Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

There was a heavyweight title fight last night. Did anyone notice?... The fact that Mike Cameron has more career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) that Kirby Puckett shows how flawed any stat can be. How many people who saw both players in real life would have pegged Cameron as the better player? Zero maybe? Yet you can make that argument using WAR. Lies, damned lies and statistics... I wonder if Harvard is selling Jeremy Lin jerseys in their bookstore. I would think that would be a big seller...  As a Red Sox fan - I would laugh my ass off if AJ Burnett flunked the physical for the Pirates and had to return to the Yankees. Please God make it so... The highest unemployment rate under President George W. Bush was 7.7% and he was crucified for it. The unemployment rate under President Obama has been over 8% basically his whole time in office. When does President Obama get held responsible for that?... FWIW - Casey Blake has a career batting average of .311 and an OPS of .999 in 103 plate appearances at Coors Field. He could be a sleeper at 3rd base if you play fantasy baseball... On this day in 1980 - Bon Scott the lead singer for AC/DC passed away. He was 34. His death remains one of the great "what might have been" moments in rock history.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

June has been very good to the Red Sox. Jacoby Ellsbury has a hit in every game in June so far. He is 19 for 44 (.432) in that span raising season average to .317 from .292... Interesting phone call between President John Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis and potential nuclear war... It still blows my mind that Ronald Reagan was the original choice to play Rick Blaine in the classic Casablanca... June has been very good to the Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez has at least 1 RBI in 8 straight games (12 RBI total in those 8 games)... Cool - TNT acquires rights to Castle for syndication. I'm a fan of the show and Nathan Fillion and I'm glad I'll have a chance to see re-runs on a regular basis... June has been very good to the Red Sox. David Ortiz is hitting .412 with 4 HR and 12 RBI so far in June... Pretty sure that in that after he strips down to his underwear and does that fancy dive off the plank that Captain Morgan gets raped by the guys in orange coats on other ship just after the commercial cuts away. He was asking for it... The Red Sox are paying Mike Cameron over $7 million this year. At what point do they realize that Cameron is a shell of the player he once was and cut him loose? They should give one of their young OF from Pawtucket a chance. Either Ryan Kalish or Josh Reddick would be better for the team. Give one of the younger players a chance. It will help to season them to take over for JD Drew next year or at least give them a chance to showcase their talent in case of a trade. Maybe the Red Sox are waiting for Kalish to recover from his injury to make a move?... The Red Sox are in Toronto to play the Blue Jays one more game. Here's a picture of the famous CN Tower in Toronto.

Player Comparison

Let's compare two players:

Player A - 24 HR / .250 BA / .342 OBP / 111 OPS+ / 246 TB
Player B - 36 HR / .267 BA / .384 OBP / 134 OPS+ / 285 TB

Player A is Mike Cameron and Player B is Jason Bay. Clearly Bay's offensive numbers are better across the board than Cameron's. Some players benefit greatly from Fenway Park's Green Monster and clearly the Red Sox front office feel that Mike Cameron is one of those players. It is reasonable to expect an increase in HR from Cameron along with an increase in doubles (wall-ball hits combined with Cameron's speed). Probably positive thinking on my part but I really can foresee Cameron coming close to matching Jason Bay's total base mark from last season.

EDIT: Very interesting comparison of Bay and Cameron done a couple of months ago. The bottom line conclusion they drew was that Cameron was actually the better overall value.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Happy Leap Year Day!... It occurred to me that if William F. Buckley had an analog in the sports world it would have been Dick Schaap... Something I didn't realize - the Padres will be paying $6 million out of Jim Edmonds' $8 million contract with St. Louis picking up the rest. That $6 million is still more than what the Brewers will pay Mike Cameron this year (2008 $5 million - although Cameron's contract balloons to $10 million next year when Cameron will be eligible to play a full season). Why didn't the Padres just re-sign Mike Cameron? Given the fact that Edmonds has missed 52 and 45 games the last two seasons - that 25-game suspension Cameron is facing seems like small change. I wonder if there is more to the story here... Billy Joel puts on a great concert and I'm guessing that he's going to go out of his way to make this one extra special... Is it me or does it seem strange that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are so against NAFTA but yet neither are willing to come out with a strong stance against illegal immigration? It's like the Democrats are bizarro Fanny Dooley's from the kid show Zoom (OK that could be an obscure reference but trust me it works pretty well)...

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Supposedly the Braves are looking at trading for Mark Kotsay of the A's. I say supposedly because the linked article smells more like an advertisement from Billy Beane that says that Kotsay is available to any team that missed out on signing Mike Cameron (who just signed with the Brewers). You would think the Braves would be better off giving prospect Jason Heyward a shot than trading for Kotsay and taking on both his salary (at least a few million worth of it) and the risk he'll hurt his back again... Wow! Robin Ventura had an ankle transplant. Read the whole thing - very interesting story about one of my favorite players of the 90's... As I mentioned earlier - Mike Cameron has signed to play with the Brewers. I like this move by the Brewers... Oakland Athletics third-baseman Eric Chavez thinks he'll be traded. Chavez with 3-years plus an option year at an average of about $11.5 million a year is the biggest contract left on the A's payroll. If Chavez was to be traded - my guess it would be to one of these four teams:

Phillies - they could use a 3rd baseman and could easily afford the $34 million over the next 3-years due Chavez. Probably would require the Phillies parting with a Carlos Carrasco or a Josh Outman (what a great name for a pitcher!) or some other highly thought of pitching prospect to get it done.

Giants - they need a 3rd baseman and solid bat in the order but would the Giants make a deal with the cross bay A's?

White Sox - they could use a 3rd baseman but they emptied the cupboards to trade for Nick Swisher. Josh Field will probably take over for Joe Crede. Low probability but who knows what the crazy White Sox GM will do?

Twins - 3rd base has been a sore spot for the Twins for years. Beane is the master of the 3-team trade so maybe Chavez is worked into some sort of Mets / Twins / A's deal? Chavez does have the Twins listed as one of the teams he doesn't want to be traded to in his limited no-trade clause which dampens the prospect of this happening.