What Should Curtis Granderson Do and a word on Phil Hughes

I had a customer last night tell me that I was "Out of my mind" in talking about what Curtis Granderson should do during the upcoming offseason. I find that telling that to someone who you are having a conversation with is simply a form of dismissing their point of view without giving them a real chance to express their opinion. Its really not the way to have a discussion. I felt that history worked in my favor in what I felt Granderson should do.

As we know, Granderson has had an injury plagued campaign in his 2013 season. First a broken hand and then a broken pinky has caused him to miss a significant amount of time during his walk season. Where Granderson could have seen himself signing a multi-year deal at over $15 million a year, his limited play this year could have limited the bonanza he could have gained in a non-injured season. Consider that Granderson made $15 million this season and keeping in mind the free agency rules dictate that if a team wants to receive a compensation pick for losing a potential free agent, they must offer a qualifying offer to their free agent to be.

To clarify what I mean about a qualifying offer I'm going to post an explanation from the article As expected, new rules impact free-agent market by Matthew Leach dated February 12, 2013 from MLB.com:

Under the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the structure has changed. The old Type A and Type B designations are gone. When a player reaches free agency, his former team may make him what is known as a qualifying offer, worth the average amount of the previous season's top 125 salaries -- $13.3 million this offseason.

If the player accepts the offer, again he is considered to be signed to a contract for the next season. If he declines, the team that signs him gives up a Draft pick, while the team losing the player gains one -- though not the same pick.

The signing team gives up a first-round selection, unless it possesses one of the first 10 selections. In that case, the team gives up its next selection after that. The team losing the player, meanwhile, gains a sandwich pick at the end of the first round. This applies as long as the player signs before the start of the next Draft.

I would believe that the amount for the qualifying offer for this year's free agents is higher than last season's $13.3 million dollars, probably even closer to the $15 million dollar mark that Granderson made this season. Given that, here is what I suggested that I was told I was "out of my mind" about.

I said that Curtis Granderson should take the qualifying offer the Yankees are sure to make. In doing so, he would be signed to a one year deal for 2014 near or around the $15 million mark and gives himself an opportunity to have the kind of offensive season that he would like to have going into a walk season than the one he is having now.  While the customer stated that he didn't believe that Granderson would be offered anything more than $10 million a year and that he would be stupid to not take a secure deal in the range of three years $30 million dollars. My point was (though I wasn't able to present it since I did have other customers to serve drinks to) you only needed to look at the example of Granderson's teammate Alfonso Soriano.

When Soriano's contract with the Rangers expired after the 2005 season the offers for a long term deal that Soriano wanted just weren't there for the taking. He signed a one year deal with the Washington Nationals and put up a slash line of .277/.351/.560 with 46 homers and 95 RBI which was an improvement from .268/.309/.512 with 36 homers and 104 RBI the season before. The next offseason, Soriano signed an eight year $161-million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

The only difference between Soriano and Granderson is that Granderson is only one year older than where Soriano was when he decided to sign with the Nationals. My point is why settle for a lesser long term deal when Granderson can redeem himself in one season and bang out a bigger deal afterwards since he will be 32 years old.

On a side note, we also spoke about Yankees starter Phil Hughes. The customer places the full blame on his season squarely on Hughes' shoulders. I felt somewhat differently. Hughes has not helped his cause with his performance this season but my point to him was that a pitcher doesn't do it all alone (I guess the sabermetricians are rubbing off on me after all). The offense is to somewhat to blame since the team has not backed him up with runs in games where he pitched.

Consider this, the Yankees have been shutout twice in starts by Hughes. They lost 6-0 to the Dodgers where Hughes gave up five runs in six innings and 2-0 to the Rangers where he gave up two runs in eight innings. They have also been held to one run four times (2-1 1 run allowed, 11-1 5 runs allowed, 5-1 2 runs allowed, 4-1 4 runs allowed) and two runs four times (12-2 7 runs allowed, 3-2 2 runs allowed, 5-2 3 runs allowed). That's 10 of 22 starts of two runs scored or less in his behalf. The team has only scored five or more runs in five starts made by Hughes which were all games won by the Yankees (3 wins for Hughes).

The run support has not been there whether he had a mediocre or a great game. Granted, Hughes didn't pitch like Mike Harvey or Clayton Kershaw in those starts but the offense didn't back him up either.

I believe that Phil Hughes would greatly benefit from a new start with another team like San Diego, Houston or even Pittsburgh maybe even becoming a number two pitcher on those staffs to which I was also told that I was wrong and out of my mind for thinking that. So goes the life of a bartender in NYC. Oh well.

Any suggestions? Agree? Disagree?

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Curtis Granderson's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Alfonso Soriano's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Phil Hughes's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com

Alfonso Soriano Has 2000 Worldwide Hits

Suzyn Waldman made it known during the Yankees post game show that the Japanese media was surrounding Alfonso Soriano. When she approached Ichiro Suzuki, she was told that Soriano with his 2-3 performance today places him at 1,999 hits in the MLB. In addition, Soriano had two hits during his brief stint in Japan which has him at 2,001 hits. Why is this important?

In order to be eligible for the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame a player must start his Professional career in Japan AND must have a total of 2,000 hits (including hits in MLB). So Alfonso Soriano is now eligible to be inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

In case you didn't know, Soriano started his career with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the NPB Central League. He played the 1996 season with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's farm team and was promoted to the main team where he went 2-17 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, 4 Ks and 2 walks. In a move similar to Hideo Nomo's, Soriano hired agent Don Nomura to negotiate his free agency from Japan. He retired in Japan exploiting the "voluntary retirement" loophole as Nomo did a year earlier and signed a contract with the New York Yankees in 1998 against the protests of the NPB. This, Nomo's departure and the situation with Hideki Irabu would lead the NPB to enact the posting system that is in place between the MLB and the NPB.

Two interesting articles that go deeper into this are Robert Whiting's Irabu's impact on MLB-NPB relations profound (Oct 16, 2011) and Contract loophole opened door for Nomo's jump (Oct 10, 2010)

Congratulations to Alfonso Soriano on his international achievement. As with his return to the New York Yankees this season, he might be able to go home again this time to Japan if he is ever inducted into their Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sisco Kid

Things Are About To Come Full Circle For Alfonso Soriano

Rumors are stating that the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs are close to a trade that would bring back Alfonso Soriano to the Bronx. Now whether or not this is a good move for the Yankees is not the point for this post. What I want to look at is how this move closes the circle on the February 16, 2004 traded that sent Soriano and Joaquin Arias to the Texas Rangers for Alex Rodriguez. Why is Soriano's return closing the circle?

It would seem that with Ryan Braun's suspension yesterday due to his involvement in the Biogenesis PED investigation it is almost a matter of time that Alex Rodriguez gets his due in the form of a suspension (or even worse for him a ban) from Baseball. Nine years removed from that trade we can potentially see a lineup that includes Soriano but no Rodriguez. It really is funny how things like this work in Baseball.

My friend Melvin asked me why the Yankees keep trading for half-ass players. Here was my response:

I'm not totally sure. I think they need to reassure the fan base that they are doing something to salvage the season. Plus they aren't willing to trade for an expensive piece in terms of giving up top tier prospects. Soriano is a salary dump for the Cubs. They'll take something minimal from the Yankees to be rid of him.

My friend Steven added another important layer to my comment by stating that some fans need a "name" and the illusion that the team is adding offense.

Whether or not Soriano can make a difference remains to be seen. I do believe that his bat behind Robinson Cano is an upgrade from Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner. Maybe a trade back to the city that saw his career start might give him a jump start to break from the ennui that he possibly felt in Chicago. Plus his contract runs into 2014 which would leave the Yankees with a potential signed outfield of Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki and Brett Gardner with Wells and possibly Curtis Granderson (if they chose to resign him). I'm not sure if the AA Trenton Thunder trio of Slade Heathcott, Tyler Austin and Ramon Flores are ready to play next season in the Bronx. But if they aren't I guess Soriano, Ichiro and Gardner will have to do.

We'll see how it plays out in the next day or so.

Sisco Kid

Alfonso Soriano and How the Mighty Have Fallen

In March of 2010 I wrote a post on my Latinoball blog site called ¿Que Le Paso a Alfonso Soriano?. In this post, I reference an article that I had read from the Washington Post, which basically said that the Chicago Cubs did not get what they paid for in Soriano. Here the Cubs are left with four years on his contract at the sum of $18 million per year until 2014. With Soriano currently batting .249 with 14HR and 41 RBI with 76 strikeouts and only 16 walks it seems that the Cubs are willing to eat a significant part of Soriano’s contract in order to move him.

Mike Axisa of MLBTradeRumors.com states in his article Cubs Willing To Eat High Percentage Of Soriano's Deal that based on sources the Cubs would be:

"willing to absorb a high percentage" of the money left on his deal if the right trade offer came along. There is more than $60M left on his eight-year, $136MM contract.

Soriano also has a full no-trade clause that unbeknown to him was included in his contract. In an interview with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Gordon Wittenmyer Soriano had the following to say about waiving his no-trade clause:

"If it was a contender, yes," Soriano said of waiving the no-trade. "Of course, I want to win. I want to win here. But if not here, then somewhere else. . . .First of all, I don’t want to leave here. I want to stay here because we’ve got to win it. But if they want to trade me, I think the team they would want to trade me to would be a contender that I could help."

If the last few seasons are an indication, the Chicago Cubs will not be winning anything anytime soon. Discarding players like Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano and rebuilding the team around players such as Starlin Castro might be the way to go.

It seems that at the age of 35, (yes Yankees fans, it has been 10 seasons since Soriano almost won the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks with a homerun against Curt Schilling in the 6th inning of Game 7) that Soriano’s best days might be behind him. A future in the AL as a potential DH and occasional outfield replacement might be his best bet.

FH

For Further Reading:
- Click Here for Alfonso Soriano's career statistics from Baseball-Reference.com

¿Que Le Paso a Alfonso Soriano?

While looking at various newspapers for Baseball news I came upon an interesting article from today's Washington Post webpage. The article was written by Dave Sheinin and was titled Alfonso Soriano Hasn't Given the Cubs What They Paid For, and it got me thinking about a few things about Soriano.

First off, I totally forgot that he played for the Washington Nationals during the 2006 season. The article goes to say that Soriano has fallen out of favor with Lou Piniella, manager of the Chicago Cubs, who will have him bat 5th or 6th after initially being the team's lead off hitter. Having watched Soriano play for the New York Yankees from 2000-2003 (He came up briefly in 1999 and for a few games in 2000), I can see where the frustration comes from.

Soriano initially played second base for the Yankees and almost heroically delivered the game and series winning blow against Curt Shilling and the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the World Series (We all know how that game ended so no need for me to re-hash that moment in time, LOL). For two years Soriano lit up the American League, especially in 2002 where he hit .300 and led the league with 209 hits (51 2B/2 3B/39 HR), stolen bases (41), runs scored (102) and both plate appearances (741) and at-bats (696). While he excelled at the plate, Soriano also showed the signs of what would continually plague him during his career. His batting prowess had no room for patience which usually translates into walks. Soriano often struck out 5 to 6 times more than he walked per season. While with the Yankees, Soriano walked a total of 91 times while striking out 430 times (BB/K 1999 0/3. 2000 1/15, 2001 29/125, 2002 23/157, 2003 38/130). This pattern came to a head in the 2003 post-season when Soriano struck out a total of 26 times (11 times against the Red Sox alone) while walking only 3 times. I believe this was the reason for his being traded to the Rangers for Alex Rodriguez.

The pattern would continue in both Texas and Washington where Soriano hit the leather off the ball but also struck out alot and walked very little, though in Washington his walks improved to 66 in that season up from 33 in the season before. And then the big contract came from the Chicago Cubs and the pattern changed. Where before the contract Soriano played over 155 games a season (he played 145 in 2004 with the Texas Rangers), the injury bug started to decimate him.

Instead of Soriano being the cornerstone of the new Chicago Cubs, his three years with the Cubs have been disappointing and full of unfulfilled potential. Here are his numbers while in Chicago:

Alfonso Soriano's Yearly Statistics in Chicago (NL)

Yr	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RB	SB	BB	K	BA	OB	SLG	OPS
07	135	579	97	173	42	5	33	70	19	31	130	.299	.337	.560	.897
08	109	453	76	127	27	0	29	75	19	43	103	.280	.344	.532	.876
09	117	477	64	115	25	1	20	55	9	40	118	.241	.303	.423	.726
Avg	120	503	79	138	31	2	27	67	16	38	117	.275	.328	.508	.837

Maybe a demotion in the lineup will create the spark that is needed to wake up Soriano. It is sad to think that a player of his potential has faltered so badly while playing in the Windy City. Maybe a change of scenery or a return to the American League will be the cure to his ills. The question is, which team would take his hefty contract in which he is owed $95 million dollars in the next 5 years. I guess time will tell whether or not Soriano can become the player people expected him to become or if he will become an also-ran. Shame indeed.

FH

For Further Reading
- Dave Sheinin's article on Soriano at Washingtonpost.com
- Alfonso Soriano's Career Statistics at BaseballReference.com