The Dord of Darien

Musings from the Mayor of the Internet

Do your homework, Theo Epstein

He’s going to hit 25 homers every year. He’s an underrated offensive player.

That’s Theo Epstein talking about Mike Cameron in this article about the recent signing. Most of what Theo says is correct, but there’s an issue here.

Number of seasons Mike Cameron has played in the majors: 15
Number of seasons Mike Cameron has hit 25 or more home runs: 4

If you’d said twenty, Theo, I’d give you the benefit of the doubt; there’s an 18 and a 19 in there, but… eh. His 162-game average is 23, which does not imply that you can expect him to hit 25 homers like clockwork every single year, even assuming he’s never hurt. Which is: not safe assumption to make of a 37-year-old center fielder.


December 16th, 2009 Posted by | Baseball | no comments

Happy Halladays

Worst idiotic pun title ever? Worst idiotic pun title ever.

I’m apparently the only person in the world who thinks it was completely brilliant for the Phillies to trade for Roy Halladay. I mean, sure, Cliff Lee’s a good pitcher (assuming he maintains the form he’s had the last two years and doesn’t revert), but he’s in the last year of his contract, and has made it very clear that he’s not giving his incumbent team a discount when it’s negotiation time. He’s going to test free agency for all it’s worth. Which means the Phillies will not be able to keep him.

Halladay, meanwhile, they have extended through 2013. He’s every bit as good as Lee, and makes me a little bit less nervous (since I’m always wondering if Cliff Lee is suddenly going to turn back into a pumpkin). In essence, what the Phillies traded was one year of Cliff Lee and one prospect for four years of Roy Halladay. That is the best trade ever except for when the Twins got Fransisco Liriano, Joe Nathan, and Boof Bonser from the Giants for one year of A.J. Pierzynski. How on earth are people not sure this was an awesome move on Philadelphia’s part? If anything, I question Seattle. Toronto didn’t really have the money to keep Halladay, what with everything they still owe sucky Vernon Wells, so they were kind of in a bind. They got three prospects for him, which is okay. But Seattle… Seattle traded two top prospects, and, in return, got one year of Cliff Lee. I just don’t know about that. Clearly they’re expecting the division to be weak — and they’re probably right — but it seems like a shortsighted trade for a team that’s basically still rebuilding.


December 16th, 2009 Posted by | Baseball | no comments