It's Time To Bench Chris Davis

[DrungoHazewood]

Indeed. He is 1st in P/PA, 1st in BB, 4th in R, 3rd in RBI, and 3rd in HR in spite of his horrible BA, OBP, and OPS.

He has over 400 PAs batting 3rd, 4th or 5th in a pretty decent lineup. It would be amazing if he wasn't 3rd or 4th on the team in runs or RBI. He's tied for 97th in the majors in runs (2nd amond K/Chris Davises) and 53rd in RBI (just behind 3-homer Casey McGehee.)

Weirdly enough, his season is almost identical to Ryan Howard's. At least he's not owed $80M over the next 4-5 years.

[Redskins Rick]

He has over 400 PAs batting 3rd, 4th or 5th in a pretty decent lineup. It would be amazing if he wasn't 3rd or 4th on the team in runs or RBI. He's tied for 97th in the majors in runs (2nd amond K/Chris Davises) and 53rd in RBI (just behind 3-homer Casey McGehee.)

Weirdly enough, his season is almost identical to Ryan Howard's. At least he's not owed $80M over the next 4-5 years.

Wow, that is weird for sure, and a good example on why long term big money contracts are a significant risk.

[Aglets]

Counting every single player who has enough AB's to qualify for the batting title in all of baseball, Chris Davis is dead last, and by a good bit.

BJ Upton .205

Chris Davis .188

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/count/112/qualified/true

Here are the 5 lowest single season recorded batting averages by qualified hitters in recent history. Davis is at .188 so we are watching real history here folks! Chris only needs 40 more PA to qualify for the batting title this year.

Rob Deer .179

Ivan DeJesus .194

Carlos Pena .196

Mark Reynolds .198

Jim Sundberg .199

[DrungoHazewood]

Wow, that is weird for sure, and a good example on why long term big money contracts are a significant risk.

Especially when you hand them out like they come out of a bubblegum machine at the grocery store. Pretty much everyone except Amaro had a strong suspicion that Howard's contract was going to be remarkably awful before the ink was dry.

[DrungoHazewood]

Here are the 5 lowest single season recorded batting averages by qualified hitters in recent history. Davis is at .188 so we are watching real history here folks! Chris only needs 40 more PA to qualify for the batting title this year.

Rob Deer .179

Ivan DeJesus .194

Carlos Pena .196

Mark Reynolds .198

Jim Sundberg .199

Davis is currently in 106th-place for lowest BA among qualifiers in history. He'd almost have to go 0-for-the rest of the season to get to Will White's .136 (he was a pitcher in 1876 who started almost every game and qualified for the batting title), or Bill Bergen's .139 (early 20th century catcher often cited as the worst hitter among MLBers with a career). In aught-nine Bergen OPS'd .319 as Brooklyn's regular catcher.

[Redskins Rick]

Especially when you hand them out like they come out of a bubblegum machine at the grocery store. Pretty much everyone except Amaro had a strong suspicion that Howard's contract was going to be remarkably awful before the ink was dry.

Does Amaro go into the books as the worse GM in baseball?

I had Syd there, trying to trade people, he didn't have.

But, Amaro is making a good case to over take him.

[DrungoHazewood]

Does Amaro go into the books as the worse GM in baseball?

I had Syd there, trying to trade people, he didn't have.

But, Amaro is making a good case to over take him.

In history? The last 20 years? He's probably the consensus worst GM at the moment, but history is littered with GMs who used state-of-the-art techniques from 30 years prior.

[Aglets]

Especially when you hand them out like they come out of a bubblegum machine at the grocery store. Pretty much everyone except Amaro had a strong suspicion that Howard's contract was going to be remarkably awful before the ink was dry.

What's almost even more amazing to me is the fact that some of these huge money contracts on the Phillies are actually working out alright if you look at 2014 in a vacuum and ignore things like.......actually winning games.

By annual salary:

Howard ($25M) - No getting around it, this dude is worth less than a replacement level player and is just killing them.

Lee ($25M) - 0.8 WAR. Under performing but really injuries seem like the issue here. Oops.

Hamels ($22.5M) - 4.8 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Burnett ($15M) - 0.5 WAR. Woops. Guess the lesson here is watch out for big name pitchers at 35 or older.

Utley ($15M) - 3.4 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Papelbon ($13M) - 2.8 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Rollins ($11M) - 3.0 WAR. Worth the money so far.

So of 6 or 7 big contracts here (Burnett is not as bad since he walks this year) most of them are actually getting fair value or better.

It's just that the bad ones are REALLY bad I guess and they're certainly not getting much value (if any at all) from younger cheaper guys so that really hamstrings what you can do to improve your team when you don't have infinite dollars.

[Redskins Rick]

In history? The last 20 years? He's probably the consensus worst GM at the moment, but history is littered with GMs who used state-of-the-art techniques from 30 years prior.

Good question, yeah, probably the last 20 years is probably best.

I image the philly fans are tired of his stick.

[Aglets]

Good question, yeah, probably the last 20 years is probably best.

I image the philly fans are tired of his stick.

I think I'd still take Amaro over a senile Syd Thrift. But I would think about it.

[DrungoHazewood]

I think I'd still take Amaro over a senile Syd Thrift. But I would think about it.

Far as we know Amaro hasn't tried to trade for someone who wasn't even in the organization any more.

[DrungoHazewood]

What's almost even more amazing to me is the fact that some of these huge money contracts on the Phillies are actually working out alright if you look at 2014 in a vacuum and ignore things like.......actually winning games.

By annual salary:

Howard ($25M) - No getting around it, this dude is worth less than a replacement level player and is just killing them.

Lee ($25M) - 0.8 WAR. Under performing but really injuries seem like the issue here. Oops.

Hamels ($22.5M) - 4.8 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Burnett ($15M) - 0.5 WAR. Woops. Guess the lesson here is watch out for big name pitchers at 35 or older.

Utley ($15M) - 3.4 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Papelbon ($13M) - 2.8 WAR. Worth the money so far.

Rollins ($11M) - 3.0 WAR. Worth the money so far.

So of 6 or 7 big contracts here (Burnett is not as bad since he walks this year) most of them are actually getting fair value or better.

It's just that the bad ones are REALLY bad I guess and they're certainly not getting much value (if any at all) from younger cheaper guys so that really hamstrings what you can do to improve your team when you don't have infinite dollars.

One of the takeaways here has to be that you're going to blow up your payroll in a big way by signing free agents to fair market salaries.

[Redskins Rick]

Far as we know Amaro hasn't tried to trade for someone who wasn't even in the organization any more.

I believe I mentioned that fact.

However, what really blew me away with Amaro, was quoted this year, totally clueless:

“Yeah, we were checking it out. In fact Schmitty was in the booth yesterday when we were talking about it, and, um, I think it's about a thousand difference in, ah, plate appearances. Pretty amazing. But their batting averages aren't that different, which is kind of… weird. I don't quite understand it.”

He is paid to know the game and everything about it.

[Aglets]

One of the takeaways here has to be that you're going to blow up your payroll in a big way by signing free agents to fair market salaries.

Absolutely. What is the scientifically calculated (i.e. totally, definitely, not just made up) value for how many wins a replacement level team would get?

I think it's supposed to be 40.

So if you want to have a shot at the playoffs, you need to accrue at least 50 or so WAR which (at fair market value) is at least $250M. Not impossible for some teams actually, but it is for most.

[DrungoHazewood]

I believe I mentioned that fact.

However, what really blew me away with Amaro, was quoted this year, totally clueless:

He is paid to know the game and everything about it.

My favorite recent Amaro-ism was him lamenting that nobody would give up what he thought was fair value for Marlon Byrd. Byrd is a decent 36-year-old outfielder signed somewhat inexplicably to a 2-year deal with a vesting option and a partial no-trade clause. But Amaro seemed to believe that he was one of the better players in the league and that he should get high-value players in return. Nobody is going to give up anything of real value for an old guy with an overpaid multi-year contract.