According to Espn.com, the Braves traded 2B Nick Green to the Devil Rays for P Jorge Sosa. For some reason, I am a big Jorge Sosa fan. Maybe it's because I saw him throw a complete-game, 4-hit shutout of the Mariners in 2003? Anyway, I am excited to see what he will do under the tutelage of the legendary Leo Mazzone. Sosa's story is pretty cool. He was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Colorado Rockies as an outfielder, but couldn't get it done with the stick. Sosa spent four years in rookie ball and then two years in the Northwest Leage, putting up a minor-leage career line of .222/.318/.328. In 2000, the Mariners picked him up as a minor-league free agent and saved his career by putting him on the mound. Sosa was lights out in Everett, making 7 starts in 21 appearances, pitching 58.2 innings, striking out 57, walking 19, giving up 11 earned runs (and only 2 home runs) to post an ERA of 1.69. It wasn't enough, however, to be added to Seattles 40-man roster and on December 13, 2001, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Sosa in the Rule 5 draft. He went to camp with the Brewers, but was put on waivers in March of 2002 and was picked up by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Sosa started 2002 in AA Orlando where it says he started 2 games, pitched 7 innings and had an ERA of 0.00 despite...what?...giving up one home run?!? There's got to be an error there. Anyway, 2002 and 2003 saw him floating back and forth between the AAA Durham Bulls and the AAAA MLB Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Although he struggles with locating his pitches, Sosa throws a mid to high-90s fastball and has a good slider. His minor league numbers show that he can be successful, he just hasn't proven that he can do it for extended periods of time at the Major League level.

I am very excited to see what Sosa will do with the Braves and I will certainly be pulling for him!

John Sickels is hosting an "All Questions Answered" thread today on his fabulous site, Minor League Ball.

Blez, over at Athletics Nation, has some great coverage of his time in Arizona. There is currently interviews with Barry Zito and Bobby Crosby, with Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Huston Street coming soon!

Meanwhile, over at Sons of Sam Horn, there is a very in-depth interview with Bill James. Here are some of my favorite parts:

Bill James: What has happened in the last fifteen years is that the expansion of the bullpens has all but eliminated platooning. Teams used to carry nine pitchers, not 15 years ago but 35 years ago. You have nine pitchers on a 25-man roster, that’s leaves 16 players for eight positions, and you can platoon at three or four positions. Bobby Cox in Toronto in the early eighties was platooning at five positions. Now, teams carry 12 pitchers. You’ve got 13 position players for nine positions, you’ve got a backup catcher and a utility infielder, your options for platooning are very limited.
        But what we’re doing now doesn’t make any sense, because you can gain many more runs by platooning than you can save by having an extra left-hander in the bullpen. Eventually, people will realize that what we’re doing now doesn’t make any sense, and then they’ll start cutting back the pitching staffs and expanding the benches, and then we’ll go the other way for 30 or 40 years until something else happens and history tears off on some other tangent."

James' answer here reminds me of a book I picked up yesterday called The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. When will the tipping point occur as far as MLB roster construction is concerned?

And...

James T: I remember announcers saying, for years, that in Tiger Stadium the Tigers were letting the infield grass grow very high.  Can teams really do that with impunity, create hay fields to protect their groundball staffs?

Bill James: I think so. . .there may be some MLB policy regulating the length of grass, but I’m not aware of it. Honestly, major league baseball—and all sports—would be far better off if they would permit teams to do more to make one park distinctive from another—even so far as making the bases 85 feet apart in one park and 95 in another. Standardization is an evil idea. Let’s pound everybody flat, so that nobody has any unfair advantage. Diversity enriches us, almost without exception. Who would want to live in a world in which all women looked the same, or all restaurants were the same, or all TV shows used the same format?
        People forget that into the 1960s, NBA basketball courts were not all the same size--and the NBA would be a far better game today if they had never standardized the courts. What has happened to the NBA is, the players have gotten too large for the court. If they hadn’t standardized the courts, they would have eventually noticed that a larger court makes a better game—a more open, active game. And the same in baseball. We would have a better game, ultimately, if the teams were more free to experiment with different options.
        The only reason baseball didn’t standardize its park dimensions, honestly, is that at the time that standardization was a dominant idea, they just couldn’t. Because of Fenway and a few other parks, baseball couldn’t standardize its field dimensions in the 1960s—and thus dodged a mistake that they would otherwise quite certainly have made.
         Standardization destroys the ability to adapt. Take the high mounds of the 1960s. We “standardized” that by enforcing the rules, and I’m in favor of enforcing the rules, but suppose that the rules allowed some reasonable variation in the height of the pitching mound? What would have happened then would have been that, in the mid-1990s, when the hitting numbers began to explode, teams would have begun to push their pitching mounds up higher in order to offset the hitting explosion. The game would have adapted naturally to prevent the home run hitters from entirely having their own way. Standardization leads to rigidity, and rigidity causes things to break.

In other news...

I had a dream about 2 months ago that Richie Sexson homered in his first at-bat of the regular season as a Mariner. Unfortunately, in the same dream, Adrian Beltre grounded out to second base. Hey...you heard it here first!

There is a ton of Mariners coverage in the PI today. John Hickey says that the M's are a long shot to make the playoffs in 2005. I agree. I have them penciled in for third place with about 82 wins. But, who knows? By the way, Hickey says that the Beltre signing was two days after the M's signed Richie Sexson. It was, in fact, the next day - but who's counting? If anyone at the PI is reading this, I'm looking for a job and I would love to be a fact checker for the sports section!

There are also pretty cool articles in the PI about the M's prospects around the diamond, as well as on the mound. Looking over the M's pitching prospects, especially those coming out of the bullpen, it really reinforces my belief that a team should never pay large sums of money for a "proven closer." I am a big fan of building bullpens on the cheap.

And finally, there is a list of the promotions you can expect at Safeco Field this season. Doesn't the Emerald Queen Casino know that nobody likes "floppy" caps? On that note, I'm out...like floppy caps!

Sorry for the lag. I just graduated from college (got a job for me?) and I was down in LA/Las Vegas with my buddies. We even ran into some celebrities!

Anyway, David Pinto over at Baseball Musings has created a nifty little tool that allows you to compare players over extended periods of time. So, for example, you can compare players and see who had the best April in 1997. I chose to look at what Ichiro! has done since his debut 4 years ago, and it blew me away!
Ichiro! has 924 hits since joining the Mariners. From 2001 to 2004, this ranks Ichiro! first in hits BY A MILE! The next closest is Juan Pierre (who the Mariners drafted...twice!) with 797.
If you go back and look at hit totals from 2000-2004, Ichiro! still ranks 3rd, behind Todd Helton and Derek Jeter. And if you look at the hit totals from 1999-2004 (basically giving everyone else a 2-year head start), Ichiro! ranks 38th, ahead of Pudge Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre, Nomar Garciaparra, Scott Rolen, Jim Thome, Edgar Martinez and Barry Bonds.
The man is truly amazing.

I just wanted to talk a little about the fantasy baseball team that my father and I run. We recently joined a new keeper league with some guys from his office and some other friends and acquaintances around the country. I just wanted to take the opportunity to brag about our team, because I’m really excited about it. We drafted the first 15 rounds live, and will be drafting our next 15 players once-a-day for the next two weeks. Here are the guys we ended up with, in order: Johan Santana, Miguel Cabrera, Ben Sheets, Marcus Giles, Roy Oswalt, David Wright, Justin Morneau, Josh Beckett, Zack Greinke, Brad Wilkerson, Mike Piazza, Milton Bradley, B.J. Upton, Austin Kearns and Scott Kazmir.

Mostly, I’m really pleased with the abundance of young pitching we reeled in. It actually amazes me how many studs we got to fill out our rotation. We might be a little thin on offense because of it, and I think our selection of Piazza was a little risky but, all-in-all, I think we’ll be very, very good for years to come.

The head scratchers of the draft include Jeff Kent going in the third round, ahead of Aubrey Huff, our choice of Ben Sheets, Eric Gagne and Gary Sheffield, and Brian Lawrence was the 20th starting pitcher selected.

I’ll keep you posted on how the final 15 rounds end up, and I’ll post updates throughout the season.

Don’t you wish every stadium had Mr. Baseball watching over it?

Did anyone catch Rett Johnson's Rick Ankiel impression today? Actually, nobody caught it...seriously! Even if the Mariners signed Dhalism to catch, he couldn't have done it. Johnson threw one inning, didn’t give up any hits, but walked three. During one of his matchups, (against a left-handed batter) one of the pitches was about 5 feet outside, there was one behind the hitter’s back, and then there was one that looked like it went into the first-base dugout! Yikes…

Ok, after getting frustrated that none of the newspapers were printing the results, I got fed up and simply called La Quintero Golf and Country Club (where the event took place) and got some answers myself! Here is what I could dig up…

According to someone in the golf shop at Quintero, there were 90 total participants – but this doesn’t add up. That would make 22.5 foursomes, but who knows…

The Mariners apparently sent 44 players to the golf tournament, making the two squads pretty evenly split. One thing that wasn’t evenly split, however, was the leaderboard!

In the scramble-style tournament, the top three teams were…

3) M’s manager Mike Hargrove, M’s bench coach Ron Hassey, M’s third-base coach, Jeff Newman, and M’s bullpen coach Jim Slaton (58)

2) Jeff Nelson, Ryan Franklin, conditioning coach Allen Wirtala, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa (57)

1) James Clifford, who was an M’s minor leaguer and is now the minor league strength coordinator, Peoria manager Scott Steinmann, Inland Empire’s pitching coach, Scott Budner, and Scott Atchison (56)

Some of the other contest winners include:

Longest drive: Brad Baker

Closest to the pin: Jeff Nelson (hole #6), Gary Thurman (#9),  Rick Guttormson (#13) and Jeff Kingston (#16)

#1) I’ve been doing some research on sports agents, and came across this: Billy Wagner and Francisco Cordero are represented by a former pitcher in the Braves’ organization named,  “Bean Stringfellow.” That cracks me up…

#2)  Carlos Delgado was quoted in The Seattle Times  as saying, "There's no such thing as a right-field porch at Safeco Field. It's not exactly a porch."

Oh yeah, Carlos? Check this out…

[This has been edited since its original post because I can now use this to correct my "calculations"]

Visiting team HR leaders @ Safeco Field

NAME	HR @ Safeco
Rafael Palmeiro	16
Eric Chavez	13
Manny Ramirez	9
Garret Anderson	8
Alex Rodriguez	8
Carlos Lee	8
Brad Fullmer	7
Jason Giambi	7
Five (including Delgado) tied w/	6

Do you notice anything interesting about that list? That’s right…8 out of those 13 players bat from the left side of the plate. And, in case you weren’t sure…Rafael Palmeiro is a MARINER KILLER! On a side note, can someone please tell me why Brad Fullmer is still a free agent?

Also – ESPN changed their MLB stats page a little bit, and something that really bugs me is when you look at the 2004 stats, it has each player’s 2005 team listed next to his name. I hope they change this, because it’s horribly misleading.

Way too many words about Ron Villone

The Mariners organization and the mainstream media in Seattle sure value “versatility.” Take Ron Villone, for example. Villone went to UMass on a football scholarship, but before his junior year, the 6’3”, 230lb lefty decided that he missed playing baseball, and walked onto the baseball team. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, at the beginning of his senior year, the all-conference tight end was relatively unknown on the baseball diamond. In fact, Peter Gammons said in the May 31, 1992 edition of The Boston Globe,

 

“Back in February, there were no New Englanders ranked among the top prospects. But one March night, the University of Massachusetts was playing Central Florida and scouts from all over the country were there to see (Chad) Mottola. An unknown lefthander named Ron Villone struck him out four times. Two and a half months later, Villone is one of the top three college pitching prospects in the country, which is amazing since he was eligible to be picked last year and no one selected him.”

 

During his senior year, Villone went 7-3 with a 3.34 ERA while giving up 31 hits, striking out 89, and walking 41 over 59.1 innings of work. He was named the Atlantic-10’s left-handed pitcher of the year, and “Baseball America” had him pegged as the ninth-best amateur player, and the third-best amateur pitcher in the country. He fell to the Mariners, who had the 14^th pick that year, and they snatched him up, ahead of Shannon Stewart, Johnny Damon, Todd Helton and Jason Giambi. 

 

"Villone was one of our top choices," Roger Jongewaard, Seattle's player personnel director, told Bob Finnigan of The Seattle Times on June 1, 1992. "But being down the selection order as we were, you can never be sure who will be left. We had only one or two guys listed ahead of Villone, so we feel most fortunate to have gotten him."

 

But wait, let’s backtrack for a minute and look at Villone’s line from his senior year in Amherst…89 strikeouts in 59 innings? Sweet! 41 walks in 59 innings? Yikes! That’s the pitching equivalent of a supermodel with herpes.

Villone’s control problem didn’t improve once he was getting paid to pitch. In his first three years of professional baseball, Villone was still walking an average of 7.15 batters fore every nine innings he threw. Luckily for him, he was still racking up the Ks as well (10.4 K/9 during the same time frame).

 

Villone got a job in the Mariners’ weak bullpen out of spring training in 1995, but – surprise, surprise, wasn’t very effective. He made his Major League debut in the second game of the strike-shortened 1995 season, and in his brief 19-game stint, Villone put up a 7.91 ERA with 23 walks and 26 strikeouts over 19 innings.

It reminds me of a scene from Bull Durham, where the two coaches are talking about Nuke LaLoosh’s professional debut:

Joe Riggins: He walked 18…

Larry Hockett: New league record!

Joe Riggins: Struck out 18…

Larry Hockett: Another new league record. In addition, he hit the sports writers, the public address announcer, the bull mascot, twice…also new league records.

 

On May 15^th, Villone was optioned back to Tacoma and was replaced in Seattle’s bullpen by Rafael Carmona. While back in Tacoma, Villone started to reduce his walk rate and was lights-out in a brief stint as the Rainiers’ closer. In 30 innings, Villone struck out 43, walked 19, gave up only 9 hits and compiled 13 saves with an ERA of 0.61. His reward? Being included in a deadline deal to the San Diego Padres that brought Andy Benes to Seattle. Since then, Villone has bounced around, donning the jerseys of eight different teams in his 10-year career. Despite occasional flashes of dominance, such as the complete game Villone tossed against the Cardinals on Sept. 29, 2000, where he struck out 16 (twice as many as his next-highest K total for a game), and didn’t allow an earned run, the 35-year-old’s overall MLB career has been pretty average.

 

 

Looking at that chart, I believe we can pin Villone’s mediocrity on his lack of control. If Villone could have learned better control, things could have been way different for him. Consider…

 

 

If you were paying attention, Pitcher A is obviously Ron Villone. Pitcher B, however, is future Hall of Famer, Tom Glavine. For the most part, their numbers aren’t all that different. Glavine has the better control and gives up less home runs, but has also benefited from the tutelage of Leo Mazzone, while Villone has bounced from team to team. Don’t get me wrong – I fully realize that Glavine is far superior to Villone, but I believe that their rate stats show just how much baseball is a game of inches. A few inches here and a few inches there can make a world of difference in two players’ careers.

 

On February 9, 2004, the Mariners signed Villone for one-year deal with a base salary of $1 million. The next day, Finnigan reported in The Seattle Times that, “Manager Bob Melvin said the beauty of having Villone back is he can pitch in several roles. Villone can even start, which is the role he filled last year for Houston, when he allowed only 91 hits and struck out 91 batters in 106-2/3 innings in 19 starts.”

Villone went 8-6 for the 2004 Mariners, posting a 4.08 ERA over 117 innings – 53 as a starter and 64 in relief. Villone’s versatility unfortunately cost the M’s an extra million dollars, and he struck out 86, walked 64 and gave up 12 dingers. Nothing special, right? Not apparently. On October 2, the Seattle chapter of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America voted Villone the club’s Most Valuable Pitcher. This, of course, is about as distinguishable as being the nicest Nazi or the classiest porn star.

 

Was Villone worthy of being deemed Seattle’s most valuable pitcher? I don’t think so. Strictly looking at VORP, Villone was 6^th on the club (17.4), behind Freddy Garcia’s half season (35.1), Bobby Madritsch’s awesome debut (28), Ryan Franklin (22.7), Joel Pineiro (20.4) and Eddie Guardado (17.6). It’s obvious that Villone was awarded for his versatility. But, is he even versatile?

According to Dictionary.com: Versatile: adj. Capable of doing many things competently.

The key word there is competently. Obviously willingness and competency are two entirely different things, and while I applaud Villone for not being arrogant or stubborn enough to insist on a set role, his competency is debatable.Unfortunately, Villone wasn’t only granted an award. The Mariners offered arbitration to Villone, but he and his agent, Scott Boras, came to an agreement with Seattle before an arbitration case was necessary, and Villone signed a 2-year contract worth $4.2 million. After giving Villone a 320% raise from last season’s base salary, Mariners’ GM, Bill Bavasi, said,

 

"Ron gives us flexibility and depth in our pitching staff. He is a competitor who takes the ball anytime you ask him, in any role, and does a good job. We are pleased to have him back."

 

On one hand, I can see how signing Villone is OK for insurance purposes, but did it have to be for two years? Did Bavasi forget that he plucked Villone from the scrap heap about a week before pitchers and catchers were to report last year? Perhaps Bavasi saw how the market was shaking out for pitchers and figured that signing a league-average pitcher, especially one willing to be slotted into any role, was a good investment for a couple million. When you take into consideration that the Mariners’ staff had some injuries during the final few months, and that a power lefty never hurts when 81 of your team’s games are played at Safeco Field, the deal looks a little more attractive…but, again, not for two years. One thing that I certainly found interesting, however, is this…

 Again, Pitcher A is Ron Villone, but Pitcher B is Eric Milton – who signed one of the worst 
contracts of the off-season, a 3-year, $25.5 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds.

So, in conclusion – Villone started out with some great stuff, but because he could never harness his control, or doing so reduced his strikeouts, and since then, he’s been pretty average. However, a league-average pitcher that is willing to be thrust into any role is worth something, especially with the egos that some athletes have these days. Should he have gotten a multi-year contract? Probably not, but it’s not something that’s going to make or break the team. And, who knows, if Villone has a few solid months, maybe we can trade him to Cincinnati – Dan O’Brien seems to love mediocre pitchers, signing Milton and also trading for Ramon Ortiz.

How do you know when you officially have spring fever? When you walk to 7–11 at 11:30 to buy a videotape, so that you can tape the first spring training game on TV, like I just did…