AJ Pierzynski
by speckops on Aug 16, 2009 7:53 PM PDT
Email
PrintToday the A's had a home game against the Chicago White Sox. In honor of the 1929 World Series-winning Philadelphia A's, the A's had a throw-back day--1929 ticket prices, throwback uniforms, old time music in between innings, and black-and-white diamond vision for the scoreboard. They also gave the players nicknames, such as Bing Crosby, Machine Gun Kennedy (initials are AK), and Babyface Everidge. The best nickname by far belonged to a certain ex-Giant that we all hate:
via lh4.ggpht.com
Enough said. (image taken from JLaff over at Athletics Nation)
This FanPost is reader-generated, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of McCovey Chronicles. If the author uses filler to achieve the minimum word requirement, a moderator may edit the FanPost for his or her own amusement.
178 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Rightfully the #1 GIS result for AJ Pierzynski
Adopted brother of Jason Jarvis.
by j14 on Aug 16, 2009 7:58 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I guess this is # 49 or something...
NL West TempestTeapot
Nothing matters , and what if it did?
by victor frankenstein on Aug 16, 2009 10:21 PM PDT up reply actions
That sounds like a pretty awesome promotion, ngl.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
The Razor and Mr. T have been trying to get the Giants to do this all season.
Baer told them that the Giants had too many advertising obligations to turn off the video board and sound system. I guess the A’s don’t have that problem.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
they also don’t have the problem of losing a ton of money if they lower ticket prices for one game
by FluLikeSymptoms on Aug 16, 2009 9:52 PM PDT up reply actions
yesssssssss
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
Hats
Hats make Kuip go from Michael J Fox to Peter Falk in just the flip of a brim.
co-dad of IshikaBOOM w/AfDC.
Ishikawa, let the boy hit against lefties.
Tommy Joseph is the Dingerzball Wizard
by SoFa King Mike on Aug 17, 2009 8:43 AM PDT up reply actions
Kuip singing Johnny B. Good
"Catcher are base running. Hitters are offense."
Only [hella] games left until the end of Zito's [no, make that Rowand's] contract.
Adoptive father of "Poncho" Villalona: This Angel don't fly. Nothing about him is light.
I actually wish I could have made it
I don’t really care for going to A’s games that much. But that would have been fun, I think.
"Catcher are base running. Hitters are offense."
Only [hella] games left until the end of Zito's [no, make that Rowand's] contract.
Adoptive father of "Poncho" Villalona: This Angel don't fly. Nothing about him is light.
Why hate AJ?
His first year off the turf in a new league and he hit .272. That’s hardly crap and half of those 27 GDP would have been hits in the Metrodome.
You must be new here….
No, really, I have updated my blog this year: http://skaldheim.livejournal.com/tag/baseball
Did you not pay attention to anything? Here. The dude is a huge toolbag.
Duhh... that's my favorite type of player!
Jack Clark, Jeff Kent, Will Clark, and Kevin Mitchell were also non-eagle scouts. And, dare I mention… Barry Bonds?
Oh, wait, Dan Gladden was also one of my favorites. I remember him having a brawl with Jeff Leonard in the dugout during a game. That’s BASEBALL, bitches!
I am 100% convinced that if a colleague came up to you and kneed you in the testicles, you would be singing a very different tune.
Maybe in a higher octave.
You sure are self-important
"Catcher are base running. Hitters are offense."
Only [hella] games left until the end of Zito's [no, make that Rowand's] contract.
Adoptive father of "Poncho" Villalona: This Angel don't fly. Nothing about him is light.
So in the army, you hung around kneeing each other in the testicles?
Duane Kuiper: Hall Of Fame broadcaster.
by Johnny Disaster on Aug 18, 2009 6:47 AM PDT up reply actions
is being kneed in the crotch part of basic training now?
STEVE HOLM! refuses to be the odd man out.
by UnleashTheGore on Aug 18, 2009 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions
did you actually watch him at all that year? First off, he had an 86 OPS+, which is not terrible for a catcher but is not exactly what the Giants were hoping for, given what they gave up. And he was such a douchebag on top of hitting poorly that they didn’t even keep him past one year, which was the big draw with acquiring him in the first place.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
They couldn't afford him in arbitration as I remember.
Besides, AJ played the next year for less money for the CWS and hit WORSE than he did for the Giants, but he doesn’t regret it one bit — CUZ HE GOT THE F’n RING! They must not have regretted it either, because he’s been there making inflation+ money ever since!
Well, they fucked up his first arb hearing by offering way too little compared to what he was asking (and not being able to get him signed to a long-term deal, which had been the plan.) The thing is, they basically acquired him planning on him being their catcher for the remainder of his arb years and they totally screwed it up by messing up the arb process, before he’d even played a single game for us.
There honestly isn’t anything about the Pierzynski trade that didn’t turn out to be a disaster.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
Yeah, he's hit pretty close to Molina's SF standard
86 OPS+ vs 90 OPS+, comparable GIDP futility.
What a difference being a douche makes, and I suppose Nathan’s conspicuous success didn’t help either.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
I’d rather have AJ. His doucheyness pisses off opposing teams and gets under their skin. It sure worked when he hit like .600 against the A’s in the ALDS that one year. Also, I don’t really care that he was a douche to Brett Tomko, I mean BRETT TOMKO! Who cares about that guy. At least AJ didn’t expect to hit 4th every day and doesn’t take everything so goddamn personally. Either guy were improvements over Matheny or Yorvit.
kneeing a team trainer in the balls, intentionally
Not a good move from AJ.
Supporting San Francisco Dugout since 2005 and Manny Burriss since 2006. Bringing you all your California League and New York-Penn League needs since 2009.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Aug 16, 2009 10:25 PM PDT up reply actions
You take that back!
Mike Matheny is a Golden God.
by The Double Deuce on Aug 17, 2009 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions
That's just Sabean being Sabean.
Like trading Keith Foulke and Bob Howry for a bucket of chicken wings.
(meaning Alvarez, Hernandez, and Darwin and only Darwin stayed in town long enough to find out which bridge was which)
he traded Foulke and Howry for Alvarez and Hernandez in an attempt to win the division in 1997. He then won the division in 1997. How is that a “bucket of chicken wings?” They were both big ticket free agents at the time, and the Giants’ never expected to keep them.
embarrassed father of over the hill Edgardo Renteria
They didn't really need most of them.
Alvarez was only +1 in W-L and Darwin was -2 in W-L.
Herandez got 4 saves and +3 W-L in 28 games.
The Giants finished 2 games ahead of the Dodgers mostly despite the first 2 guys. Hernandez was the best out of the three (as set-up LHP) yet was mostly superfluous because Beck were still the primary closer.
Roberto Hernandez was not left handed.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Also
1-23=2
Giants finished two games ahead of the Dodgers.
Sounds like a kind of important acquisition when you put it that way!
Also, while the Giants gave up a lot of players, Foulke was really the only one worth missing.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
DAMMIT
1-2+3=2
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
testing SBN autoformat
1-23=2
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
For some reason, if you put + before 1, it removes the + between 2 and 3.
My lord is SBN autoformat WEIRD. Has anyone in the history of ever actually used any of the weird-ass shit it does?
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Ah, Rich Rodriguez: my favorite random Giant to mention
GROUGTHINK ALERT
The first Chester Arthur fanboy ever.
And in my search for Rich Rodriguez to see how many times I had mentioned him (it looks like I had fully half of the Rich Rodriguez mentions on this site), I found this:
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2007/8/11/15187/8170#1221773
I HOPE THE FANS OF OTHER TEAMS FEEL THAT WAY FOR THE NEXT TWO AND A HALF MONTHS
GROUGTHINK ALERT
The first Chester Arthur fanboy ever.
Hernandez was so impressive after that trade -blowing 100mph past The Killer B’s of Houston, in one particularly memorable game- that I can only assume you weren’t watching the Giants back then.
by Giant Homer on Aug 18, 2009 11:41 AM PDT up reply actions
Didn’t mean to cross out that part about the Astros. I still remember that game. Hernandez painted 100 on the black to K Baggs and they cut to a shot of Dusty, toothpick in mouth, as he flashed a grin I can only compare to the Grinch. It was a great moment.
by Giant Homer on Aug 18, 2009 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions
Like trading Keith Foulke and Bob Howry for a bucket of chicken wings.
(meaning Alvarez, Hernandez, and Darwin and only Darwin stayed in town long enough to find out which bridge was which)
You mean the trade that’s still known across baseball as the White Flag deal because of how badly the White Sox got taken? That trade? Yeah, Sabez sure got screwed there.
/eyeroll
Giants wins feel better than Dodger losses, but it's darn close.
by WhereThere'sAWillieThere'sAMays on Aug 18, 2009 12:18 PM PDT up reply actions
This
is really funny
Giant Dirtbags: John Bowker, Steve Hammond. MIA List: Todd Jennings, Brian Anderson
Wronghanded Affeldt pitches right
by Giant among Angels on Aug 17, 2009 6:43 AM PDT up reply actions
I agree
He’s one of my favorite non-giants players, along with scott hairston, russell martin, and shane victorino. None of them compare, however, to my favorite giant, the dominant closer Armando Benitez!
VOTE SANDOVAL
Adopted Giant: Henry Sosa
by raisingcain on Aug 17, 2009 11:12 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
Actually, this was one of Sabean's better trades.
He swapped potential ALL-STAR pitchers to get an ALL-STAR position player. Sabes just screwed it up by acquiring a dude he knew he couldn’t afford to keep more than one season. That .272 in 471 AB was not bad for a slow guy transitioning from the Metrodome’s artificial surface to spaciously grassy “SBC” Park, but a bad GM miscalculation to think he’d hit .300 under such circumstances.
Pft, wow. That’s really funny. It was an effing terrible trade. Francisco Liriano has contributed more wins to the Twins than AJ did to us. If, as you say, Sabes knew he couldn’t keep AJ more than one season (by the way, not the reason he wasn’t brought back), then it becomes an even worse trade.
Joe Martinez: You are cool.
When it's all said and done, America will be remembered for three things: The Bill of Rights, jazz, and baseball.
the problem wasn’t that they couldn’t “afford” to keep AJ for more than one season. It was that he was such a jerk that they didn’t want to keep him for more than one season.
embarrassed father of over the hill Edgardo Renteria
Which of course is hilarious when you consider some of the other jerks in the clubhouse around that same time.
Some of those other jerks were much better players than AJ was as a Giant.
Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
Yeah but AJ gets a bad rap all the same. So what that he’s a prick? A lot of Giants players have been. It’s not AJ’s fault he was traded for Joe Nathan and it’s not AJ’s fault that Giants management blundered his arbitration process so badly that he got to walk away scott free when their intention of trading for him was to get an All-Star catcher entering his prime, which was a position that the Giants have failed to develop their own homegrown player at for decades. Not to mention at the time of the trade Pierzynski had post-season experience already and was a valued member and leader of a young emerging Minnesota team.
The thinking behind the trade wasn’t flawed, it just didn’t work out. And also when you look at who the Giants traded, AT the time, you would have looked like Merlin had you predicted Joe Nathan would become a fantastic closer, and that Francisco Liriano would provide the Twins with 3 1/2 months of pitching better than Johan Santana. Had the Giants kept AJ the trade would look a less bad than it ended up being as this trade started a series of events that blew up in their face. Luck was bound to change at some point though, as the previous 8 years were about as good as they get.
I don't thnk it was that outlandish to predict great things for Nathan.
There were health questions, but, in my admittedly young career as a baseball fan, his stuff was the best I’d seen from a Giants reliever not named Nen. I think the team suffered a huge overreaction to one bad postseason appearance.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
Joe Nathan, 2003 for the Giants:
12-4, 2.96 ERA, 79 IP, 9.46 K/9, 3.45 FIP…
by Missing Barry on Aug 17, 2009 7:01 PM PDT up reply actions
Because the Giants Brasz was all about FIP back in 2003. Or now.
Giants wins feel better than Dodger losses, but it's darn close.
by WhereThere'sAWillieThere'sAMays on Aug 18, 2009 12:21 PM PDT up reply actions
But look at the shiny ERA! It’s even shinier than the FIP! And that record, if that doesn’t show a winner I don’t know what will! That’s the greatest thing about those facts, no matter how you look at it, Nathan looks good.
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 1:22 PM PDT up reply actions
But how many guys have great stuff only to be horrible fits for the closer’s role? You really don’t know how they fare until they are placed in that situation. Nathan was and is the best piece we gave up in that trade. The Giants traded a talented relief arm for a good catcher in his mid 20s. They also traded an overweight pitching prospect with a live arm, and an injury prone talented LHP prospect.
The Giants won their gamble on whether Bonser or Liriano would ever amount to anything long-term, they lost on Nathan. They also lost even bigger because they let AJ walk after 1 year, which just caused them to have to find yet another solution at catcher, which was the whole intent of the trade in the first place. Making it even worse is the revolving door that followed at the closer position as well after Nen was unable to comeback from injuries and Worrell was gone.
Given the high frequency of turnover with relievers, I do think it would have been outlandish to think that Joe Nathan would be as good as Mariano Rivera for the time he’s been in Minnesota.
But how many guys have great stuff only to be horrible fits for the closer’s role?
Honestly, I don’t think the number is that high. There are boat loads of failed closers, of course, but most of them were simply mediocre or worse relievers who were forced into the role by circumstances and simply pitched down to their abilities. The number of legitimately good relievers who fail in the ninth inning has been vastly overestimated, IMO.
I do think it would have been outlandish to think that Joe Nathan would be as good as Mariano Rivera for the time he’s been in Minnesota.
Sure, but just because it might have been unreasonable to expect him to be the best reliever in baseball doesn’t mean it was unreasonable to expect him to be one of the best. As you yourself point out, the trade wasn’t necessarily bad in theory, in a vacuum, but it turned out poorly, and context (trading away the best arm in a bullpen that just lost its closer) compounded it.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
IIRC, Nathan was seen at the time as a failed starter/useful middle reliever. NOBODY expected “one of the best closers in baseball” to appear on his resume. Except the Twins, apparently, and I’ll bet even they didn’t expect this level of production and consistency.
Not to mention, while a shutdown closer is always nice to have, it’s been far from the Giants’ most pressing problem these last few years. How many save ops would he really have gotten?
This trade will never be pretty, but Liriano’s injury and Boof’s mediocrity (both concerns of the SF Brasz before the trade) have knocked it down in the ranks of Worst Trades Ever.
Giants wins feel better than Dodger losses, but it's darn close.
by WhereThere'sAWillieThere'sAMays on Aug 18, 2009 12:34 PM PDT up reply actions
I didn’t expect Nathan to be the best closer ever, but I definitely saw him as a potential future closer. Keep in mind, when we traded Nathan, Nen was done, Worrell was a free agent, and nobody took Felix Rodriguez seriously as a future closer anymore. I HATED the trade the second it was made, and I had a lot of reasons for doing so – the sorry state of our bullpen if Worrell didn’t re-sign being one of them.
Also, closer WAS a pressing need in 2004, the year after we traded Nathan. The Giants finished 2 games behind the Dodgers that year. Matt Herges, the closer for most of the year, blew something like 8 saves in 30 chances that year. Dustin Hermanson did better, but he blew a very important game in the stretch run which helped really kill us.
So how did we solve that problem? By giving a big fat contract to Armando Benitez.
/sobs
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Dustin Hermanson did better, but he blew a very important game in the stretch run which helped really kill us.
BECAUSE HE’D PITCHED LIKE 8 DAYS IN A ROW GOD DAMN IT FELIPE
/the last Dustin Hermanson defender
GROUGTHINK ALERT
The first Chester Arthur fanboy ever.
Bullpen help was a VERY pressing need in the 3-4 years following the Nathan trade. It was a huge factor in us not making the playoffs. A better bullpen means Dustan Mohr never breaks his ankle over a mound against the Padres while still making the catch so the winning run scores on a sac fly, the 161st game of the season against the Dodgers that we lose doesn’t matter because we already have a playoff spot clinched…(crying a litle inside)…
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 1:25 PM PDT up reply actions
I….uh…..wha….bluh….ruh….vuh…..kuh…….vuh!?
If you’re not being sarcastic and/or trolling, I’m kind of amazed you have enough brain cells for your heart to remember to beat, let alone to type on a keyboard.
Seriously, that’s the worst opinion I’ve ever heard. Not only that you think that it was a good trade, but that your justification is that he hit .272.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Pierzynski managed to put up a ridiculous 5.7% K% his one year on the Giants, and still only batted .272 with a .319 OBP. He was too busy hitting into double plays to be productive. Maybe some more strikeouts would have been a good thing…
I don’t know how someone can possibly justify Nathan + Bonser + Liriano for Pierzynski. Like, it never even occurred to me that someone would even try. Pierzynski is the definition of an average player, and we gave up the best closer in the game, a guy with tons of potential (Liriano, that he used for a year before getting hurt), and another prospect that turned into a useful back of the rotation guy. It also turned out that Pierzynski was even more of a douche than his reputation suggested, so much so that we would rather simply cut our costs and get rid of him than anything else. Talk about a cancer. My life is worse because AJ Pierzynski was on the Giants, and I have even’t met the guy.
by Missing Barry on Aug 17, 2009 9:09 AM PDT up reply actions
And the Twins needed to can him b/c of that C they had in the minors. He was suppose to be awesome but I think he is out of the league now
Minor White > Ansel Adams
by say hey nation on Aug 17, 2009 9:15 AM PDT up reply actions
And that's the other thing about that trade
Pierzynski was a player the Twins were motivated to trade and had no reason to keep. Whereas catcher wasn’t a particular position of need for the Giants, as Torrealba would’ve been pretty close to league average at the position. And yet Sabean still got taken to the cleaners.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
If only we tried to get that catcher instead of Pierzynski. :(
by Missing Barry on Aug 17, 2009 9:59 AM PDT up reply actions
Kevin Mitchell beheaded a girlfriend's cat and once kidnapped Dwight Gooden.
And he finished higher than Will Clark in 1986 ROY balloting. And in 1989 he was the NL MVP. I don’t give a Goddamn how much of a douche he is (ala Jeff Kent) as long as he does plays the fucking game. I don’t care if he’s a suck-ass player or fucking TY COBB! That is totally irrelevant in regard to what happens on the field.
A.J. brought his usual style of play to SBC and those hard grounders which skip to the Metrodome wall for 2Bs were choppers to the 2B at “SBC”.
SABEAN SHOULD HAVE FORSEEN THE OBVIOUSNESS OF IT!!!! He did not learn anything from Bob Quinn’s mis-acquisition of Kevin Bass the previous decade! As boneheaded as a strategist as Sabean always is, this at least resulted in a 91-71 ballclub.
There are several things wrong here
- This whole conversation started with you saying AJ was a GOOD trade. Now you seem to be arguing that it was a bad trade but that’s okay because the team did pretty well…Which is weird.
- Kevin Bass wasn’t signed by Bob Quinn. In fact, he was gone from the team before Bob Quinn became GM.
- It’s been a while, but wasn’t the biggest problem with Kevin Bass’s Giants tenure injury-related?
- Jeff Kent is a bad example because his dumbassery cost the Giants on the field in a measurable way (truck washing incident).
- Ty Cobb is also probably a bad example because he did things like stab people and jump into the stands to beat up fans.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
And now I'll get really pedantic just for the hell of it
Kevin Bass was technically signed in 1989, which isn’t the decade previous to the Pierzynski trade.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
I wrote that it was one of Sabean's "better trades"
And if you go back and read the post I wrote that it was because neither side got gypped. Sabean gave up guys who would become All-Stars for a guy who had been an All-Star (and would be an All-Star again for Chicago).
My apologies to Al Rosen and Bob Quinn for not changing their names around.
Jeff Kent is a terrific example of a clubhouse jerk who’s great when he’s actually playing.
Ty Cobb is a GREAT example of the kind of bastard the Hall-of-Fame can’t do without.
lulz @ All-Star again for ChiSox
He only got on as the last member of the team, and only because they built a campaign around him getting punched in the face. In other words, because he’s a douchebag he got voted in.
"Mr. Douchebag" with a WS ring, you mean!
If nice guys finish last, gimme 40 douchebags who’ll go 122-40.
For a team to be that good, it will need better players than AJ Pierzysnki. He just isn’t all that good.
by Missing Barry on Aug 17, 2009 7:48 PM PDT up reply actions
You are aware that there are other stats besides batting average, right?
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
AJ has 35 RBI and Pudge has 34 RBI.
AJ has 116 hits and Pudge has 82 hits.
AJ has 46 runs and Pudge has 41 runs.
AJ has 16 2B and Pudge has 15 2B.
AJ has 13 HR and Pudge has 8 HR.
Pudge is better in 2 categories this year. He’s up 2-1 in steals and 3-2 in 3B.
1) The stats you’re citing are, by and large, pretty lousy stats
2) Rodriguez isn’t very good anymore.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
There’s children on the street using guns and knives
Taking drugs and each other’s lives
Killing each other with knives and forks
And calling each other names like dork
HA HA HA LOOK AT ME I'M ALL HAPPY AND STUFF NO REALLY CAN WE STOP WITH THE COOKYMAN IS SAD JOKES?
:-) :-) :-)
I make a meal for my friends
Try to make it delicious
Try to keep it nutritious
Create wonderful dishes
Not one of them thinks about the way I feel
Nobody compliments the meal
I got hurt feelings, I got hurt feelings
I feel like a prize asshole
No one even mentions my casserole
I got hurt feelings, I got hurt feelings
You could’ve said something nice about my profiteroles
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Will somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees?
Duane Kuiper: Hall Of Fame broadcaster.
by Johnny Disaster on Aug 19, 2009 8:57 AM PDT up reply actions
He has been good this year, surprisingly enough. Given that he’s a 32 year old catcher (a few months away from 33), I’m going with…fluke. At this point it’s irrelevant, though, because the Giants didn’t have his rights this long and he would have hit FA anyways. You’re a pretty terrible case of cherry picking stats, by the way. I could just as easily tell you he batted .263 two years ago when he was 30. So what? The bottom line is if you look at his production since he left the Twins, he’s been an average player. Nothing more.
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 7:38 AM PDT up reply actions
Everybody is a worse hitter outside the Metrodome!
If you put Benge Molina in that banbox he’d have 30 homers by now.
AJ's a good offensive catcher, just no HOFer.
If he’d stayed in Minnesota he wouldn’t be Maurer, but he’d have numbers much better than in Chicago.
Park Effects: US Cellular vs. Metrodome
2009:
Metrodome: 1.173
US Cellular: 1.014
2008:
Metrodome: 0.887
US Cellular: 1.122
2007:
Metrodome: 1.084
US Cellular: 0.867
2006:
Metrodome: 0.963
US Cellular: 1.054
2005:
Metrodome: 1.021
US Cellular: 1.050
2004:
Metrodome: 1.045
US Cellular: 1.139
2003:
Metrodome: 1.076
US Cellular: 0.971
2002:
Metrodome: 1.345
US Cellular: 1.057
2001:
Metrodome: 1.020
US Cellular: 1.058
In the last nine years, the Metrodome has played as a better hitters park than US Cellular Field twice.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Doesn't take into account personnel differences.
A home player accustomed to the Metrodome will develop one of two ways — hit deep flies or hit sharp grounders. Also the Metrodome is notorious for airconditioning malpractice — they turn it up when the Twins hit so the ball carries farther. The base of the outfield wall is at a lower elevation than the infield and simple grounders can roll right down that incline. Visiting batters don’t make the adjustments because they don’t want to mess with their normal swings.
Frankly, you have a lot of theories, and I doubt you could prove there’s even a chance a single one of them actually exists and effects the game in any meaningful way…
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 8:11 PM PDT up reply actions
How do you figure? My argument used WAR, which offensively is based on wOBA, which is park adjusted. He’s an average offensive catcher, and I have yet to see an argument against that (this year he has been above average, I acknolwedge that much).
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 2:45 PM PDT up reply actions
The only stats this guy has cited in the whole thread a BA, RBIs, Runs, Home Runs, and Doubles. I’m going to go out on a limb and saying that WAR and wOBA aren’t part of his vocabulary.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Irrelevant.
Over-calculated nerd-ass bullshit stats.
Wins Above Replacement?
Those are bullshit stats that an agent will take into arbitration, but players will scoff at. Ty Cobb would probably break your glasses using one finger.
Bet on a horse, Poindexter!
Jeff Francoeur? Is that you?
Meet my new son: Sundrendy Windster, on the Curacao-SF express (via Arizona).
And why can’t you win an award for stats that actually somewhat accurately reflect a players contributions and talents? Oh yeah, because most writers understand statistics at a 3rd grade level, kind of like someone else in this conversation…
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 8:13 PM PDT up reply actions
LOL TROLL
Extremely proud adoptive parent of Paul E. Stanley, deserved all-star and hacker extraordinaire
Thanks to roger
I've never been happier to have Crabs
Really?
Go read up about Brian Bannister. Using some of these “scoff-worthy” stats, he’s changed what he throws to get more GBs, and decrease his FIP (another scoff-worthy stat), and you know what? His ERA is way down this year compared to his career.
Ooh. ERA. I bet even you’ve heard of that one.
“Those are bullshit stats that an agent will take into arbitration”
Um, no, baseball is still in the stone age and uses stupid stats for arbitration that don’t even begin to accurately reflect a players abilities.
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 8:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Some other players with World Series rings
- Rafael Belliard
- Lance Blankenship
- Bruce Bochy
- Alfredo Griffin
Some players without World Series rings:
- Ernie Banks
- Barry Bonds
- Mike Piazza
- Ted Williams
Having a World Series ring doesn’t have any particular bearing on whether or not you’re a good player.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
But they play to WIN!!!
There’s no parade for hitting 500 homers or 3000 hits. And Ted Williams once requested a 25% pay CUT for hitting below .300 so it’s not entirely about monetary greed. There’s not an athlete in the world who’d throw back a World Championship season because he was below his usual standards during the pursuit of it.
By, the way, how could you leave good ol’ Pedro Feliz off of your winning losers list?
I wrote that it was one of Sabean’s “better trades”
I stopped being a Sabean defender circa 2003, but he’s made a lot of trades that were much, much better than the Pierzynski deal, even if we accept your frankly bizarre analysis of that deal.
For example:
1) Jason Schmidt for Ryan Vogelson and Armando Rios
2) Marcus Jensen for Brian Johnson
3) Joe Fontenot, Mike Pageler, and Mike Villano for Robb Nen
4) Darryl Hamilton et al for Ellis Burks
5) Desi Relaford for David Bell
6) Yorvit Torrealba and Jesse Foppert for Randy Winn (admittedly, I hated this one at the time)
7) Matt Morris for Rajai Davis (this one really only counts as good because the Pirates took all of Morris’s salary)
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Who’d he trade for Joe Carter?
Also, Grilli and whoever for Livan was better.
Also, every deal he’s made was better than that one.
GROUGTHINK ALERT
The first Chester Arthur fanboy ever.
Joe Carter was traded for a minor league pitcher named Darin Blood. I actually thought of mentioning that one, but a lot of people hated that trade at the time. Same with the J.T. Snow deal.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
People hated the JT Snow trade? That was a friggin steal if you ask me.
Supporting San Francisco Dugout since 2005 and Manny Burriss since 2006. Bringing you all your California League and New York-Penn League needs since 2009.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Aug 18, 2009 12:19 PM PDT up reply actions
He was coming off a really awful year, when he was the worst hitting first baseman in the AL as I recall. And he’d only had one season where he had an OPS over .750.
I was cautiously optimistic at the time, but a lot of people were screaming for Sabean’s blood and some thought it was an even worse deal than the Kent trade (heh).
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Completely undermined by Reed-Mesa trade.
If he had stuck with Reed and skipped on Blood-Carter, the Giants would have had the 1998 Wildcard by two games at least.
The Reed-Mesa trade was indeed awful. I just mentioned how much I hated that trade the other day.
I don’t see what bearing that has on the Carter trade, though. It’s not like getting one deal done hinged on the completion of the other.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Something detrimental, by definition is not "GOOD".
Sabean made good “ACQUSITIONS” by trading players, meaning they were good “additions” to his team, but if the other team gets dogshit in return, the trade was not “good” for them, and therefore not a “good” trade by definition.
Did you take English comprehension pass/fail and not pass?
You seem to think we care what happens to the other team for some reason. All we care about is if the Giants get more than they give. If the Giants receive more value than they give, it is a good trade.
by Missing Barry on Aug 18, 2009 2:46 PM PDT up reply actions
So, you’re not very smart, are you?
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Calling you stupid because you consistently say stupid things = illiteracy.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/say
2. to express in words; state; declare; word: Say it clearly and simply. It’s hard to know how to say this tactfully.
7. to express (a message, viewpoint, etc.), as through a literary or other artistic medium: a writer with something to say.
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Neither was relevant to your usage of the word.
Definition #2 is only valid in a spoken verbal context.
Definition #7 is only valid if there is validity to the contextual connotation of your original usage — and there is not. Your usage is actually oxymoronic on the face of it.
#7 is questionable at best, yes
We can argue over whether or blog posts count as “a literary or other artistic medium,” but it still doesn’t really work.
For #2, though – “only valid in a spoken verbal context?” First of all, “spoken verbal” is kind of redundant. “Spoken” would suffice. Second, says who? That’s not anywhere to be found in the definition; you just made it up.
Regardless of the official dictionary definition, the informal use of “say” to refer to written communication on the Internet is so well-established it’s ridiculous to even discuss it. I might just as well criticize your ramblings about “stat-nerd pussies.” While I may well be a nerd, I am not a cat.
In any case, your trolling today has made me laugh a great deal. Brava!
Brian Sabean wants to kick tires. I want to kick Brian Sabean.
Adopted Giant: Fred "OBP and UZR, Dammit!" Lewis
Or a vagina.
HA HA HA LOOK AT ME I'M ALL HAPPY AND STUFF NO REALLY CAN WE STOP WITH THE COOKYMAN IS SAD JOKES?
:-) :-) :-)
Only when being analyzed by a nonbiased party.
I R 5
by say hey nation on Aug 18, 2009 1:50 PM PDT up reply actions
The dumb is strong in this one
Actually, this was one of Sabean’s better trades.
Sabes just screwed it up by acquiring a dude he knew he couldn’t afford to keep more than one season.
a bad GM miscalculation to think he’d hit .300 under such circumstances.
HELP I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO THINK NOW
As I put earlier nobody got screwed in that trade.
The Giants got a former All-Star (who would again be an All-Star) and the Twins got future All-Stars. Most Sabean trades seem to be Ainsworth for Ponson debacles.
What do AJ and Russell Martin have in common?
They can both suck it! Hopefully until they both have stomach aches.
by MoreroidsforZito on Aug 17, 2009 4:34 PM PDT up reply actions
AJ Pierzynski has been an average player every year since the Giants acquired him. You know what kind of performance you get from an average player? About 2 WAR. In the last 6 years, AJ has been over 2.0 WAR exactly twice, at 2.4 and 2.5. AJ being an All-star is about as misleading as Shane Victorino, 2009 All-star.
by Missing Barry on Aug 17, 2009 7:04 PM PDT up reply actions
I've begun to realize something.
Whenever you hear a player descirbed as “Allstar” or “Former Allstar”, the team who received him will probably end up losing the trade. If that’s the best thing you can say about a player, he probably hasn’t lived up to the title of allstar.
VAE PVTO DEVS FIO
Freddy Sanchez, ladies and gentlemen!
THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME (for 3 days in 1995).
by Mike Benjamin Hit King on Aug 19, 2009 12:12 AM PDT up reply actions
AJ History
My buddy Joe Dirt grabbed AJ’s only splash HR hit which was on July 6th 2004. I believe it was AJ’s 32nd career HR and he hit is off Colorado pitcher Denny Stark
This should have been deleted just off the title. I refuse to read. REFUSE!
El Presidente Larry Baer's epitaph
"Nothing important ever happened without me."
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Keeping good company: Albert Pujols becomes fourth-youngest player to hit 450 home runs
- Giancarlo Stanton misses cutoff man, and Logan Morrison is thankful he did (Video)
- Snoop Dogg delivers memorable first pitch at U.S. Cellular Field
- The Juice: Mesoraco’s grand slam helps Reds complete four-game sweep of Braves
- Please hold: Indians’ Joe Smith jumps the gun on relief appearance
