Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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Guillermo Mota's days as a major leaguer seemed to be winding down a year ago. From the day in 2004 that the Dodgers sent him with Paul Lo Duca and Juan Encarnacion to Florida, through the end of the 2007 season, the only good stretch of baseball Mota had offered was followed by a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing substances.
Last season, with Milwaukee, Mota managed to be decent, striking out 50 batters in 57 innings with a 105 ERA+. Here is his OPS allowed by month in 2008:
.713 April
.492 May
1.028 June
1.139 July
.349 August
.517 September
Fluctuation City. Anyway, the Dodgers are giving him a physical, reports Dylan Hernandez of the Times, a physical that will cost them seven figures of 2009 salary if he passes. (Yeah, I know, that's sort of a perverse way of looking at it.)
Mota might have a decent 2009 season, but is he any more likely than the numerous cheaper candidates the Dodgers will have their disposal? Not really. This is quibbling over an amount of money that won't make or break the Dodgers, but still sometimes, I'm puzzled by the players the Dodgers feel are worth a risk versus the ones who scare them off.
Elsewhere ...
Update: Chin-Lung Hu and Hong-Chih Kuo have pulled out of the WBC too, notes Diamond Leung of the Press-Enterprise.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2009/01/13/braves_lowe.html
And yet, according to Fangraphs, he was worth negative $900k.
I would think the Carlos Santana fiasco would have discontinued this line of thinking. Sure, maybe $1-2 million won't make or break the Dodgers, but we have seen that $1-2 million can matter. A lot.
2002: $0
2003: $2
2004: $2.4
2005: $1
2006: -$0.7
2007: $0.2
2008: -$0.9
He also carries a $6MM plus salary - is it a possibility?
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9072292/Which-team-could-end-up-making-the-move-for-the-Texas-Rangers%27-Michael-Young?-?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49
10 And to answer this, it seems as though he was luckier last year than 2007 and had much better peripheral stats (Strikeout rate based stats, mostly) in 2006, despite posting a (much) better ERA.
On a semi-related note, is B-R still incredibly slow for most people?
Young has a 5 year/$80M ($16M per year) contract starting up this year.
19 I believe he only carries that salary if the Rangers pay half.
Lots of misreading for me these last two mornings. Yeesh.
http://tinyurl.com/7q5g6c
I think about $18m of the $80m has been paid or deferred as part of a signing bonus, so Young is "only" owed $62m over the next 5.
Of course, I still wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole. Actually, that's not true. If I had a 10-foot pole I probably would touch him with it just to say I touched someone with a 10-foot pole.
Squash Blossoms + Buratta was pretty tasty.
Monroe, 32 in February, hit .202/.274/.405 for the Twins in 179 plate appearances before he was designated for assignment. He earned $3.82MM for his efforts.
Draft pick compensation should be removed as part of the collective bargaining agreement
I can see why the players would want this, as it would loosen some of the restriction on free agents (teams shying away from Varitek, Orlando Cabrera, et al due to the draft pick they'd have to give up), but why would the owners want this? Just curious.
Would allowing the trading of draft picks be better?
He was the other guy I was thinking of last week when I was trying to argue that the Twins should have kept Santana for 2008!
They paid Livan $5m and Monroe $3.82m when they could have paid Johan his $13.25m (later ripped up for his new Mets contract) and won the division.
I guess that would increase trades of upcoming free agents, either in the offseason or at the July deadline, as teams would want to get something for the departing player since they wouldn't have draft picks to fall back on.
Do you think draft pick compensation is likely to be removed in the next round of collective bargaining?
On a semi-related note, is B-R still incredibly slow for most people?
At times yesterday, it was incredibly slow, but it was off and on. I just tried it now and it seems back up to speed. Maybe they get spikes in traffic due to the HOF news? Just an uneducated guess.
Jacob, I'll take the Stairsian blame for that one since I mixed up the years of Mota's value last night as well. :)
Russell Martin got an endorsement!
Grundy is just as good as Young but Young got the big contract because he was a 2nd baseman playing SS while Grundy has just been a 2nd baseman for a while now.
Kuo
Wade
Troncoso (starter in minors?)
Elbert (starter in minors?)
Mota
Vargas
I think J-Mac is a lock for the rotation.
Billingsley
Kuroda
Kershaw
McDonald
Wolf/Garland/Looper
They chose to sign Mota instead of Saito. Then the Red Sox signed Saito.
This is troubling.
To be fair, the Red Sox signed Saito first. Although I'm not sure if the Dodgers would have matched the Red Sox offer or come close, especially considering they were pursuing Hoffman before Saito flew the coop.
Yep. Bennett, Jones, Mota...makes you wonder why Barry Bonds is so off-limits.
Saito's pitching elbow needs TJ surgery. it's hang'in by a thread in there. Total blowout just waiting to happen.
Jon's post re: Mota is excellent.
No more peds - no more sub 3.00 era.
Stick a fork in Mota - he's overdone - the meat's falling off the bones.
Wonder if the Dodgers would just give me $1,600,000.00 if I asked them nicely?
About the same utility of their resources imho.
There will be an army of relief pitchers competeing in Camelback beginning 2/14/09.
This mota - jokah signing baffles me.
Is Young's contract too long and too expensive given his current age?
Without wanting to be flip, I think this is the point. The key to a success in the bullpen is to gather as many live bodies as possible and to hope that a half-dozen or so pan out.
Also: it seems to me that the bullpen is the one area that Colletti has handled very well during his tenure, all things considered.
I mean, the player Young would replace is DeWitt. I root for DeWitt, but I am not so certain that he will be a better player than Young in 2009. Or even 2010. Or, possibly, ever. Lotsa questions about DeWitt.
That would be a nice story is he's able to somehow, some way find the control that has long eluded him.
That is the point precisely.
Why not give a younger player who posseses equal or greater talent the opportunity to perform?
What's the upside of giving money to an old used up gut like Mota?
Watching him throw last year it was easy to see that his tank has run dry - he's done.
According to Fangraphs, DeWitt was better last year than Young.
If you look at it that way, Colletti has done a lot "decently" in his tenure.
In reality though, was it any of his doing? Not really.
It's not his doing that the Dodgers (White/Ng/Scouting) provided him with tons of good cheap players after all. Even if I thought Ned was the main cog in draft process, most of them were drafted under DePo or Evans anyway.
Kuo/Broxton/Wade/Stults/Troncoso/Elbert
Hard not to do a good job with your pen when 4-5 of them are provided to you at minimum cost every year. Not to mention lucking out on Saito, whoever was responsible for that.
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