To Brighten Your Friday
by Jeff Sullivan on May 28, 2010 12:17 PM PDT
in Miscellaneous
Time to do this again. There's no better freude than schadenfreude.
- Adam Jones has a .679 OPS and a career line of .267/.311/.415. He appears to be an ~average defensive center fielder.
- Jeff Clement has a .600 OPS and a career line of .228/.291/.377. He is a first baseman.
- Wladimir Balentien has a .731 OPS, in AAA Louisville. His career line in the bigs is .221/.281/.374.
- Jones, Clement, and Wlad have combined for a Major League BB/K of 138:527.
- Brandon Wood - Baseball America's #3 overall prospect in 2006 and #8 overall prospect in 2007 - posted a .435 OPS in April and a .312 OPS in May before getting DL'd with a 'hip flexor strain.' Says the LA Times' Mike DiGiovanna: "How convenient." Wood is out of options and this was the only path the Angels could take to make Wood go away without losing him.
- Nelson Cruz continues to fight the hamstring problem that's plagued him since camp.
- The Mariners have a combined OPS+ and ERA+ of 192. The Angels have a combined OPS+ and ERA+ of 183.
- The Milton Bradley-less Cubs are on pace to finish five and a half games lower than they did a year ago.
- John Lackey - in the first year of a $82.5m/5yr contract - has pitched like an absolute pile of crap, while Josh Beckett - whose $68m/4yr extension has yet to begin - has been both mediocre and injured.
- Among 16 A's with at least 20 plate appearances on the year, the highest OPS belongs to Daric Barton, at .793.
- Including baserunning, Raul Ibanez has a WAR of 0.
That doesn't brighten up my day.
Graham MacAree - May 28, 2010
Then your day is wrong
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
That's because you're a grumpus.
Everyone else sucks too, so we’re number one! We’re number one!
abender20 - May 28, 2010
You must have been having a spectacular day
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
Yes, I feel the same way.
For the former Ms prospects at least, it just makes me sad for them. The Angels/As part does indeed brighten my day.
appleshampoo - May 28, 2010
'There's no better freude *is schadenfreude.'
Than?
lemonverbena - May 28, 2010
Never re-write a sentence
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
Never rewrite parts of sentences
Graham MacAree - May 28, 2010
stream of consciousness is the best kind of consciousness
pdb - May 28, 2010
Don't you mean there's no better consciousness is stream of consciousness?
JAH - May 28, 2010
Nice to know we're not suffering alone
AltCtrlDelete - May 28, 2010
Hate to rain on your Nelson Cruz Parade...
but when he IS playing, he’s batting .330 with an OPS of 1.144. 10 Hrs, 34 RBIs, and 7 SBs. Sorry, i have him on a fantasy team.
Lucas Cervi - May 28, 2010
If Nelson Cruz were bad, I wouldn't care that he's hurt
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
Yeah but that's what he does when he's hurt...
imagine him healthy…
Lucas Cervi - May 28, 2010
I imagined him in a fistfight with his hamstring problem
lemonverbena - May 28, 2010
Whither Ronny?
Kirsten Schlewitz - May 28, 2010
Not terrible!
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
Fuck this team, then.
Kirsten Schlewitz - May 28, 2010
We need a do over!
Poochie - May 28, 2010
I feel slightly better, thank you!
Heydude - May 28, 2010
Reading this is like slowly savoring a delicious piece of rich chocolate
during the lunch break of an otherwise shitty day.
sigalert - May 28, 2010
Wow someone is ready for Sex and the City 2
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
That's out? Thanks for the reminder!
melenious - May 28, 2010
Here's some
balm
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
Is this the one about menopause or is that the next one?
Sec 108 - May 28, 2010
Speaking of Raul Ibanez
- The Phillies are currently on a 5-game losing streak.
- They’ve only scored 3 runs during that time.
- They’ve failed to score a run in 4 of the last 5 games.
- They haven’t scored in their last 3 games (got swept by the Mets)
- They’ve been blanked in 46 of their last 47 innings.
And their offense is good. That’s gotta be annoying to watch.
ThundaPC - May 28, 2010
They were nearly no-hit by Disuke Matsuzaka.
ouch.
Lucas Cervi - May 28, 2010
The Red Sox were nearly no hit with Daisuke Matsuzaka on the mound too!
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
They were swept by the Mets without scoring a run.
That’s demoralizing.
yuniform - May 28, 2010
Ryan Howard's extension hasn't even started yet.
CMC_Stags - May 28, 2010
I love that the Angels are afraid of losing Wood.
That’s like the people who were distraught about us trading Clement, only if Clement was way, way worse.
SethGrandpa - May 28, 2010
It's like the people who are afraid to put Jesus through waivers to send him to Tacoma
CMC_Stags - May 28, 2010
He has a good glove at third and hit like 5,000 homers in the minors.
He’s been disgustingly bad in the majors so far, and his MiLB numbers came in very friendly environments, but I can see why they don’t want to give him away for free quite yet.
If I ran a team, it would be full of guys like Brandon Wood and Jeff Clement. And we would be terrible.
Teej - May 28, 2010
He's out of options
which means he’s had three tries at the bigs already. But yeah, his minor league power was nice.
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
3rd baseman seem to be struck with this a lot.
Or at least those are the first names that come to mind:
Sean Burroughs, Dallas McPherson
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Sean Burroughs didn't strike out much at all; his shittiness was more general as opposed to contact-specific.
marc w - May 28, 2010
He peaked at age 12.
Sec 108 - May 28, 2010
I don't mean guys that strike out a lot
Just AAAA players that seem to be able to mash in the minors and suck in the majors.
Andy Marte, Chris Davis (former 3B I think?)
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
This isn't endemic to 3B
all position prospects have problems. Youkilis, Longoria, Wright, Beckham, Fields… plenty of em come up and hit well. I think it makes more sense to group prospects by hitting style than position.
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
I know its not specific to any position.
I guess I should have said it “feels” like that because when I think of AAAA player, those names come up first.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Chris Davis is seeing time at 3B again in AAA with Garko on the team.
But BR’s right: this happens with every position. Catcher’s another one. Clement, JR Towles, Saltalamacchia/Teagarden to an extent, Max Ramirez perhaps (3 Rangers Cs in about 1.5/2 years! Wow!).
marc w - May 28, 2010
His windows of opportunity were pretty small, though.
From 2007 through Sunday, he has 364 plate appearances. I’m not saying he’s a great bet to figure it out, and he’s been godawful, but he’s essentially had a half-season of big-league baseball spread over four years. Scioscia gave him a very short leash until this year, when he didn’t have much else to put at third.
Teej - May 28, 2010
I lost Wood by the first week of May.
abender20 - May 28, 2010
Fuck you, Griffster.
abender20 - May 28, 2010
You should see a doctor for an erection lasting longer than 1 month
Cantu Easley Winn - May 28, 2010
Why did we need this?
We are on a winning streak and just swept the Tigers!
But it was fun to read!
Schuxu - May 28, 2010
Because we're still 7.5 games back!
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
Define need.
Sec 108 - May 28, 2010
Remember, there is no floor.
We always need moments to laugh at our enemies misfortune.
JAH - May 28, 2010
Don't know how many people this will make happy but Beltre is currently hitting .339/.370/.511.
I, for one, am still rooting for the guy. Of course that’s probably because he’s now playing for the hometown team but there’s a bit of “told you he was really good” mixed in there as well.
ThomasG - May 28, 2010
It makes me "happy" for Beltre
But that we have Lopez instead of King Awesome…not happy.
lemonverbena - May 28, 2010
Its okay to root for guys like Beltre, Ibanez, Moyer I think.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
No question, and Beltre would have stayed if contract terms had been equal
It just makes me sad to see him being awesome in a Boston uniform while Lopez is working his brand of crap at the plate.
lemonverbena - May 28, 2010
It would have been cool if Ackley was a little more advanced by now (by no fault of his own) so we could kick Figgins to third and Lopez to the curb.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
I don't think he would have stayed.
Safeco was killing his batting line, and Boston is a great place for him to build up his perceived value for a long-term deal this winter.
Eyebrows - May 28, 2010 via mobile
Yep
No way he would have close to that line in Seattle. I’m glad to see him somewhere where the park doesn’t kill his performance.
appleshampoo - May 28, 2010
Never would have come back or put up the same numbers
But I think the point is it would be nice to have Beltre instead of Lopez period.
That’s how I interpret it.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
The Green Monster says "how do you do" to Adrian's skillset
appleshampoo - May 28, 2010
Rather surprisingly, Beltre has done most of his damage on the road so far
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
Weird. I guess I should actually look before stating.
appleshampoo - May 28, 2010
He's one of the only ex-Mariners I want to see succeed!
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
I love Adrian. But I hate that he's helping the goddamn Red Sox.
So conflicted…
harkening - May 28, 2010
The Clement thing doesn't brighten it as much.
I wish he had just been good for the Mariners. That ship sailed long ago.
Also:
Brandon Morrow is still walking everybody he doesn’t strike out.
And I think Tyson Gillies is struggling too.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Aumont has a 6.25 ERA and a 32:31 K:BB ratio in 40 innings.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Future "leadoff" Gillies
.291 OBP and 1 SB
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Which is unfortunate...
I’m not rooting for the Phillies to succeed, but Gillies was great to watch in Everett, and really a nice guy. Hoping he gets a little better and doesn’t Clement up
ambrosia2112 - May 28, 2010
Morrow's gotten interesting
His line looks legitimately good now (albeit weird), but at 5 innings a start, he can’t get deep where the important innings are. So he’s been pretty good in lower leverage.
Jeff Sullivan - May 28, 2010
Actually the Morrow-League trade worries me so far this year.
Morrows still got time to get figure out the strike zone and be a very good starting pitcher. But for right now, I’m satisfied that he still kinda sucks overall.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Brandon Morrow, despite the walks...
has an FIP and xFIP under 4. He’s even brought his tERA (via Fangraphs) to the 4.5 range.
Christ if he could go 6+ innings it would be nice. Despite it all, he’s still been worth 0.8 WAR through 10 starts. More innings would be appreciated…
harkening - May 28, 2010
This is pretty much what baseball fandom is for me
I root for the M’s to win for a couple of months, then I give up and just root for players and teams I don’t like to do poorly.
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
SS/utilitysexfielder Asdrubal Cabrera is on the 60-day DL with a broken arm
Brett Lorin is out with hip surgery and hasn’t pitched this year.
Aaron Pribanic gets a lot of GBs, but still has gotten knocked around in the FSL this year. (He was the guy I hated to see go in the Snell/Clement deal)
marc w - May 28, 2010
And Valbuena is hitting .144
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Adcock has looked really good, albeit as a 22 year old in A+.
abender20 - May 28, 2010
Very true. Maybe the most pitcher-friendly league, but still, he's done quite well.
marc w - May 28, 2010
Maybe he'll get AIDS or something
Punkhazard - May 28, 2010
No wonder players are often quoted saying they don't read sports blogs
Can you imagine regularly reading where strangers wish bodily harm on you as you bus your way around shitty MiLB towns?
Torjazz - May 28, 2010
Holy shit Shin-Soo Choo has been ~equal to Gutierrez this year in Fangraphs WAR.
lailaihei - May 28, 2010
Way to destroy the good vibes I had going in the failures of the other M's cast-offs.
Rich Langford - May 28, 2010
I was at a game where Clement hit 2 dingers so I'm sure he will be good eventually
Poochie - May 28, 2010
I attended a game in which Joe McEwing and Royce Clayton homered.
Both are clearly locks for first round HOF.
abender20 - May 28, 2010
I once was at a lot of games when Griffey homered and this means...
aw, fuck it. He is never going to hit one.
Rich Langford - May 28, 2010
I wish I was at that game
Poochie - May 28, 2010
I was at that game too!
seattlebruin - May 28, 2010
I keep saying this about Sweeney
except the attending part.
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
These will never be complete without Silva
SHOW YOUR TRUE COLORS YOU BASTARD
Bearskin Rugburn - May 28, 2010
And B-Morr
Rich Langford - May 28, 2010
I know his FIP and xFIP are below 4
But he’s still a frustrating pitcher to watch.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
Gonna be a downer but Clement is just as bad as Kotchman
Edgar for Pres - May 28, 2010
.255 wOBA v .270 wOBA plus better defense.
I call fiction. But they both suck.
Kenneth Arthur - May 28, 2010
No, he's worse
Matthew - May 28, 2010
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