Sessh

Ketchup, mustard or relish?

I've been watching random classic baseball games off Youtube lately. One thing I liked was during pitching changes, they didn't go to commercial. Instead, they showed scores from around the league and what was going on in those games. That's one thing that never seems to happen anymore; going to the scoreboard and updating viewers on other games during intermissions.

Might want to be careful when Guerrero hits next. He's probably pretty upset.

Pannone pitched well until that inning, but his defense let him down there. Bad decision by Wilkerson, but got totally lucky.

Guerrero cost his team three runs there.

I believe that's a new thing.

Makes sense.

Looked like he dropped his glove at the last second for some reason. That was a pretty good Canseco impression.

Toronto right fielder Fisher tried to catch the ball with his face. Left the game with a huge welt on his face, but seems okay.

Not his fault. That ball got maybe 15 feet off the ground and hit the bottom of the left field wall on the fly. It was crushed.

Oh, duh. So, about $1.66M then? I suppose we'll never know the details of what made that deal fall through with the Cubs. Villar for 1.6M seems more than reasonable, but maybe Elias wanted a low level prospect or something too. We were willing to include some cash to trade Cashner, so it shouldn't have been a big deal to pay some of Villar's remaining salary if we wanted him gone that badly. The deal wasn't good enough for whatever reason.

At 4.8M, that's a little steep for him. That's certainly asking for above market value for him if that's the case, isn't it? If we were willing to eat half of that, it's more reasonable.

I don't think so, no. I can see why teams wouldn't want to give up anything significant for him, but a couple million for a year? Sure. The Cubs were in talks at one point for Villar, but went another direction. Obviously, something more than nothing was being asked for. What does "very available" even mean anyway? Free? I could live with Alberto there if that's how it ends up. I would still bring Villar back for at least one year at 2-3M if he'd do it. If not, that's fine. Maybe Elias will swing a deal for Mancini/Givens after the season that includes a nice IF prospect which makes it moot.

Well, no one wanted Mancini either.. or Givens apparently. At least not bad enough to pay the price we wanted. Placeholders are "bad" players, aren't they? How long will it be before people here are calling for Wilkerson to be DFA'd after seeing him in the lineup every day at second base? Less than a month? I'd rather see Villar than Wilkerson if those are my choices. However, our choices are thin at the moment.

Villar could probably be had for that is my point. I'd just offer him such a contract before arbitration and if he doesn't sign, then move on. For that price, I don't know how much better can be had than Villar. I doubt he gets more than that as a FA anyway.

Wilkerson is a downgrade from Villar, though. His OPS is almost 100 points lower and it doesn't seem like Wilkerson is any improvement defensively either. Just seems like there's no real benefit to not bring him back if he can be brought back on a reasonable deal. People seem to want Martin gone as well. It just doesn't make any sense. It's not like we're brimming with infielders at Norfolk banging down the door. Villar is at least decent and is an everyday player. Wilkerson, to this point, has not shown the ability to be anything more than a bench player. I like Stevie, but it doesn't seem like he's that good.

Who do we have that's a better option than Villar? I guess Alberto would take over at second? If we let Martin go, who takes over at SS? I don't see how we can just let Villar and Martin walk after the season. I would offer Villar a reasonable two year deal, but if it goes to arb, no way I would pay 7-8M a year for him.

For those of you curious about Billy's full telling of the story of this photo and the bat, check this out.

Nunez might actually work at third, too. He's better than I expected. He could work on his throwing a bit.

I'm pretty sure at this point. I won't be totally sure until I see him in April next season.

Seems like he settled down after the first.

Brooks has decent stuff, but he 's too much of a thrower. Inconsistent command, but usually below average. His change up/splitter or whatever it is has good movement.

Well, looks like things are back to normal again.