Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
There's a whole mess of things to get to today, as I've been occupied and unable to comment on much of the noise and activity of the past few (or two) days. As I have a little while now, I'll try to get to as much as possible. Before I get to any original content however, I'd like to dutifully thank our friend Aaron Gleeman over at Aaron's Baseball Blog both for linking us there and giving us some advice in the early going on how to proceed here. Even more importantly, I'd like to direct your attention to his fine piece available today on the candidates up for Hall of Fame election this year, which is an excellent read. On to this site...

The Giants sign Ray Durham, Marquis Grissom
Okay, the analysis you're going to get here isn't going to be a surprise, so if that's what you're looking for you might want to move along. Put quite simply, Ray Durham is a fine investment. This deal, which by all indications is worth $20.1 million over 3 years (with a player option for an extra year at $ 7 million thrown in there), works out to a bit more than $6 million a season, perfectly reasonable in this market for a guy who brings to the table what a Ray Durham does. This greatly improves the Giant lineup right now, whether he plays his natural second base or moves to center field to accomodate the resigning of Jeff Kent (which, naturally would be all the better). He's a legitimate leadoff hitter with good speed and would help the vast majority of lineups in baseball. That said, this is quite detrimental if this is money that would be needed to bring back Jeff Kent, a more productive player than Durham. That said, the Giants have gone ahead and offered arbitration to Kent, and with the market as it is, it's conceivable that he might be willing to negotiate with the Giants and agree to a contract that's a bit less than he intended heading into the offseason.

On the other hand, signing Marquis Grissom to what is allegedly a 2 year, $4.25 million contract (with a team option) is foolishness. While it's impossible to deny that he's coming off a pretty decent season (.289 EqA), he's also the same guy that has been well below average for the five seasons prior. He's also going to be 36 and 37 over the two seasons included in this contract. Basically, my problem with signing Grissom is not signing him, but the terms of this contract. He's no longer good enough defensively to handle playing center field on a regular basis, and he's not productive enough offensively to handle the Giants vacant outfield corner (right field, naturally). Given his production last year, is he a viable contributor (potentially) on a team in 2003? Sure, he deserves that shot. But there's no justification for giving him anything more than a one year contract on the cheap to be a 4th outfielder/pinch hitter, which I fear is not all the Giants are envisioning here.

That said, if the Giants can find a way to bring Jeff Kent back into the fold, even if you do start Grissom in right, this is a far more daunting lineup than anything the Giants trotted out there in 2002.

Some Yankee News
First of all, the Yanks had to make some tough decisions on arbitration day, and I'm not too pleased with what went down. Both Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza, guys who have been essential cogs in the Yankee machine during its run, were not offered arbitration and are now done in pinstripes. Apparently, the Yanks have chosen to negotiate instead with Chris Hammond, who would presumably take over Stanton's role as the top lefty in the bullpen. This sucks. I don't know how much Stanton and Mendoza would've cost the Yanks, but these guys, when healthy, have been as good as anyone in their respective roles. I'm all for going out and improving the team even if it means saying goodbye to some friendly faces, but I don't see it happening here. Hammond is a very questionable signing for any team in my opinion, as his incredible season last year in Atlanta sticks out like a conservative in Boston. I'm disappointed, have no idea how they intend to replace Mendoza, and hope that the negotiations with Hammond (supposedly for a two year deal worth about $5 million) break down somehow.

The Yanks came to terms with Chris Widger, who'll return as the backup to Jorge Posada, which is fine by me. He's getting paid $750,000 (an unbelievable sum for the amount of work he'll actually be doing), but at least he's a credible offensive threat when he's in the lineup and it's not much money in the overall scheme of things for the team, so it's not much of an issue. They also offered arbitration to Roger Clemens, who appears to be coming back, and Ron Coomer, who performed quite well last season in limited time and probably won't be too expensive. There's no reason to believe he can't continue to be a good pinch hitter and spot starter at first and third, and he seems content with that role at this point in his career. As far as Clemens is concerned, I don't really understand his ridiculous contract. But apparently he's going to be paid a whole bunch of money anyway by the Yankees no matter what, so I'd rather him be pitching for them than against them. He's still a quality major league pitcher who continues to show flashes of brilliance, albeit not quite as bright as those from a few years ago. Still totally capable of winning 15 games or so for the Yankees, I've got no problem with him in my rotation and see no reason that he can't pitch for a few more years yet if he wants to (I think he will).
posted by VZW Watcher at 12:45 PM -