Check Swings
“Holiday” Edition

As you can see by the dates of my recent posts, I have taken something of a sabbatical coinciding with the month’s religious holidays (I don’t know if it is possible to remove the religious connotation from a word derived from Sabbath. Whatever). The baseball news of the last week has been equal parts bland and depressing, so it may be better for myself having not written. That hasn’t stopped the ideas from creeping up there in the ole noggin, though, so I decided to jot down some reactions before we all start tearing through gift wrap.

The first Twins move was the signing of Tony Batista, as much of a travesty as you all think. My first assumption was that bringing a 33 year old back from Japan (after a mediocre year there) would not cost the team any more than a Non-Roster Invitation to Florida in late February. But Batista will crowd someone off of the 40-man roster and cost the team a million dollars more than some minor league alternative. They would absolutely be better off with last year’s NRI, Eric Munson, as he doesn’t have the massive drawbacks that Batista does. Some very smart analysts say that it is better to talk about what a player can do than what he can’t, so let’s think about Batista’s strengths. A high percentage of his hits are for extra bases, and he has hit more than 25 HRs in a season five separate times. Problem is, he has walked more than 35 times exactly once, and doesn’t hit enough singles to buoy his OBP or even SLG. His defense is above average (a career 106 Rate2, or 6 runs every 100 games). But last year’s PECOTA projected him to put up a 2.8 VORP in 2006, not exactly the solution we all had in mind when visions of Bill Mueller and Hank Blalock danced in our heads. There is a slim chance that Terry Tiffee will be worse than Batista in 2006, and that could not offset the marginal payroll and opportunity cost. If the Twins don’t want to seriously contend in 2006, why waste money on dredge like Batista and his career .298 OBP?

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Then the Twins picked up Rondell White, who has had some injury troubles through his career. By “some injury troubles” I mean that he played 151 games in 1997 and has not reached 140 since. White was quoted in the Strib as saying that he had freak injuries while fielding that will go away if he plays full time as a DH, but I’m overwhelmingly pessimistic about that projection. Still, White is something like an average outfielder/DH at this point in his career, possibly even a good value at the $3.5-4 million he will end up costing per year. But once again, White has no chance to make the difference between a contender and an also-ran, a position the Twins seem all-to-willing to accept. The White Sox get Javy Vazquez, at least a six win player, and the only answer the Twins can find is a retread third baseman who nobody wanted for two straight years and the third or fourth best free agent DH. If Radke is serious about retiring after the year, Ryan should have pulled out the stops and tried to catch lightning in a bottle this season. A short-term commitment like Nomar Garciaparra is precisely the type of high risk, high reward possibility that successful teams find to surround young studs like Santana and Mauer. Color me disappointed.

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The big news is not about the Twins; it’s about the Yankees and Red Sox. Peter Gammons, who I see as the preeminent Red Sox insider, said that the front office conglomerate would match any offer the Yankees would make. At the same time, Damon’s agent said he refused to talk about an offer of anything less than five years. So after a week of negotiations between Scott Boras and the Sox front office, Damon comes out of nowhere to recant on his May pledge not to play for the Bombers and signed a four year deal for a little more money than Boston had already offered. Very simply and obviously, Damon chose to go to New York; Boston did not force him out. The popular opinion is that Damon will earn his $13 million this year and next year and drop off from there, perhaps becoming a drag by the end of his contract. I’m not even that hopeful for Damon, as I think Fenway had an inordinately positive effect on the line-drive hitting speedster. He struggled in a much larger park in Oakland, hitting .256/.324/.363 in his only season there. Certainly, he has become a better hitter since then, but do not underestimate the effect that Fenway has had on him. Instead of .300/.370/.450 like he hit in Boston, it is not unreasonable to think that he will be more like .275/.340/.400 in New York. It’s also funny that the Sox signed John Flaherty the day after Damon’s deal was finalized. I call it retaliation.

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Maybe I’m wrong about this one, but I think Matt Lawton’s contract with the Mariners was probably contingent on his public apology for steroid use. It seems like an odd coincidence that he would go four months after his suspension without coming forward, then willingly apologizing the day before he signs with Seattle. And I don’t blame the M’s front office, as it would be much easier to justify signing Lawton- who could still be a valuable source of OBP- if he had owned up to his suspension. Most people don’t like hearing that the test was rigged or that the player took some mysterious supplement that lit up the test. Now that Lawton has come “clean,” he can serve his suspension and the local press can spin him as a reclamation project. Good deal all around. I have always liked Matt Lawton, and I hope he rebounds back to relevance.

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Speaking of relevance and going to the opposite end of the spectrum, the Royals added Joe Mays and Reggie Sanders to go along with Elmer Dessens, Doug Mientkiewicz, Paul Bako, Mark Grudzielanek, Mark Redman, Bobby Madritsch and Scott Elarton. As bad as their 106 losses were last year, spending a bunch of money on nine (9!) free agents who can hardly help them at all is not much of a solution. Maybe they’ll chop their losses down to double digits, but I don’t see where any of this gets them in the long term. They obviously will not contend this year or next year. These acquisitions will not only be worthless by the time they could potentially contend, they will cost money and draft picks while standing in the way of developing other players. It also gives Allan Baird an excuse not to trade Mike Sweeney for a few more months. Frustrated as I am with the direction of the Twins of late, I have to say that I am very relieved that I am not a Royals fan.