Sorry it’s been so long, but Life sometimes has a way of prioritizing things in a way other than what we wish. In fact, if things hadn’t gone to Hell at work this weekend I wouldn’t be posting this piece at all! (I’ll let you come up with what that means… your ideas will probably be more exciting than the reality.) There are some guys in the lower minors that have caught my eye lately and I thought I’d share my notes. So grab your preferred hangover cure ('cause last night's game was a dandy) and enjoy some smooth, soothing scouting reports.
OK, that was beyond cheesy... possibly approaching Velveeta. I apologize.
A couple distasteful housekeeping items to being with… KCC 3B/2B Jason Christian separated his left shoulder and is on the DL. It also looks like the A’s are going to have trouble signing their projected over-slot draftees prior to mid-August. Word is Bud Selig wants to cut the slot signing bonuses by 10% from 2008 and it appears that MLB is going to hold off on approving any contract between the teams and their draftees until the deadline. So even if the A’s had deals agreed to in principle with Grant Green, Max Stassi, Sam Dyson, Josh Leyland and Ian Krol they wouldn’t be able to get the paperwork processed and get them into the minor league system. When I write on the Front Page I’m supposed to maintain some level of decorum, so I need someone reading this to express our joint displeasure towards Mr. Selig.
Please, be creative.
On to healthy players being relatively productive!
Connor Crumbliss was the A’s 28th round draft pick back in June and he currently plays for
Paul Smyth is another 2009 draftee (35th round) that’s having a statistically impressive debut in
The Canadian most folks have their eyes on is Rashun Dixon, the walking tool shed the A’s went over-slot to sign in 2008. He probably wishes you wouldn’t watch him so closely, as he struggling with a 180/284/290 line. He still has some contact issues (40 K in 100 AB) but the bigger problem is he can’t get a hit on the road. He’s not hitting to the tune of 125/246/196 on away games.
The most impressive performance of late in
Stockton’s Tyson Ross has also been a daisy over his last 5 starts, going 31 IP and giving up 19 hits, 12 walks, 8 ER (for an ERA of 2.32) while striking out a batter an inning.
Of course, the best pitching prospect in the lower minors continues to be Mickey Storey. Mr. Storey earned a promotion from Kane County to Stockton at the end of June (I know, only in baseball could a move to Stockton be considered a promotion) and his cumulative line stands at 23 Games, 14 Saves, 26.1 IP, 11 hits, 1 ER (0.34 ERA) 3 walks and 35 strike-outs. How does he do it? With a 90 MPH fastball that he can spot where he wants and a 73-74 MPH curveball he can throw for strikes.
On a final note, congratulations to Pedro Figueroa and Jaime Richmond for finally leaving
3 recs | 79 comments
Bud Selig: my favortie MLB-related person
OaklandSi - July 21, 2009
Well, i like to think i am tactful and diplomatic
so let me take this chance to say to our wonderful commissioner
Bud….You’re a fricking idiot…
That cover it for you grover?
Mantecan As Fan - July 21, 2009
Poor, poor Bud.
If only we had a steroid to increase intelligence and common sense. Alas, he is the eighth dwarf, the one I like to call Frumpy.
Thanks for update, grover.
JJ Martin - July 21, 2009
minor league update: do you know where your grover is?
carp - July 21, 2009
If Jamie Richmond actually becomes some sort of reasonable/usable SP........
Braves = FAIL.
Daniel777 - July 21, 2009
Okay, this whole slot bonus bullshit is beginning to piss me off.
Selig needs to keep his fucking nose OUT of player contracts and bonuses. There is no rule, there is just a suggested bonus level, and unless it’s set in stone teams are free to give whatever the hell they want.
Not letting teams sign their players serves no purpose aside from not letting them fucking play sooner. Ridiculous.
mikev - July 21, 2009
This^
Daniel777 - July 21, 2009
What's your thoughts on the idea of a salary cap?
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Honestly? I'm not a fan.
mikev - July 21, 2009
This.
Fucking grinds my gears. Once an agreement is reached, get the players in the minor leagues and playing. No waiting till the deadline to announce the things and crap.
Blicks - July 21, 2009
Question?
If Selig is able to strong arm the teams into staying within slot, does this help the A’s in future drafts?
alox - July 21, 2009
If he's able to, then it probably does help the Athletics
Regardless, it’s repulsive.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Why repulsive?
I would think it would result in an equitable distribution of talent throughout the league. No longer would you have second tier teams reluctant to sign the best available players due to “signability” issues. Viewing the league as a whole, wouldn’t this benefit baseball in general? If that is indeed the case, then it sounds to me like Selig is doing his job.
It’s not like the slot range for the top picks isn’t generous, especially when one considers that being drafted first is no guarantor of success at the major league level. Like it or not, all industry’s require some form of cost control.
alox - July 21, 2009
The draft order is supposed to do this, isn’t it?
The costs to signing a player is going to be an issue for cost-consious teams no matter what. If a team want a player’s services, the team has to satisfy the drafted player. That’s fair! It’s also ‘fair’ that if the two cannot get together, the player has to re-enter the draft the next season, losing development time and his good will toward the process that already seeks to make talent distribution equitable.
You’re asking the question of someone like me, a person who cringes almost every time I see meddling into markets. This is just another instance where I think that the market for signing drafted players is working fine as it is now.
If one were to believe that signability issues are really a problem then it probably does seem it would help. But is it Selig’s job to decide who is worth what?
If you can justify your opinion for doing this, would you also hold the opinion that the salaries of current big league-rostered players should be cost-controlled by Selig? If you don’t hold that opinion, how come? And if you do not, wouldn’t that be inconsistent?
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Free Market Capitalism and Red Herrings
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how quickly the draft order can become irrelevant. If I’m afraid to sign Player X because he might ask too much, I’ll pass on him and the team after me with more money to burn is going to draft him and sign him. The rich get richer and the poor are left playing moneyball.
That is ludicrous. Teams vary in cost-consciousness (i.e., frugality). Even rich teams can be cost conscious. That’s not the issue. The issue is the material ability to sign the player. I could be the least cost-conscious guy in the world and simply be unable to sign a player due to my financial bottom line. That might be fair on some, free-market capitalist utopia, but it is not conducive to creating the best possible product – that is, a product that as many people can enjoy as possible. I don’t know about you, but I think fans everywhere should have an equal opportunity to have a successful team. A fan in New York should not have preference over a fan in Oakland simply because they live in New York! First and foremost, it’s not good for the bottom line of MLB (more cities with good teams = more fans = more revenue).
Personally, I tend to cringe when this free market ideology runs amok and puts millions of people in the poor house, or maybe I should say, no house at all (keeping my fingers crossed we can keep our ball club within driving distance).
This argument is a another red herring. It is possible to control spending without controlling spending on micro, player-to-player level (salary cap, revenue sharing, etc.). With teams on a more even playing field, organizational success will become more dependent on things like savviness, ingenuity, and smart risk-taking rather than built in, structural market inequalities.
smokelanda - July 21, 2009
Amen!
King Richard - July 21, 2009 via mobile
Sorry. I’m nowhere close to being a rocket scientist so your argument hasn’t presuaded me. If a signing bonus is prohibitively costly then you, as a GM, make adjustments. But if the resources aren’t there (to sign a draft pick) as a GM of a big league club, you’ve mismanaged your resources [by either diappointing your paying fanbase or by squandering money on players who disappointed that fanbase]. Consider the bonus money as a way to offset the ability of a team to artificially cost-control a player for six years after making his MLB debut and cost it out over the six to nine years that drafted player plays for the organization if he’s good enough. Of course, then there’s the drafted players who receive bonuses who never make it this far; oh well, it’s part of the game.
So, the rights to a drafted player, the draft itself, and the revenue-sharing are all institutional gimmiks that have been adopted to level the playing field. Why punish teams and players who are willing to come together on a negotiated bonus?
I’d really enjoy speaking to this but I’ve been reminded all too often that this isn’t the place for that; the free-market ideology will not be running amok here!
Red herring? What Selig is proposing isn’t on a micro, player-to-player level. And with that established, you damed-near just answered my red herring question: that it is possible to cost-control with a salary cap. So, do you support a salary cap? Because that’s what my question was getting at: a macro level cost-control mechanism not a player-by-player decision.
You just complained about this earlier didn’t you: “The rich get richer and the poor are left playing moneyball.” Or is that not what you meant by ‘moneyball’.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Like the pesky consumption habits of the fans themselves and how they fit into all this?
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Can I just say that espousing the free market with regard to the draft is bunk
If you are going to make that argument you should argue for the abolition of the draft and cost control for players. Why should the league get to deny worker the right to bargain their own contract with the employer of their choice, in the location that they want, and for the price that the market will bare? Why should a player have to work for slave wages for six years.
Unless you believe that free agency for all unsinged players is the way to go and good for baseball please stop complaining about messing with the market. The draft already crossed that line.
designatedforassignment - July 21, 2009
I agree with you, it is bunk.
But under the current rules/policy arrangement, I’m simply advocating “no more meddling with the way things are”. Personally, I’d be okay with doing away with the draft, territorial rights, revenue sharing, anti-trust exemption, etc.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
Are you a closet Yankee fan or closet Red Sox fan?
DMOAS - July 21, 2009
Neither.
I just think that everything would work for the best if there were more openess and honest competition in the game even though there would be short periods of chaos, I imagine. The biggest problems and challenges would manifest themselves because of the significance of the history, stats, and records on the game. Radical changes in the number of teams (allowing for entry and exit into the market) or the structure of the rosters and much other stuff makes this impossible. Baseball fans are a pretty conservative (not in a political sense) bunch.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
But it's not bunk
These guys are perfectly free to negotiate a contract with whoever the hell they want…just not if they want to play for the organization that is Major League Baseball. Don’t like MLB’s rules? Go work for Microsoft. Kid doesn’t have to play baseball. Hell, he could even go play in Japan, or for an independent league or something.
walk off bunt - July 21, 2009
That's true.
I’d be very interested to read your reaction if more American players began to do this and other professional leagues in different countries became the places where talent flocked to.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
If you do away with the draft and all players are free agents first then you would have the big money teams getting the best players
Teams like the A’s would not be able to pay the price that the Yankees, Bosox or Angels could. So they would only get the players that those teams didn’t want.
Baseball is not like a regular job and you can’t treat it like one.
Eastbayjim - July 21, 2009
Or, you'd have radical shifts in the landscape...
…where once small market markets became the big market teams. There’s no telling what would happen but sure as hell, things would not remain the same and all factors, fans, players, owners would cause things that none of us could predict. I don’t buy-into the notion that only the wealthy teams would get wealthier and that that would be the permanent atate of affairs. But I don’t want to argue this anymore…I believe what I believe. I initially wrote to criticize Selig for an idea that I do not like.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
If MLB was really free-market,
I would quickly establish a third franchise in NYC and instantly be a billionaire.
redtopcowboy - July 21, 2009
Saw that Stephen Strassburg might opt to play in Japan
if he doesn’t come to terms with the Nationals…….how much money is that kid asking for again?
mrod - July 22, 2009
My one thought on this...
Boy, I sure as hell wouldn’t mind making 400,000+ grand a year for six years until I earned emancipation from slave wages….
:0
mrod - July 22, 2009
Great 'one thought'.
I’m down with ‘slave wages’ beyond the six year mark!
LowcountryJoe - July 22, 2009
Every time I see the "free market" brought up
with regard to baseball, the entire argument is stupid because too many people on both sides of the argument take it for granted that since the teams are in competition with each other on the field they must be in competition economically, too.
But they aren’t. If the Red Sox, Orioles and Rays all went bankrupt, leaving the Yankees alone to dominate the market, that wouldn’t benefit the Yankees bottom line at all. What if all other 29 teams were driven out of business entirely? Woo hoo! They’d have a monopoly. But who would they play against? The product they sell is baseball games, and they are incapable of creating that product without at least one other “competitor”.
The reality is that economically the league is a single unit. (That’s why we call the teams “franchises”.) It’s fallacious to treat the teams as if they are competing economically with one another. They are competing against other sports and other forms of entertainment, not other teams in the same league.
iglew - July 23, 2009
"Doing his job"
Most of those who think Bud Selig is doing a bad job are under the mistaken impression that the job of the Commissioner of Baseball is to make baseball better. It is not. The job of the Commissioner of Baseball is to make more money for the owners, which may or may not involve making baseball better. Selig is quite good at his job.
He’s still a villain, but not a fool.
iglew - July 21, 2009
We are in agreement
concerning Selig’s competency. While I recognize that he represents primarily the owners, he also has concerns that extend past individual owners. His duty is to act in the interest of the collective, which sometimes puts him at odds with individual owners. Bud has been absolutely brilliant balancing these seeming contradictory aspects of his job. I can’t really buy into the vilification of Selig. I think he’s done far more good for the whole of baseball than he rarely gets credit for. To be honest, I think that history will treat him far more kindly than we do. He has proven himself a very shrewd and competent commissioner.
alox - July 21, 2009
Really
I bet there are at least 1,000,000 business men/women who could have done a better job than Bud Selig has done for the past 20 years. He’s a bumbling idiot who watched over a 100+ year old monopolized business, during a very prosperous time to be a “Baseball Man”.
Colorado Fan - July 21, 2009
Must have been some reason why the owners...
…wanted to keep him around. I doubt it was because he was an idiot.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
I can wait another month to see what they sign for, and see them play, if it acually keeps the prices down 10% overall
over a decade of years those 10% savings every year is a very large compounded number. If Selig’s plan works, it is very good for baseball and for fans as we will be the one’s getting charged more if the drafting process costs the teams more and more which it will if Selig dose not do things like this.
Selig is not telling teams they can’t sign for over slot, just that they can not actually do it till the deadline so that players taken in front of them in the draft don’t want twice as much which they would. this will not effect whether they sign, just when we know about it.
As for Strasburg, If I was Selig I would be tempted to only let him sign for double the highest bonus ever, Borus be damned, him playing some other country be damned. And he wants to go directly to the majors which means if he’s not really ready for a few years Washington losses two good years of his 6 before leaving for the next big contract.
We don’t want this to be like football where the guy who has never played before gets a large guaranteed contract ,more than any current star on the team, crippling the team when they don’t work out to be the best player on the team within a short period of time. I don’t know if anyone remembers but pundits where saying everyone wanted to trade out of the top of the NFL draft because of the signing demands even though those teams sucked and needed the best players available.
OmahaHi - July 21, 2009
This is the sort of debate I had hoped for.
I’m not sold either way, and from a players perspective I can sympathize with LCJ’s position. But I don’t think that that position is necessarily in the best interests of either MLB or the fans. Face it LCJ, MLB is a monopoly, not exactly an arrangement that will respond to free market practices in a manner one might presume.
alox - July 21, 2009
More importantly
In a free market, monopoly or otherwise, you should never let players (or potential players as they are) dictate salary, particularly having never proven anything.
DMOAS - July 21, 2009
I think I flagged your post...
…while trying to reply to it from my phone.
In a free market, players would not get to dictate their salaries and terms of their contracts. It takes two to tango and he with the most leverage bargains from the strongest position; no one is forced or coerced to agree to anything.
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
See... the thing is the MLB player have a collective Bargain with their Union
I see the draft as basically someone chance to eventually joy that union.
DMOAS - July 21, 2009
And I clicked post before I finished my thought
but basically, MLB has the right to set guidelines how how someone “buys” into that union.
DMOAS - July 21, 2009
True.
But I’m not required to like it, am I?
LowcountryJoe - July 21, 2009
good point Omaha Hi.
I was not a fan of the Raiders shelling out 66 million for JaMarcus Russell when they drafted him two years ago. I was excited that they took him with their pick, but the money was ridiculous for a guy who had not one snap in the NFL yet. It creates many problems for teams that are under a salary cap when they are dolling out millions of dollars in the draft for unproven commodities, but at the same time, what are teams to do? That’s why I love baseball because the structure of the game, financially at least, allows teams to have a chance to compete and possibly succeed with smart scouting, player evaluation, and proper investing of funds alloted for said players.
The rich teams are always going to have an edge in some ways because money makes the world go round but it isn’t the end all be all of a successfully run professional sports franchise. I hope that the A’s management team is reading some of these posts the past few weeks because there have been many excellent insights here.’ Kudos my friends…! Go A’s!
mrod - July 22, 2009
Thanks, Grover.
Hope to see some of the new Ports crew in San Jose this Saturday. I’ll be in Section G, row 2 :-)
Technotofu - July 21, 2009
I'll be singing the Anthem!
oblique - July 21, 2009
you're not changing the lyrics are you?
I kid.
dtownmbrown - July 21, 2009
Cool!
Technotofu - July 21, 2009
God save the Queen would go down a storm I think.
OldhamA - July 21, 2009
Any word on how DLS has done since returning?
Pucking Insane - July 21, 2009
He pitched 2 inning twice.
And has yet to pitch since. Its been almost 2 weeks since he last appeared in a game.
Syphon - July 21, 2009
Therefore we can assume he's dead.
OldhamA - July 21, 2009
Awesome!
Any reports on how he was throwing in those innings?
Pucking Insane - July 21, 2009
Slusser said he was back to his mid 90s FB.
Syphon - July 21, 2009
Solid, but wasn't his curve or his change suppose to be "the real deal"?
Pucking Insane - July 21, 2009
Slider.
Syphon - July 21, 2009
Hell I didn't watch the game last night and I'm having my favorite hangover cure!
everything bagel sandwich w/ fried egg, melted cheese, mayo, mustard, pepper, and Sirracha sauce (that’s Vietnamese hot sauce if you’re not familiar). I am watching the game via dvr, though, and I fell asleep last night at the beginning and woke up with the score 12- 7 Twins. Jesus! What the hell!?!?
Anyways, good stuff as always, grover. Nice to see Tyson Ross doing so well as I was impressed with him when I saw hm pitch against the SJ Giants. Go A’s!
mrod - July 21, 2009
Nothing helps a hangover like pancakes and B vitamins
Ginger ale works well for a liquid (I find OJ makes me queezy) unless you were drinking dark and stormys or Jack and Gingers the night before, it calms the gurgles.
designatedforassignment - July 21, 2009
yeah - this might be common knowledge
but the reason Orange Juice (or any citrus) will make you quesy is that the sick feeling from a hangover comes from the increased level of stomach acids (and hence overall pH) that alcohol causes. citric acid raises this further, making you feel sicker.
I didn’t know this. but it’s a fun fact, huh
bobnothing - July 21, 2009
Thats kinda what I believed but people in college told me that it was a good idea
They were wrong.
designatedforassignment - July 21, 2009
Smoke some pot, eat some burnt toast, drink a slurpee and repeat.
Pucking Insane - July 21, 2009
Eh…does this mean we will likely lose thes guys?
My brother’s an A-10 pilot…I’m sure I could have him make a quick flyover at Bud’s house.
carp - July 21, 2009
QOTM
adragon - July 21, 2009
Long live the WartHog!
alox - July 21, 2009
Not necessarily.
When it gets to the deadline, I doubt Selig would say, “No, can’t sign them for that amount.” He would fuck a whole lot of teams if he did that.
But either way, all I have to say is…fucking Selig.
NateHST - July 21, 2009
30mm uranium depleted rounds are a little under-kill
He got any napalm handy?
grover - July 21, 2009
Hmmm, those things tear tanks apart.
That’s plenty enough for mine.
OldhamA - July 21, 2009
Wimp
grover - July 21, 2009
Seligs House
robbo650 - July 21, 2009
Leyland signed
http://athletics.scout.com/a.z?s=304&p=9&c=2&cid=880764&nid=4454845&fhn=1
Excellent.
mikeA - July 21, 2009
San Dimas Football Roolz!
Great signing for the A’s. With Stassi making an appearance at the Coliseum yesterday, we can only assume that his signing is a near foregone conclusion. Yay, indeed!
franks a lot - July 21, 2009
This is great news!
Now we need the other boys to fall in line.
(Grant Green this means you)
adragon - July 21, 2009
Apparently Leyland didn't sign for much over slot
I still wouldn’t expect Green or Stassi to sign officially until 17th Aug, even if we have already agreed a deal with then.
DeJay - July 21, 2009
1/5 signed.
Now it’s on to the other big contract guys. Probably not hearing until about 8/15 or so.
noava22 - July 21, 2009
Hell yeah!
He and Krol are the players I was really worried about signing.
NateHST - July 21, 2009
Isn't Dyson by all accounts the least likely to sign, or am I thinking of the wrong guy?
Pucking Insane - July 21, 2009
Yeah
Dyson is like last years Hunter. I’m pretty sure Green/Stassi/Krol are the priorities, since we have a ton of injured high upside pitchers in the system already.
Orodawg - July 21, 2009
He will likely become my third favorite San Diman
designatedforassignment - July 21, 2009
Great job as always Grover, rec'd
I hope we can get the other kids signed and on the field where they can play two games and go on the DL like any other self respecting A’s prospect.
adragon - July 21, 2009
Connor Crumbliss?
That’s his real name?
I mean, Connor is macho enough I guess – it’s a name featured in the terminator movies, right? saving our protoplasmic asses from mechanoid annihilation has to count for something, doesn’t it? – but Crumbliss? I wonder if he ever got teased about that. Maybe he is what he is today because of the strength gained from the whole boy-named-Sue phenomenon?
Faust - July 21, 2009
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