Rumors for Atlanta Braves
Should Billy Beane take a shot with Gregor Blanco and Luis Jimenez?
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Billy Beane, the A’s General Manager, has been praised for building competitive teams by taking advantage of “market inefficiencies.” This means that he signs inexpensive players, that almost no other organization wants or would consider, because they overlook important statistics like OBP (on-base percentage), and give way too much importance to stats that aren’t that important like RBI’s (runs batted in).
He’s been known to sign players like Scott Hatteberg and Jeremy Giambi among others for their ability to wear down pitchers and get on-base. For him, the ultimate offensive statistic is the OBP.
The A’s are not getting positive results, and other teams like the Red Sox have adopted a similar approach to building a team, making it harder for the A’s to get cheap, but productive players. So why doesn’t Beane gives Gregor Blanco and Luis Jimenez a shot to make the team?
You might think that I’ve gone crazy, and yes, I have gone crazy, but in situations like this one, you have to think outside the box. Maybe you guys are not familiar with these two young players, but I’m going to tell you why I think they could work up in Oakland. It would be a low risk investment that would cost the team only a Minor League deal.
First there’s Blanco. A 28-year old center fielder with an incredible talent for wearing down pitchers and a keen eye for drawing walks. In three Major League seasons his career OBP is .358, or .100 points above his career batting average. I believe this numbers can still go up. In 2010 he played 36 games with the Braves where he hit .310/.394/.362. He was then traded to the Royals and in 66 games hit .274/.348/.369. In 237 AB’s in 2010 between the two teams he walked 29 times and struck out 50. Nothing impressive, but I’m sure he can improve.
This winter in Venezuela, Blanco hit .337/.478/.520 with 4 HR’s, 14 2B and 5 3B in 196 AB’s. He also walked 47 times and struck out 46. Impressive numbers that earned him the MVP award in the Venezuelan Winter League this year. In the semi-finals, Blanco kept his torrid offensive output up hitting .347/.484/.714 with 5 HR’s, 1 2B and 1 3B in 49 AB’s. He also has walked 13 times and struck out 11. Now tell me why doesn’t Beane gives him a Minor League deal with a ST invitation to see if he can makes the team? After all the kid fits perfectly in the OBP-driven offensive/cheap player category.
Jimenez is another case study. He has incredible power and is a left handed hitter. The other day, he hit two 450+ ft home runs in the same game in Venezuela. And one of them was well beyond the 500 ft mark. The ball left the stadium, and was apparently the longest hit in the “Estadio Universitario” (Caracas, Venezuela) history. In 10 Minor League seasons Jimenez has a hitting line of .284/.367/.468 with 121 HR’s in 2,876 AB’s. This year in Venezuela, Jimenez hit .300/.417/.486 with 10 home runs in 220 AB’s. He also walked 44 times and struck out 47.
For Beane and the A’s, these two players are not going to be pricey. Just a couple of Minor League deals with invitations to Spring Training. I think they will prove their value to a team that is always looking for bargains.
Image by J. Chris Vaughan under the Creative Commons License.
Indian sign Julio Lugo
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The Cleveland Indians have signed Julio Lugo to a minor deal with an invite to Spring Training, Dionisio Soldevila of the AP reports.
Last season with the Braves, Lugo hit .136 avg in 136 plate appearances.
In 2005, Lugo posted a career year with the Rays where he hit .295 in 616 plate appearances while posting a .362 OBP. That year he made $3.15mm.
Image taken by Keith Allison and used under the Creative Common License Agreement.
Braves sign Jack Wilson
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The Atlanta Braves have signed Jack Wilson to a one-year deal worth $1mm, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports. The deal also includes an extra $500k in performance bonuses.
Wilson will be the primary backup middle infielder for the Braves.
In 2011, Wilson hit .243 for while splitting time with the Mariners and Braves.
Image taken by Keith Allison and used under the Creative Common License Agreement.
PRO Rumors Android app version 1.0 is available
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Hello PRO Rumors fans,
We are proud to announce that our PRO Rumors Android app version 1.0 is available on the Android Market. We spent a lot of time on the app’s design and functionality, and we are sure that you’ll love it. To download the app for an introductory price of $2.99 you can click here.
Here are a few features:
– Push Notifications to get the latest news and rumors for your favorite MLB team
– Pulse-like view of articles – it’s beautiful
– Real-time scoreboard
– Real-time box scores of in-game action
We’re working hard to add more features, so if you have any questions or feature requests, please send an email to support@prorumors.com. We promise to write you back.
Allan
Teams in on Theriot and Millwood
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Here are a few Holiday rumors from Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com:
– The Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets are looking at Ryan Theriot. (Twitter)
– The Seattle Mariners have interest in Kevin Millwood. (Twitter)
Image by terren in Virginia under the Creative Commons License.
Happy Holidays from the PRO Rumors team
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From all of us at PRO Rumors, we’d like to wish you all a Happy Holidays! We hope that all of your holiday wishes (and your baseball wishes) have come true!
Pirates sign Nate McLouth to one-year deal
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The Pirates have signed Nate McLouth to a one-year deal $1.75mm, Ken Rosethenal of FOXSports reports. The deal is pending a physical.
The Braves turned down McLouth’s $10.65mm option for 2012 thus opening the door for him to return to the team he spent the previous five seasons with.
In 267 at-bats in 2011, McLouth hit .228 with 61 total hits.
Image taken by raisethejollyroger dot com and used under the Creative Commons License agreement.
PRO Rumors financial efficiency report- Introduction
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We at PRO Rumors have decided to give you a new feature called the “financial efficiency report.” If you have read the book “Moneyball” you would have an idea of what are we trying to do here. If you haven’t read it,then put it on your Christmas list. Here is an explanation of what the financial efficiency report will be all about.
In the book’s preface, the author quotes work done by a Manhattan lawyer named Doug Pappas. Pappas, says that a team with only minimum wage players, both on the Major League roster and the rest of the 40-man, would still probably win 49 out of the 162 games played.
In 2011, the minimum wage for a player on the 25-man roster was $414,500. The minimum wage for a player on the 40-man roster, with at least one day of MLB service time or had been on the 40-man roster for a year was $67,300.
The minimum that a team could spend on their 40-man roster in 2011 was: $11,397,000. That’s $10,387,500 for their 25-man roster and $1,009,500 for the rest of their 40-man roster. If a team could get approximately 49 wins with a $11,397,000 payroll, that means that if you divide the total wins a team got above their 49th win by the total dollars they paid over the minimum, you get the “price” each team paid for each win they got.
After this brief introduction of the “marginal win” formula, I’m going to say what this report is all about. I’m going to analyze the “price” for each win a team got in 2011 so we can determine which teams were the most cost effective. Besides that, I’m going to list the top 5 paid players on each team and give you their performance line, to see how much they actually contributed to their team.
I’ll also list each team’s OBP, runs and SLG totals so we can see for ourselves how related these stats are at the moment of scoring runs and winning games. So get ready to experience a thoughtful analysis of every 2011 Major league team.
The team’s payroll was taken from USA Today and the individuals salaries from About.com.
Image by dherrera_96 Under the Creative Commons License.
Mets, Dodgers and Braves among teams interested in Jack Wilson
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At least half a dozen teams which include the Mets, Dodgers and Braves are interested in veteran short stop Jack Wilson according to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.
Wilson began the 2011 season with the Seattle Mariners, but was then traded to the Braves on August 31. In 214 AB’s with the Mariners and Braves in 2011 Wilson hit .243/.274/.285 with 11 RBI’s.
Rockies express interest in Jonny Gomes
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The Colorado Rockies have expressed interest in outfielder Jonny Gomes, Troy E. Renck of The Denver Post reports. The team previously made an attempt at signing Grady Sizemore before he entered serious discussions with the Cleveland Indians.
The team is in search of a platoon-mate for outfielder Seth Smith and Renck says that the club’s pursuit of Gomes is tied to Smith’s future. Renck adds, “Colorado has offered Smith to the Braves for [Martin] Prado and will be creative in trying to get a deal done, though it is reluctant to include a center fielder.”
Image by cliff1066™ under a Creative Commons License.
