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Got here without the frames? Click here.12/21/2005: "Love Me Nontender"
All the unloved players get outed today, ready to be made some other team's treasure. Some of the interesting players on the table:
Wade Miller. Before the 2005 season a blog called The Red Sea Scrolls--it's on the sidebar--started up and provided some nice insights into the Cardinals for a month or two. I bring this up because its last entry for about a year--I was surprised to notice a new entry dated from this November as I went to make sure it was still up--was this one, about Walt's inability to pick up Wade Miller. Another year, another chance to pick up the guy who was, at one time, supposed to be the second half of the Astros' one-two punch. There's almost no risk to making a move on Miller; he cost $1.5M last year, and the only things that have changed in the meantime are he got a year older and his arm underwent another surgery. If he really is toast, if his K rate doesn't get back up to 7.5 K/9 and his BB rate doesn't fall back down, his arm will fall off after a few mediocre starts and you'll be a million dollars in the hole. But if he isn't... well, those are some nice numbers he put up back as a youngster in Houston.
Willie Harris... well, this guy is lboros's pet nontender, check out his many and varied thoughts on the guy. When last I saw him his bat was more a theoretical construct than an empirically-proven fact, but he's managed to get on base at a league average clip over 500 at-bats since then.
Junior Spivey, your 2002 NL All-Star second baseman. He's played about 120 games in the last two years, and he's been effective in about half of them. Good Junior--we'll leave out 2002 Crazy Junior--will have an OBP around .350 and a slugging percentage around .400. Bad Junior will put up an OBP around .310 and slice his achilles tendon apart in a freak jumprope accident. He's been considered a disappointment since everybody remembers 2002, but--wait for it... he's better than Aaron Miles, and in a bizarre job-sharing arrangement with Hector Luna he might be valuable.
Eric Byrnes. Hey! The Cardinals could have both of the 2004 Irrational Exuberance Platoon Outfielders! As lboros notes, it's fitting that he and Bigbie were once traded for each other, because handedness aside they're the same player. Except people like Byrnes's hair. If the Cardinals don't manage to swing a Jocketty Trade for an impact outfielder I wouldn't mind him; he can almost hit well enough to be an effective corner outfielder, and he does a lot of other things well.
Josh Fogg... well, you can't say he fell behind Kip Wells in that notorious pilfering of the White Sox, because Kip Wells fell off the same cliff. Needless to say, it turns out that the Pirates didn't make out like bandits as much as they thought they did. No particularly exciting peripherals, no heretofore-untapped value... if a team found itself without a AAAA starter of its own to play swingman I'm sure he'd do, but I don't think he's got Walt particularly atitter. (For what it's worth, Baseball Prospectus once suggested he'd be an effective closer. But then, it might have been in the issue with Josh Phelps on the cover.)
Dewon Brazelton, one-time number three draft pick and collossal bust out of Tampa Bay. It's not that he's a great move for the Cardinals, or Memphis--he looks like he has good stuff, but he's proven to be a bit of a headcase and he's got more career walks than strikeouts. But he was also the main chit in the Sean Burroughs deal this offseason, so now the Padres have traded a third baseman under 25 with a little potential for... nothing. Half of your infield for Doug Mirabelli? Yikes.
Chad Bradford, famous mostly for his appearance in a book and his almost cartoony submarine delivery, is a poor man's Braden Looper. No, wait--he's an even more extreme version of Looper. The man once held right-handed batters to a .499 OPS, which is Einar territory. Unfortunately, at this point he might as well throw the ball over the fence himself when lefties come to the plate; over the last three years they've dinged him for an OPS 150 points higher than even Looper managed over the same period. (Last year they broke the .400 barrier against him.) He's got the switch permanently set to Bad Looper, but even that has some value; if they hadn't just signed the same player for three years and $13 million I'd be all over acquiring this guy, but I've gotta admit--it's partially because I really liked Moneyball.
But if lboros gets his pet second baseman, I would feel left out if I didn't mention 2B/1B/etc. Brian Myrow, an indy-leaguer turned minor league slugger for the Yankees and Dodgers who was also nontendered. He'll be coming up on 29 this year, so he isn't a starter in the making or anything, but look at these numbers: .282/.403/.547. That's from AAA last year. I know, I know, we had one of these utility infielder/mashers from the Yankees system just last year and he didn't pan out. There's a difference, though--this guy's got an outstanding walk rate, while Seabol was more of a free swinger. (Seabol's a better defender, though, and that probably tells you all you need to know about why Myrow's spent all these years in the minors.)
And finally, it's time for the latest edition of: Options at Backup Catcher Better than the One the Cardinals Have! First on the list we have David Ross. Like seemingly every backup catcher, his one bullet point on the resumé is one great set of 100+ at-bats. In his case it's 2003, where he hit a ridiculous .258/.336/.556, including 10 homers in 124 at-bats. Since then he's hit... 8 in 290. But as far as backup catchers go, having one offensive skill--in this case a bat that provided a .392 slugging percentage last year--is better than being a zero. Next on the list is Jason Phillips, of the Mets and, momentarily, the Dodgers. You'll remember him as the one whose hot 2003 and cool goggles actually had people convinced he could start at first base. Now he's nontendered. He put up OPSs in the .800 range in the minor leagues, so I don't think he's actually a .220 hitter, but he's not going to hit .300 again, either. And finally, we have Pete LaForest, the Quebecer catcher who was once blocked by Toby Hall.
No, no, don't worry, it was in Tampa Bay, "blocked" there means they probably didn't realize they had a AAA club. Upon reaching AAA as a 25-year-old LaForest hit .269/.382/.567 over 200 at-bats, clubbing 14 doubles and 14 homers in the process. In 2004, his second AAA year, LaForest struggled, hitting just .222. Perhaps more worryingly, his isolated power fell from .298 to .145. 2005 saw him fall somewhere in the middle, hitting .270/.318/.578. He's an odd case, but anybody who puts up an isolated power mark over .300 in AAA is worth looking into, especially when he can catch and play third base. He's like Cody McKay, only--ah, there's the rub. He can hit.
Did I really write 1200 words about a bunch of players not valued enough to stay with their current team? I... I guess I did. Anyway, this is where we get to see if Walt had a plan all along... and if he didn't, we get to watch him improvise. Hopefully, however it turns out, it won't involve another round of hand-sitting.
