Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

 
What?!
Didn't see that coming. Naturally, the first thing that came to mind when the news that former MVP Ivan Rodriguez had signed a one year, $10 million deal with the Florida Marlins was that something else was afoot, that he'd be moved elsewhere shortly, despite the fact that you don't have sign-and-trades in baseball as you do in basketball, for instance. But...the details of the contract seem to prohibit that from happening, even at the trading deadline, unless Pudge waives the no-trade clause that's built into the contract.

The expectation was that Rodriguez would, along with Jose Cruz, sign below market one year contracts to play in Baltimore, the only team publicly jockeying for their services. But much like in the case of the Colon-to-Chicago a week ago, another team seemingly jumped into the fray at the end and stole the prize. I guess this makes some sense for Pudge, as he'll have an opportunity to play everyday (well, as often as his body will allow) and then will get to go through the free agency process again next year when the market might be a bit better for him. That said, he's both moving to the NL where he won't have the opportunity to DH regularly and from the Ballpark in Arlington to Pro Player Stadium, which is a more difficult park to hit in. I'm guessing the ton of money and (total speculation) the opportunity to play in Miami swayed him in this direction. Sensible enough.

The question is: what are the Marlins doing?
- they have two very adequate major league catchers already (Ramon Castro, Mike Redmond)
- they are still not a good bet to be competitive for the postseason
- they refused to pay a guy they needed (Kevin Millar) as recently as two weeks ago
- they are paying far more than anyone else was offering ($6 million was the Baltimore figure, I think)
- they can't even turn him into prospects at the deadline without his consent
- they've got a first baseman (Derrek Lee) in place and no DH at their disposal, so he'll have to catch

This absolutely improves the Marlin lineup. But even if you were getting the best season of his career (when Pudge was worth almost 9 wins above replacement, according to bp.com), does this make any sense from the team's standpoint? Yes, Pudge is a much better hitter than either Castro or Redmond or a combination of the two. But does it really matter in terms of the Marlins' success over the long term (which Pudge will almost certainly not be a part of) whether they win 75 games or 84 games? Of course you like to see every team try to win as many games as possible, and if Jeff Loria can afford to pay for it, the Marlins will win more games this year and that's great. I'm just not sure what's ultimately going to come of this other than a few wins this season which are ultimately pretty insignificant. Maybe the thinking is that it'll boost attendance in Miami, which it may well. This is just a really confusing move, especially in light of the Marlins just letting Kevin Millar go to Japan over several million dollars less than this.

Baffling.

A little more Chuck
Following up on our Chuck Finley content yesterday, there are now reports that Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd is "monitoring" the 40-year old's "situation". For the reasons we outlined, I don't see how Colorado is a fit from Finley's standpoint...but it makes great sense for the Rockies to try to bring in a guy like that on the cheap, so I don't blame them (or any other organization who would) for trying. Also mentioned in the linked article is that the team is considering signing ex-Phillies starter Robert Person, presumably also for very little money. Theories about how best to approach the unique baseball environment in Denver have been plentiful, and the accumulation of any available talent for cheap appears to be this week's choice for Mr. O'Dowd. The Rockies have spent the winter bulking up their lineup with power hitters at very little cost, and now are apparently trying to do the same to the pitching staff. In this very weak market, it may well be wise for the Rockies to simply throw whatever arms are available at their pitching staff problems and hope they'll provide a solution, even if only a short-term one. However, for success over the long haul, we're going to need to see some consistency and a plan from an organization that has in the past few years shown no indication of either.
posted by VZW Watcher at 2:33 PM -