SB Nation User Blog: Mike Benjamin Hit King

The Semi-Imminent Return of Dave Roberts

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:33:52 -0000

According to Rotoworld and Bruce Bochy, Dave Roberts hopes to be "game ready" by the 3rd week of July.

Frankly, in my opinion this is terrible news. The thought of Dave Roberts taking even one at bat away from Fred Lewis, Brian Horwitz, Nate Schierholtz, or Young Player X (who I hear plays a mean CF) makes me want to scream at my computer monitor and verbally and physically assault random passerby.

So, the purpose of this fanpost is two-fold. First, I'd like an answer to this question: Will we ever see Dave Roberts in a Giants' uniform again or will they just DFA him as soon as he's healthy and ready to play? Second, complete the following sentence, "If I see Dave Roberts playing Left Field for the Giants in 2008 while Fred Lewis sits on the bench, I will _________."

Poll

When Dave Roberts returns from injury, he should:

Matt LaPorta

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:28:47 -0000

I'm here from McCovey Chronicles to get some insight on this guy, specifically, what it would take for the Brewers to trade him. This has been discussed at length here but it seems like none of us really has a great idea what you guys would need/want in return for him. I know one thing that's been thrown out is Jonathan Sanchez and Bengie Molina for LaPorta and Bill Hall. That's probably not giving up enough on the Giants' end to get it done but hopefully it can at least be a starting point for a discussion on the topic. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks for putting up with me.

Phillies Sign Feliz

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:07:34 -0000

Pedro Feliz's reign of terror is over:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3219098

OT: Own a Baseball Player

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:59:20 -0000

Well, not quite. You can actually buy shares of 4% of Indians minor league relief pitcher Randy Newsom's future major league earnings. I haven't worked out the math myself, but the site where I found this indicated that he would need to make $1.25 million for this to be worthwhile at $20 a share. Anyone know anything about this guy and whether he's likely to ever see the majors?

http://www.realsportsinvestments.com/Player_Profile.html

Is A-Rod's Contract a Good Deal for the Yankees?

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:14:34 -0000

This guy certainly seems to think so. I especially liked the idea of a player having a "performance value" as well as "marquee value". Here's a link and the summary:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ys-gennaroarod112707&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

"Combining Rodriguez's value over the life of the contract and considering the economic effect of the new Yankee Stadium set to open in 2009, he is likely to generate approximately $450-million of "value" for the Yankees, according to my analysis of his impact. Assuming the Yankees exceed the luxury-tax threshold in each of the 10 years and trigger the 40 percent luxury tax, the total cost for Rodriguez will come to $427 million."

I would love to see a similar analysis of the Barry Zito contract so that we can quantify exactly how terrible of a contract it is.

Open Pads/Rocks Playoff Game Thread

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:14:24 -0000

Yes, both teams are objectionable. But it's still playoff baseball and as long as I'm watching it, we might as well have a place to talk about it.

Matt Cain Profile

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:04:08 -0000

http://vegaswatch.blogspot.com/2007/08/profile-matt-cain.html

In light of Cain's start tonight, I figured I'd post this profile of him and how good he's been in his career to this point. I agree with what's written here that he's overshadowed many times with Zito, Lincecum, and Bonds around and I think the paragraph copied below sums up nicely exactly how impressive he's been.

"What Cain has done by the age of 22 is not something that happens very often. Since 1901, only six pitchers have had a K/9 of over 7.5 while making at least 70 starts by the age of 22. If he makes six more starts this year, Matt Cain will add himself to the following list.

Dwight Gooden 194-112, 3.51
Vida Blue 209-161, 3.27
Frank Tanana 240-236, 3.66
Sam McDowell 141-134, 3.17
Bob Feller 266-162, 3.25
Dennis Eckersley 197-171, 3.50
Average 208-163, 3.41

I put the average in bold because it's completely insane. Frank Tanana had the highest career ERA of these guys, at 3.66. Dwight Gooden's 194 career wins comes in 5th out of 6. What Matt Cain has done by the age of 22 is truly remarkable, and he looks like he'll be a frontline starter for years to come."

Is LaRoche the PTBNL?

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:25:10 -0000

Someone mentioned in another diary that they have some inside information that indicates Andy LaRoche is on the list of 5 players the Giants could have from the Dodgers in the Mark Sweeney trade. Since I'm still a little confused about the PTBNL rules, I thought I'd post it as a separate diary to try and gauge whether this is indeed a possibility.

If the Giants can pick up someone like LaRoche in exchange for 2 months of Mark Sweeney, this would seem to be one of the biggest heists in MLB history--maybe even bigger than "the trade that shall not be named."

A Giant and A...

Mike Benjamin Hit King — Wed, 23 May 2007 00:27:21 -0000

This is blatantly stolen from a Mets blog, but I thought it was fun anyway. Basically you name the Giant or former Giant who was a member of another team that you most associate with that other team. You can only use a player once. I'm just going with the first player to fly into my mind so that explains some of the strange choices.

A Giant and A...

NL West
Dodger: Jeff Kent
Padre: Ryan Klesko
D-Back: Matt Williams
Rockie: Yorvit Torrealba

NL Central
Brewer: Marquis Grissom
Cub: Mike Krukow
Red: Dave Burba
Cardinal: Willie McGee
Pirate: Barry Bonds
Astro: Mark Portugal

NL East
Met: Armando Benitez
Brave: Russ Ortiz
Marlin: Todd Linden
National: Livan Hernandez
Phillie: Aaron Fultz
Expo: F.P. Santangelo

AL West
A: Barry Zito
Angel: Chili Davis
Ranger: John Burkett
Mariner: David Bell

AL Central
Indian: Omar Vizquel
Twin: Decline to State
Tiger: Deivi Cruz
Royal: Benito Santiago
White Sox: A.J. Pierzynski

AL East
Red Sox: Bill Mueller
Yankee: Mike Stanton
Oriole: Sidney Ponson
Blue Jay: Shea Hillenbrand
D-Ray: Randy Winn

Is there a player that I completely overlooked? Some of these were really difficult to come up with (Brewers, Tigers, Royals).