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A Break From A-Rod

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 5:13 pm No Responses »
Mar 052009

Because sometimes it feels like everything I write somehow becomes about one guy (click the link, you’ll enjoy it), here are a three interesting tidbits from around the blogosphere.

1) Dave Pinto did some research and confirmed a bit of conventional wisdom. “As you can see, the faster pitches are more effective in the strike zone, the off-speed pitches are more effective out of the strike zone.” Findings like this do not often get attention, but confirming the stuff that we assumed is a vital step in moving our understanding of the sport further.

2) The Biz of Baseball has a nice long post up about corporate sponsorships being taboo during the current economic crisis, even though they may actually make financial sense.

3) RLYW looks at Brett Gardner’s comparable players, and does not like what he sees. Kenny Lofton is the best player on the list, while most of the players are 4A types.

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A-Rod Has Torn Hip Labrum, Not Having Surgery

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 3:42 pm No Responses »
Mar 052009

Peter Abraham is reporting that A-Rod will not have surgery to repair a torn labrum and cyst in his hip, and will opt for rest and rehab instead. This would allow him to get back on the field quicker. I do not know what the medical implications of this decision are, and whether failed rehab would mean having the surgery later in the season. Is it better to play through it, or just take care of it? More as it becomes available…

Update Via Pete Abe:

Surgery, if needed, would knock him out four months.

The cyst was large and the hope was having it drained will lessen the stiffness Rodriguez felt.

They’re going to cut down on his time in spring training in the hopes he can get through the season.

This is a similar injury to what Mike Lowell and Chase Utley had. Cashman refused to say what degree the tear was.

That does not sound too promising at all. The Yankees just might have a huge problem on their hands. If this really was such a large cyst, the fact that the Yankees missed it at the end of ’08 does not speak well for the organization.

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Ransom leaps into starting role

Posted by Tom Gaffney at 1:52 pm 8 Responses »
Mar 052009

Get used to the name Cody Ransom for the next 10 weeks, folks, because he’s your starting third baseman. He’s 33 years-old, has some pop (22hr and .482 slugging in 423 AAA AB’s last year) and is very athletic (check out this vid, courtesy of the NY Post and YouTube). He’s not a high average guy (.255 in AAA last year) but is not completely allergic to base on balls (.338 OBP), but I wouldn’t expect to see him on the basepaths all that much. Despite his athleticism, he only had 9 steals (being caught 5 times) last year. One encouraging sign is that he hit major league pitching last year, hitting .302 with 4 hrs in only 43 at bats.

There is one possibility on the FA market left, that being Mark Grudzielanek. Fangraphs gives a nice analysis of him, here, saying that he’s been a decent hitter throughout his career (for a middle infielder) but that some projections show him declining sharply.

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Marlins Profit More Than Yankees

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 12:57 pm No Responses »
Mar 052009

From Biz of Baseball:

Moreover, in business news, the Yankees remain the most valuable team in all of baseball. In the past nine years, the Yankees value as an organization has more than tripled from $491 million in 1999, to $1 billion 306 million in 2008. Let us compare that to, say the 30th rank team in baseball, the Florida Marlins. If you break down the numbers, the Marlins are a team that profits with less, a case of cutting their margins. In most cases, you have to spend money to make money, but with Florida, they post the largest operating income by slashing player salaries. The Marlins who have a payroll hovering around $20 million made a profit of approximately $35 million, largely due to revenue sharing. On the other hand, “The Evil Empire” posted an operating loss of $47.3 million, largely due to their player payroll and $100 million paid out in revenue sharing. Seems like polar opposites, and that is the case, the Yankees are a brand and the Marlins are a team in the National League East.

Yes, the headline is a bit misleading, as the Yankees enterprise, including the YES Network and other incidental subsidiaries, certainly turn a healthy profit. However, the idea that small market teams need to cut payroll due to their being in the red is a lie. The Marlins could spend millions more without moving onto the wrong side of the ledger. If they did so, they might steal some players from teams like Boston and the Yankees, and there may be some form of competitive balance. Baseball needs a salary floor a lot more than they need a ceiling.

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ESPN Deportes: A-Rod to Miss 10 Weeks

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 11:03 am No Responses »
Mar 052009

Pete Abe cites an ESPN Deportes report that claims that A-Rod will miss 10 weeks after surgery to remove a cyst from his hip. Enrique Rojas is often wrong, so confirmation from other sources is necessary. This is ominous news for a team and player that needs a hot start. I will update when we hear more.

Update: For what it is worth, SI.com is reporting that it will cause him to miss 6-8 weeks.

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Salaries and the Economy

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 10:29 am No Responses »
Mar 052009

Many writers have bemoaned the ridiculous salaries garnered by athletes in a time when people are struggling to survive financially. When the Yankees threw money at a number of free agents in December, people rolled their eyes and wondered if athletes were sensitive to the economic problems at all. It is a point that I always found to be a bit silly, as it suggests that baseball as a business should cease because the fans are struggling, an assertion which would limit the free market and actually further hurt the economy. ESPN’s Jim Caple recently made an interesting point on this topic:

Look at it this way. It’s not like player salaries are going to go to Habitat for Humanity otherwise. If the money doesn’t wind up in the pockets of multimillionaire athletes, it will wind up in the Swiss bank accounts of multibillionaire owners, and of those two, I know which one I prefer with the money. Nor do high salaries correspond with higher ticket prices. Teams set ticket prices not on how much they pay Kobe Bryant but on how much we’re willing to pay to see Kobe. After all, how many times have you seen a team lower ticket prices after losing a top player to free agency?

If we don’t like it, no one is forcing us to buy tickets, no more than we had to buy a ticket to see “Master and Commander,” for which Russell Crowe earned $20 million.

Two excellent points in there. Firstly, the players are not stealing money from food shelters and charities. They get their money from people who have too much of it, and then they spend it. This actually has the positive effect of moving the money from the bank accounts of the owners into the free market. The second point is also salient. Ticket prices and salaries are controlled by how much we are willing to pay to see the player practice his craft. If we stopped buying tickets, prices would go down, as would salaries. Players are just taking what we as fans are giving them, and we should not begrudge them that benefit.

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