Archive for the ‘Pedro Feliz’ Category

Pedro Feliz Is Traded – YAY!!! And Tommy Manzella Is Back

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

The Cardinal’s GM said they needed Feliz for – get this – an UPGRADE – at third base. He thinks that Feliz has a great glove (like, he hasn’t watched the guy during Cards games? he hasn’t bothered to check ANY defensive stats and yes, I know they don’t ALL agree) and will provide some – get this – “pop.”

Well, what can I say? Last time the Cards picked up a washed up crappy player from the Astros (Preston Wilson in 06) they won the Series. So who knows, maybe McGwire will teach him to hit and Jose Oquendo can get him to not suck with the glove.

youneverknow.

The Carpenter we got in return is not Chris, but an A-ball pitcher – a 25 year old righty named David Carpenter. He started out as a catcher, couldn’t hit, and converted to pitching in 08. He spent 08 at rookie ball, 09 at A-ball and this year at high A in the Florida league: He’s a reliever with 49 appearances, 44 games finished and 20 saves: 2.36 ERA, 1.13 WHIP: 7.6 H/9, 2.5 BB/9, and 8.4 K/9.

With any luck, this will turn out well. Ed Wade has been VERY good at picking up relievers offn the scrap heap and out of other Organizations minors. He’s really only been wrong with the 2 ex-Braves and the guy he got from the Rox.

Tommy Manzella was brought back from the DL today – looks as if he’ll be on the bench – pretty silly, he’s had only 1 1/2 weeks worth of minor league AB – 6 games at AAA in which he went 9 fer 27 with 2 BB; 5 games at AA in which he went 6 fer 14. So now he can sit on the bench, come in to pinch hit against top relievers and look bad.

ah well…

Tags: , ,
Posted in Bud Norris, Pedro Feliz, Tommy Manzella | No Comments »

Brad Mills And Pedro Feliz Help Braves Beat Astros

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

As soon as I saw Brad Mills pull Wallace and send in Pedro Worthless Feliz to face Billy Wagner, who had just given up the tying run with a sac-fly to (of course) Chris Johnson in a 2-1 game, I said – we just lost this effing game.

WHY, WHY????? does Mills do unbelieveably STUPID stuff like this??? WHY????? Wallace hits leftys BETTER than rightys and he ALWAYS HAS!!! Better BA, higher slugging. If Mills is really truly incapable of looking at elementary numbers, such as Wallace’s career splits AND Feliz’ stats this year, he should just hang it up.

Of course in the top of the 10th, Feliz makes a crucial error with Ankiel at first – he misses an easy pickoff throw (he isn’t any good with the glove any more), Ankiel goes to second, and he throws the first of TWO intentional walks in the same inning. The ending wasn’t nice, of course, as Fulchino throws a straight FB right down the exact middle of the plate and it is deposited into the stands for a granny – second one he’s given up this year.

Obsession with leftyrighty matchups even when not indicated is Mills’ great failing – that and his obsession with insisting on using his WORST pinch hitter in critical situations.

The gane started out badly for Wandy – he gave up a double to the gap to Melky Cabrera to start the first, then Castro didn’t block a blockable ball and so Melky went to 3rd on a passed ball, then scored on a groundout. This looked even worse when Hanson, who had 3 working pitches and was hardly throwing ANY pitches outside the strike zone, went through the lineup 3 up 3 down. I thought fer SHER we were gonna get no hit.

And Wandy was just as about as unhittable – went through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th inning on 28 pitches with a great FB and a absolutely WICKED curve. He’s been absolutely ACE since Castro started catching him. Seriously. He’s had 9 starts (including this one) and 8 of 9 QS, giving up 0 ER 3 times, 1 ER four times, 3 ER once and 5 ER once. He’s throwin 60.1 innings, almost 7 IP/GS: 46 H, 11 BB, 59 K, 4 HR, 16 R/12 ER: ERA 1.79, WHIP 0.94, K:BB is 5.36; 8.85 K/9; 1.6 BB/9.

Now I know that Castro is not exactly hitting (makes JR look like Mike Piazza) but whatever he did to get Wandy’s curve to start curvin – or maybe to get more pitches called as strikes, it’s been a bit long to call it coincidence, I’m all for it.

Bourn broke up the nono int he 4th (whew) by beating out an IF single to the pitcher (just barely), then with Kepp batting, on the 1st pitch, he stole second. And Ross is a GOOD fielding catcher. On the 3rd pitch, Hanson picked him off second (too big a lead) and there was a rundown – And instead of the 3 IF doing the rundown, Hanson took the last throw and dropped the ball, allowing Michael to be caught stealing but safe at second on an E1. On the VERY NEXT PITCH, he took off for 3rd and just barely beat the tag. Conrad and Cox argued, but even the replay showed that Michael’s foot hit the bag juuuuuust before the tag hit his leg. Maybe payback for the call on Pence last night? Anyway, speaking of Pence, he hit an tying RBI single to left and Bourn trotted home. Unfortunately, Clank, CJ (who was hitting 5th???!!! WOW!!!!) and Wallace didn’t do anything.

Wandy was sailing through the 5th, 2 out, and Conrad beat out one of those IF dribblers to third (NOT bad fielding by CJ who, by the way, made 3 difficult plays) and then suddenly, Wandy lost all feel for the strike zone. It wasn’t the ump. He walked Ankiel on 5 pitches – and Ankiel fouled off what looked like a ball – and Ankiel has never gotten a hit off Wandy. Then, with the pitcher up, Wandy STILL couldn’t get the ball over and with a 2 ball count, Castro trotted out and told Wandy – just throw one down the freaking middle, hunh? So he did, and then the next pitch, Hansen hit one of those high chops that goes down the line, landed just inside the line midway down and Conrad cruised in.

I don’t know how, but Wandy threw 5 curveballs to Infante and got him swinging.

So I figured – there goes the ballgame, because really, Hanson looked pretty much unhittable. Then Bourn grounded out and Kepp hit a long fly ball to the LF bullpen – too bad it wasn’t like 30′ further to the left and Pence hit a hangong slider – bout the only one of those Hanson threw all night – and hit it to the top of the wall in right, but unfortunately, lowe enough for Melky to reach up and catch it – too bad it wasn’t 5′ higher.

Wandy gave up 1 double to right center in the 6th and one double down the RF line into the corner in the 7th, but didn’t walk anyone else or give up more runs. Actually, after the 6th, I thought Wandy would be done and was VERY concerned that Mills didn’t have anyone warming up – what was he gonna do it Wandy had gotten 2 runners on on the first 2 pitches? Let more runs score?

The Astros hadn’t sniffed a base since Pence’s single in the 4th and 10 hitters had gone up and 10 hitters had gone down, 3 of them on the first pitch. Then CJ walked – and this makes the 24th straight game he has reached base, but Wallace and Sanchez stranded him.

In the 8th, lefty Jonny Venters and his 1.09 went out to the mound. I knew that Castro would be pulled against the most lethal lefty in the NL – heck, he isn’t hitting rightys, and was expecting to see Pedro the Suckage, but it was Bourgeois, who got to a 3-2 count before grounding out – and he had to swing, it would have been strike 3.  Then pinch hitter Jason Michaels (what, no Feliz?) walked. So with 1 out, man on first, lefty Michael Bourn up facing the best lefty reliever in the NL, does Mills order the sac-bunt? No. WHY????? I mean, of ALL the times to deal with the lefty on lefty matchups, expecting Bourn to get a HIT is a bit much. So naturally, he Ks and then Kepp grounds out.

9th inning, Lyon comes in and pitches a quick, easy 1,2,3. Billy Wags comes out (and he has already blown 6 saves this year, in spite of his low ERA) and Pence running all out barely beats out an IF single. Gots to this for the boy – he goes ALL out. Then Clank hits a clean single to left and Pence, hustling all the way, beats the throw into 3rd. Just barely. Then CJ is up and he ties the game with a long sac-fly to right. If he can’t get a hit, he figures he can drive one in.

You talk about RBI machine? CJ has now had 81 AB with runners on, has had 35 hits and driven in 31 runs – and his OPS is 1.147. With RISP, he is 18 fer 43 with 26 RBI. He has a 1.47 OPS with RISP and 2 outs and is 10 fer 21. He drives in a run 42% of his chances. Which is unbelieveable and no I do NOT wanna hear how he can’t keep it up (even if it is, uh, unlikely.)

So it’s Clank on first (who did NOT tag up and move to second when Melky threw home – BAD heads down baserunning) and Wallace, who is 4 fer 8 against leftys so far, and has driven in 2 of his 4 runs vs 19 AB against rightys – this year at AAA, he had a .978 OPS in 119 AB vs leftys (.818 vs rightys); in 09, minor league career OPS vs leftys .940 (.843 vs rightys) and SLG .502 vs leftys (.481 vs righys) in 1240 PA – and that is NOT a small sample size.

So Mills STUPIDLY and I mean criminally stupidly benches a superior hitter in favor of the worst hitter on his bench, who naturally gets out as Carlos steals second, which took the Braves completely by surprise. And Sanchez grounds out. Sanchez, by the way, has gotten on base in all but 7 of 30 games here. Pretty good.

So Lyon, who threw 7 pitches in the 9th, goes back out to start the 10th. Good idea, he shouldn’t exactly be exhausted after 7 pitches and 5 minutes in the bullpen and 5 minutes of commercials.

Conrad flies out 1st pitch. But then Ankiel walks. Not good, because he’s FAST and he steals bases. So then Feliz does the SECOND thing to lose the game – he fails to catch a pickoff throw and Ankiel is on second. This is bad because Ankiel is fast enough to score on a single that leaves the infield. So, instead of concentrating on getting ONE out, the pinch hitter Hinske, Mills has them IBB him, hoping to get Infante to GIDP, I guess. But I really don’t like walking a guy when you have ALREADY walked someone – generally is not good. So of course, Infante doubles off the scoreboard and Ankiel trots home.

BIG meeting on the mound, Mills chatting.

So far, we have had a pitcher who gave up a long fly ball, a 3-2 walk, an IBB, a double smashed off the scoreboard, men on second and third, and what do we get?

an IBB to Melky Cabrera.

So far, we have THREE walks, 2 intentional, a single and a double. He has now thrown 23 pitches, 8 of which are strikes, 8 of which were deliberately thrown out of the zone.

Time to bring in someone else?

Heavens, no. Gonzales singles home a run. Bases loaded.

It’s now Braves 4 Astros 2.

NOW we bring in Fulchino to face pinch hitter lefty Brian McCann. 2 balls, then a FB, straight RIGHT down the middle and then 3 seconds later, 400′ into the stands. Poor Lyon is Francoed by 3 runs and all I can say is – gee, what a surprise.

It was time for a REAL righty lefty decision as the only guy Bobby Cox had left on the bench was McCann (niether Chipper nor lefty Heyward were available). So you could bring in Byrdak to face Diaz, who certainly hits leftys well – at a .918 OPS, or Fulchino to face McCann who hits rightys at a .898 clip. So the question is, right NOW, who do you think is the better pitcher? Rights have a .333 BAA Byrdak and leftys have a .313 BAA Fulchino (and I am just looking at this year’s stats because most all relievers not named Mariano are not particularly consistent from year to year)

ok

I get the point, pick your poison.

And we got poisoned, all right. Funny that this particular series has focused so strongly on bad fielding and too many walks at a critical time leading to misfortune. A day off tomorrow, hopefully some media person will ask Brad Mills why in the name of GAWD he keeps platooning/pulling Brett Wallace against leftys. Then the Pirates come in for the weekend and we will have the debut of Nelson Figueroa, starter.

Jordan Lyles appears to be tiring, by the way. I’m glad they didn’t bring him up yet, he’s having enough trouble at AAA. And Douglas Arguello is sitting out at AA because his armn is hurting – we’ll see what happens with that.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Brett Wallace, Chris Johnson, Hunter Pence, Pedro Feliz, Wandy Rodriguez | 3 Comments »

5/7/10: Thank You, Pedro Feliz, For Making Sure That Yet Another Mediocre Pitcher Didn’t No-Hit The Hopeless Astros

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Astros get shut out for the 5th time this year – and the Pads don’t let the starter get his first career shutout, for some reason, don’t ask me why, because he was cruising.

Matt Latos, a rookie Padres pitcher, came into the game with an ERA of almost 5. The Astros are so bad, so dreadful – so DEAD, that it must really REALLY do a whole lot for the confidence of the opposing pitcher. And he mowed the Astros down with 9 pitches in the first. You know how it goes – if the Astros are gonna score even ONE run, we need Bourn to get to first, steal second, steal third, come home on a grounder. So I was a little more than disgruntled and it wasn’t ME pitching without having to worry about any future run support.

It had taken Bud Norris 21 pitches to get through the first, as he had gone to 3-2 on EVERY SINGLE hitter. That boy has just GOT to work on not throwing pitches out of the zone as he does – and it wasn’t the ump screwing him, neither. Take the second inning – he strikes out the first hitter, gives up a single to left to the next. Then he goes to 0-2 on Torrealba, throws a pitch waaay out of the zone, tries a pickoff, throws a wild pitch, and the hitter trots to second, then throws 2 more balls. What the heck????? Then during the next hitter’s at bat, there is a double steal – Torrealba – has 11 career steals over 10 years. Cash can’t come close to throwing either one out – so much for – everything is JR Towles’ fault. So the runner scores with a groundout. Manzella boots the ball, but the run would have scored anyway. Norris gets out of the inning striking out the next 2 guys.

That’s the thing about Norris – he has absolutely FILTHY stuff, but he just has such awful control problems – and neither Quintero the supposedly great nor Cash The Winnah has had the slightest effect on it.

Unfortunately, in the second, Feliz hit a bouncer over the head of the SS for a single – otherwise, I guess ESPN would have actually given the Astros some pub by showing how they were about to get no-hit. Latos needed 15 pitches to get through that inning. Then 10 pitches for a 1,2,3 3rd; 15 pitches for a 1,2,3 4th; 10 pitches for a 1,2,3 5th; 10 pitches for a 1,2,3 7th; 20 pitches for the 8th – Clank beats out an infield dribbler past the mound – HE HUSTLES!!!!! but Lance grounds into a FC and Michaels strikes out swinging at a pitch low and outside (don’t bother stopping me if you heard THAT one before. It ain’t just Pence no mo…) It does, however, take him 19 pitches to strike out the side 1,2,3 in the 8th – and Manzella put up a fight and didn’t swing at pitches outside the zone.

I don’t guess I need to talk about Bud serving up a FB down the middle on a 0-2 count to Scott Hairston, which he deposited in the Crawford Boxes. Or how he left a jiucy fat one over the plate and The Pest (yeah, him again) drove it to the LF bullpen for a double. Chase Headly actually hit a very good pitch up and in over the RF wall. And the Astros are down 4-0 and all yall KNOW we ain’t comin back from THAT. We have scored 20 runs over the last NINE games – and that includes the 4 run outburst in the only game we won.

Pathetic. We are by FAR the worst team in the major leagues – and that means worse than the Pirates and worse than the Royals and worse than the C*bs. We might could make a run at the 03 Tigers 43-119 record – or even the 42-120 record of the ’62 Mets, because I can’t believe that this dreadful team is gonna win any 5 games a month on average.

Where was I? Oh yeah – in Norris’ last inning, the 4th, Cash had a passed ball, which allowed the runner to get to second, and he trotted home on the PITCHER’S ground rule double. Yes, the freaking PITCHER outhit the entire Astros lineup - he had 2 doubles and an RBI. And Cash isn’t impressive in his ability to block balls in the dirt – I don’t care if he DID catch Wakefield – those pitches are only going 60 MPH, not 90+ something.

sigh

But it is clear that Cash’s glove and bat have REALLY turned things around.

NOT

Chacin pitched 2 scoreless – gave up a walk, an IF single (because there was a – uh, miscommunication between Kaz and Lance and Chacin didn’t get to first in time) and 2 solid singles, but no one scored.

Sampson pitched a 1,2,3 inning on 13 pitches. Not sure why he’s not allowed to pitch more than one inning – probably because someone might could get the idea that Sampson should be starting. Even Steve Sparks, filling in for JD, said that Sampson should be a very good ML starter for SOMEbody – hopefully the Astros. But they’d rather waste him in the pen so that they can be right about how he is a reliever and not a starter. Or something.

Wilton Lopez gave up a double to the PITCHER, then a homer high up off the left center wall to Scott Hairston – again.

Why is no pitcher allowed to pitch more than 1 inning – or, at most TWO innings of mopup? Wassup with that? Why tire everyone out?

I seem to remember we got rid of Russ Springer 3 or 4 years back because the Organization was UpSet that he could only go one inning – then they got Rick White – coughcough – who wasn’t exactly Mr. MoreThan One Inning Guy – and Springer pitched lights out for the Cards for 2 more years.

I don’t want Bud Norris/Paulino et al to get sent back down because it isn’t THEIR fault that the Astros can’t/won’t hit (you know that Wandy has THE lowest run support of any starting pitcher in the NL – an AVERAGE of 1.3 runs/game) and they have just GOT to work out their problems Up Here – there really isn’t anything they need to do at AAA and I don’t want to waste any more pitchers for some crappy veteran like Chacin.

Tomorrow, it’s Paulino vs Jon Garland.

I was surprised to see the stands about half full – must be the fireworks. This keeps up, and we’re gonna draw like the Marlins…

Tags: , ,
Posted in Astros baseball, Bud Norris, Pedro Feliz | 8 Comments »

The Magic Wandy Returns To Beat Pirates Bullpen

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Yeah, I know it’s the Pirates. But fact is that he threw like last year’s Wandy – came out right away in the first throwing bullets, got 2 staring strikes, then a swing and miss on his curve, which is back. Next hitter, staring at a FB, fouling off a FB, then a swing and miss at a curve. My goodness gracious. Then McCutchen (the hitter) lined out to Keppinger. 8 pitches, 8 strikes, 3 outs. Da Wand Man ROOLZ!!!!!

He threw 7.1 innings, and gave up 4 singles, a walk, and a home run on the only bad pitch he threw all night, a hanging curve. In the 8th, he gave up a single to Cedeno, then got Iwamura to popup, and then Mills pulled him – I have like NO idea why – Crosby and McCutchen were coming up and it’s not like they are these great hitters. I haven’t heard anything – maybe he signaled that he was tired? Who knows? Lyons got the 2 outs.

Lindstrom made it INteresting in the 9th, got 2 quick outs, then had to face a bunch of lefty pinch hitters – looks as if he might have a Brad Lidge lefty weakness thingy goin on – gave up 2 singles and a walk to load the bases with 2 out, but then got Ronny Cedenoto pop out to Pence.

As for hitting, well, the bats came alive against the Pirates bullpen. I guess that’s a good sign. Bourn led off with a single, Kepp and Feliz popped out, then Lance hit a screaming liner up the middle which hit the pitcher, Chris Jakubauskas, who had just been called up for this start, in the head. He went down like he’d been shot and I screamed – he was kicking his legs and for a horrifying moment, I thought he was having a seizure, you know, like what fish do just before they die. The kidz were freaking out, asking if he was gonna die. Lance was pretty upset, too.

 So when the pitcher finally sat up, it was an enormous relief – I told the kids he was gonna be OK. Of course, I got a whole lot of doubts – I mean, how can you get hit in the head like that by something traveling 100+ MPH and be OK? I remember when Ryan Thompson hit a liner that hit Bryce Florie in the face, like what, 10 years ago? (I can’t believe I still remember their names) Florie was never the same and neither was Thompson. But at least Florie didn’t have any brain damage and I pray that poor Chris doesn’t either.

After the game, Number #2 son asked me – Mami, how come he didn’t catch the ball? I told him it came back too fast and he didn’t have time. So he said – Lance didn’t do it on purpose, did he? I said no, he just hit the ball, he doesn’t know exactly where it is going to go – heck, he doesn’t even know IF he’ll hit it when he swings. He thought about that. Then he said, he’s gonna have a BAD headache. And I said – he surely will. And with any luck, that will be ALL he has wrong…

Anyway, to better news, every hitter in the lineup got a hit, even Wandy, who beat out a bunt and singled. Bourn got a walk, a single, and hit into his first GIDP in 2 years (a 4-3 tag the runner.) Tommy Manzella went 2 for 4, but stranded 2. Pedro Feliz hit a 2 run homer offn the LF wall just under the tracks. Even Cory Sullivan got into the act, getting a walk and a single on Carlos Lee needs a rest night.

But the best news was Pence – he hit 2 balls really well, not swinging at crap or getting luck dribblers or poking an outside 3-0 pitch past someone. He hit a double to the LF corner that scored 2 runs and also, he hit a solid single up the middle. I hope HOPE his bat is coming back.

It would be nice to sweep this series and get out of last place. We’re facing Charlie Morton who has had 3 starts this year and, uh, hasn’t pitched real too good (let me be nice here) giving up 8 ER/3.1 IP vs the Dbax, 6 ER/6 IP vs the Giants and (ulp) 6 runs in ONE inning vs the Crew. I mean, I feel for Charlie, but it would be nice if the Astros could really get their confidence back by teeing off on him…

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Astros baseball, Hunter Pence, Pedro Feliz, Wandy Rodriguez | 3 Comments »

Feliz NaviDUD

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

(thank you Repoz, for the clever title. I guess it really WAS bettern I HATE ED WADE AND HIS STUPID FETISH WITH OVERPAYING CRUDDY MIDDLE RELIEVERS AND WASHED UP EX-PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!)

I guess it must have been somewhere around 2 when I got the call from my mama about the news that Fast Eddie had flushed yet another 4.5 mill down the sewer on another washed up Veteran Presence. Mama actually didn’t quiiiiite say that, but this IS a G-rated blog.

Yep, Fast Eddie done gone and throwed away 4.5 mill on a Phillies reject. Yes, another one. We are talking about a guy whose option they didn’t pick up, a guy who they didn’t even want to TALK to, who they replaced with a guy who is a second baseman and hasn’t played third base in THREE years, AND whose bat has been declining over that period as well.

Jeezus Gawd. The very definition of throwing good money after bad. Even though Feliz was on the pennant winning team for 2 years in a row and is therefore a Winner(Tm) who will surely bring a Winning Attitude to the team.

BAH

Needless to say, this put me in a Very Bad Mood, so I texted Husband and told him that if he wanted to eat any dinner and if he didn’t want hungry, screaming kids, he best pick up some chickens at the Kroger on the way home. So he walks in the door at 6:15 and there is no Dog Pappas to greet him at the door, because Dog is smart enough to stay under the table and Out Of My Way and the house is suspisciously quiet, no TV and no music because the kids know bettern to bug me when I am in a Very Bad Mood. He says, uh, is there anything to go with this here chicken?

Aw Baby, it’s just a baseball team and I

um

uh, guess I’ll just go in the fridge, see what I can find here. You, uh, you, uh, um, headed off to your Mama’s?

Very funny there boy. You betcha my Daddy’s saying to her – now why don’t you and Susanna (her bff) and Lisa go shopping, hunh? Yeh, we SHOULD be the ones going shopping for the team because I promise you we could come up with a heck of a lot better plan than Brandon Suckage Lyon and Pay-dud Feliz for 9.5 freaking million dollars, that is fer SHER.

Pedro Feliz will be 35 in April. He came up with the Giants in 2001 and signed a FA contract with the Phils, and has played with them for the past 2 years.

His career line is .254/.298/.422/.715 and last year, he hit .266/.308/.386/.694. He used to have a little bit of power, but his ISO (isolated slugging percentage) over the past 5 years has gone – .209/.184/.165/.153/.121. while his OPS+ have stayed a nice steady 85/79/80/80/81/81 (Geoff Blum territory, just to translate.)

This means that besides not walking and hitting into a nice 12-20 double plays a year, he isn’t worth much. There was absolutely NO reason to have him on the team at all, as he doesn’t even have a platoon split which could be used to advantage.

What makes me laugh is that Fast Eddie told Richard Justice that Chris Johnson is still going to be competing for the third base job in Spring Training.

Right.

Just like I’m competing against various strippers/playmates for Grady Sizemore’s LUUUUVVV. There is a chance. Yeah, suuuuuuuuurrrre.

When it comes to the Astros, salary talks. In Spring Training, Johnson could hit .400, slug .800 and field like Brooks Robinson and we ALL know that Fast Eddie ain’t puttin no 4.5 mill on the bench, even if he goes ofer ST.

The problem with Wade spending 5 mill on a crummy middle reliever PLUS 4.5 million on an old, lousy third baseman is that he used money that he could have used to actually purchase GOOD offense, or even a GOOD starting pitcher ( because I am not going to use the words “good starting pitcher” about Paulino, Wilton Lopez, Wesley Wright or Brian Moehler.)

The Astros have finally descended to Royals/Pirates/Orioles level laughingstock. Check out THIS bit of juiciness from David Cameron.

If Drayton thinks that adopting the Pirates tack used from 93 – 08 of getting a few name brand used up major-leaguers for each year’s roster – if he really thinks that will sell more tickets than getting one decent ballplayer, he’s got more than a few screws loose. Houston is the 4th largest city in America and has (depending on whose valuation you believe) the 7th largest media market and he is essentially wasting a 100 million dollar payroll on dreck.

The terrible truth is that the Astros are gonna continue to circle the drain until Drayton gets tired of being laughed at by the national media (and hearing from locals and disgusted season ticket holders who are refusing to re-up, how his baseball team has gone back to its previous level of being ignored by Houstonians – meaning, pre-Roger Clemens) and decides to get rid of Tal, Eddie and the rest of the incompetent yes-men and go hire an actual baseball man with some smarts AND LET HIM DO HIS JOB!!!!!. He had a chance to get Rizzo and Dan Evans, but noooooooooooooooo…

Tags: ,
Posted in Astros baseball, Pedro Feliz | No Comments »

Astros In The 2008 Infield – Part 2 – Ty Wigginton

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

This entry is going to be a little short for the simple reason that there are only 3 FA 3rd basemen (besides Mo Ensberg and we won’t go there), Pedro Feliz, Mike Lamb and Mike Lowell. Well, there is, of course, A-Rod, but I promise you he wants to play for a big money team on the coast and he already did the Texas thing and he ain’t comin back no mo. Besides, his agent is Boras and that tells you all you need to know.

Tim Purpura and the Organization decided, for some reason I STILL don’t understand, to substitute Mike Lamb, who is one of the FA 3B, with Wigginton. I would be pretty darn surprised if they decided to DFA Wiggy and sign either Feliz or Lowell. I’ve already written plenty comparing Wiggy and Lamb, but let’s do it all again.

OK, starting with the basics – Lamb is 32, just finished a 2.7 mill 1 year contract and is a FA. Wiggy is 30, just finished his 4th year so is under team control for the next 2 years and also just finished a 1 year 2.7 mill contract – who knows what he will get over the next 2 years. I can’t understand why the Astros think that Lamb will get sooooo much more over the next 2 years. Anyway, they both have lead gloves: Lamb had a RF of 2.53 and a RF of .693 (MUCH worse than last year) and Wiggy had a RF of 2.80 and a ZR of .770 (lifetime 2.66 RF and .710 ZR at third.)

As for hitting, Lamb, a lefty who hits the ball pretty well to all fields, averaged  .281/.349/.463/.831 during his 4 years in Houston, including his very down year of 2005. Lamb GIDP about 9 times an average year, walks about 40 times, Ks oround 60.

Wiggy, a righty dead pull hitter, better than†his lifetime stats .268/.327/.449/.776 in Houston – .284/.342/.462/.804 over 187 PA with 8 GIDP (which is Carlos Lee territory) and around 40 walks and 110 K a year average. Lamb has averaged around 350 ABs a year over the past 4 years as a PH and platoon guy and Wiggy has averaged around 420 AB a year over the past 4 years. Big deal.

Lamb this year hit lefties better than rightys – 1.056 OPS to .777 OPS, but lifetime, the difference is not particularly great – .748 OPS vs lefties and .770 vs rightys and that is accounted for almost entirely by BA, .268 vs leftys and .284 vs rightys – power numbers are almost exactly the same, as is the BB/K ratio. Not sure why he was platooned as the numbers really don’t justify it.

Wait – Phil was the manager – I get it. Nevermind.

Anyhow, Wiggy is really the guy who should be platooned – .935 OPS vs lefties and .741 vs rightys this year: and lifetime vs lefties, .280/.354/.494/.848 and lifetime vs rightys, .264/.317/.342/.749.

Pedro Feliz, age 32, is the best fielding 3rd baseman in the NL, and just finished his one year FA contract for 5.1 mill plus a few bonuses. He’s been the full time 3rd baseman for the Giants for the past 4 years because Edgardo Alfonso was basically constantly on the DL and he’s a great glove lousy bat kind of guy. His averages are .252./.288/.433/.751 with 20 GIDP a year with around 28 BB and 93 K. He averages 27 doubles and 20 homers. The Giants fans I know aren’t exactly crazy about this guy, but best I know, unless they sign expensive Mike Lowell, they don’t have an in house replacement for Feliz. Their farm is as empty of position players as ours.

Mike Lowell, age 34, is a GOOD third baseman with both stick and glove. He’s currently employed by the Red Sox and is in the last year of a 4 year 32 mill contract and is receiving 9 mill this year. Naturally, he’s having a career year this walk year and he’s going to get a big ol paycheck from SOMEbody, and I would bet it is going to be at least 10-12 mill a year for 3-4 years.

It will depend what happens with A-Rod, I would think. The Yanks nor the Sawks will really have an in house replacement (unless the Sawx move Youk back to third and get a 1B) and they may fight over him as he won’t get any 20-30 mill a year, as A-Rod thinks he will. I wouldn’t be real too surprised if the Dodgers and Angels go after him, too. His lifetime hitting stats – .280/.344/.468/828 and they are even better if you ignore his year from the Black Lagoon in 2005. Glove this year – RF of 2.51 (tops 2.90 – Mora) and ZR .778 (tops .803 – Inge) which shows that gloves in the AL are inferior to NL gloves. But we all knew that. I do expect that his stats will decline over the next 3-4 years, even if he comes back to the NL, and I am not sure he will be worth the 12 or so mill a year he is going to get. I don’t want to be stuck with a team of old slow fat guys who cost a fortune for the next 3-4 years.

And that, my friends, is that. We could also trade for Bill Hall (see the second base discussion) and play him at third – he’s got a MUCH better glove than any AL guy at third. I am more than happy to entertain any thoughts on trades anyone has – only they can’t be something like Miggy Cabrera for Chris Burke, OK???!!! Gotta be realistic.

And speaking of Miguel Cabrera, all I can say is – look, fantasy baseball is FANTASY, OK??? Fantasy means make believe. It’s not that Miggy couldn’t be traded for, it is that his team is owned by Jeffrey Loria, who makes Calvin Griffiths look positively benificent. Loria wouldn’t trade Miggy unless he received top notch talent in return who would be dirt cheap for years, say, Hunter Pence. Miggy has let his conditioning lapse completely and he makes Mike Lamb look like Scott Rolen at third. Miggy is headed for first or DH in the very near future. Yes I know he can hit, but this is the NL and Thank Gawd there is no DH, and also, we already have a guy who is set at first for the next 4 years who has a COMPLETE no trade and has made it more than clear that he will refuse any trade and he isn’t kidding.

Miggy just finished his 4th year and won a 7.4 mill salary in his FIRST arb year and you bet that if Drayton thought Mike Lamb would be too expensive at 3 mill a year, he’d pass out at Miggy’s salary for the next few years. I am well aware that Miggy has had a .968 OPS over the past 3 years, grounds into around 20 DP a year, walks about 75 times and Ks around 105. His glove is simply awful – he was saved from the basement only by Ryan Braun – RF of 2.51 (high of 3.27, Abraham Nunez) and a ZR of .714 (high of .859 by Feliz) and he has steadily worsened each year as he has become more and more obese.

Tags: ,
Posted in Mike Lamb, Pedro Feliz, Wigginton | 11 Comments »