Words From The Road

Given the extraordinarily monumental events that have occured in the baseball world recently, it seems appropriate to weigh in from the road- even though I had hoped to abdicate all responsibility for posting regularly on this trip and dump all the responsibilities in Alec's lap. What was that he said in his first post about total lack of ambition (or basic human decency)? Anyway, having attended a game in 20 of the 30 major league stadiums this summer, I find myself in northern Minnesota...ok, ok, it's basically Canada- with some time and some news.


First off, Jeff Francoeur for Ryan Church- really? I mean really? And then Oman Minaya's comments today about how he wouldn't hesitate to add people because a "couple" teams are in front of the Mets for the Wild Card spot? Try seven. And try this on for size, Omar- your team is f***ed. F***ed like the Germans at Stalingrad. F***ed like anyone Clint Eastwood has ever pointed a gun at. (finally saw Gran Torino tonight- great movie) F***ed like a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest. F***ed like the Mets in September...wait...scratch the "in September" part. Anyway, as a Phillies fan, nothing does my heart more good than to see a delusional idiot running the Mets- the only thing that scares me is that one day his employers are bound to catch on to this little fact and can his ass like a tuna. And here is Omar's new star RF, who he traded a surprisingly useful player in Ryan Church to get, making his new boss proud:
http://thesportshernia.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b84f69e2011572264466970b-pi
Sports Hernia has the pic- I got linked to them from one baseball writer's blog or another- can't remember whose. Anyway I'd say this pic just about sums up the Mets' season so far. I'm just praying that the Mets don't play .875 baseball the rest of the way and make me eat these words. Note to Ruben Amaro, Jr.- for the love of God, please trade for Roy Halladay. Bonus points if you can convince JP Ricciardi that Carlos Carrasco is as good as everyone thought he was two years ago and that the Jays therefore don't need little old Kyle Drabek.


Moving on, the Phils have picked up Pedro- I look forward to seeing him pitch when I get back from this four-wheeled madness. I know he doesn't seem to have much left in the tank- but I'd rather watch Pedro get shelled than Clay Condrey. My distaste for Clay Condrey is rather unwarranted, but I can never shake a great line I saw on Beerleaguer (a great Phillies blog) a year or two ago- "Having to choose between Clay Condrey and Chad Durbin in the late innings of a tie game is God's way of telling you you don't have a very good bullpen." We'll see- honestly, I could give f***-all about how well Pedro pitches in a Phillies uniform- the sheer novelty will be enough for me to enjoy it either way. I am infinitely more concerned about Lit Up Lidge and Gas Can Madson, because the fact that we rely on those two to hold late-inning leads is a fact that never fails to scare the shit out of me.


And now to the tidbit that anyone who reads the header of this blog has been waiting for us to deal with- the Boston Red Sox have, at long last and with much lamentation, parted ways with their most stellar of shortstops, Julio Lugo. No longer will his gloriously goldless glove grace the middle of Fenway's infield. Seriously though, can we consider this a minor miracle that the Red Sox traded him for a cost-controlled major leaguer who has the potential to be moderately useful without paying a nickel of his salary? Granted, Lugo has not been the Antichrist this year at shortstop- his wOBA on the season is .329, which puts him at roughly a league-average hitter. Considering his position, a league-average bat is perfectly acceptable.

Lugo's defense, however, looks to be just as bad as everyone who ever watches the Red Sox believes it to be. His UZR rating in runs above/below average right now is -8.3 (all these stats are from Fangraphs), which means he's cost the Sox nearly a win in the field at shortstop compared to an average fielder. (10 runs is roughly equal to one win) This he has managed to accomplish in a grand total of 32 games [27 starts] at shortstop. What is amazing, though, is his UZR/150- his projected UZR over the course of 150 games, or a full season. Lugo's UZR/150 is an unbelievable -43.6. Lugo projects to cost his team over four wins with his defense if allowed to play shortstop every day. What astounds me is that John Mozeliak not only gave up someone with the apparent (if not real) usefulness of a Chris Duncan for this guy and the roughly $12 million remaining on his contract, but that he is also is due to send the Sox either some cash or a PTBNL. Good God. Chris Duncan either kills kittens in the clubhouse for fun or slept with Mozeliak's daughter, because this is a guy who posted a .360 wOBA in his most recent healthy season (2007) and a .390 wOBA in the half-season before that. (06 was his first extended playing time in the majors) Granted, the past year and a half he has been rather abysmal, but he apparently has been dealing with injuries during that time, or so I've heard a number of other (more informed) people say. All in all, it seems that while Julio Lugo has more value than Red Sox fans were willing to give him credit for, the Cardinals managed to overpay drastically for him considering the fact that he was a couple days away from being released.

I would expect that John Mozeliak will be getting a number of thank-you letters from Mets fans in the near future- with all the rumors of a Mets-Lugo matchup, (once Lugo was released from the Sox) Minaya would have been one more man closer to accomplishing his goal of turning Citi Field into the leper colony of the major leagues. To that end, rumor has it that Minaya was narrowly outbid by Dayton Moore for Yuniesky Betancourt's services, and that he is on the phone right now trying to pry Barry Zito away from the Giants, Jose Guillen away from the Royals, and Carl Pavano away from the Indians.

That's enough for now. Words of wisdom for the day- don't leave meat in a cooler for a week in warm weather. That shit gets nasty.