Braves 2010 Season In Review: Yunel Escobar and Alex Gonzalez

ever since it was mentioned I have named myself the head of the Adam Everett for utility IF bandwagon….could not find a better replacement in my mind…

although i don’t dispute that Hairston is valuable int hat he can play SS and CF and other positions, but Everett has a slightly better defense at SS and thats what concerns me most.

Andrelton Simmins? Unlikely to hit, but if he can get above a .300 obp and near .700 ops, his defense at SS is good enough to make that worthwhile? And if not, his D still might be enough for a bench spot.

Seriously, why do you even respond to anything I say if you’re just going to come back to any response with this same tired and predictable, “You’re just being negative,” line of bullshit every time?

If you’re going to respond to me why don’t you actually provide statistical support for your argument or against mine and (shockingly enough) discuss baseball?

If you think that I’m just oh so incredibly negative about everything, why don’t you just, you know, not respond in the first place? Seems like it would save time for everybody.

Sorry for daring to suggest that replacing the production of a guy that has a career OBP below .300 in the event that he does go down with an injury isn’t exactly a major concern. Excuse me for having faith in the guys in our system to think that they can fill in adequately for Alex Gonzalez if the need should arise or that our GM will be capable of finding a solid enough backup on the FA market.

I also apologize for saying that a guy that has produced a WAR over 1.6 three times in 10 full ML seasons is probably a below average starting ML SS overall.

I don’t really see much reason to think that Diory couldn’t post an OBP around .300 if he was playing regularly. His minor league numbers aren’t that bad in that regard.

Still, I see your point, particularly with regard to Hicks (and the rather disturbing trend his offense has shown in the high minors)..

I think it was with the Red Sox, but I really don’t know why he got it.

She’s 18 now.

I like Your Love. I think Kelly Johnson came up to that too. It’s a great song, because it sounds like a love song but it’s really about cheating on a girl.

The official answer

Yeah, I think baseball is in a much better place financially than football and basketball. Basketball has priced itself out of its fanbase and football has priced itself out of everyone’s budget.

Is it? Look at the insane rate of inflation in baseball over the last 10 years, and it’s even worse over the last 20. It wasn’t until 90 or 91 that somebody made a million dollars a year and by the end of the decade guys were making over 10 million a year. Crappy players are earning 4 million dollars in arbitration. The money system is completely screwed up. Expecting ridiculous inflation for the sport is an intelligent guess based on its history.

No, they’re not. But they’re not always wrong either. And a general consensus is usually a sign that they’re on the right track, at the very least. We’re not talking about the Joe Morgans of the world here either; K-Law is usually very knowledgeable on everything except admitting that Freeman is a top-flight prospect, Cameron is highly respected (and a fellow blogger, one of your comrades-in-arms in breaking down the stigma that only national reporters add any substance to the conversation). Passan is a bit of a schmuck, and I agree with MBLTR’s Ben that saying this is a bad deal from Tulo’s standpoint is kinda retarded, but it seems the blind squirrel found an acorn this time.

How much more can he really improve though? If not for his unbelievably, fantasmically amazing September, we wouldn’t be talking about him as being THAT good. He had a .319/.383/ .502 line through August. That average and OBP are right in line with his end of year totals, but his slugging was boosted a whopping 66 points by that one month. I know everyone’s going to leap down my throat for saying it, but we all know that a player’s perceived value is still pretty fairly tied to counting stats these days, and consider that he hit more homers in September than he did in the other five months of the year COMBINED, to go with 40 September RBIs compared to only 55 over the other five months. He was on pace for 16 total HRs before the baseball gods anointed him in the final month. That kind of performance is not repeatable. He also missed time with injury in the middle months of the year, and this is not the first time in his career he’s had a decently sized DL stint.

Look, I’m not knocking on Tulo. He’s a very good player, but you more or less know what you’re getting from him: a good BA/OBP, roughly 22-27 HRs/90-100 RBI if he remains healthy. He set a high for HRs with 32 last year, which seems like a slight outlier compared to other performances, and he set average and OBP highs this year. His career .857 OPS is something to write home about, but not something to set the world on fire. But whether he remains healthy is always going to be a sizable question mark with him. He’s a well above average player, but not the kind of sure thing health-wise or mythical A-Rod type talent that you sign to a ridiculous amount of money for a decade. I still contend this deal could have been made any time during the year 2013- which gives them two or three more seasons to evaluate their stance- and the money would look mostly the same. You’re right that baseball salaries have skyrocketed over the last two decades, but that sort of growth is not sustainable, and we’re seeing it begin to plateau in the last couple of seasons (partially due to the economy, but also due to the fact that baseball becomes an unsustainable business model if that sharp increase continues ad infinitum and the Alex Coras of the world begin reeling in 8-10 million just to be the 25th man off the bench, and all the logical implications that go along with that). They will continue to creep up, sure, but we’re not going to be talking about Bryce Harper the $50 million dollar man in 2020.

Turner field would explode from the awesomness.

same body as his ps.

And if it weren’t for price, I’d like Jeter as RH bat, possible leaadoff for CF or SS. But then, we have to get the man who gave Jessica Alba herpes, so that’s a huge negative. Then again, if it means more shots of Minka Kelly in the stands during games, that’s a huge plus. I’m torn damn it!

If he’s not a Yankee, why do I think he’ll head back home to Detroit?