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Grading Your GM At The Winter Meetings

Over on The Nats Blog, where the debate on health care reform takes a back seat to debates over whether John Lannan or Jordan Zimmerman should start Opening Day, and whether it's wise to play Cristian Guzman on purpose, they asked several bloggers -- bloggers not unlike myself -- to assess their team's performance addressing needs at the Winter Meetings.

American League analysis was published today. You can also find National League analysis, division by division, there. See if you agree with how I, and fellow bloggers, assessed their favorite team's efforts at the Winter Meetings.

0 recs  |  51 comments

Comments

link's brokey, Nico.
Thanks -- I think it's fixed now.

And we still fully intend for it to be our Opening Day 3Bman.

Link is still broke as of 2:22 PST
It's working fine for me now.
Link doesn't work...

Unless it’s supposed to be just a blue screen that says NATs on the top…

Every time I click on it, it works fine.

But in case others are having the same problem, here’s the URL to paste:

http://www.thenatsblog.com/2009-articles/december/national-winter-meetings-review-american-league.html

wow, their website has a lot more razzle dazzle than this one

I mean, not that I’m complaining or anything

It was paid for by the Stimulus Bill
Stimulating idea!

I have to know, if stimuloss works, then why not always stimulate as a public policy? Surely there’s free lunches to be had all the time; with the benefits aways exceeding the costs.

Still no worky

You can go to the home page just fine but the articles re: Winter Meeting Reviews don’t work.

the interweb hates you.
Jordan Zimmerman is out for most of 2010

:P

So then he'll probably get the call.
When did the A's trade for JZ?
After he hooked up with Beyonce'.

What, you didn’t know?

Team Needs: 3B, SS, middle of the order bats
Team Moves: Traded for Jake Fox/Aaron Miles, signed Dallas McPherson, non-tendered Jack Cust

Dallas McPherson is allegedly both a middle of the order bat and a 3B. I’d give Billy a B for that particular dumpster dive.

Yeah, I like that move

A lot more than the “non-tender Cust” or “sign Crisp” ones.

I like both of those moves

Cust (or half a dozen clones) are still available if we want them.
Is the Crisp signing official yet?

It's on the verge of happening, I'm sure of it.
Wonder what it would take to get Alex Gordon now?
I doubt he's available.

Chase Headley on the other hand….

Screw Headly. It's Utley or nothing
what?? we're getting chase utley?!
Hey, I can't remember where I just heard

the completely verified fact that the A’s have acquired Chase Utley but I did!

hey, for some guys, it's not the conquest that's important, it's the Utley
Get them both

And start shaping the All-LEY Team…

C Nick HundLEY
1B ShelLEY Duncan
2B Chase UtLEY
SS HanLEY Ramirez
3B Chase HeadLEY
LF Jeff BaiLEY
CF Milton BradLEY
RF Damion EasLEY

Yes, I am visiting my in-laws and yes, I am bored to death..

SP: Cliff Ley?
And Roy HaLEEday.
Brandon LEEgue?
LEY-ROY JENKINS

Wait, I broke the joke.

Way too many caught stealings for me.
Wallace for Taylor isn't mentioned for some reason.

The other thing that Beane’s done is offer deals to Scutaro and Carroll which they turned down in favor of less money elsewhere. Those would have helped.

I’m willing to grade him an Incomplete just because I think the big shoes are yet to drop.

Christian Guzman is no worse than Pennington.

As you can see, I basically give an "Incomplete" as well,

pointing out that it’s how you finish building a roster that matters, not where you are around XMas.

Yea, this whole idea of grading a GM at the Winter Meetings is dumb.

Everyone should get an Incomplete.

I have to say I too am very happy the off season

Get a SP and I think it will have been successful. True we have no 4 hole hitter but Cust wasn’t one either. Got speed and D and hopefully enough doubles hitters to get them driven in. The middle of the order bats will be up mid year.

I would love Bedard on a heavily incentived 1 yr deal. The A’s have enough AAA arms to call up as 5th starters should Bedard go down. Braden, Bedard, Anderson, Cahill, Gio with Mort, Maz, Simmons etc ready to be called up.

The other starter I would like to split up the lefties, righties is

Wang.

He doesn't go deep enough and more often than not you'd be forced to yank him too early.
Clap, clap, clap, clap.......

:)

There's a story about Rodney Marsh, an English soccer player

Before his ninth game, his coach (Alf Ramsey) said to him

“I’ll be watching you for the first 45 minutes and if you don’t work harder I’ll pull you off at halftime”. He replied

"Crikey, Alf, at Manchester City all we get is an orange and a cup of tea."

He was never picked again

Article is relevant to my interests

however web site causes my browser to crash. maybe they could stand to lose some of the bells and whistles over there at nats blog.

so anyone got a text only link? lol

OT

But I wondered if anyone had seen this article? It appears our beloved Banjo Man has lost his favorite banjo somewhere.

Here’s the link.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_14042329?source=rss
Best of luck finding your axe, Sandy! Happy Holidays….

That sucks for Banjo Man!

I hope someone returns it to him. Otherwise, they’re the Grinch of all Grinches.

Thanks for the write-up, Nico (the linked worked fine for me, back at 2:23 this afternoon).

I think your evaluation is correct, if short. For now, our “holes” are not plugged, but here’s to hoping that the players gained can be turned around for good effect, or else get rid of some of the more controversial bench/AAA/AAAA players that we spend so much time arguing about. And, here’s hoping (yes, that’s what we do in the off season, right?) that some of those players absolutely kick butt if they stay on the team!

merci6, paris7!
I think Beane wasn't the onlly GM to use the Winter Meetings

for reconnoitering. Most if not all of the deals and potential deals we’ve seen since the end of those meetings are likely to have spun off informal discussions then.

I liked the blog

Thanks for the link.
Who knew the Nats had a quality blog?

How does it rate in WARBLE?

(Wins Above Replacement BLog Entries)

You left out where we let Deforfia go to SD and Javy Herrera to NYY

2 absolutely crushing blows to the organization! lol

also lol @ this:

“Add Putz and Pierre to the acquisitions of Mark Teahan, Omar Vizquel, Andruw Jones, and full seasons of Jake Peavy and Alex Rios, and the Sox are eons better in 2010 than they were in 2009.”

anyone see them even going .500? Peavy is the only name who might break out and play well, but he’s hurt often and a NL→AL move is hard to pull off.

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