Arbitration Avoided

It only seems like every player in baseball signed a contract today.

A whole heaping ton of players avoided the arbitration process today by agreeing to contracts with their current clubs. I wont bore you to tears breaking down names like Boone Logan (1-year, $1.2 million), but I will discuss the deals for some of the bigger names guys who agreed to remain with their teams without having to go through the acrimonious arbitration process.

Chad Billingsley ($6.275 million): In each of the past four years he has won 12 games, only four others have done that, and in each of the past three years he has at least 170 Ks (only 10 others have done that).

Matt Capps ($7.15 million): The Twins wanted to keep a reliever who could close in case that Joe Nathan (Tommy John surgery) isn’t ready to fill the role 100 percent of the time in the early going. They therefore agreed to a deal to keep Capps, who had 42 saves last year. This is a smart baseball move that gives the Twins a terrific fall back option if Nathan isn’t ready, but in terms of real world dollars, it’s a pretty awful move for the Twins. This isn’t the Yankees we are talking about, so the $18.4 million the club has invested in their 8th and 9th inning arms is exorbitant.

John Danks ($6 million): Evolving into one of the best left-handed starters in baseball, Danks made $3.45 million last year. Amongst AL lefties the past two years he is 6th in ERA (3.75), 5th in base runners per nine innings (11.43), fifth in strikeouts (311) and fourth in wins (28).

Jacoby Ellsbury ($2.4 million): After playing only 18 games in 2010 this is a lot of money for Ellsbury. However, if he returns to health, pushes .300 with 90 runs and 50 steals, it will be a massive bargain for the Red Sox.

Matt Garza ($5.95 million): I broke down the Garza and his talents in Hot Stove: December 13, 2010.

J.J. Hardy ($5.85 million): A decent figure for both sides if Hardy is healthy. If he is in fact fully functional, he could hit .270 with 20 homers, and there are only a handful of shortstops who can match that.

Phil Hughes ($2.7): A reasonable sum to be sure if he is indeed a third starter. Hughes won 18 games with a 1.25 WHIP last season, but he was decidedly average in the second half of the year (7-6, 4.90 ERA, 1.34 WHIP).

Kendry Morales ($2.975 million): He could be a top-10 option at first base this season, so don’t forget about the guy who blew his knee out celebrating a walk-off home run in his last game of the 2010 season.

Jonathan Papelbon ($12 million): Yikes. You have to think he will be taking a pay cut next year when he becomes a free agent, but because of the arbitration process the Red Sox were basically forced to pay way to much money for a guy who, it can be argued, is coming off his worst season in five years as the closer. Luckily it’s the Red Sox who seem to have a printing press for bills in the basemen of Fenway.

Martin Prado ($3.1 million): The plan is for him to play left field. His bat is likely miscast for that role – at least in terms of it providing a lot of fantasy value – but for 2011 at least he will still qualify as second and third baseman leaving him with a ton of value. Oh yeah, he also hit .307 in 2009, .307 in 2010 and owns a career average of, you guessed it, .307.

Carlos Quentin ($5.05 million): He might always struggle to repeat his terrific 2008 season (.288-36-100-96 in just 130 games), but he has a nice power bat. If he can stay healthy he could be Adam Dunn Jr. hitting .250 with 30 homers.

Cody Ross ($6.3 million): He made $4 million last season when he had a merely average regular season (.269-14-65-71-9). However, he had big hit after big hit in the postseason (.294-5-10) which basically forced the Giants hand. He isn’t a good bet for anything other than an ordinary .270-20-75 season.

By Ray Flowers

Room for Everyone

I know football season is upon us so I’ll touch on a few things at the bottom of the piece about the pigskin, but before I get to that I have a few thoughts to put forward about the game on the diamond.

Kenji Johjima will end his professional baseball playing days back in Japan after he decided to opt out of the final two years of his contract with the Mariners. Like the true gentleman he always conducted himself as while in the States, Johjima simply asked the Mariners to release him from the remaining two years left on his contract as he left $16 million on the table to return to Japan. “He walks completely on his contract here, and we start fresh,” agent Alan Nero said. “He’s made this decision without regard to financial consequence. He’s a free agent in Japan, and I’ll negotiate the best offer I can.” Kudos to a pro athlete actually following his heart and not being all about the money. Clearly, Scott Boras would never take Johjima on as a client.

Kendry Morales had a whopping 34 homers this season, this after hitting a grand total of 12 in his first 377 at-bats with the Angels in a great effort. Shockingly, only four of those homers came against lefties.

I’m still trying to figure out how Vincente Padilla has posted a 0.63 ERA over his two post-season starts. If you know how, drop me a line.

With backup middle infielders making multi-millions of dollars, isn’t it odd that hitting coach extraordinaire Rudy Jaramillo is in line to become the highest paid coach in the game if he signs with the Cubs for a reported $800,000 a year? Doesn’t that seem out of whack to you? Certainly does to me. The hitters have to have the talent, but a hitting coach can make a massive difference in the mindset and approach of hitters, to say little of their ability to help effect physical changes as needed. I draw the parallel of putting a supercharger in a Ford Focus. It would be fast as all hell once it was able to put the power to the pavement, but until a different suspension and setup was in place the extra power would do no good because the tires would simply go up in smoke.

Football Notes: Week 6

Did you catch the Patriots vs. Titans game over the weekend? I love the Patriots old look uni’s, and check out the final score of that game, a bloodbath if there ever was one: 59-0. That score matched the largest margin of victory since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Don’t worry, there were still two highlights in this game for the Titans. (1) Nate Washington had one catch that went for (-22) yards. Yes, (-22) yards. He took a pass, switched directions a couple of times, and basically tried to be like that 10 year old kid who thinks if he keeps running long enough sooner or later a hole will become available and he’ll take it to the house. (2) Before he was relieved by Vince Young, Kerry Collins completed two of 12 passes for (-7) yards. Young attempted two passes in relief and both were incomplete though one did end up in the Patriots arms for an INT. Luckily neither QB was sacked, though a (-7) in the net passing category is still abysmal for any team that isn’t made up of seven year olds.

The Saints are 5-0 and suddenly looking like one of a handful of teams that can legitimately be considered Super Bowl contenders. They have won all of their games by at least 14 points and became just the fourth team since the NFL-AFL merger to have seven different players score a touchdown in a single game in their 48-27 thrashing of the Giants in Week 6.

By Ray Flowers

The AL MVP Race

Yesterday I touched on the NL MVP Race, and with things not nearly as clear cut over the AL, I thought it would be beneficial to present my thoughts for the top-10 players in the Junior Circuit for your perusal.

Like yesterday, I want to let you know that I won’t be listing any pitchers here, they already have their own season ending trophy.

NL Cy Young

AL Cy Young

10 – Bobby Abreu
Got no respect at all on the free agent market so he was forced to take a 1-year deal with the Angels. No one in Southern California is complaining now as Abreu hit .293-15-103-96-30 in a terrific all-around campaign that was his seventh straight year that he has scored at least 96 runs, while knocking in 100 and stealing 22 or more bases.

9 – Evan Longoria
The Rays fell on hard time in 2009 but second year third baseman Evan Longoria wasn’t to blame as he led AL third basemen in homers (33) and RBI (113) while finishing second in runs with 100 (Chone Figgins had 114). Still, it was a bit of a disappointing effort for Longoria since he had 13 homers and 55 RBI in his first 51 games this season.

8 – Adam Lind
Who saw this coming? Dude was flat out stud-like hitting .305 with 35 homers and 114 RBI. Lind also scored 93 times and produced a .932 OPS even if no one noticed because he plays for the Blue Jays.

7 – Kendry Morales
The best power hitter on the best team in the AL West, Morales came out of relative obscurity to blast his way to a .306-34-108 line as he remained a steady power bat despite injuries to Vlad Guerrero and Torii Hunter.

6 – Jason Bay
May not get the publicity of some of the other guys on this list but he was second in the league with 119 RBI as he also scored 103 times while going deep 36 times. Add into the mix a .921 OPS and you have a guy who will break the bank in free agency this offseason.

5 – Ichiro Suzuki
Once again led the league in hits with 225 as he hit .350 (actually .352) for the fourth time. Did lose his 8-year run of .300 with 100 runs and 200 hits though as the terrible offense around him plated him only 88 times despite the fact that he posted an OBP of .386, eight points above his career mark. Still he had a marvelous season doing what he does best – and he did it better than anyone else yet again.

4 – Miguel Cabrera
Was an embarrassment late in the year – you can read all about it in Around the Horn – but he still posted tremendous numbers over the course of the season as he used 198 hits to bat .324 with a .396 OBP and a .942 OPS as he slugged 34 homers, drove in 103 runs and scored 96 times for the Tigers.

3 – Mark Teixeira
It helps that he is a Yankee, but he also tied for the AL lead in homers with 39 (Carlos Pena) and led the league with 122 RBI. When you add on to that a .292 average and a .948 OPS you have yourself one hell of a season in his first year in pinstripes.

2 – Derek Jeter
Jeter scored his customary 100-runs with 107, and he was third in the league with a .334 batting average while producing 212 hits, 18 homers, 66 RBI and 30 steals. He also played much better defense than you may have thought

1 – Joe Mauer
When you set an all-time single season record for batting average by a catcher (.365), a mark that leads the league, and you also pace the circuit in OBP (.444), SLG (.587) and OPS (1.031), it’s an easy call for MVP even if you missed a month of the season with a bad back.

By Ray Flowers