Wednesday, February 21, 2007
This Is Not A Football Team
The good vibrations just continue to flow out of Viera, don't they? The various and sundry wise men apparently all chose today to wax rhapsodic about how hope springs eternal for the Nats on the first day of full-squad workouts. Personally, what makes me happier about the prospects for this season is when I hear Manny Acta say smart things like these gems from today's press conference:
Still no word this morning on the outcome of the Chief's salary arbitration hearing. According to Ken Wright at the Times, we should hear something "sometime today." Gotta love all those great details the Nats front office puts out there, don't you? By way of an update on my update yesterday, the Sox are saying that co-owners John Henry and Tom Werner were "simply having fun" with their exchange yesterday in which they suggested that the team had settled on a closer. Ah, 'tis the life of a rumor-monger to get excited over little things that turn out to be nothing. Stan McNeal from The Sporting News today opines that the Rangers' Akinori Otsuka could be an option for the Boston closer job if Eric Gagne can prove that he's back. He also notes that the Nats "appear to be in no hurry" to trade Cordero.
[UPDATE: Hail to the Chief. JimBo's final arb record for the year is 1-1, according to the Post. Cordero will get $4.15M this season.]
Prospect-less Watch
Baseball Prospectus' Top 100 prospects list came out today and (surprise, surprise), the Nats only managed to get one name on the list - 1B/3B/OF Chris Marrero. *Sigh* Fortunately, Nats fans should be able to look forward to better days when we could get *gasp!* TWO names (or more, perish the thought) on the list thanks in part to the team's new relationship with the Tabasco Olmecas Baseball Club of the Mexican Summer League. The agreement apparently increases the Nats' scouting resources in Mexico, which is never a bad thing. I also wonder if the deal gives us access to any of the prospects that have played down there. Their roster is nothing much to look at, but one name that popped out to me was 24-year old RHP Vinicio Gonzalez. He looked good in the 2006 regular season, sporting a 3.24 ERA, 1.36 WHIP over 122 IP, though his 5.75 K/9 was nothing to look at. He struggled in the Mexican Winter League (5.09 ERA/1.63 WHIP) and in the 2005 regular season (5.35 ERA/1.65 WHIP) so there may be nothing there. Still, it bears at least adding him to the watch list to see if he improves on his 2006 regular season numbers.
Natmospherics
"The stats, they're all and fine. I mean, they don't lie but I need enough of it to back me up. ... If I have enough data, let's say over twenty, over thirty, a hundred sometimes you have access to all of that then I can go by the stats, because they don't lie. I mean, it's been proven to me that a guy from first base with no outs has a better chance to score than a guy from second base with one out. That's been proven to me with millions of at-bats. So I don't like moving guys over from first to second unless there's a pitcher up or it's real late in the game. ... Top of the lineup guys will bunt, bottom of the lineup will bunt in those types of situations. ... I'm telling you right now you're not going to be seeing me bunting guys from first to second in the middle of the games or early unless it's the pitcher. ... I'll be straight up to you guys, I'm not going to be running all over the place just so 20-25,000 people in the stands are saying that I'm aggressive while people are getting thrown out on the bases."Did I mention that I like Manny a lot? This kind of sound logic based on historical baseball data about how best to score runs is a refreshing change from Frank Robinson's obsolete by-the-gut managing. Give credit to Boswell that he can take off his rose-colored glasses regarding Frank for a minute to objectively evaluate his failures as a manager in the 21st century game:
As for strategy, he [Robinson] was still in the '60s. In 21st-century baseball, he was a hunch-playing day trader going up against a hedge-fund quantitative analyst with seven computers.Cordero Watch
Still no word this morning on the outcome of the Chief's salary arbitration hearing. According to Ken Wright at the Times, we should hear something "sometime today." Gotta love all those great details the Nats front office puts out there, don't you? By way of an update on my update yesterday, the Sox are saying that co-owners John Henry and Tom Werner were "simply having fun" with their exchange yesterday in which they suggested that the team had settled on a closer. Ah, 'tis the life of a rumor-monger to get excited over little things that turn out to be nothing. Stan McNeal from The Sporting News today opines that the Rangers' Akinori Otsuka could be an option for the Boston closer job if Eric Gagne can prove that he's back. He also notes that the Nats "appear to be in no hurry" to trade Cordero.
[UPDATE: Hail to the Chief. JimBo's final arb record for the year is 1-1, according to the Post. Cordero will get $4.15M this season.]
Prospect-less Watch
Baseball Prospectus' Top 100 prospects list came out today and (surprise, surprise), the Nats only managed to get one name on the list - 1B/3B/OF Chris Marrero. *Sigh* Fortunately, Nats fans should be able to look forward to better days when we could get *gasp!* TWO names (or more, perish the thought) on the list thanks in part to the team's new relationship with the Tabasco Olmecas Baseball Club of the Mexican Summer League. The agreement apparently increases the Nats' scouting resources in Mexico, which is never a bad thing. I also wonder if the deal gives us access to any of the prospects that have played down there. Their roster is nothing much to look at, but one name that popped out to me was 24-year old RHP Vinicio Gonzalez. He looked good in the 2006 regular season, sporting a 3.24 ERA, 1.36 WHIP over 122 IP, though his 5.75 K/9 was nothing to look at. He struggled in the Mexican Winter League (5.09 ERA/1.63 WHIP) and in the 2005 regular season (5.35 ERA/1.65 WHIP) so there may be nothing there. Still, it bears at least adding him to the watch list to see if he improves on his 2006 regular season numbers.
Natmospherics
- Ball Wonk brings the snark yet again and suggests that Jerome Williams and Tim Redding have the inside track on rotation slots.
- Capitol Punishment gives props where props are due to the Nationals front office for responding to the blogs regarding a snafu with the $100 20-game package. True 'dat.
- The Honorable One concurs with the prevailing opinion regarding the Belliard signing (i.e. it's a good thing) and hopefulness for Dmitri Young to turn things around.
- Basil suggests that Young needs to put the past behind him and focus on the present. The distraction issue that he brings up is one that concerns me as well. This will be an interesting storyline to follow as we continue through spring training.
- Brian at NFA has a great article on how the international player development market shakes out. This is required reading, especially in light of today's announcement with Tabasco Olmecas.
- Nats320 rocks. 'Nuff said. [UPDATE: So does MissChatter.]
- Farid reiterates his man-love for Larry Broadway. It's not that I have a problem with Larry Broadway, per se; it's just that at 26 years old, I don't see him improving enough with the bat to hold down first base at the Major League level. I really doubt that he will be able to get near his .288/.353/.455 2006 AAA line in the bigs, and if he is closer to the .246/.315/.408 line that PECOTA projects, he hurts the team. If Dmitri Young's diabetes were indeed to blame to for his 3-year statistical slide (and personal issues), then there stands a good chance IMO that he easily beats out Broadway for the job if the problem is now under control.
- Last but certainly not least, if you haven't gotten your fill of linkable goodness, check out Brandon's latest over at Curly W.
# posted by JammingEcono @ 12:58 PM 
