Analyzing the Marlon Byrd Situation, Part II

It’s pretty disappointing that one of the couple reasons you hired Washington was for his defensive prowess (though his specialty is obviously infield), and then his eyes tell him something different from what reality seems to tell us. If it persists, this needs to be another area where the front office steps in and tells him and Pettis who’s going to play where most of the time (including who isn’t going to bat third). Otherwise, I don’t want Byrd back.

is that it may prevent the team from committing three years to Byrd. For all the complaining about Washington’s bullpen moves or lineups for any given game, it’s this big picture stuff that should be the main arguing point for those looking to replace him. Valuing Byrd over Cruz or Borbon is simply crazy.

The front office moved Young to 3B last winter, a controversial move that required testicular fortitude. I see them having the testicles to do the right thing again this winter. My worry is in what exactly they perceive that ‘right thing’ to be.

The counter to that is, well, he’s a great clubhouse leader. He’s huge in the clubhouse, and the Rangers can’t let him go.

And I have no reason to dispute that. But even with Byrd, and Michael Young, and Eddie Guardado, and Kevin Millwood, and the other great clubhouse leaders, this team played stupid ball an awful lot this year. When the Rangers needed a strong homestand to stay in the playoff race, the offense spit the bit and the team went 2-7. It showed resiliency, but it also showed a tendency to press, to make dumb decisions, and to take a poor approach to the plate.

The whole “he’s a great leader” thing is way overblown unless your team can get to the playoffs (at which point, maybe I buy that it is a factor). If this has been leadership and clubhouse charisma, give me Milton Bradley any day.

But the idea that signing him prohibits any other signings doesn’t really scare me. Sheets isn’t sure if he’ll ever pitch again, LAAA isn’t going to let Abreu walk, and I don’t see a lot of other attractive FA options this offseason.

It pains me, because I think he’s a good dude. But from a purely baseball standpoint, it’s not realistic to sign a guy like Marlon Byrd — a good-not-great OF who’s due to decline — to a three-year deal, especially when you’ve got enough outfielders already.

Thanks for all your help, Marlon. Now go get that cash, but from someone else.

I’m not really a fan of Wash’s evaluations of Borbon and Cruz. I’m wondering if he isn’t doing his best to show the team that they need to keep Byrd by saying that Borbon and Cruz aren’t reliable.

that Boggs’ shoulder is pretty trashed and he’s getting off-season surgery. Based on that understanding and my belief that his 2010 performance will suffer from some expected weakness, I’d be willing to be you’d get better big league production next season out of Craig Gentry in CF than Brandon Boggs.

My question is this? Do you think we have to make a move—either in the FA market, or through trade—if we don’t sign Byrd? Do you think we have a realistic shot at competing in 2010 with the same roster, minus Byrd, plus Jules in CF every day and a Murph/Boggs platoon in LF?

I’m with you all the way on this one.

Byrd was a stopgap at center until we could develop someone. Now he goes from being a stopgap to a contract into his mid 30s? No thanks.

The other possibility is the franchise thinks 2010 is the year and they need Byrd to put them over the top. But that’s counter to the idea of getting younger and giving yourself as many chances to succeed for several years. If the Rangers sign Byrd to be the highest paid OFer for three years, you damn well know he’s going to start every year regardless of his decreasing D and decreasing offense.

What this really comes down to is Nellie’s going to be better than Byrd. Maybe Nellie’s not some rah-rah guy but he’s pretty good at baseball now and that’s what matters.

If the Rangers have a problem with Borbon’s defense, send him to AAA until he does whatever the hell he’s not doing now and put Josh in CF. If by midseason Borbon hasn’t fixed whatever someone thinks his problem is, look at other options through a trade to move Josh to a COF.

shares Ron Washington’s views on Byrd, Borbon and Cruz. Is Borbon playing winter ball? It would be nice if he could work with Pettis this winter on his defense.

you said it best

…part of the point of having a strong farm system is so you don’t have to pay free agent dollars on the Marlon Byrds of the world.

i just hope our front office understands WHY they’ve built the farm system. It is so you can compete year in and year out by letting players go get more money elsewhere and you can fill the spot from within. In an area where your farm system is weak, then maybe, you fill in those spots through free agency or a trade, but not by signing overpriced players on the decline that will take ABs away from your young potential stars, or signing those players will cause you to trade away better players…ie Cruz because the manager has personal favorites that aren’t based on performance, but based on a “gut” feeling.

JD can force Wash’s hands with a non-move this offseason, or he can really believe his manager and have Byrd as plan A and good defensive outfielder as plan B.

I don’t really see the point of bringing back Byrd, unless Cruz is traded, which would probably bring back a player that would get the money Byrd would be offered. If a trade of Cruz doesn’t bring back such a player, I don’t see the point in trading him. If a trade of Cruz takes up the cash for Byrd, maybe JD gets Cameron to keep his manager comfortable with his team?

The subtitle of this post for me is, why Ron Washington frustrates the crap out of me. 1. Why no faith in Borbon’s Defense? He looks pretty good to me. 2. Why no faith in Cruz’s Defense? He looks pretty good to me. 3. Why sit your best bat (Cruz) when your offense is slumping? 4. Why keep playing Andruw Jones when he sux and you’re trying to answer questions about next year? AJM’s point about Byrd offering veteran leadership is EXCELLENT. The Rangers had a great year and the veterans deserve some credit for that, but they also folded when the playoff push was on, which is what the veterans are supposed to help with.

puts his foot down and demands that Julio Borbon play in CF.

them interested in Byrd is because we don’t have 3 solid other OFs. I’m not sure we have 2.

I personally have faith in Cruz, even if Wash doesn’t.
Right now Borbon looks pretty bad to me defensively, and doesn’t seem to pick the ball up off the bat very well and has as bad of an arm as we have seen in RBiA, on par with Cat’s.
Hamilton is an injury issue, and we may have to consider moving him to DH.
Murphy is a fairly good 4th OF, or a decent platoon COF, but I’d hate to see him as our every day guy.

It’s pretty clear to me that this team needs a bat, and a bat that can play OF (preferably CF) or 1B. Byrd has been an 800+ OPS guy for his time here, and can fill the CF position. I haven’t looked through all the FAs, but I don’t think the list of better options is super long. The question is how many years and how much does he want? For 3/18, I’d probably sign him. For 3/30, I’d probably give him a pass. I definitely wouldn’t go longer than 3 years.

…that the majority of us here can see that it is folly to sign Marlon to a multi-year deal but someone like Wash (supposedly) thinks otherwise.

Of course he is probably thinking more year-to-year (maybe even month-to-month?) than we are but that only shows why is input should be weighted very little by the FO.

put Borbon in center, Cruz in right, let Byrd walk, and if Wash doesn’t like it, too bad, he’ll adapt.

ESPN Dallas gives you a shout out Adam.
Very good read.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/columns/rangers/blog?post=4515124&name=rangers

He’s an illiquid billionaire.

because they are tied up financially. No way will byrd be signed. This team has wised up the last 2-4 years and I just can’t see JD, or Nolan for that matter, making this deal happen.

Cruz won’t be traded.

Maybe Borbon. He looked good and teams saw that this year. Selling high on him is a possibility. Sorta like the Volquez/Hammy trade. Each team sold high. So would a Borbon be possible as a headliner to a better trade that brings a cheap controllable player in? Eddie V’s stock wasn’t that high at the time of the trade. He looked good at times but was terrible more often than not and teams had to have seen that. Cincy had to have seen that. They took a chance. Now will someone take a chance on a rookie, top of the order, centerfielder that has looked good since being called up? Simple answer is yes.

but I might have missed it:

WHAT DO WE EXPECT TO GET FROM LETTING BYRD WALK? What is the compensation we expect? Type B?

I agree with this post almost in entirety. The problem is, management has to decide if the cheaper “in-house” options are worth counting on by letting Byrd and others go while trying to vie for a championship at the same time. If you can’t count on Borbon, Boggs, etc. to fill in the slots, what good are they for this franchise period? Same with Cruz. Clearly one of our top 4 hitters, if not the top hitter this year (behind Mike?), and a very talented defender that may not be perfect out there, if we can’t count on him helping this franchise win a championship, what good is he on this team without confidence?

He’s not a great player, though, and that’s the only type of player I’d be interested in signing to that kind of money at that age. Byrd’s an easy guy to root for and I always will have his back unless he goes to the cocksuckers. Or Angels, I mean.

This issue, in my opinion, might be where this organization will prove if they’re really capable of making the right decisions to keep this club moving forward. Despite the rough financial waters they’re in now they’ve got a chance here to build on an excellent season and add peices that might make the Rangers a truly legit threat to take the AL West next year if we play our cards right this winter.

But if they shoot their offseason in the foot (and worse, trade off one of the org’s best players at the same time) while blindly following the desires of their crappy “baseball man” manager who has himself proven repeatedly that he’s blinded by his personal preferences and love for gritty veterans when it comes to player evaluation, they’ll be undoing a lot of my faith in the front office and who they listen to before making their decisions.

Maybe someone mentioned it above, but I didn’t see it. Assuming you think Borbon is the future CF, but don’t think he’ll be ready until 2011, you can still have Byrd in CF until then. Sign Byrd to a 3/20 deal (or whatever it takes if reasonable) and then trade him after 1 year. He’s not the type of player who can demand a no-trade clause. You run the risk that he totally sucks and becomes untradable, but that is not likely given his track record the last couple of years.

to those LSBers who want Marlon back.

Would you rather have Byrd back at 3/18-20 or sign Bobby Abreu to a one year deal at 9 mil? Given the financial situation of the team you can only do one (if that).

After watching the offense this year I know which one I would like.