SB Nation User Blog: Steve Nelson

Taking advantage of the market, Dayton-style

Steve Nelson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:39:14 -0000

Dave Cameron has a post up at Fangraphs about the glut of second basemen available this year; it's like the market was last year for Ibañezesque outfielders. What a great opportunity for a small market, low-budget team to swoop in and lock up some talent at a bargain rate, right?

Of course Dayton was right on top of this wasn't he, jumping in early and scooping up the awesome Chris Getz? [/snark] One might almost think that, looking for a second baseman (without even getting into why he's doing so in the first place), he didn't bother to check out what the supply and demand situation for second baseman might be this winter. Else, why would he move on Getz when there other options? (I know, we shouldn't dismiss the notion that someone who thinks YuBet is awesome might think the same of Getz.)

Of course if his plan was to try to sell high on Callaspo as trade bait, he's now hawking Callaspo at the worst possible moment. Sheesh!

Translate

Springs comes early - first news story of winter about a vet getting ready to report to camp in great shape after a winter workout regimen

Steve Nelson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:31:20 -0000

It's Griffey folks. He's had surgery to fix what ails him. He's working out. He's losing weight. He's taking pressure off his knee. He'll be able to use his legs more to generate power.

Wait! Wait! Isn't that what we heard last year?? His leg was bothering him in 2008 and he couldn't push off on it. That's why he couldn't hit. But it was fixed; all healed. He wasn't going to be the Griffey of yore, but he was going to be good!

*****

It's deja moo!!! That's when you know you've heard that BS before.

Chesty Morgan: A life more than skin deep

Steve Nelson — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:23:57 -0000

Chesty Morgan: A life more than skin deep

From the St. Petersburg Times - the story of "Chesty Morgan" (real name Lillian Stello), an exotic dancer "with a front as imposing as the Fenway wall,'' A Polish Jew whose parents are killed during the German occupation, husband killed in a burglary in New York City. She uses her natural assets to support herself and her two young children.

Royals ink free agent Kendall

Steve Nelson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:58:12 -0000

Royals ink free agent Kendall

How discouraging for Royals fan. Even as just a stop-gap this is a bad idea.

Meanwhile, over at Royals Review, there's a thread asking "Who Was Your Least Favorite Royal of 2009?

Steve Nelson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:58:38 -0000

Who Was Your Least Favorite Royal of 2009?

With this observation about the awesomeness that is Yuni:

Because he played for both the Royals and Mariners last year not only was he the worst player in baseball by nearly a win (.9) War worse than Aubrey Huff) , but in 70 games as a Royal he was STILL the worst player in baseball -1.4 WAR, and EVEN in the other near half season with the Mariners he managed to be the THIRD worst player in baseball behind Huff and Alfonso Soriano.

He nearly managed being the worst player in baseball…TWICE.

**********
What's interesting, though, is how quickly things can change. It wasn't so long ago that a similar query could have been asked regarding the Mariners, with similar results - and some some of the very same players mentioned!!!! St. Willie, the Yuni-bomber, Ho-Ram; Guillen.

*******

Some other pithy comments:

it says something about your favorite team when there are more guys to dislike than like.
Juan Cruise who cost more then Farnsworth due to losing our 2nd round pick and was the only decent sabermetric pick up for Moore and even he was terrible.

Coco Crisp as both of his arms fell off

Aviles, who only had one arm fell off but he was villified even though Coco was playing with one arm as well.

Trey go ahead and let Meche throw 132 pitches when he has a bad back Hillman

The Royals rub in some dirt medical staff

Dayton the guy who made all these moves Moore

John go ahead and stay with the team instead of retiring with dignity Bale
Costa and Lewbanski who had a shot at the majors but ….see medical staff.

Really, though, Guillen and Jacobs have to go together for me. Ebony and Ivory, Adam-Dunns-Without-the-Bats-In-Perfect-Harmony. Getting in a fight where we know no one made any contact. that had to be broken up by Miguel Olivo, a dude who couldn’t OBP .300 if his 27 kids lives depended on it, and STILL managed to outhit Dayton’s $12 Million Man and THIRTY HOME RUNS, B-TCH!

Twins DFA Boof Bonser

Steve Nelson — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:52:11 -0000

Twins DFA Boof Bonser

You've almost got to pick him up, just for the name.

I guess Boof is the bust part of the Pierzynski haul from the Giants; he came over to the Twins with Liriano and Nathan. Oh well, I guess you gotta accept a dud every now and then.

Campillo signs with KC; Dayton Moore collects yet another former Mariner

Steve Nelson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:06:15 -0000

Campillo signs with KC; Dayton Moore collects yet another former Mariner

KANSAS CITY -- Right-hander Jorge Campillo, a World Baseball Classic teammate of Kansas City closer Joakim Soria, has signed a Minor League contract for 2010 with the Royals.

Campillo, who was with Soria on Mexico's team last spring, missed most of the 2009 season because of right shoulder tendinitis. He pitched in five games for Atlanta with a 1-0 record and 4.15 ERA.

In 2008, however, Campillo pitched in 39 games, including 25 starts, for the Braves. He was 8-7 with a 3.91 ERA in what was considered his rookie season, although he'd pitched briefly in the three previous seasons for the Seattle Mariners.

Campillo, 31 and born in Tijuana, began his pro career with eight seasons with the Mexico City Tigers. His best year was 2003, when he was 12-5 in 21 starts and had a 2.79 ERA. He was acquired by the Mariners in 2005 and later that year underwent Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery. In 2007, while pitching for Tacoma, he led the Pacific Coast League with a 3.07 ERA while going 9-6 as a starter.

Report: Yankees Trademarked 'Yankees Suck' Chant In 1996

Steve Nelson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:18:33 -0000

Report: Yankees Trademarked 'Yankees Suck' Chant In 1996

[from The Onion]

Team Has Earned More Than $90 Billion From Popular Phrase

TAMPA, FL—New York Yankees team ownership revealed Tuesday that the phrase "Yankees suck," one of the most popular chants in sports, was trademarked by the 27-time World Series champions prior to the 1996 season, a business strategy that has earned the team close to $100 billion over the past 13 years.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records show that every time an individual chants, shouts, or writes the words "Yankees suck," the New York Yankees organization earns at least $2.15, an amount that escalates depending on repetition, volume, and whether the phrase was used during a national broadcast.

"If you multiply that $2 by 13 years of chants, hundreds of sellout games in opposing teams' stadiums, and the hundreds of millions of people who hate the Yankees, you can see that this was a brilliant financial tactic," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said during a televised press conference at the team's spring training facility. "Where do you think we get the money to keep Mariano Rivera here? Or sign a bust like Carl Pavano without making the slightest dent in our bank account?"

"You know what? Why don't you all join me in a 'Yankees suck' chant right now. Come on, you know you want to," Steinbrenner added. "Yankees suck! Yankees suck! Yankees suck! That's another $9 million right there."

Thoughts on the end of a season

Steve Nelson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:06:45 -0000

I grew up a Twins fan. I remember going to Metropolitan Stadium with my Dad to see the Minneapolis Millers before the Senators moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. I agonized through years of crummy teams. I remember getting a Little League uniform with #6 on the back (I believe it was the year I played for the Gold Sox), and the disappointment that no Twin of note shared my number. (The next year #6 was Vic Wertz, and the year after that Tony Oliva arrived and took #6.) I still pull my hair out remembering when Jim Gilliam on a hunch decided to shade a couple of steps closer to the line at third base line in the fifth inning of game 7 of the 1965 WS when Zoilo Versailles was at the plate facing Sandy Koufax with runners on first and third and one out, Twins down 2-0. (Gilliam’s snag of a shot down the 3b line that should have been a two-run double was the key play of that WS.) I remember the years of agony of the Bud Grant Vikings going to the Superbowl four times and losing every time.

When the Twins won the WS in 1987 we were living in the San Francisco Bay Area. When Jeff Reardon closed out the 9th inning I told my wife that the fans weren’t going to go home. Thirty minutes after the game was over at least half the crowd was still in the Metrodome, cheering and waving their homer hankies. I knew that was going to happen; there was nothing else that could have occurred. It was a community catharsis, a purging of all of the frustration and humiliation that had been accumulating for years.

With the crowd still in the stands, applauding and cheering, the players came back out on the field for a curtain call, led by Kent Hrbek, the guy who, like me, grew up almost in the shadow of Met Stadium and rode his bicycle to the Met stadium when he was a kid. Some of the players had already showered, and they came back out on the field in their street clothes. Some of the other players had just been hanging out in the dugout, soaking it all in.

Of course the crowd erupted once again when they appeared. And I, sitting in my living room in Contra Costa County, was so totally a part of it that tears were rolling down my face. That was the moment when I realized that baseball was embedded within me in a way no other sport was. Every other sport I could walk away from. But for me, I realized that after many years away from the game, I had drifted back close enough to hear it singing to me, and I was as helpless before it as a Greek mariner catching the strains of the Sirens.

*********************

I confess to being a numbers type of guy. I’m an engineer and working with data is both my forte and my fortress. But life has a way of reminding us that what really counts is simple humanity. When we see that humanity in one of our teams, such as the Mariners after the end of the game today… that's a bolt that strikes us, often when we are totally unprepared, and makes us realize that this business of being a fan has claimed our souls. We can't set it aside; it has us and we are bound to it, not the other way around.

Part of the exuberance of today - for the players as well as the fans – is the awareness that this year was different from last year. Not just a bit different, but different in the way that Love Canal is different from the Erie Canal. The team didn’t win anything but the players are celebrating because they know the depths from which they’ve come. I’m celebrating now because after years of rooting for the team despite of what it was, now I can celebrate for what it is and what it it becoming. And it isn't just me; fans here, at USSM, and in the stands see it. Baker and Divish and Larue blog it. Drayer tweets it. And now we see the players and Front Office savor it.

Next season, 2010, is a new chapter. We don't know to what extent this might carry over. We hope it will, but there are no guarantees. For now we simply bask and enjoy. And that's all baseball asks of us and all that it grants us - savor and enjoy. If we dare ask more, it dashes our dreams more likely than not.

Now go out and find a Royals fan who needs encouragement.

Royals think that Meche is soft and needs to learn to pitch through pain?

Steve Nelson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:56:33 -0000

Thanks to Royals Review, a link to a Trey Hillman interview with Soren Petro, a KC sports talk station host. Part of the interview (beginning about the 12:00 mark) includes Hillman talking about the KC starting pitchers this year vs. last year. Hillman lays out that he thinks the big issue is that guys haven't been mentally conditioned to finish games. He talks about that as the difference between this year and last year. Putting the dots together, he must be thinking that the reason Meche (and Bannister) went on the DL this year when their workloads increased is because they didn't have a proper "finish the game" mindset.

Beginning at about 15:30 Petro talks about his reviews of how the Royals pitchers have fared in their next start after being pushed deep into games with high pitch counts. Hillman dances away from the question, but eventually says that happens because they're not mentally tough. Where have we heard that before??? To me that sounds a lot like Gil Meche (and others on the staff) just aren't tough enough and we need to teach them how to get deep in games.

*******

The parallels between the current Royals management and the Bavasi Mariners continue.