Contributor: Wally
Moving on...Dayton Moore is at it again. For those of you who thought he couldn't top the Mike Jacobs trade (in which he surrendered Leo Nunez, now a candidate for the Marlin's closer position), enter Yuniesky Betancourt.
Moving on...Dayton Moore is at it again. For those of you who thought he couldn't top the Mike Jacobs trade (in which he surrendered Leo Nunez, now a candidate for the Marlin's closer position), enter Yuniesky Betancourt.
I would have really liked to rail on this move, but I was stripped of any incentive after Joe Posanski, brilliant columnist for the KC Star, spent about 9,000 words doing it better than I ever could have. Here are some of the highlights, Joe Po italicized:
"A few years ago, the Royals traded Jermaine Dye for Yuniesky-comp Neifi Perez. Now, that trade was an absolute disaster — the worst in team history in my opinion — but there was this indisputable line of reasoning. The Royals felt like they did not have a shortstop ready to play in the big leagues. This is a powerful problem: When you play baseball, you must have a shortstop … otherwise teams will laugh at you. Yes, true, they will laugh at you if you have Neifi Perez at shortstop too, but they’ll laugh at you more if you don’t have a shortstop at all."
And if you field a team that includes Yuniesky Betancourt, Willie Bloomquist, Mike Jacobs, Jose Guillen, Miggy Olivo and one of the Luis Hernandez/Tony Pena Jr. contingent, opposing teams run the risk of shitting themselves before they take the field.
Let me preface this next one by saying that Yuniesky's last two UZR's (2008, 2009) were: -12.6, -8.3, his Dewan Plus/Minus: -19/-13...Joe Po, GO!!!
"Yuniesky Betancourt is--by these numbers--a LEGENDARILY BAD defensive shortstop. No, really, legendarily, like in 300 years kids will be sitting around campfires singing about how bad a shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt was."
Wow. I had always assumed, as Joe Po and many others no doubt had, that Yunieksy was an above-average ML shortstop. I'd seen a number of highlight reel plays (always to his backhand side, allowing him to flaunt a cannon arm from shallow left field) and he seemed to fit the stereotype of the no-bat, defensive-minded SS. Perhaps most importantly, I haven't seen a whole lot of M's baseball the last couple of years. Thankfully.
"The Royals have now acquired four — count them FOUR — players off the 2005 Seattle Mariners. They’ve got Meche, Bloomquist, Miguel Olivo and Betancourt. It’s like they are trying to rebuild that 69-93 team brick-by-brick. Call Richie Sexson’s agent!"
Well said, sir. By the way, the roster of the '05 M's also included--at one time or another--Ichiro, Raul Ibanez, Adrian Beltre, Randy Winn, Jamie Moyer, Joel Piniero, Ryan Franklin, J.J. Putz, Matt Thornton, Eddie Guardado, Rafael Soriano, George Sherill, Jose Lopez, Shin-Soo Choo, Yorvit Torrealba and Felix Hernandez. All of these players, at one point or another, have either (a) played at an All-Star calliber level or (b) played at a high enough level [superficially] to fool an All-Star manager into giving them a place on an All-Star team. All of this is, at least in part, a testament to the ability of the '05 M's front office to identify talent...they had a ton of it, and even turned some of it into useful pieces (for example, Sherill was included in the Bedard trade, though All-Star CF Adam Jones and Future's Game starter Chris Tillman were also surrendered). Think we're gonna be able to throw around such accolades looking back at the '09 Royals team?
In other news, the Red Sox cut ties with a far superior player today, Julio Lugo, he of a perplexing -43.2 UZR. (That's negative, folks. And while astute observers will point out that this is an anomaly attributable to a small sample size, it is nevertheless an abominable performance over any period.) In a phone conversation with Steve Buckley, Lugo explained his predicament: "When you see a good looking girl, you get married and sometimes things don't work out. I gave it my best and unfortunately things didn't work out." Fellas, I know you can't wait to marry every good-looking girl that comes into your life...right? Well don't, dipshits, or you could end up with the marriage equivalent of a .284/.352/.367 line, undoubtedly grounds for divorce in 2009 American culture.
