Snobs vs. Slobs

You’ll notice I was annoyed at the Brandon McCarthy deal, but after thinking about it more, I’m not as annoyed with Williams as I was. For a supposedly “untouchable,” pitcher, I figure a World Series-winning GM could extract more than three minor league pitchers out of a deal. I still believe this. I think that Williams could’ve made better (if the reporting is correct) deals in the offseason, namely the Carl Crawford trade.

But, I recently read something Nate Silver wrote at the Baseball Prospectus blog that made me rethink this trade a little. (more…)

Ken Williams has been up-and-down as a GM in the time since being hired before the 2001 season. Certainly the Mike Sirotka/David Wells deal was a bad start to his tenure, but he’s proven himself able in building the team that won the World Series in 2005. The original Freddy Garcia deal, the Jim Thome deal and a series of good minor deals (Ross Gload for Andy Sisco, for example, was a steal, as was the Juan Uribe/Aaron Miles deal) showed he was an able man for the job. (more…)

In January the Hall of Fame veterans committee will once again consider the case of the greatest third baseman in Chicago Cubs history, Ron Santo. Aside from Bert Blyleven, Santo is probably the best player eligible to not have already been enshrined in the Hall. Indeed, when you look over his statistics and compare him to all-time great third baseman, particularly in the context of the era in which he played, it becomes very apparent very quickly that Santo should be enshrined. (more…)

You’ll have to excuse me for my lateness, but I was out of the country last week, so I haven’t been able to totally digest all the goings-on from the crazy baseball transaction flurry that was last week.

With that said, you probably already know the White Sox traded Freddy Garcia last week to the Philadelphia Phillies. In exchange for the Venezuelan pitcher, the Sox got Gavin Floyd and a PTBNL (whom Ken Williams outed as Gio Gonzalez at the deal’s news conference). (more…)

The Cubs have made another addition to their starting rotation, signing Jason Marquis to a reported three year, $21 million deal. Marquis had a 6.02 ERA in 194.3 innings for the Cardinals last year, allowing a whopping 221 hits, 35 homers while striking out just 96 against 75 walks. Out of all pitchers with 100 innings pitched or more in the 2006 season, Marquis had the sixth-worst VORP.

In the considerably weaker National League.

In the Central Division, inarguably baseball’s weakest division in 2006.

Needless to say, I am not thrilled with this signing. (more…)

Last night the Cubs continued their misguided march towards sorta contending by signing crafty lefty Ted Lilly to a four year, $40 million deal.

Ted Lilly is basically a league average to slightly above league average innings-eater. He’s not a pitcher to get really excited about. On the other hand, he will almost certainly improve the Cubs’ pitching staff, which is in dire need of someone like Lilly, who is a very good bet to start 30 times this season. Unlike the Soriano and DeRosa pickups, there’s just about as much good as bad to say about the Lilly contract. With that in mind, I thought I’d break down the deal into pros and cons: (more…)