A couple of more links regarding Millwood

by Adam J. Morris on Dec 27, 2005 12:02 AM CST in News Comment 20 comments

With the holidays, commentary on the web has been somewhat sparse thusfar on the Millwood deal...

But Tim Cowlishaw weighs in, and likes the deal...

Derek Zumsteg at U.S.S. Mariner seems to think it is a better signing than Seattle's deal with Washburn...and there's lots of comments from Mariners fans there as well...

And while the Transaction Oracle hasn't weighed in, the reviews from the Peanut Gallery at Baseball Primer are generally negative...

Also, for the next few days, I'm likely going to be out of pocket, and thus will probably only be blogging sporadically. I'll probably have a post up every day, but that's about it...and if any big news breaks, it may take me a while to get it up...

Should be back to normal by the end of the week, though...

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Ugggh

I just read the "review from the peanut gallery at Beasbeall Primer".

It's amazing how bad people think our players are. Apparenlty all of our hitters are purely creations of the BPiA effect. I stopped reading after the comments about Young and Blalock being terrible on defense. Young is no gold glover, but what he lacks in range he makes up for with his strong arm and steady play (plus he's the best relay man in the game), and Blalock was gold glove caliber last year IMO.

Bleh.

Somebody's got to win the West in '06. Why not Texas???

by thedirkatron on Dec 27, 2005 1:03 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I agree

We may be biased toward our team, but by no means are the players stated average or below average.

"Michael Young and Blalock are poor at defense. Nix and Teixeira are good at defense. I still think they're a below average defense..."

What an uninformed, stupid, ridiculous thing to say. Teixeira is the best first baseman in baseball offensively or defensively IMO, and Hank is a Gold Glove caliber defender.

The only way to shut them up is to beat there asses.

by Allen13 on Dec 27, 2005 2:55 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It's fairly accurate to me

When I watched games last year, I saw a lot of singles dropping in between Blalock and Young. Neither player has much range.

Those 2 are one of the reasons that our pitching looked so poor last year.

by DJCahill on Dec 27, 2005 6:44 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Huh?

Are you serious?

Somebody's got to win the West in '06. Why not Texas???

by thedirkatron on Dec 27, 2005 7:21 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, I'm serious

Those two both have terrible range. I really wish Young would move back to 2B and we could get a SS that could make up for Blalocks statuelike presence at 3B.

by DJCahill on Dec 27, 2005 7:48 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes

I agree completely.

by Dustin on Dec 27, 2005 10:13 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

also

I should've said the obvious thing about Young hitting enough to make up for it, and Blalock was next to worthless last year as far as I'm concerned.

by Dustin on Dec 27, 2005 10:14 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

blalock

correct me if im wrong here, but wasnt he on pace to break buddy bells streak of games without an error?

by rentz on Dec 27, 2005 10:21 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

YES!!!!!!

Blalock went something like, the first 60 games without an error!! Season long FPCT: .973 (career high).
Discussion over.

Mike Young:
18 E on the season...FPCT: .974 (one less error than his first year at SS).

And to say that Young is worse than Soriano who had 21 E FPCT: .972 AT SECOND!!! a position which should be easier to defend than short and third. I just say whatever.

Troy I. ----- "It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy." -Nolan Ryan

by tdi1985 on Dec 27, 2005 1:39 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

If you dont move much,

you dont make as many errors.

by DJCahill on Dec 27, 2005 3:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

errors, schmerrors

You can't make an error on a ball you can't get to. We're talking about range in this discussion, and Blalock doesn't have it.

It is good that he doesn't make errors. His arm isn't bad. If he could hit, his lack of range could be easily overlooked. But right now the Rangers have a 3B with little range and a suspect bat.

by Dustin on Dec 27, 2005 2:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Young

Young's Defense at SS was worse than Sori's at 2B

by Longhorn on Dec 27, 2005 12:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

If the defense was so bad....

then why didn't it seem to bother Kenny Rogers? I don't think the best defense in the world could have helped Park or Astacio pitch better. The only thing that saved Drese was moving to an extreme pitcher's park.

by Redcaps on Dec 29, 2005 12:06 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Oh come on

Hank excels at 2 things critical to a third baseman: great reflexes on the hot shots, and charging the nubbers and bunts. His range isn't great, but he's no statue. Also, while Tex bailed out more than a few errant throws, he rarely had to do so with Blalock. He has a strong, accurate arm. Who is better than him? Rolen, Chavez, Beltre. After them, he is solidly up there with a few others.

by Brian Thomas on Dec 27, 2005 10:20 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Hank the Tank

Ok, so Hank had a bad year and half (counting last half of '04)... we could be much worse off at 3rd. He doesn't make 30 errors a season and he has the realistic potential to hit 30 Hrs and hit around .300. Be patient and see if he can rebound. If not, we can look at other options.

There are a lot of teams out there who would love to have Hank at 3rd!

As for his hitting problems... The home run numbers were down, so the challenging of adjusting his approach while effecting his homer numbers is really a null point. He does need to re-work his swing. I always thought he needed to keep his head down on the ball and go with the pitch a little more - take a two week course at the Michael Young school for hitting. He's got the power to go to left. This will reduce his mamoth shots to right, but it will most likely increase his opposite field doubles-provide some pop the other way and reduce his strike-outs. I don't have a problem with him hitting 20 to 25 Hrs if he can knock 40 to 50 doubles and drive in 100.

by TheHossMan on Dec 27, 2005 10:32 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I hate the subject line

"I don't have a problem with him hitting 20 to 25 Hrs if he can knock 40 to 50 doubles and drive in 100."

That's the kind of hitter that Blalock was advertised to be before he went homer crazy. If he could do that and take a walk every now and then, he'd be awesome. He's got the potential to do it, but is that what he wants to do? Remember when he griped about being moved from the cleanup spot last year? That tells me he thinks he can hit just fine, so I'm not expecting him to improve very much.

by Dustin on Dec 27, 2005 2:34 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Hank the Hammer?

I really don't have a problem with him complaining about being moved from the clean-up spot. I guess if he whinned like a little girl (or a little Sorriano), that would be one thing... but if he was upset because he's competitive and cares about playing that's another issue. I like the competitive nature... he just needs to fire it up to the tune of 100 RBIs.

by TheHossMan on Dec 27, 2005 4:22 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Hammerhead Blalock

I have a problem with it. If he can't recognize the fact that he has trouble hitting, he's delusional. Showalter kept batting him fourth so he's reinforcing it. But if he thinks he's good enough to hit cleanup, is he going to work on the fundementals of hitting? Blalock needs to do a lot of work, not just a little. RBI's are mostly a function of who hits before him in the lineup, so that's no indication of how good or bad he is. He needs to learn how to stop swinging at every pitch. Doing so would probably maintain his power, decrease his strikeouts, decrease his quick outs, increase his walks, etc. He's become hyper-agressive and needs to tone it down. It makes me sick watching him bat fourth everyday.

And the incident I'm referring to was whining. He'd been the cleanup hitter for ages, then (while in the midst of another deep slump) Buck moves him to the seven hole for ONE game on the road sometime after the ASB. One game. What's our friend Hank do in the clubhouse after the game? Whines to the press. That's stupid AND childish.

If he can't make some adjustments, they should send him to AAA to learn a lesson. He's got too much potential to just give up on.

by Dustin on Dec 27, 2005 7:54 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs