On Shortstops and Longshots

Now, I’m not saying that I “called” it or anything, but here’s a post I wrote back in January which seems to be pretty relevant right now. Just substitute “Shortstop” for “infielder,” and ignore the part where I describe Tejada as a decent hitter. I’ll just leave this here until a) we get a new shortstop, b) I get it together enough to write a new post. No word on which will happen first.

 

After what can only be described as a long, emotional, and ultimately fruitless negotiating session, Edgar Renteria has signed a contract with one of the 29 non-Giants baseball teams, the Cincinnati Reds. He’ll be earning 3 million for one year, and will probably start a good amount of the time, as Reds (and former-Giants) coach Dusty Baker has said that he’ll let Renteria and Paul Janish (.260/.339/.385) compete for playing time.

Congrats, Edgar, and more power to you. I appreciate the huge role you played in winning the World Series, and, well… not much else. Renteria was paid (note, I didn’t say “earned”) $10 million for a 2010 in which he was mostly injured, and $8 million for a 2009 in which he played like he was. If you’re an adherent to the “Perfect Storm” approach to the Giants 2010 championship season, in which every little thing added up to a World Series win and therefore must have contributed in some way, then sure, Renteria’s 7 hits in the World Series made up for his expensive contract and bad playing of the past two years. Never mind that he went 1-for-16 in the NLCS, but I digress. To me, Renteria falls into the same category as Bengie Molina. I appreciate his service, but we’re both better off since we parted ways.

Thanks, Edgar, but don’t call us. We’ll call you.

Continue reading

Another Look at Guillermo Mota’s 2010 Season

We recently talked on the podcast about the Giants resigning Guillermo Mota to a minor league contract: a move that we both liked considering its decent upside (a decent season from a pretty-good-not-great relief pitcher), and its very low downside. He earned $750,000 in 2010, and will probably earn even less than that this year, particularly if he spends the season in the minors.

Guillermo Mota

Guillermo Mota

I was having lunch with my dad and we were talking about it, and we were a little surprised that he would sign in the minors, considering that he was a big part of the stellar bullpen on the world championship team. He certainly had the swagger of an All-Star, and the game face to give the impression that he was a necessary part of any bullpen. His season numbers told something of a different story.

Still, how could we get such different impressions? The whole notion of statistics is to make evaluations clearer, not muddle things up even more. So let’s take a look.

Continue reading

Happy New Year, Sports Fans!

With my Fightin’ 49ers officially out of the playoffs and my fantasy football season over (and basketball still a boring sport), I can turn my full attention to the upcoming baseball season.

I’m pretty happy with today’s episode, and it finished up as our longest episode yet, at over 50 minutes. We skipped last week because I was in Arizona visiting family and Thomas was working the whole time, so I hope you all survived the winter cold without us. Again, let’s thank the mighty baseball gods that we’re here on the lovely West Coast, instead of freezing our asses off rooting for the New York Gothams.

We ushered in the era of Bud’s Corner on the podcast today, where our friend Bud gives us a detailed explanation of our NL West rivals, and Thomas and I do our best to throw him off his game. Hopefully we’ll be able to have him on the show fairly often. And, given his level of availability (and boredom), we’ll set up a Bud’s Corner section on the site for him to blog from time to time.

We’ve also entered the dangerous territory of making specific, numerical predictions of win-loss totals and HR stats, which I find is usually just a recipe for disaster. Calling the Padres a 75-win team will spell nothing but ruin for us, mark my words.

Take care, Giants fans, and we’ll be back with you soon. As always, we look forward to hearing from you at GiantsPod@gmail.com, Twitter.com/GiantsPod, or just comment here on the blog and we’ll hit you back when we can.