As a rule, if you are bringing in a 35-year-old third baseman to take the place of your utility infielder, you’re doing something wrong. Norton isn’t a bad player, or wasn’t — he may be done — but he is a bad fit for a roster that already has Ruben Gotay and Brayan Pena and [...]
Good bat for a second baseman, bad glove. Gotay was a 31st-round pick of the Royals in 2000. He pretty much demolished rookie ball at 18 and A-ball at 19, hit a bit of a speed bump at High-A at 20. At 21, in 2004, he hit .289/.368/.440 in AA and earned a promotion to [...]
Josh Anderson seems extremely likely to make the team, even though he’s not any good. The Braves are likely to carry only one backup outfielder, so they’ll need one who can play center. Anderson has a career .337 OBP on the minor league level, and that’s his strength as a hitter. His slugging percentage is [...]
Everyone says that Manny Acosta is at least pencilled into the bullpen, but I can’t see that he he has it made. The Braves have a lot of guys who are out of options, and while Acosta pitched well last year he wasn’t a revelation or anything. Struck out 22 in 23 2/3 innings, which [...]
I don’t think that the Rule 5 draft is very good for players. Take Jeff Bennett. Bennett was a guy with a live arm, drafted out of the Pirates organization in 2003, coming off a solid year as a AA middle reliever. (He was one of five players the Pirates lost in the draft that [...]
More than just a LOOGY, from his minor league statistics and brief major league work. The White Sox took Ring, a San Diego State reliever, in the first round of the 2002 draft, the 18th pick overall. (23rd: Francoeur. 24th: Joe Blanton. 25th: Matt Cain. Oops!) I’ll admit that I have no idea what the [...]
30 year old LOOGY, pitched poorly last year but fairly well in the role in 2006, very well in 2005. LOOGYing is a tough job, which doesn’t mean it’s not basically a stupid one. Most of the players you face in crucial situations are either outstanding lefthanded hitters or pinch-hitters, though the short benches caused [...]
Winner of the 2007 Jaret Wright Memorial “I Did Not See That Coming” Trophy. After 15 uninspiring innings in 2006, Moylan started off the year in the minors, but only threw two innings for Richmond before getting called up. He was fairly awesome, throwing 90 innings with a 1.80 ERA. His peripherals (63 K/31 BB [...]
I actually like Yates more now, coming off a season in which he put up a 5.18 ERA, than I did last year, when his ERA was 3.96. This is partly because his statistical components were better. He walked 31 men in 2007, same as in 2006, but in 66 innings versus 50 the year [...]
The Braves started the season with three Closers™ in the bullpen. At the end, there was only one, Soriano, who should start the year as the closer. Since the Braves’ closer role is cursed, something eventually will happen to him, but for now it seems in good hands. Soriano was great in most of his [...]
