed pitching. However, the Indians have no need of Trot Nixon's services as they have a much younger and cheaper right fielder in Shin-Soo Chin, who will almost certainly outperform Nixon. The signing only accomplishes taking plate appearances away from other hitters, namely Choo and Garko.
Of course, Shapiro might have some sort of deal in the works that necessitates Nixon being around, but unless Shapiro found a way to neatly package Jason Michaels and Casey Blake for some passes to a titty bar, any future deal probably will be detrimental to the Indians, especially if Choo is involved. No, Choo is not the next coming of Manny Ramirez, but Choo is very young and very inexpensive. As of now, the Indians have a three million dollar bookend crowding the Twenty-Five Man Roster to complete the match Shapiro's other garage sale signing in David Dellucci. Dellucci and Nixon might make for a fine, but old left field platoon, but with Blake and Michaels around, you have a foursome of mediocrity that would terrorize the putting greens of any country club across the land.
If Shapiro can get rid of Blake and Michaels, which I highly doubt he will be able to do, then I'll eat all these words with a healthy portion of Stadium Mustard, even though my supplies are running a bit low. However, this appears to be the type of signing Shapiro can't resist --- the declining veteran who once impressed Shapiro in a more innocent time. Remember Brady Anderson? Alex Cora? Aaron Boone? Juan Gonzalez? (who thankfully had the decency to hurt himself so the Grady Sizemore era could begin).
Shapiro has not been exactly wise with the money that he has been allowed to spend. He signed Bob Wickman to an extension that allowed the Fat Man to purchase a Hometown Buffet for every finer and a few toes. Matt Lawton was paid an obscene amount. With The Hardball Times 2007 Annual breaks down teams spending in terms of contract status (FA, Arb, Non-Arb) with Net Win Shares Value, which essentially estimates the"expected" production from a player based on how he was signed (as a free agent, arbitration-eligible or not eligible for arbitration) and how much he was paid, and then compares that to how he actually did. A positive number is a good thing, a negative number is bad. One note -- the contract status isn't just for what happened last offseason; it is based on service time. Check out the Indians' last year:
Non Arb ARB FA Total
+25,858,000 +8,469,000 -9,544,000 +24,782,000
The Indians did pretty well with their Non Arb and Arb guys, ninth in the majors in both, but were in the negative for Free Agents, meaning overall,.For a reference point, the Marlins and the Twins were the best in Non Arb with +52,382,000 and +48,705,000 respectively. Only the Devil Rays managed a negative number in Non Arb. Fourteen teams managed a negative in Arb, so compared to the rest of baseball, the Indians did fine with their Arb guys. The Diamondbacks had the best Arb compilation with +26,725,000. The Indians were 19th in FA, which isn't good, although the Yankees, who were the worst with -20,890,000, were over twice as bad. The White Sox received the most bang for their free agent buck with a +23,157,000.
Here are the Tribe's leaders on both ends of the spectrum:
Best Worst
Hafner +12,012,000 Byrd -3,030,000
Sizemore +9,478,000 Boone -2,425,000
Martinez +4,785,000 Michaels -2,392,000
Lee +3,775,000 Johnson -2,374,000
Shapiro tripped on his shrinking male appendage with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the right.
Blake was a -799,000 while Broussard was a +1,428. Sowers was a +3,679,000, Peralta a +1,645,000, and Westbrook a +1,674,000.
Anyway, now that Reds (and Blues) is running smoothly, and Shapiro is intent on taking an ice pick to the team, I should be posting here with more frequency.
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Smitten Shapiro Signs Another Vet
Of course, Shapiro might have some sort of deal in the works that necessitates Nixon being around, but unless Shapiro found a way to neatly package Jason Michaels and Casey Blake for some passes to a titty bar, any future deal probably will be detrimental to the Indians, especially if Choo is involved. No, Choo is not the next coming of Manny Ramirez, but Choo is very young and very inexpensive. As of now, the Indians have a three million dollar bookend crowding the Twenty-Five Man Roster to complete the match Shapiro's other garage sale signing in David Dellucci. Dellucci and Nixon might make for a fine, but old left field platoon, but with Blake and Michaels around, you have a foursome of mediocrity that would terrorize the putting greens of any country club across the land.
If Shapiro can get rid of Blake and Michaels, which I highly doubt he will be able to do, then I'll eat all these words with a healthy portion of Stadium Mustard, even though my supplies are running a bit low. However, this appears to be the type of signing Shapiro can't resist --- the declining veteran who once impressed Shapiro in a more innocent time. Remember Brady Anderson? Alex Cora? Aaron Boone? Juan Gonzalez? (who thankfully had the decency to hurt himself so the Grady Sizemore era could begin).
Shapiro has not been exactly wise with the money that he has been allowed to spend. He signed Bob Wickman to an extension that allowed the Fat Man to purchase a Hometown Buffet for every finer and a few toes. Matt Lawton was paid an obscene amount. With The Hardball Times 2007 Annual breaks down teams spending in terms of contract status (FA, Arb, Non-Arb) with Net Win Shares Value, which essentially estimates the"expected" production from a player based on how he was signed (as a free agent, arbitration-eligible or not eligible for arbitration) and how much he was paid, and then compares that to how he actually did. A positive number is a good thing, a negative number is bad. One note -- the contract status isn't just for what happened last offseason; it is based on service time. Check out the Indians' last year:
Non Arb ARB FA Total
+25,858,000 +8,469,000 -9,544,000 +24,782,000
The Indians did pretty well with their Non Arb and Arb guys, ninth in the majors in both, but were in the negative for Free Agents, meaning overall,.For a reference point, the Marlins and the Twins were the best in Non Arb with +52,382,000 and +48,705,000 respectively. Only the Devil Rays managed a negative number in Non Arb. Fourteen teams managed a negative in Arb, so compared to the rest of baseball, the Indians did fine with their Arb guys. The Diamondbacks had the best Arb compilation with +26,725,000. The Indians were 19th in FA, which isn't good, although the Yankees, who were the worst with -20,890,000, were over twice as bad. The White Sox received the most bang for their free agent buck with a +23,157,000.
Here are the Tribe's leaders on both ends of the spectrum:
Best Worst
Hafner +12,012,000 Byrd -3,030,000
Sizemore +9,478,000 Boone -2,425,000
Martinez +4,785,000 Michaels -2,392,000
Lee +3,775,000 Johnson -2,374,000
Shapiro tripped on his shrinking male appendage with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the right.
Blake was a -799,000 while Broussard was a +1,428. Sowers was a +3,679,000, Peralta a +1,645,000, and Westbrook a +1,674,000.
Anyway, now that Reds (and Blues) is running smoothly, and Shapiro is intent on taking an ice pick to the team, I should be posting here with more frequency.
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This entry has 3 comments: (Add your own)
-
>>but this is one year, $3MM of Dolan's money guaranteed.<<<
It was an uneccessary move. Choo should outperform Nixon, so why make the move unless the intention is to replace Michaels, which is what Dellucci is supposed to do?
>>> Choo's not going anywhere, and when Nixon's knee/back/goiter starts acting up in June he'll go on the DL and Choo will be back up.<<<
He shouldn't be back down to begin with. You don't sign an inferior injury prone player because you have a better guy who can eventually replace him when he gets hurt. If you are banking on Nixon getting hurt, why bother signing him?
>>>If Nixon hits, where's the downside?<<<
Choo, who is a viable option for the future, doesn't play so Shapiro's vet can.
>>>Replacing Boone and Belliard with Marte and Barfield fixes the first problem,<<<
Right. Those were good moves, although Barfield's celing isn't that high.
>>> and we only need a couple of the bullpen signees to work out in order to have a vastly improved pen<<<
That is a pretty big if.
>>>(they're very limited-length deals for minimal money <<<
LF needed to be improved. RF did not. Dellucci hepled improve LF, which made the Nixon signing unecessary.
>>>and who exactly would you rather the money was spent on?<<<
Locking up guys long term, starting pitching (with more money), or not spending it at all. It was spending just to spend with no real improvement for the team. -
Come on JP. If this were a multi-year deal I'd be every bit as pissed off about it as you, but this is one year, $3MM of Dolan's money guaranteed. Choo's not going anywhere, and when Nixon's knee/back/goiter starts acting up in June he'll go on the DL and Choo will be back up.
My only concern, and it is a pretty big one, is that Wedge will stick with Nixon no matter what, giving him time to "work into shape" or whatever they said about Jason Johnson last year while he was losing games. If Nixon hits, where's the downside? If he doesn't hit, provided they cut bait quickly I don't see what the problem is.
I think Shapiro's done a pretty good job this offseason. He had a good team with two major flaws -- infield defense and a craptastic bullpen. Replacing Boone and Belliard with Marte and Barfield fixes the first problem, and we only need a couple of the bullpen signees to work out in order to have a vastly improved pen -- again, provided Wedge/Shapiro cut bait quickly on any of the ones that aren't working out. The Dellucci/Michaels/Nixon signings weren't exactly a work of art, but they certainly didn't hamstring the team going forward (they're very limited-length deals for minimal money and we still have all of those outfield bats in the minors, none of whom are exactly the second coming of manny ramirez anyway) and who exactly would you rather the money was spent on?
1/26/07 8:15 AM
Ding ding ding.
The smart money is to extend Hafner & CC right now, which would necessitate some rather large signing bonuses.
It doesnt sound like much in todays terms, but 3 million up front could make a difference.