Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Yes Caitlyn Jenner looks like Jessica Lange and yes I'd have sex with Jessica Lange. Suddenly I don't want to talk about his... In the drink V8 is one of the 8 ingredients ass? Sure tastes like ass to me... Playing off the success of Christian Mingle - I'd like to create a website Christian Divorce - "Jesus wants you to separate"... Fantastic look back at Stevie Cauthen - the last jockey to win the Triple Crown... What would I do for a Klondike Bar? I guess go to the store and pay a buck and a half. That's what I'd do for a Klondike Bar... Nick Swisher's career numbers aren't close to being Hall of Fame caliber but you know some writer will vote for him as a favor... Hillary has to be the worst possible name for a stripper...

Top 5 - Sunday Morning Baseball Questions

Here are my Top 5 baseball questions I'm asking myself this Sunday morning (in reverse order of importance).

5. How come the Red Sox didn't make a qualifying offer to Cody Ross? Boston strategy this off-season has been to over-pay but go for shorter terms. You can't get much shorter term than a one-year qualifying offer. They would have had to pay him $13 million for that season but if they are willing to pay that to Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino for longer contracts wouldn't a one-year deal offer make sense to Ross? Did the Red Sox cost themselves either a power bat at Fenway or a draft pick here?

4. Even more puzzling is why the Nationals didn't offer Edwin Jackson a qualifying offer?

3. The Indians signed Nick Swisher to a 4-year $56 million contract. The signing will cost Cleveland a draft pick which makes me wonder if the Tribe would have been better off using the money they spent on Swisher to have instead kept Shin-Soo Choo? I know that Choo's agent is Scott Boras which means he probably would have gone to free-agency instead but it doesn't stop me from wondering.

2. Why did the Red Sox sign Shane Victorino to such a big contract? I'll be scratching my head over that for some time to come.

1. Why did Ryan Freel kill himself? Let me echo Roco Baldelli - "Lets pay better attention to the ones we love."

Moneyball Indeed!

With the recent trade of Joe Blanton to the Phillies - the last of the players who were both drafted by the A's in 2002 and who subsequently were featured in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball are now all out of the Oakland system. Major League Jerk recently did an excellent Moneyball recap of "Where are They Now".

I'm not concerned so much with "where are they now" but two facets do interest me. What did the A's really get out of the 2002 draft? And how money really plays into moneyball. Let's take a look at the players who made the bigs to answer these questions.

Of the nine players drafted and featured in the book - three are still making contributions at the major league level. Those three are:

- Nick Swisher (16th pick overall) had three solid seasons for the A's averaging 26 HR and better than 82 RBI per season for those three years. Prior to this season Billy Beane traded Swisher to the White Sox in exchange for left-handed pitcher Gio Gonzalez, right-handed pitcher Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. It should be noted that Sweeney actually leads Swisher in several offensive categories this season including 3B, SB, BA, SLG, and OPS. That's not to suggest that Sweeney is as good a player as Swisher but the drop-off isn't really that, that much. Besides - the White Sox will pay Swisher $3.5 million this season compared to the A's paying Sweeney just $395,000 - plus the A's got two top pitching prospects in the deal.

- Joe Blanton (24th pick overall) was just traded to the Phillies for prospects second baseman Adrian Cardenas, left-hander Josh Outman and outfielder Matt Spencer. In his career for the A's Blanton was 47-46 with a 4.25 ERA. Blanton signed for $3.7 million this year and next year's contract is sure to be north of $5 million. That's for a guy who had exactly a league average ERA and who was one game over .500 for a team that was well over .500 in his time in Oakland.

- Mark Teahen (39th pick overall) never played a day in the bigs for the A's and now plays for the Royals. He will make a little more than $2 million this year. Teahen was part of 5 player trade in 2004 that in part sent Teahan to the Royals and Octavio Dotel to the A's. Dotel saved 29 games in a season and a half for Oakland but is widely regarded as an awful, awful closer. It should be noted that 15 of the 38 players taken ahead of Teahen never made it to the big leagues.

So what conclusions can we draw from this information? The A's had 6 first round picks in 2002 and 3 of those picks have turned into productive major league players. A 50% success rate for first round picks isn't bad (consider that the Pirates had the 1st overall pick and they chose Brian Bullington over such names as BJ Upton or Prince Fielder). The A's got 6 combined productive seasons out of Swisher and Blanton and then turned around and got 6 top prospects for them before the big money started kicking in. When they sold a prospect (Teahen) for a "proven" player (Dotel) it backfired. The main lesson of Moneyball was that the A's success was due to buying low on undervalued assets and selling high on over-valued assets. The prospects for veteran players (Swisher and Blanton) is just a continuation of that lesson and should lead to continued success for the small market A's.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

So now Roger Clemens is saying that it was B12 and lidocaine that Brian McNamee injected him with. So - just for the record - Andy Pettitte admits McNamee injected him with HGH and now you admit that McNamee was correct in saying he injected you in the ass. But you want us to believe it was B12 even after your good buddy Andy admitted it was HGH? Roger - when you hit bottom you are supposed to stop digging... Matt Clement signs a deal with the Cardinals. This could be a move that works out just fine for both sides. The Cardinals desperately need pitching and Clement needs an atmosphere where the fans are super supportive. I'm rooting for Clement to be the 2008 NL Comeback Player of the Year. He seems like a really nice guy... I've long thought Kenny Williams and Jim Bowden were the two worst GM's in baseball. The more I think of the Swisher trade - the more I'm convinced I'm right about Williams. The White Sox just basically emptied their farm system for a 25+ HR guy. The fact is that even with Swisher - the White Sox have no shot of out-hitting either the Indians or Tigers. Pitching is the White Sox' only shot at contending but yet Williams traded away Jon Garland and now he's dumped his bargaining chips that were his one shot at a guy like Eric Bedard on Swisher. Maybe Williams is just trying to stay ahead of the Royals?... Joe Torre does his best Sergeant Schultz impression when it comes to steroids. "I see nothing. I know nothing."...

Swisher to White Sox

The Oakland A's have traded Nick Swisher to the White Sox for 3 prospects.

I'm surprised by the move mostly because Nick Swisher was not only the face of the franchise - he was also signed to a very reasonable contract ($3.5 million next year, $5.3 million in 2009, $6.75 million in 2010 and $9 in 2011 with a $10.25 million club option for 2012). Compare that to Aaron Rowand's recent 5-year $60 million contract and you can see how much of a bargain Swisher's contract is and why I'm surprised the A's would part with him.

The Transaction Guy has a pretty good breakdown of the deal. My guess is that Billy Beane thinks he knows the ceiling of Swisher's talent and that Beane is hoping to get at least one prospect out of the three with a higher ceiling.

Locks of Love

This is a very nice gesture by Nick Swisher. However, I sometimes grow skeptical when charitable causes are sponsored by corporations (in this case Pantene).

My wife and daughters regularly grow out their hair and then donate it to Locks of Love. It's a very worthy cause.

Myself? I can't grow out my hair because my hair is so curly that if I did it would end up as an afro.