Saturday, December 11, 2004
No Ohka!? It's all over but the vote and 4th place finish
I've been pretty bad lately at keeping up with the Washington papers lately. Sorry, I don't live in your stagnant swamp (Lisa Simpson's words, not mine. I like DC. But you should hear what I have to say about New Orleans.)
The Times reports that things look bleak for stadium opponents. No surprise there. This thing is a massive stone rolling down hill and opposition has been too small to hold it back. The swing vote opposition has always been weak. You have your hopes, but in the end MLB is going to completely swindle DC to give up everything for a shiny package. I will admit - it's damn shiny and I'm a little jealous.
Reinsdorf's son could benefit, reports the Times. I think Fenty is a bit hard on him. Come on, do you expect to work with lovable, cuddly businessmen?
Everyone thinks we won't get Perez (here and here) which I've been telling everyone here on exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com for week (yes, week). Bowden thinks he might finagle more money by not offering arbitration to Ohka and Armas (a savings of about 4.5 mill for next year). Perez is good but then that's it in terms of signings and we'll have a rotation of Hernandez, Perez, Patterson, Rauch, and...Day/Everts? One injury and we're screwed and Perez is only marginally better pitcher than either of these two (though marginally better + consistently healthier is a plus I admit. We'd be as likely to be in this same position next year with both guys on the roster)
Vargas would pitch then. None of you people followed the team last year but that's a scary prospect. Ahhh I can't argue too hard against Bowden's thinking here. Though I will if the thinks getting Loaiza is a good deal.
Wells is getting more than I thought. Though mostly in incentives, we couldn't have matched that. This free agent pitching market is insane. In hindsight I would have offered Clement 4 years at 7 per to start, or Wells two at 5 mill per. It looks like these would have been at least condsidered it and in this market - those are real bargains. Of course that's hindsight. Can't blame Bowden for not seeing this explosion. It's caught everyone offgaurd
There's about 6 mill left in the budget, they say. Given the contracts given out/traded for we started free agency with that's about 2.5+3+4.2+6= 15.7 mill. Say 16 million to start out with. That's not too much. Two good players tops. 20 million if you let Ohka and Armas go. If he could somehow find another mill that could get us 3 7 million dollar players... That actually would have been best. But we'll evalaute post all the signings. We're still in the middle of things.
The Times reports that things look bleak for stadium opponents. No surprise there. This thing is a massive stone rolling down hill and opposition has been too small to hold it back. The swing vote opposition has always been weak. You have your hopes, but in the end MLB is going to completely swindle DC to give up everything for a shiny package. I will admit - it's damn shiny and I'm a little jealous.
Reinsdorf's son could benefit, reports the Times. I think Fenty is a bit hard on him. Come on, do you expect to work with lovable, cuddly businessmen?
Everyone thinks we won't get Perez (here and here) which I've been telling everyone here on exposbaseball DOT blogspot DOT com for week (yes, week). Bowden thinks he might finagle more money by not offering arbitration to Ohka and Armas (a savings of about 4.5 mill for next year). Perez is good but then that's it in terms of signings and we'll have a rotation of Hernandez, Perez, Patterson, Rauch, and...Day/Everts? One injury and we're screwed and Perez is only marginally better pitcher than either of these two (though marginally better + consistently healthier is a plus I admit. We'd be as likely to be in this same position next year with both guys on the roster)
Vargas would pitch then. None of you people followed the team last year but that's a scary prospect. Ahhh I can't argue too hard against Bowden's thinking here. Though I will if the thinks getting Loaiza is a good deal.
Wells is getting more than I thought. Though mostly in incentives, we couldn't have matched that. This free agent pitching market is insane. In hindsight I would have offered Clement 4 years at 7 per to start, or Wells two at 5 mill per. It looks like these would have been at least condsidered it and in this market - those are real bargains. Of course that's hindsight. Can't blame Bowden for not seeing this explosion. It's caught everyone offgaurd
There's about 6 mill left in the budget, they say. Given the contracts given out/traded for we started free agency with that's about 2.5+3+4.2+6= 15.7 mill. Say 16 million to start out with. That's not too much. Two good players tops. 20 million if you let Ohka and Armas go. If he could somehow find another mill that could get us 3 7 million dollar players... That actually would have been best. But we'll evalaute post all the signings. We're still in the middle of things.
