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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Links Update

I added a slew of new single-team links, all of which were pirated from DailyKos.com, my favorite polit-blog. But the selection has nothing to do with politics, other than the fact that Kos is a political force precisely because his blogsite is so technically advanced and interactive: you can read, comment, write a diary, trade comments back 'n forth, and track your activity. Anyway, the same fancy inter-nets computer gizmos that made his blog famous are now being imported to baseball blogs -- a love of the game being among Kos' many virtues. So feel free to browse Over the Monster, as well as the team blogs lower down for the A's, Cubs, Mets, Mariners, etc. Interestingly, all of the linked blogs share an account database, so if you are a member of any one, or of DailyKos, you are a member of all of them. What the benefit of that could be, I know not.
Trend #3: Second Base

Last year at this time 2B was a platoon job between Pokey Reese's magic mitt and Bellhorn's booming bat, not unlike first base, and along similar lines for this season the glove got tossed aside and the bat takes over virtually full time. Ramon Vazquez arguably takes over as the new Pokey, able to fill in at both middle infield spots, except he brings a little less leather and a little more bat (though not enough to want to see him in there more than twice a week).

One clear trend is that the right side infield defense is not going to be especially pretty. Bellhorn does certain things well, like turning the DP, but won't be mistaken for an Electrolux on the pickups. The over-under on he and Millar having a violent accidental collision on a grounder in the hole is April 22. This situation bears watching.

On the other hand, Bellhorn will contribute to the team's drive toward 1,000 runs. He scored 93 and knocked in 82 last year. If you want to take a more impassioned look, you'll no doubt remember his homer streak that sealed games 6 & 7 of the ALCS and outright won WS game 1. Nobody likes the strikeouts, which have been piling up faster than the federal deficit. Also there is this on/off business where he hits in even-numbered years only, although he may have reached a comfort level in Fenway to curb that trend. Baseball Prospectus rates him well above his replacement value, i.e. what you could get off the waiver wire for minimum salary. FWIW.

He is what he is: a run producer at a position where little is expected in the way of run production. And that's about it. He's comfortable at Fenway, which bodes well for the offense, but the defensive issue could be a hangover. Hanley Ramirez's growing shadow looms over the second base bag, and if he can handle ML pitching he might be a huge upgrade -- in 2006. Save that for later.

Trend: Flat

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Trend #2: First Base

Last year's platoon of class clown Millar and resident gold glover Mientkiewicz has been subdivided into the former without the latter. It was defense that had been killing the team prior to the Mientky trade, and they won the World Series after the fact, so arguably Mientky's exodus to Queens bodes ill for the Sox. But though he played in 47 games, Mientky got in only 100 ABs, thanks to the Sox' insistence on not calling attention to their weaknesses. So did he matter? Certainly, but it's difficult to say how much.

Instead, the Sox are betting on Millar, who as I've mentioned before had a great second half and who doesn't need to sit much. His .400+ OB% in the second half coincided with a major change in his stance, where he opened up to left field as if trying to protect the plate with his gut. So it's entirely possible Millar will come up with some career numbers this season. But until the 8th when Dave McCarty takes over, Millar is likely to remain a liability in the field. Oh, and he's playing for a contract.

I don't like to pass off conjecture as some sort of informed forecast, but I would put Millar down for an OPS in the low .900s this year. On the other hand, it was comforting having a slick fielder around to anchor the infield, if only in late innings, and now that luxury is gone (unless Dave McCarty comes back, which is unlikely and perhaps a poor comparison to begin with). So until Millar goes out and starts hitting like Delgado or fielding like, well, any average first-sacker, this will remain a work in progress. Let's call this trend flat!
Trend #1: Catcher

Varitek is 32, Mirabelli is 34, and both are essentially hitting their strides at the plate. Neither will improve defensively against the running game, but both can fling the leather, and Varitek is generally considered a fine receiver, by no less an authority than David Wells. Also, Kelly Shoppach is waiting in the wings, although his status as a top prospect has been downgraded slightly. To me, the big factor is Mirabelli's newfound ability to destroy lefthanded pitching -- a potential secret weapon. Other trends are pretty flat compared to where we were a year ago... unless you want to talk contracts, which I don't unless it will affect something on the field. Both guys are rich. Good for them.

Trend: UP!
Red Sox Trajectories, Part I

Nothing could be more banal than writing a summary of the Sox' offseason, weighing it against where they were and what the competition has done, and calling a finish for the AL East. Yet every day, hundreds if not thousands of people do just that, in major publications (circulation-wise), on TV, radio, and of course the inter-nets. The number of times, each day, that someone publicly offers "Varitek is overpaid!" or "picking up Randy Johnson was a stroke of genius!" is staggering. Surely there must be something more than the predictable, repetitive content of the average baseball preview which keeps people paying attention -- maybe a unique delivery, or the potential for some sort of embarassing mistake. Another possibility is that people are not, in fact, listening. But the Sporting News keeps churning out ever more versions of the same conclusions ("this year will be a lot like last year, only more so!") in more expensive packaging, so unless they have a rich benefactor in the Guy Grand mode, the inescapable conclusion is that people read this stuff.

Now, I don't feel comfortable leaving FBBTTPL stale for too long, but there is agonizingly little to say in March about baseball beyond the theories we all slung around during the heady hot stove days of December. Until they start playing, there is little useful or original content that your average tired new parent with a Mac can offer. But, I was inspired by one note in the Baseball Prospectus -- they called the Sox a team on the way up, with no place to go but down. The latter phrase refers simply to the fact of being reigning champions, but the former is at least one writer's opinion that the Sox are actually only part way through their overhaul and ascendancy. The job Henry, Lucchino, Theo, Bill James (cue hosannas) and co. inherited including relieving themselves of a slew of bad contracts on the major league level, re-starting the farm system, and employing the Moneyball approach to signing role players to complement the inherited core of stars... all of which is supposed to morph into some sort of sustainable winning formula. Well, so far they cleared out the Mike Lansings and other low-hanging fruit, made out decently in the last two drafts, scored with cheap signings like Mueller, Timlin, etc., and even brought in some bigger names for key roles. But the checklist is not complete: Manny's $20M aren't going anywhere, and the youngsters have yet to contribute anything above AA. Oh, and the Sox are reigning World Champs.

This begs the question: is the team both on top and on the way up? I will attempt to assemble a list of trends at each position, plus a few other significant, overarching factors. Piece by piece. Don't go away.
FBBTTPL's National League Preview

NL East: Atlanta
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Padres
Wild Card: Dodgers
NL Champion: Cubs

I know almost nothing about the NL, since I really don't make an effort to follow it, although I am proud to have gone on record calling the Cardinal rotation a disgrace shortly before they melted down in the World Series. Anyway, the fact that I know nothing, and say almost nothing still makes this preview more valuable than anything coming out of the Sporting News, which is just flat wrong. Better to be uninformed than poorly informed -- at least you have a 50-50 shot.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Language Barrier

Today's Globe has an interesting piece on Byun-Hyung Kim, finally speaking frankly with the media about his status. It's a sympathetic piece, showing Kim finally getting with the program to speak to the fans (ignoring us doesn't seem to work, not even for mythical figures like Manny), and also baring his soul a bit on life as a distant outsider. No doubt he has greater barriers than Manny did, given that Manny could take shelter in the dugout with fellow Latinos and even white guys who speak Spanish. So for him to do the Manny turnaround would be more of a stretch, assuming he's even half as naturally friendly as Our Manny.

But before we give him a pity party, I have to ask... why doesn't he speak any English yet? Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be further from agreeing with those English-first nazis, and if Kim wants to spend his life on the outside, the Constitution will steadfastly defend his right to do so. [Well, until Scalia takes over.] But he has identified his problem as not being able to yuk around in the clubhouse... and yet Kim has been in the majors since 2000. Presumably (w/o checking his minor league track) he has been in the U.S. playing baseball for some six years. Why hasn't he intensively studied English? Is he only now able to appreciate the language barrier? Is he one of those people who simply struggle with second languages? Didn't he get some measure of it drilled into him in grammar school already anyway? Is he, as a major league player, too sheltered from his surroundings to make the connection? Or is he just lazy?

I have "lived" in two Asian countries for no more than a year total (mostly teaching, yup, English), but I found nothing more important than learning the local language, if only to make my surroundings more interesting. Kim comes from a fairly modern, internationalized country full of people studying and speaking English and dozens of other usable tongues, for far more mundane reasons. He has been here some six years, has plenty of free time on his hands and more than enough cash for a gold-standard, 24-hour-a-day tutor. Now he announces to the world that he also has an immense incentive to learn English. So what the hell is he waiting for?

I don't like to prejudge anyone's character, and as I said, I definitely sympathize with the adjustment a young Asian kid has to make here. I had to adjust to his region of the world (and briefly his homeland) on my own as well. It's not a snap. But any rational, earnest person would respond by learning the language, as fast as humanly possible, so they could simply take control of their own life.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Go! Cats! ... Gone

It's taken me a couple days to get to this task, that of admitting that I won't win everything I want this year. Sure, the Sox broke through at last, the Patriots and Lance Armstrong are dynasties, Bode Miller won the world cup, the Bruins lived up to expectations for once, the Celtics are supposedly fun to watch again, and my roto football team made the finals on smoke and mirrors.

But the University of Vermont basketball team has come crashing back to Earth.

Still, the fact that it's over doesn't obscure what happened. A team from basketball oblivion rose up and made its presence felt in the redwood forest of big-time college hoops. For a week, or a season, the Catamounts were the darlings of the NCAA, with a coach who told jokes, a modest collection of seasoned, talented players, and a fan base that, as Coach Brennan says, never feels entitled. In other words, they enjoy all the good times, without sweating the bad so much. [There, at least, I can relate: the Cats averaged about eight wins a year when I was on campus, including the first two years of the Brennan Era.]

As ESPN was running episodes of The Season from Patrick Gym -- not stadium, auditorium, arena, this is a GYM -- I was understandibly tickled, but since this was also the last shot for everyone, it wouldn't have been the same if the Cats didn't pull off a big win someplace. They have played tough at Kansas and UCLA in the last few years, and hung around at Chapel Hill this season... but they never rang up that elusive, historic win.

Until last Friday, when Syracuse sauntered into a trap: a first round NCAA game against a veteran team with a chip on its shoulder and about 10,000 starving fans in tow. True, the 857 turnovers committed by the Orangemen helped, including 37 turnovers in the last minute of the overtime. But UVM had the magic -- the rebounds that fell into their hands, the long treys and other key buckets when needed, and the energy and confidence to compete with the Big East champs. The stars were aligned, and the historic Vermont victory tickled upset-starved fans nationwide. [It didn't last; Michigan State came along to remind teams that you need to go 10-deep to play and win twice in three days. The Cats left it all on the court Friday, and though they kept it close, they could never match MSU's energy.]

My buddy Jeff, whose leanings are about the same as mine save for an odd dalliance with the Hartford Whalers back in the last century, argues convincingly that this is the biggest win ever. Bigger than the Sox or Pats, who were bound to win something someday. Think, there was absolutely no reason we could not have gone 500 years without the University of Vermont winning a game in the NCAA tournament. And yet, it happened.

Anyway, I can't summon the romance of Catamount basketball here. You had to be there, you probably had to be in Vermont to really get it, the joy and amusement and pride of a small town occupying the big stage for a few minutes. It was righteous.
All Broth, No Froth

I've been reading lots of baseball previews -- so you don't have to. No, no, don't thank me. Anyway, there are two universal principles to previewing the upcoming baseball season.

1. When picking the winning teams, agonize in print as much as possible before relenting "on a hunch" that the team which won last year will win again this year.

2. When looking at individual players, predict that they will experience an average year for their career. If last year was great, then surely they will give back some of the progress they made. If last year sucked, they are poised for a comeback.

Presto! You are now a baseball preview writer!

Seriously, look anywhere. Look at the Sporting News, or what's left of that burned-out hulk. They are the worst offenders, and most of their writers can't string together a sentence without the grammar-check function on Windows. But even the intelligent previewers from the New Baseball Media fall into this trap. Read the Baseball Prospectus, or sift through the commentary at Hardball Times, one of the best. Player review after player review adheres to principle #2. Can't anyone come out and say that Adrian Beltre will do even better this year?

Of course, I'm picking the Red Sox to win it all in 2005, so what do I know?

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Pols-on-Roids: the Oscars (#1)

And the award for best performance by an athlete desperately scrambling to preserve his last thread of integrity goes to... Mark McGwire!! Yes, McGwire, a man known to open the tear-spigots on national TV from time to time, chokes back his emotions in vain during his opening statement... approximately three hours after the panel hears from doctors and parents who testify that steroid use by their teenage sons led to emotional problems and eventually suicide. Big Mac has dropped a few pounds since his playing days, so presumably he is no danger to himself. Though if he starts crying while refusing to answer a question on the advice of his attorneys, I may retract that statement.
Politicians on Steroids: the Highlight

From ESPN:

Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pa.) asked Bunning if he thought Congress should consider repealing Major League Baseball's unique antitrust exemption if they don't cooperate with the standards that government officials hope to uphold.

"If you are going to grant an exemption and they don't honor the exemption that they have and respect the fact that they have it, where major league football doesn't, and major league basketball doesn't have it and major league hockey never had it, then they should be held accountable for that exemption. Of course it should be one of the things on the table if you are going to look at not reacting to this crisis that is before them."

/espn

Ha! Did I not predict they were secretly plotting to use this as leverage on the antitrust exemption? Did you not read it here first?? Take that Jayson Stark! Yo, Boston Dirt Dogs, you can't handle this!!

Update: Said Rep. Mark Souder, rebuking McGwire for a non-answer: "If we don't talk about the past, how in the world are we supposed to pass legislation when you are a protected monopoly and all your salaries are paid because you are a protected monopoly? How are we supposed to figure out what our obligations are to the taxpayers if you say we won't talk about the past?"

In other words, the antitrust exemption is the only reason you lazy, pill-popping millionaires are able to feed your families. Did Neyer have the antitrust angle? Klapisch? Olney? No. Can they carry my jock? You do the math.

OK, I'm done now.
Politicians on Steroids: the Lowlight (so far)

From ESPN:

Former Major League pitcher and current U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) said the penalties under Major League Baseball's current drug policy are "puny." He advocates a first discovery of steroids should yield a one-month suspension, a second should be a year suspension and the third should be an automatic expulsion from the game.

"Mr. Chairman, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I remembered that players didn't get any better as they got older," Bunning said. "We all got worse. When I played with Henry Aaron and Willie Mays and Ted Williams, they didn't put on 40 pounds and bulk up in their careers, and they didn't hit more home runs in their late 30s than they did in their late 20s. What is happening in baseball now isn't natural and it isn't right."

/espn

Bunning, of course, also does not believe in the theory of evolution, dinosaurs, the Holocaust, or anything else he hasn't personally experienced. "Life was perfect in the 50s, and I just can't pry my mind open far enough to accept any new information, of any kind." There is no need to examine whether training and nutrition have advanced in the last 50 years.

What an idiot. You know, I had a roommate from Kentucky, fine person, and on that basis I want to believe that Kentucky is a nice place full of kind, earnest folk. But when this is who they choose to represent them.... The problem with reality is that however much you refuse to accept it, it just keeps hanging around.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Why Are They Doing This?

Everybody is wondering why the U.S. House of Rep's has decided to hold hearings on steroids in baseball. Actually, they are not merely attempting a hearing on steroids, but trying to subpoena various big name players and admitted steroid foils to compel their testimony.

Why are they doing this? House members make vague statements about trying to deal with an issue that clouds the sanctity of a sport they love. Baseball itself professes not to know, digging in its heels to fight subpoenas. I'm not aware that anyone besides Jose Canseco would volunteer to testify absent a subpoena.

And the public grumbles, justifiably, that Congress must surely have something better to do. This is, of course, a fair comment, because unlike many members of the House of Representatives, the public views the Nation's business as serious indeed. There is little support in red or blue states for congressional grandstanding and frivolous hearings. If the members of the House committee in charge want to hobnob with ballplayers, they should buy a ticket like the rest of us, show up early for BP, and beg for autographs.

Personally, I can think of a hidden reason why Congress would get involved. Major League Baseball, Inc., is the beneficiary of a statutory exemption from the antitrust laws. Congress frequently threatens to remove Baseball's antitrust exemption whenever people start grumbling about the state of the game, be it economic disparities, franchise movement or contraction, labor strife, or in this case illicit performance enhancers. And Congress, over the last few decades, has gradually moved from a truly legislative role to one of more oversight, as power migrates up Pennsylvania Ave. So, perhaps this is the motivation: Congress is preserving its right to yank Baseball's antitrust exemption, and is continuing to build the case against Baseball next time the antitrust exemption comes up. Congress is collecting a scalp here to waive at Baseball later.

To be clear, this is offered as an explanation, not an excuse. Why Congress feels they have a right to treat baseball like a National Park, i.e. federal property to be managed by Congress in the spirit of our Founding Fathers, is unclear.... To say nothing of the fact that, for a decade now, the ruling party in Congress has made a complete mockery of the concept of antitrust and treated with contempt the concerns of everyday Americans who have enjoyed protection from monopolies since the New Deal. The contempt is mutual. But that's for another column...

Monday, March 07, 2005

Dollars and Sense

In one way the national mags, the good, bad and ugly, seem to agree on two things: that the Sox overpaid for Varitek and Renteria, and that the rest of their offseason moves look solid.

The manipulators of statistics all seem to think that Matt Clement is a lot better than his record with the Cubbies, and only the most cursory reviewers are hung up on his poor win totals. Subject for another day. Meanwhile, everyone thinks signing Wells, Miller and Mantei, a.k.a. cheap, cheaper and cheapest, was a fine expenditure of capital. Only Wells is counted on for anything this year, and the Sox are deep enough to carry players whose form is shrouded in mystery.

Still, the Sox' biggest splashes were Renteria and Varitek, and nobody seems sold on the deals themselves. Sometimes it seems like writers themselves are on a budget and cannot evaluate a player's situation without reference to his paycheck, even though on a big budget team the salary issue ranges from minor to immaterial. If Varitek is getting an extra million or two, it's hard to see where the Sox have made a tactical error, unlike salary-cap sports like football where a penny spent is a penny unavailable in a pinch. Anyway, let's break it down.

Renteria got a four year deal for a salary and bonus total of $40 mil. Renteria is 29 years old, though with a lot of mileage, having come up with the Marlins at age 20. His defense is rated by subjective observers as somewhere between spectacular and just receding from spectacular, i.e. he's lost a step. Depends who you believe, but when he does get to the ball, he apparently knows what to do with it. Which is more than we can say for some of the other "stars" at his position, like Eckstein and Jeter. The fact that his steal percentage went from good (e.g. 34 for 41) to alarming (17 for 28) overnight suggests maybe he is slowing a bit. But the worst anyone will say about Renteria's defense is that it's not as spectacular as people say. Fair enough.

The Sox clearly paid Renteria to hit like 2003, when Edgar set career highs in average (.330), on-base % (.394), slugging (.480), walks (65) and RBIs (100) -- and a career low in strikeouts. All of these 2003 numbers, plus his 34 steals, would have led the league's shortstops in 2004, but for Tejada's 150 RBIs and matching slugging rate. Unfortunately, in 2004 Renteria hit a lot more like Kaz Matsui and Julio Lugo than Miguel Tejada. And unfortunately, 2004 was only slightly worse than his career averages. A switch to Fenway for this righthanded spray hitter could very possibly ease him back toward his 2003 performance, although Busch Stadium and the cozy lineup around him were not exactly holding him back. Hitting in the 2-hole consistently rather than rotating between 2nd and 5th or 6th (after the Cards' MV-3) might also force him to focus on small-ball tactics. Anyway, subtract the signing bonus and Renteria's $7-9 mil salary looks manageable next to Jeter's $17 mil, Tejada's $12, etc., but whether it is still too much, and whether he will be an unwelcomed impediment to the blossoming of Hanley Ramirez, depends on which Edgar shows up in the next four years. I rate this a small albatross, in terms of offense, though if he's glue in the clubhouse and the Sox win a few trophies despite his .340 OB%, it will be a good signing.

Varitek, meanwhile, is on top of his game, and there are almost no statistics to contradict this fact. With the 2001 elbow break behind him, his OPS has leveled off at around .870, and in 2004 he achieved career highs in average, steals, on-base%, walks and hits, while just missing career bests in runs, doubles, homers and RBIs. All of his stats rank within sneezing distance of the league lead for catchers. Nobody disputes that the guy calls a fabulous game, throws decently, and sets the tempo for the entire team with his intensity and professionalism.

So why all the griping about his deal? It's a few ticks higher than Javy Lopez, who fields like he's auditioning to be a DH, and slightly lower than Posada, so it's hardly out of line with the best at this critical position. Well, the universal complaint is that Varitek is 33 already, and sure to be in the tank by age 36 when his deal runs its course. In other words, he deserved a two-year deal.

Darren Daulton's two best seasons, by far, were his tenth and eleventh years (25+ homers, 100+ RBIs), after which injuries interrupted and ultimately reversed his breakout. Carlton Fisk was still posting OPS numbers over .900 in his twentieth season. Tim McCarver was an on-base machine into his late, late thirties. And so on. Does Varitek compare to these guys? Well, why not? Varitek has only played seven full seasons in the majors, is a workout fanatic who keeps himself in excellent condition, and has a perfect backup in Mirabelli who enables 'Tek to take every fifth day off, or more if need be. So statistics show catchers tend to fall apart in their mid-thirties... maybe, but I fail to see why we should leave it at that and just assume Varitek is an exactly average physical specimen in the litany of catchers.

The Sox paid handsomely for Varitek because they and the rest of the universe knew that the magic was over if he went elsewhere. By all accounts, he is the one indispensible player on the team. Presumably that importance stretches beyond the 2005 Sox, and he'll be that valuable presence for a minimum of the next three years. And as the resident optimist here, I will go on record arguing that until his body breaks down, he will be a solid bet to pay off that contract, even at the (gasp!) age of 36.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Crumbling Empire?

Having flown across the country a couple times last week, I have had time to get away from the blog and do some preseason research, and while I'm not sure how much I learned about baseball, I can say I learned a fair amount about the incredibly decrepit quality of baseball writing out there among national publications. Apparently ESPN has locked up everyone who doesn't already have a nice job at a big city paper, because the leftovers writing for everything related to Sporting News, Street & Smiths, etc., have nothing -- NOTHING -- to offer the not-so-casual fan. In 36 hours I read more analysis that was boring, poorly written, obvious, or factually wrong. So it was with some relief that most of these writers are picking the Yankees to win it all.

The exception to the rule that the baseball newsstand is drowning in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry (OK, I didn't make that up) is the Baseball Prospectus, a tome that resembles your average legal deskbook but contains the only analysis this side of PeterGammons.com worth reading. Or at least I agree with what they write; whether it's actually good depends on whether my objectivity is powerful enough to overcome my high opinion of my opinions. Anyway, they rip the Yankees a new one, so they must be doing something right. Also, when they aren't trying too hard to be funny, they're pretty funny.

Their Yankee analysis is similar to a lot of things I've opined over the last 16 months on this site, only more so. I called the Yankees a karmic disaster; BP attributes their declining fortunes to an inattention to details. I derided their lack of lefty pitching because they play in a warped stadium that punishes righthanders and hopelessly inflates every lefty batter's stats. They derided they Yanks' lack of lefties because it placed them in a strategic bind when they faced the lefty-slugging Sox with only Felix Heredia "available" to match up on David Ortiz, when Torre wasn't taking out a temporary restraining order against him pitching. In other words, they seem pretty insightful by my standards.

Which raises the question: are the Yankees doomed by their inability to accomplish little things anymore? In the past several years, they have limited themselves to moves that make headlines, like signing a Giambi, Sheffield, etc., or trading for a Klemens, Johnson or A-Rod. Steinbrenner likes to spend his profits, which is a nice soundbite, except that philosophy comes with strings attached, like the owner gets to sign players for the starting lineup without consulting baseball people or giving much thought to where exactly that player fits in to the team overall. Steinbrenner likes to play to the fans, and the fans come up with so many brilliant ideas. Think, if Belichick would have only listened to us, we'd still have Lawyer Milloy, Drew Bledsoe, a salary cap crisis, and probably two fewer Super Bowl rings. Proving once and for all that the last thing we as a society need is more democratically run institutions.

Last year the Yankees nabbed A-Rod, Sheff, Kevin Brown, Kenny Lofton, Tony Clark, Travis Lee and Javier Vazquez. This left them with two more silver sluggers, a defensive vacuum at 2-3 infield positions (depending on whether you believe Derek Jeter was a gold glover or not) as well as center field, mediocre hitters at first, second and DH, a fragile, all-righty rotation, and three decent righty relievers sandwiched around a few disasters. The crux of the criticism here is that it simply isn't hard to spend a little money to find decent players at every position, who bring multiple talents and who can plug into roles where you need them. Teams all over the league, at least the better-funded ones, are plugging in lesser free agents and farm products to help achieve balance and quality all over the field. The Yankees, the team most capable of claiming any player it needs, aren't doing this. Why???

Well, we aren't allowed to attend Yankee management strategy meetings, but the best guess has to do with the parallel decision tracks, the one at Yankee Stadium involving the tattered remains of Brian Cashman, and the echo chamber down in Tampa. The owner wants to determine who signs, and he can't be bothered to think about those nagging details like defense and matchup flexibility. Cashman, at some point in his life, probably did think about such matters, but with all his kids traded off and his hands tied by absurd contracts to ever-older, crankier veterans, there doesn't appear much he can do anymore.

The Red Sox, for the first time since Tom Yawkey died, have a unified approach based on sound principles, not to mention an army of young assistants tracking down every detail. The Sox have their issues, and the pressures on them make it hard to actually become the Patriots of baseball, but they are doing a decent impression these days. They still overspend, but on the field is a team that is built for any situation, meshes extremely well, and possesses enough depth to overcome a normal amount of injuries and other interruptions. Nobody thinks they have the bling of the Yankees, but at Baseball Prospectus at least, bling doesn't add up to rings.
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