Daily Archives: May 30, 2003

GOOD NIGHT SWEET PRINCE

More from Lee:

Baseball Prospectus’s Will Carroll has just informed me that David Cone has scheduled a press conference for this afternoon, to announce his retirement.

With John Franco being activated, I guess Cone thought this would be the right time to step away. I’m sure he’ll give a hell of a press conference later today—honest and heartfelt.

Roger Angell has another chapter to write. I just wonder if George will take Cone back this year, or if he’ll make him wait til’ next year.

SHEA HEY

Lee Sinins thinks that the Red Sox made a great move dealing Mr. Hillenbrand for Mr. Kim. Here is his take:

This is an excellent trade for the Redsox.

After 2.94 ERA/18 RSAA and 2.04 ERA/23 RSAA seasons as a reliever, Kim’s off to a 3.56 ERA/9 RSAA start in his first 7 starts. He has a 3.26 career
ERA, compared to his league average of 4.37, and 52 RSAA in 243 games.

After starting his career with -20 RCAA/.682 OPS and 5 RCAA/.789 OPS seasons, Hillenbrand’s off to a .443 SLG, .335 OBA, .778 OPS, 0 RCAA start
in his first 49 games.

Despite fooling people into thinking he’s a good hitter due to his .293 AVG in 2002 and .303 in 2003, Hillenbrand is bad at getting on base. His OBA ranks among the top 10 worst figures in the AL since he’s come into the majors in 2001.

…Hillenbrand does represent an improvement over Matt Williams. After having a negative RCAA 5 times in the past 6 years, Williams is off to a .391 SLG, .323 OBA, .714 OPS, -8 RCAA start in his first 43 games. And while Hillenbrand is a fraud when it comes to being labeled as a good player, at least he’s a league average one–so long as he’s able to keep his AVG high (the moment that goes down, his value plummets). But, instead of trading an asset like Kim for someone like Hillenbrand, the Diamondbacks screwed up in figuring out how to revive their bad offense.

…Meanwhile, Kevin Youkilis [“the Greek God of Walks”], the Redsox probable 3B of the future, has a .460
OBA down in AA (and no, that’s not a typo).

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

When I’m not watching baseball—or reading about it, or talking about it, I spend most of my leisure time cooking food and buying records (that is, when I’m not chillin with my beautiful goilfriend, Emily). Even when I’m watching a game, I am likely to have my head in a Marcella Hazan cookbook, while listening to the latest release from Stones Throw records. I also am known to listen to the comedy stylings of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Cos, Albert Brooks, or Steve Martin when I fall asleep at night.

On that random note, the great Jazz critic, Nat Hentoff had a piece on Lenny Bruce yesterday, and there is a fun article on Patti LaBelle in the Cooking section of the Times this week that is also worth reading—not to mention a review of fine Philly cuisine (how is that for diversity?).

Pass the hot sauce, baby.

Let’s hope the Yanks can have a little feast of their own in the Motor City over the weekend. I’m excited to see what Jose Contreras will give the Bombers tonight, though I’m not certain that he’ll be great, even against the lowly Tigers.

Oh yeah, and not for nuthing, but my favorite blog entry of the week comes from John Bonnes, who wrote a very touching article yesterday. Just goes to show you, the quality of writing that people like John, Ed Cossette, Christian Ruzich, Jon Wiesman, Jay Jaffe and countless others bring to their blogs goes well beyond the game of baseball.

NERDSVILLE

Tom Boswell weighs in on Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball.” Homeboy even snagged my “Revenge of the Nerds” line. Needless to say, he loves the book:

Pretty soon, thanks to “Moneyball,” the whole sport will catch up to the curve – the learning curve, that is. And it’s about time

Dr. Manhattan also wrote a terrific review of the book that is well worth reading.

The New York Times Book Review section last Sunday was devoted to the recent crop of baseball books. Check it out.

SHEA, WE HARDLY KNEW YE

After months of speculation, the Red Sox finally traded third baseman Shea Hillenbrand, who simply did not fit into Boston’s high-on base percentage offensive philosophy. Hillenbrand goes to the Arizona Diamondbacks for the versatile pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim. While the move won’t inspire fear in Yankee fans, we shouldn’t be so quick to lick our chops; this is a solid move, as Kim is a proven closer, and a decent starting pitcher as well. He is also only 24 years old. Anytime you can move a decent starting player for a good pitcher, you do it, right?

According to Gordon Edes:

Epstein deserves credit for being able to get what he did in this deal. Rookie Freddy Sanchez, who has had an outstanding spring in Triple A, can spell Todd Walker at second, and Bill Mueller’s other-worldly slugging has earned him the right to play every day at third. David Ortiz and Kevin Millar will platoon at first, and if Jeremy Giambi doesn’t start hitting, the Sox will add another bat.

”I think the Sox did well,” the NL scout said. ”The team is in the place in the standings where they want to be, and if I’m in your place, I’d do the same thing.”

Ed Cossette likes the sound of Mr. Kim too.