Finally, some Free Agent Signings

There’s a reason why I haven’t mentioned much in the blog lately. Nothing’s been going on!

Finally, though. There’s some stuff to talk about. The biggest acquisition so far is Tim Hudson. He’s going back to the Bay Area, but this time it’s with a different team. Instead of the Oakland Athletics, where he began his career with, Hudson is going to San Francisco.

The Giants have agreed to a two-year, $23 million contract with Hudson, sources say. Hudson, 38, went 8-7 with a 3.97 ERA, a 1.0 WAR, and a 0.54 WASP in 2013. Hudson won Comeback Player of the Year in 2010, where he went 17-9 with a 2.83 ERA, and was runner-up to teammate Barry Zito for Cy Young in 2000.

But wait a minute, Evan! Didn’t you list Hudson as one of those free agent pitchers to watch out for? Why, yes I did! Why don’t I like this move? Because of Barry Zito.

Barry Zito started his career too with Oakland, and, along with Mark Mulder and Hudson, the three pitchers were the “Big Three” at the start of the century. As Hudson moved to the Braves, Zito moved to the Giants. And man did he pitch poorly.

Zito, 35, went 5-11 with a 5.74 ERA, a-2.6 WAR, and a -23.2 WASP in 2013. Yeah, that’s bad. In his seven year career with the Giants, he put up a 4.62 ERA, which was much worse than his 3.55 ERA in his seven year career with Oakland.

The Giants are losing Zito this year, so now the rotation will be Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, and Hudson. They might lost Ryan Vogelsong, and are looking at Bronson Arroyo from the Reds to fill that spot.

I hope that Hudson does not turn out like Zito, but the more and more I look at it, the more it looks like that could be the case. The Giants are in a win-now situation, and after being the first team since the ‘98 Marlins to fall in last place after winning a World Series, they look to gain some ground back. Now they have the Dodgers and the rising D-Backs to fight in the division, though.

Color the Giants a darkhorse, because Hudson does have the chance to perform well, but the coin is most likely flipping to a bad performance. I think they could have made a better acquisition with their money.

On lighter news, the Phillies agreed Monday to re-sign catcher Carlos Ruiz to a three-year, $26 million deal. There is also a $4.5 million club option for the 2017 season of a $500K buyout.

Ruiz has been the longtime catcher for the Phillies, and will be the fourth-highest-paid catcher in baseball. He has a career .274/.358/.412 line, which is pretty good offensively for a catcher, and he is a pretty good defender. His numbers have died down, and he’s seen his number of games dwindle, but the 34-year old catcher still has stuff left in him.

Ruiz was one of my unnoticed hitters to watch out for. I think the Phillies made the right call with going back with him. He’s not too expensive, and he can put up solid numbers.

The question is: what will the teams that were interested in Ruiz do now? It seemed like the Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays expressed serious interest in Ruiz, and now it’s time to shop in a market that has a lot of catchers, but not a lot of cheap ones. Could they go after the top catcher in Brian McCann? We’ll just have to wait and see.

And of course, Robinson Cano talks. Cano is the biggest prize in this year’s free agency, but he wants a lot of money to go along. Cano wants a contract around $300 million, which is unheard of, and said that he would wait as long as he can until he got that deal. I think that he’s just talking to the media and he will be able to sign a lower deal.

One of Cano’s agents, Jay-Z (yes, I kid you not, Jay-Z) talked about Cano with the New York Mets. The Mets have expressed lots of interest in Cano, but have come out saying that they would not give him the $300 million contract that he wants. The Mets recently told sources that the team’s 2014 payroll is expected to be in the $85-90 million range.

It looks like the Mets and the Yankees are the frontrunners, but you never know about the Reds and their potential to switch out Brandon Phillips with Cano. Man that would be a scary right side of the infield with Joey Votto.

Finally, baseball is back on its feet after a boring week. The free agency signings have begun. Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd

Wrapping Up Awards Season

Awards are officially done. Now we look at everything else free agency. Players have turned down their qualifying offers, and are looking to test the market for a better offer. A list of free agent batters can be found here, and a list of free agent pitchers are here.

Before we talk more free agency, as I have been for the past week, let’s go over each award received by the players.

MVP

No big surprises here, as Miguel Cabrera claims the AL MVP, while McCutchen wins the NL MVP in a landslide. Cabrera, though argued as the best hitter in baseball but not the best overall, wins his second in a row, beating Angels’ OF Mike Trout yet again.

Cabrera is the first player to win back-to-back since Albert Pujols did it in 2008-09, and the first in the AL since Frank Thomas in 1993-94. It’s the third year in a row where a Tiger has won MVP (Justin Verlander did it in 2011).

He had a better offensive year this year, despite winning the Triple Crown in 2012. He batted .348/.442/.636 with a 187 OPS+, plus had 44 home runs and 137 RBI’s. Last year, he batted .330/.393/.606 with 44 home runs and 139 RBI’s If it wasn’t for Chris Davis, who finished third in the AL MVP voting, Cabrera would have two Triple Crowns.

By the end of August, Cabrera looked like he would have the Triple Crown if he kept it up. However, he was set back with lots of injuries in September, which not only dropped his batting average, but killed his running skills and defensive abilities. Cabrera has never been a great defensive player, and finished with a -1.5 WAR. 

Poor Mike Trout. He arguably had the two best rookie seasons ever, yet he is runner-up for both MVP’s. Keep strong, Trout! You’ll win plenty some day! Trout once again finished with the best WAR at 9.2.

Andrew McCutchen wins his first MVP at only 26, beating out D-Backs’ Paul Goldschmidt and Cardinals’ Yadier Molina. He was the hero for the Pirates. He has great offensive abilities, not as good as Cabrera, but McCutchen has much better defensive abilities and base running. The only thing McCutchen led in the NL (besides random defensive stats, like double plays turned as a CF) was WAR with an overall 8.2 WAR. That’s better than Cabrera’s 7.2 WAR.

He finished batting .317/.404/.508 with 21 home runs, 84 RBI’s, 38 doubles, and 27 steals. He did not have the slugging like Paul Goldschmidt did, but his base running capabilities and ability to hit from anywhere at the plate and anywhere in the ballpark made him one of the most dangerous hitters at the plate.

McCutchen led the Pirates to their first winning record and playoff appearance in 20 years. Without him, they might have not been in the playoffs.

 

He finished 3^rd in the voting last year, having more hits, home runs, RBI’s, and a better batting average and slugging % in 2012. But he improved with nine more doubles, seven more steals, and 21 less strikeouts, plus despite winning a gold glove in 2012 and not in 2013, defensive WAR tells that he was much better this year.

At only 26 years old, McCutchen is just starting his journey to one of the best. There is so much potential in front of him.

Cy Young

Max Scherzer claims the AL Cy Young, while Kershaw took NL honors. Once again, no big surprise when it comes down to it.

Max Scherzer came into the 2013 season thinking he’d be the number 2 pitcher after Verlander, but showed that he was the ace. He started off winning his first 13 decisions, and finished with a 21-3 record.

 

Sabermetric stats showed that he had a slight edge over his competitors, Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma. Though Iwakuma led the three with a 7.0 WAR, Scherzer wasn’t too far behind him with a 6.7 WAR, and had a batter ERA+ (145), WHIP (.0970), and home runs allowed (18). When it comes down to it, the voters love the record and getting into the playoffs, and Scherzer had that in control.

Clayton Kershaw was no surprise. He finished receiving 29 of the 30 1^st place votes, blowing away Adam Wainwright and Jose Fernandez in the voting.

Kershaw has led the NL in ERA for the third straight year, and wowed everyone with a 1.83 ERA, 232 strikeouts, 194 ERA+, a .915 WHIP, and a 7.8 WAR, the best WAR among pitchers.

 

The more and more I look at it, the more I think that Kershaw is the next Sandy Koufax. He’s putting up numbers that Koufax, Pedro Martinez, and Greg Maddux did. And get this: he’s only 25 years old! He looks more and more like the best pitcher baseball has seen in quite some time.

Manager of the Year

Here’s where there was some surprise. Clint Hurdle won the NL Manager of the Year (no surprise here), while Terry Francona won the AL Manager of the Year. Now here was the surprise.

In his first year with the Cleveland Indians, Francona managed the team to a 92-70 record with not much to go with him. But I really do think that John Farrell, the manager for the Boston Red Sox, deserved it.

Now I love Tito, don’t get me wrong, as he managed a very talented Red Sox club to two World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, breaking the curse of the Bambino. But Farrell managed a team that was mostly made up of new players into the organization, going from 69 wins to 97 wins.

Farrell also had to deal with a rough bullpen that was plagued by injuries, including dealing with an injury to Clay Buchholz, who looked like the best pitcher in baseball until he was injured. Yet he kept going. Luckily, he had Koji Uehara to save the day.

Tito and the Indians finished the season going on a 10-game winning streak, just barely edging out a playoff spot, but losing in the wild-card game. If that 10-game winning streak didn’t happen, I bet Tito does not win this award.

That’s just me, though. Clint Hurdle was easily the manager of the year, especially since his competition was Don Mattingly and Fredi Gonzalez. Hurdle managed a Pirates team that isn’t really good compared to the other playoff teams, yet they performed like the best.

I mentioned before that without McCutchen, they might not have been in the playoffs. Without Hurdle, not only are they not in the playoffs, but they don’t have a record above .500. That’s how good this guy is. He’s a great leader, and I’m glad to see him win the award.

Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year Award is possibly my favorite, because it shows that baseball is now moving away from the old veterans and into these new players that put on quite a show. It’s especially true this year, as we now move from the Mariano Rivera era, and into an era with so much young talent.

Jose Fernandez claimed the top spot in the NL voting, while Wil Myers grabbed AL honors. Both led rookies in terms of WAR among their respective divisions.

Jose Fernandez put on one of the best rookie seasons that baseball has ever seen. He finished 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA, having 187 K’s, a 176 ERA+, 5.8 H/9, and a 6.3 WAR. He beat out Yasiel Puig and Shelby Miller too, who both had excellent years.

Every time I see him, he reminds me of Kerry Wood. Especially with his dominating curveball that can just fool a hitter. This kid is something special, and only at age 20, he has more to prove to the world. Let’s just hope that he gets on a better team that isn’t the Marlins.

  Wil Myers came into the middle of the year and put the Tampa Bay Rays back into a fighting team. He finished batting .293/.354/.478 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI’s in 88 games. Not too bad for a rookie.

The AL showed much less talent this year than the NL did, but no matter. Jose Iglesias and Chris Archer, the runners up for the award, both show lots of potential and had great years. Iglesias probably deserved the award, but being traded in the middle of the year really hurt his chances.

With awards over, we pose one question: When does baseball return? Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd

The Yankees are in a Tight, and Funny, Spot

Congrats to Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer for winning the NL and AL Cy Young Awards, respectively. No real surprise in either one of these picks, as Kershaw put up astounding numbers overall, and Scherzer had good numbers and a great record. I’m 5-for-6 so far!

Tonight we’ve finally reached the MVP voting. It’s going to be a tough one in both leagues, with the two sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Chris Davis against the statistical Mike Trout in the AL, and Andrew McCutchen, Paul Goldschmidt, and Yadier Molina in the NL. Anyone could win it. Except Davis – I don’t think he has much of a chance with Cabrera.

Anyways, while I’ve talked about the free agency, there has been some funny news report in baseball that I wanted to share.

With Mariano Rivera retiring, who is going to take the closing role? The Yankees have such a great, young reliever named David Robertson that is possibly one of the most unknown pitchers in baseball. Since 2011, Robertson has put up a 1.91 ERA with 258 strikeouts as a set-up man. Since 2011, Rivera and Rafael Soriano (who took the closing role when Rivera was hurt in 2012), have put up 137 saves.

Robertson looks like he could be the next big closer for the New York Yankees. But GM Brian Cashman says he’s “not sure” if Robertson is ready for the ninth inning. With a bunch of great closers in the free agency list (that you might have looked at here), it’s not a bad idea to sign to pick up a great, veteran closer.

Well, Cashman can cross off one pitcher off the list. Why? Mark Feinsand from the New York Daily News said on Twitter: 

            “Brian Wilson’s agent told Brian Cashman that Wilson won’t shave his beard. ‘Cross him off the list,’ Cashman said.”

That’s right. Brian Wilson will not accept any contracts because Wilson won’t shave his beard. Since the 70’s under George Steinbrenner, it has been a Yankee tradition not to have facial hair besides mustaches. So Goose Gossage’s Fu-Manchu and Thurman Munson’s ‘stache are ok, but that thing on Wilson’s face is not allowed.

 

We saw this in the 2005 offseason when Johnny Damon went to the Yankees from Boston and had to shave his Jesus beard. All of a sudden, the Johnny Damon we knew and loved was some baseball player that looked clean-shaven.

Wilson also reportedly turned down a $1 million offer to shave his beard for some advertisement.

It’s The Boss vs. The Beard. Though Steinbrenner passed away, the policy remains intact, as does Wilson’s beard. I don’t know how long he’s grown it, nor do I really want to know.

It’s not just Wilson, lefty David Price has said that he would not want to go to the Yankees because of their policy, and he just has a regular beard.

So will Wilson go to the beard-loving, Yankees arch-rival, Boston Red Sox? I doubt it, as they have Uehara in relief. But man would that be a great addition to the beard club.

 

Speaking of the Yankees, they also have to deal with the signing of Robinson Cano. Cano is the best hitter in the free agency, but he wants a lot of money to go with his hall-of-fame caliber hitting (hall-of-fame caliber if he can keep it up at least). So how will the Yankees get him if he’s only going to the highest bidder?

New York says that rapper Jay-Z will help the discussions of extending Cano’s contract. Jay-Z is often in the front rows at Yankee stadium, but is known in baseball for his newly-founded Roc Nation Sports foundation. The company just agreed to a partnership with CAA Sports. Guess who’s affiliated with them? Cano’s agent, Brodie Van Wagenen.

Cano jumped at the chance to join Roc Nation as its first baseball client, saying at the time that he believed the partnership would help him both on and off the field.

So yes, even rappers are making big contributions to the MLB right now. Yankee fans, if Cano resigns, then start listening to Jay-Z, because you owe him something.

Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd