AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 09
Saturday, September 9, 2006
No closer was big mistake, letting Furcal ($13 mill per year) go was not
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hey, the BLOG’s ON FIRE!
Ok, got your attention. Nothing like yelling fire in a crowded (or uncrowded, as it were) blog to wake the folks.
In the interest of resuscitating the snoozing weekend edition of Braves and the Man In Black blog, I’m filing one DURING THE GAME _ so don’t say I never did anything for you cretins (I’m kidding).
Anyway, Braves appear to have gotten the royal one on that first-inning appeal call. Or did you guys not see it the way I did, that Aybar’s foot appeared to touch third base as he went past on the way to scoring on the LaRoche triple?
Wow, usually those things have to be fairly definitive for a reversal like that.
Anyway, now, of course, Murton has just homered to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead, after that Braves run was taken off the board.
But that’s not what I wanted to blog about. Just wanted to offer a couple of opinions regarding two posts I saw on the other blog earlier today. Forgive me if they’ve been discussed further since then, but I didn’t have time to check back in.
The posts in question were critical of Schuerholz for several moves including not retaining Furcal. Now, I agree wholeheartedly that the Braves GM messed up in a very big way last winter by not getting a closer, even if it meant overpaying for one. They should’ve overpaid, if that’s what it took.
That, ultimately, is what’s going to keep them out of the postseason (they would’ve won the wild card with a good closer all season).
But Furcal? Really, you think they should have paid the $13 mill a year that the Dodgers overspent for him, which everyone in baseball _ or virtually everyone _ said was too much, and which blew away all other offers from the Braves and Cubs for the shortstop?
The Dodgers are paying Furcal $13 mill a year for three seasons, and the Braves are paying Edgar Renteria $6 mill a year for three seasons (Red Sox paying the rest).
Entering today’s games, Furcal was batting .293 with 29 doubles, 10 homers, 54 RBIs, 33 stolen bases and a .363 OBP. Renteria was batting .295 with 33 doubles, 12 homers, 58 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and a .367 OBP.
Furcal had third second-most errors (23) and fourth-worst fielding percentage by an NL shortstop. Renteria had 11 errors and was tied for the fifth-best fielding percentage by an NL shortstop.
So, Furcal is making $13 mill, Renteria is making $6 mill, but the Braves would be better off paying the extra cash to Furcal?
Now, I can hear the argument that Furcal would’ve been better because he’s a leadoff guy. But that’s not reason to pay him more than twice as much. Because really, couldn’t the Braves have reasonably expected Giles to perform decently in the leadoff spot?
Giles has shown in the past couple of months that’s he’s more than capable of hitting leadoff. He just got off to a bad start, whether because of injuries, distractions for serious family matters in the spring, the pressure he put on himself to get on base more, or some combination of all of the above.
But again, since June 4 he’s hit .294 with nine homers, 33 RBIs and a .358 OBP in 69 games. And in 32 games since July 27, Giles was hitting .344 with 18 RBIs, 20 runs and a .383 OBP. Clearly, he can fill the role just fine when he’s on top of his game. He should’ve been able to do it for one season, at least.
You don’t pay an extra $7 mill PER YEAR for a shortstop because Giles prefers hitting second and because Furcal steals 25 more bases.
The Braves have done enough wrong in the past year regarding personnel decisions _ no closer last winter, and dependence upon youngsters at too many crucial spots. When you start citing Furcal as a screwup _ a player that everyone agreed was vastly overpaid by the Dodgers because they needed to make a splash after losing out on Brian Giles _ then it hurts your credibility and undermines your other assertions, some of which were right on target.
Couple other things:
Braves are up to fifth in home runs from first basemen with 31, behind Philly (Ryan Howard), St. Louis (Pujols), Mets (Delgado) and Astros (Berkman). They’re fourth in slugging from 1B, ahead of the Mets and behind those other three….
Wilson Betemit, for those who might have lost track after his trade to the Dodgers: Since his 10-for-20, two-homer, 10-RBI burst in four games for the Braves July 15-18 at San Diego and St. Louis, Betemit was batting .245 (34-for-139) in his past 41 games through Friday, with seven doubles, nine homers, 18 RBIs, 11 walks, 42 strikeouts, and a .298 on-base percentage….
I asked Schuerholz again today about payroll for next season, and he said they’re operating under assumption that it will be the same next season. He wouldn’t bite on questions about Andruw and others.
I also asked him about the money saved when Chipper redid his deal last winter, and Schuerholz said that basically all of it will have been spent by the end of the season, and any that’s not would not be “carried over” to next season. Hey, all I can go by is what he says, since they’re not going to open books, etc.
Also asked him about Hampton’s insurance this season, how much of his salary was covered, and couldn’t get him to say anything other than the 50-percent figure most often used is “fairly close” but not accurate entirely. Wouldn’t tell me if it was higher or lower.
ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT NOTE: Not to rub it in, but I scored two tix to the REM Georgia Music Hall of Fame induction shindig next weekend at the World Congress Center. For those who haven’t heard, Bill Berry is going to join the band for a three-song set (or more, I’d imagine, if response is overwhelming), the only time the full REM lineup has played together since Berry retired, other than the surprise gig they did for their friend’s wedding at an Athens bowling alley. For hardcore REM fans, this is the big one.
Making it even better is the fact that Gregg Allman is also being inducted and will also play a brief set during the show. Outstanding.
OK, as I wrote that, LaRoche just hit another homer. So now the Braves 1B would be even with Astros. The dude is having a pretty stunning season.
Andruw, on the other hand? Glad you asked: Before tonight he was hitting .196 with eight homers and 19 RBIs in his past 41 games, and .152 _ yes, .152 _ with three homers and six RBIs in his past 20 games. He had 15 walks in the latter stretch, giving him a higher OBP (.356) than slugging percentage (.318) over 20 games.
Can you believe Andruw Jones has a higher OBP than slugging percentage over 20 games?
Oh, as I wrote that, McCann just homered. Braves up 4-2.
