Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.



- Barry Bonds signs a one-year deal to go back to the Giants. I had hoped that Bonds would be unemployed. Now I'm left to hope one of three things happens - Bonds gets hurt and doesn't break Henry Aaron's record; Bonds gets sent to jail and can't play because he perjured himself; or Bonds can't pass his physical.

- There's a rumored deal that would send Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli to the Braves for pitcher Chuck James. It seems like an even deal but I'm not sure if I like it from the Braves perspective. James is the "prospect" but he's actually a year older than Baldelli. However, James still has five more seasons until he can be a free agent. On the other hand - acquiring Baldelli frees up the Braves to make a mega trade involving Andruw Jones.

- Tom Verducci said last winter that the trade of Mark Lorreta from the Padres to the Red Sox in exchange for Doug Mirabelli was the worst trade of that off season (bad for rhe Padres). However, San Diego later turned around and traded Mirabelli back to Boston for Josh Bard (who hit .338 for the Padres) and Cla Meredith (who is just 23-years old and who had a 1.07 ERS in 45 games last season). Which may mean the moral of the story is that it is not always possible to judge a deal right away.

- Two thoughts on the Gil Meche signing - yes it was an awful signing - too much money for a mediocre pitcher. However, consider that much of that money very well could be traced back to the luxury tax money the Royals got from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox who were overspending before overspending was popular. Secondly - I would be curious how the Meche deal is structured. If it is backended - then the Royals could very well get two productive years out of Mech before trading him before the trade deadline. If the actual deal is Meche for two years at $8-9 million per year and then flip him for some prospects - this this could turn into a very good deal for the Royals. Of course this still represents a very big risk for the Royals.

- Now that I pointed out a potential silver lining on the Gil Meche deal - let me point out that David Ortiz was signed by the Red Sox last April to a 4-year extension worth $52 million. The Royals will be paying more to Meche than the Red Sox will be paying Ortiz. Wrap your brain around that one for a minute.

- One little nugget regading the Dodgers signing Luis Gonzalez to a one year deal - the Dodgers can now play two players in the outfield who went to the University of South Alabama (Gonzalez and Juan Pierre). In fact it is possible that the Dodgers could play Marlon Anderson in the outfield in order to have an all University of South Alabama oufield. The only other U of South Alabama alumni in MLB is Jon Lieber but look out for Blue Jay slugger Adam Lind who could someday challenge Gonzalez for the most HR in MLB history by a player who went to the University of South Alabama.