AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 21
Friday, December 21, 2007
Selig step down? Forget about it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Those of you who really believed (or just hoped) that fallout from the Mitchell Report might bring down Bud Selig, forget about it. As we’ve said all along, the only ones who can fire Bud are baseball owners, and they sing his praises.
Still. In fact, perhaps more than ever.
Since the report placed blame for rampant ‘roid use on just about everyone in baseball, including MLB officials, it seems like owners have been even more openly supportive of Selig than before.
And why not? As we said here last week, when one of our regulars on the blog suggested that Selig and Don Fehr be fired, there’s no way Selig and Fehr get fired when attendance is at an all-time high and teams and players are splitting a bigger financial pie than ever.
And now we’re hearing exactly that. Selig made more than $14 million last year, and baseball owners make it sound like he’s worth every penny of it - steroid scandal be damned.
“He has total support of the ownership — total support,” Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf told the Associated Press.
“He’s a terrific commissioner, and he’s doing the right thing in trying to clean up the sport,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner told AP, through a spokesman. “I am fully supporting him.”
So unless you folks think Congress is going to step in and somehow try to hold baseball officials and Fehr accountable for the performance-enhancing drug mess — good luck with that one — then it’s probably a waste of time to keep suggesting that Selig must go.
Because he ain’t going anywhere. At least not for a couple more years. That’s when the 73-year-old former Brewers owner and one-time car salesman has indicated he plans to step down as commissioner.
But some owners have expressed hopes of talking him into staying on the job longer.
Money talks, folks. Packed stadiums, wider revenue sharing among teams, and huge revenue increases in broadcasting deals and international marketing have lined baseball’s coffers. A steroid scandal doesn’t seem to have dented the bottom line, at least not yet.
Speaking of obscene cash…. Carlos Silva got even more from Seattle than originally rumored. After posting a 24-29 record and 5.01 ERA during the past two seasons with Minnesota, Silva signed a four-year, $48 million contract with the Mariners.
Yes, $12 mill annually for the next four seasons for a guy with a 55-46 career record and 4.31 ERA, with strikeout totals of 76, 71, 70 and 89 over the past four seasons. He’ll be 29 in April.
For some comparison and to get some idea of how the market price of pitching continues to soar, consider the contract four-year, $48 mill extension that Tim Hudson signed not even three years ago after being traded to the Braves.
Admittedly it was below-market value, but still, just consider the details:
Hudson was 29 when he signed the extension in March 2005, an extension that didn’t even kick in until 2006, after Hudson pitched for just $6.75 mill in 2005 in the final year of the previous contract he’d signed with Oakland.
Silva has only once in four seasons as a starter posted a .500-or-better record with double-digit wins, while Hudson had the second-highest winning percentage among active pitchers (behind Pedro Martinez) when Hudson signed his extension with the Braves, a deal that included a fifth-year club option for 2010.
Hudson had been the winningest pitcher in the AL over the previous five seasons. Silva is 47-45 in four seasons as a starter.
Before the extension, these were Hudson’s previous five seasons with Oakland: 20-6, 4.14 ERA in 2000; 18-9, 3.37 ERA in ‘01; 15-9, 2.98 ERA in ‘02; 16-7, 2.70 ERA in ‘03; 12-6, 3.53 ERA in ‘04. He pitched over 200 innings in four of those five, including seasons of 235, 238 and 240 innings.
By the way, the Twins made a three-year, $18 million offer to Silva, who apparently decided that $30 million for one more year’s work was a more desirable proposal.
Oh, and there’s this: Jarrod Washburn signed a four-year, $37 mill free-agent contract with Seattle two years ago, after going 29-31 in the previous three seasons for the Angels. Washburn is 18-29 with a 4.33 ERA in two seasons for Seattle.
Supply and demand: Many good-not-great starting pitchers and middle relievers are pulling in relatively huge contracts for a simple reason: There are so few of them available, and so many teams in need of their services.
It’s why teams such as Oakland and Baltimore are willing to trade top young starters just entering their prime, because they can get so much in return for a Dan Haren or Erik Bedard that the potential immediate hit to their team’s performance is outweighed by the strength the organization can add at various positions by bringing back multi-player packages of young talent in return.
Yes, I had it confirmed to me that FoxSports.com’s report about the Braves being a late entry into the Haren sweepstakes was correct. The person told me he had only one problem with the story: It said the Braves couldn’t have matched Arizona’s package of six young players it sent to the A’s for Haren.
The Braves could have matched it, they just weren’t willing to give up such a huge chunk of young talent. They were willing to offer a package that included three prospects who were better overall than the first three in the Arizona package (the Diamondbacks gave up their Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 8 prospects, according to Baseball America rankings, along with two decent 24-year-old lefties.
The Braves weren’t going to give up more than three prospects to get Haren, though they do love his talent and his affordable contract over the next few years, just like everyone else does.
The Diamondbacks gave up a pair of advanced, good-hitting outfield prospects, 22-year-old Carlos Gonzalez and 21-year-old Aaron Cunningham, along with 21-year-old lefty Brett Anderson, who had 125 Ks and 25 walks in 120 innings last year in A-ball. Scouts say his “ceiling” is enormous.
A comparable two-outfielder, top-pitcher package from the Braves might have included power-hitting Jason Heyward and one of the two young center fielders, Jordan Schafer and Gorkys Hernandez, plus lefty Cole Rohrbough, who had 96 strikeouts with 20 walks in 61 innings in rookie and A-ball last season.
But then the Braves would’ve needed to come up with three more young players, including at least one more serious prospect. OF Brandon Jones? Or SS Brent Lillibridge, perhaps? Figure on one of those guys, and then come up with two more pitchers, not necessarily top prospects but guys with legit chances to pitch in the majors as soon as this season, like the two 24-year-old lefties at the back of the Arizona deal.
That’s what it would’ve taken, and the Braves could have had Haren. There’s a good chance Haren would win 14-15 games a season, at least, since he’s won 14, 14 and 15 in the past three seasons.
He was 43-34 in that span, with impressive ERAs of 3.58, 3.72 and 3.32 and strikeout totals of 163 in 217 innings, 176 in 223 innings and 192 in 222-2/3 innings. Dude is a stud, no doubt.
But the Braves are counting on at least two from the group of Schafer, Heyward, and B. Jones being long-term lineup regulars for them. They believe Schafer is going to be a star — comparable to Grady Sizemore, and some believe potentially even better than him.
And when you throw in the pitchers they’d have had to give up in the deal, the Braves just didn’t see the sense in mortgaging so much of the future for a young pitcher who - let’s keep things in perspective here - still hasn’t won more than 15 games and will be a free agent after the 2010 season.
Money absolutely was not an object here. The Braves payroll is at about $89-90 million right now, and they could easily have absorbed his very reasonable salaries of $4 million in 2008, $5.5 in 2009, and $6.75 in a 2010 option year.
But then he’d be a free agent and, if he keeps improving, he’ll probably be a $20 mill-a-year pitcher by then. So he’ll be gone to the Yankes or someone else, and the Braves might have gotten 45-55 wins from him in three years and given up a very big chunk of anticipated production from the six or so youngsters they’d have had to give up to get him.
By the way, I haven’t heard if the Braves are involved in the Bedard talks with Baltimore, but I doubt it because the arbitration-eligible lefty will be a free agent after the 2009 season and the Orioles can orchestrate a bidding war for his services and command two or three major-league ready players in return.
Among teams known to have expressed interest in him this winter: Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Mariners, Reds, Angels.
Bedard, who’ll be 29 in March, was 13-5 with a career-best 2.71 ERA and franchise-record 221 strikeouts in 182 innings in 2007.
Baltimore earlier this winter reportedly rejected the Mets’ offer of 21-year-old outfield prospect Carlos Gomez, reliever Aaron Heilman and another player, rumored to be starting pitcher Philip Humber.
Out of options: Going into spring training, there always seems to be a Braves player or two for whom the minor-league options situation forces the team to either keep him on the 25-man roster or trade him. But this time there could be more than usual.
Among those out of options and not assured a roster spot: relievers Royce Ring and Blaine Boyer, catcher/utility man Brayan Pena, and infielder Willie Aybar.
All of them have enough value to make it likely they would be scooped off waivers by another team if the Braves tried to get them through. So it’s reasonable to expect some or most of them to be traded between now and the end of spring training if the Braves don’t anticipate keeping them on the 25-man.
Cox to be honored: Braves manager Bobby Cox, Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, Braves chairman emeritus Bill Bartholomay, and former Dodgers scout Ralph Avila are among those who’ll be honored for lifetime achievement by the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation at its annual gala Jan. 19 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
What’s being billed as the world’s largest baseball memorabilia auction will be held in conjunction with the dinner. The annual charity event helped raise more than $1 million over the past four years to assist baseball scouts in need.
If any of you Braves/Man in Black denizens happen to live or plan to visit L.A. around that time, and want to go to this thing, a limited number of tickets are available for purchase by calling (310) 996-1188.
Just thinking out loud…. Anyone seen the latest Michael Jackson-in-public photo? He has on some kind of cape or hood (nothing unusual for him these days) and also has these pieces of something, looks like tape squares or something like that, all over his face around his lips and nose and cheeks. Can he possibly get any weirder? Seriously, is it possible?
Most teen-agers today only know him as a freak show. Hard to imagine that twenty years ago, he was widely regarded as the greatest entertainer in the world, with massive popularity that transcended musical genres and stretched across races, nationalities and generations.
Speaking of music (but the good kind)…. Without further ado, here are the final 25 CDs on my top 50 favorites of 2007. I’ll list the first 25 below this group, topped by Arcade Fire, which ranked No. 1 for me this season, and also happens to be first alphabetically.
I didn’t rank the rest (Nos. 2-49), and to be honest, a few of these second 25 (including Graham Parker and Lucinda Williams) should’ve been in my first 25, but I sort of forgot they were released this year and not in late-2006.)
One other caveat: I’ve only ranked CDs that I own, not stuff I just heard or read was great. And I’m not on any mailing lists, so I buy everything, just like most of you have to. Also, I’m a dinosaur, so I don’t download albums or singles, I buy the CDs.
And finally, there’s a few that probably belong on here that I simply haven’t bought yet, such as Kanye West, Jay-Z, and LCD Soundsystem. Though I love Rilo Kiley’s older stuff, I heard this year’s release was too slickly produced and not like their other stuff, so I didn’t buy it. Maybe when I find a used copy at Ella Guru, I’ll get it. And I know White Stripes probably belongs on this list, but for whatever reason I haven’t bought it yet. Couple of songs I’ve heard from it annoy me. I like all their earliest stuff much more. Also, I don’t have Panda Bear’s CD, and I’ve seen it on a bunch of lists in hipster magazines and such. But the name sounds silly (then again, so does “Modest Mouse” — this CD wasn’t one of Modest Mouse’s best, by the way).
OK, here goes:
Ryan Adams Easy Tiger
Black Lips Good Bad Not Evil
Steve Earle Washington Street Serenade
Black Francis Blue Finger
Patty Griffin Children Running Through
Albert Hammond Jr. Yours to Keep
Richard Hawley Lady’s Bridge
Levon Helm Dirt Farmer
Joe Henry Civilians
Interpol Our Love to Admire
Iron & Wine Shepherd’s Dog
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings 100 Days/100 Nights
Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Living with the Living
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Thurston Moore Trees Outside the Academy
Graham Parsons Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969
Graham Parker Don’t Tell Columbus
Peter Bjorn & John Writer’s Block
Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris
The Swell Season Once soundtrack
Teddy Thompson Upfront and Down Low
Wilco Sky Blue Sky
Lucinda Williams West
Neil Young Chrome Dreams II
And here’s a recap of the first 25 (I’d have put Spoon second, but didn’t rank any of them after No. 1.)
Arcade Fire Neon Bible, Arctic Monkeys Favorite Worst Nightmare, Band of Horses Cease to Begin, Bright Eyes Cassadaga, Dinosaur Jr. Beyond, El-P I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, Feist The Reminder, Ghostface Killah The Big Doe Rehab.
Grinderman Grinderman, Jason Isbell Sirens in the Ditch, Kings of Leon Because of the Times, Waylon Jennings Nashville Rebel box set, M.I.A. Kala, The National Boxer, Okkervil River The Stage Names, Radiohead In Rainbows, Josh Ritter The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, Son Volt The Chase.
Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Bruce Springsteen Magic, James Blood Ulmer Bad Blood in the City, Various artists I’m Not There soundtrack, Dale Watson From the Cradle to the Grave, Amy Winehouse Back to Black, Dwight Yoakam Dwight Sings Buck.
One last thing: Merry Christmas to you folks, and thanks for making it a great year on the blog.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
