To specify, I hate himself so much that I love when he comes out with such stupidity. I don't like Dave O'Brien and Mark Bowman annoys me, but they can't help being who they are. I feel Moore can...but chooses to not.Braves make big mistake letting Andruw go
Oh, goody. Off to a great start. The Braves latest big mistake was letting the .220-hitting, rapidly aging Andruw Jones go. Hmm...maybe he likes the name of my blog, too.
Bad move.
Terrible move.
Actually, this is an atrocious move for the Braves, because manager Bobby Cox had it right for eternity when he said of Andruw Jones, who ranks 1a, 1b or 1c among baseball’s center fielders for the ages, “He has RBIs in his glove.”
Oh, the suspense. Was it bad or terrible? No, it was atrocious! I could have deleted bad and terrible, but I'm going for suspense!
It didn’t matter that Jones often looked ridiculous for long stretches after swinging and missing at pitches in search of reaching the farthest dark hole. Who cared that his batting average spent two seasons going south instead of north? No, he wasn’t much in the clutch this year, and yes, his agent is Scott Boras, the bogeyman for teams wishing to sign one of Boras’ clients below the amount of the national debt.
Who cares? Um, the Braves maybe? Jeez, Terrence, I don't know. By the way, whatever you define clutch by (I call it luck, but whatever), Andruw's career RISP is .254/.360/.444. This year? .231/.360/.439. A big jump in AVG, but a .005 point jump in SLG and OPS. No, he wasn’t much in the clutch this year
And, yes, the Braves can ease some of the post-Jones trauma with the signing of free agent Torii Hunter, the former center fielder and slugger for the Minnesota Twins. He also has a magic glove, and even though he can’t slug with Jones, he is more consistent at the plate with his ability to sustain hitting streaks.
Yes, Terence. The value of a player is not how frequently he gets on base, but whether or not he is "consistent" at "sustaining" streaks in which he gets one hit or more in a game. At value here with all the information on players that readily available is whether or not he can get a single in any amount of consecutive games. Hunter is not even that much more of a AVG hitter. He has batted .271 over his career, a wonderful eight points better than Andruw. Jeez.
That said, with the new folks at Liberty Media claiming they are willing to increase the payroll, the Braves’ Designated Geniuses should have discovered ways to acquire much-needed starting pitching while keeping Jones. In fact, Jones was part of the solution regarding that starting pitching. He is the hidden reason the Braves produced Cy Glavine, Cy Smoltz and Cy Maddux, along with all of those consecutive years of team ERAs that ranked first or second in baseball. He caught everything. He threw out everybody. He made the spectacular routine. He did so through an 11th year with the Braves that will produce a 10th Gold Glove, but management will shove Jones out the door by allowing him to become a free agent while yawning.
Well, mostly yawning. As a lifetime Braves player who contributed heavily to the franchise’s record 14 consecutive division titles, Braves officials will continue to say nice things about Jones as they wave good-bye. Still, the bottom line remains: He’s gone, and he’s only 30, and history comes to mind. Not in a good way, especially if the baseball gods wish to spank the Braves for their short-sightedness.
On one hand, Moore has a point. Andruw's defense was very helpful to the pitching success the Braves reached. Was he the hidden reason? No, but in a sense, again, his defense is underscored.
Andruw's RAA 1998-2007
98...22
99...19
00...13
01...10
02...11
03...18
04...-1
05...-5
06...-3
07...-1
Since Andruw's obvious lost step between 2003 and 2004, the Braves have only won one ERA title and have not had one Cy Young winner.
Here's Moore's problem. He doesn't account for that lost step. He also doesn't understand a lot about the relationship between defense and pitching. Yes, Andruw helps his pitching. His pitching also helps him out. His greatest numbers came before Glavine and Maddux left town. So, in essence, they were also the hidden reason Andruw looked so great. Their control led to balls he, from CF, could get a better read on because he was positioned correctly and they were hitting their spots.
Again, Andruw made them look better and he will be missed, but at the beginning of this column, Moore quoted Bobby. "He has RBIs in his glove." Yes, and they are measured by RAA. Listen, Andruw can't help the fact he gets little help from his corner outfielders and his pitchers and that does hurt him defensively and yes, he's still an incredible guy out there.
But at no time in Moore's column does he speak of what Andruw does at the plate in a positive manner except to say he outslugs Torii Hunter's career IsoSLG of .192. So, we're essentially talking about Andruw's defense and I'm here to tell you...it's great, but it ain't that great. I spent all season talking about what Andruw leaving will bring. I accept it, though, because this game, while it tends to ignore defense too many times in the modern age, is still a game played with a bat in addition to the glove. And while Andruw is a good hitter if you accept that he simply had a collassal failure of a year, Andruw's still just a guy with an adjusted OPS that is 15% better than the average. He is not, in no way, shape, or form a $15M type player.
Moore continues...though, truly, this next part is just Moore's personal masturbatory material.
Consider 1966. That was the first year Frank Robinson played for the Baltimore Orioles, and it was the first year of David Justice’s life.
Let’s start with Robinson, the undisputed star of the Cincinnati Reds for nearly a decade. He was traded to the Orioles for nothing worth mentioning before that 1966 season, because Reds owner Bill DeWitt said Robinson was “an old 30.” All that a creaky Robinson did in his first season with the Orioles was take the American League’s Triple Crown Award, lead them to their first world championship and grab World Series MVP honors. He eventually pushed the Orioles to three more pennants and another world championship (over the Reds), and then trotted to Cooperstown from there.
As for Justice, the batting hero of the Atlanta Braves’ only world championship in 1995, he suffered a shoulder injury early during that next season, and then he was dealt to the Cleveland Indians before the following year for nothing worth mentioning.
He was …
That’s right, 30.
Justice immediately slugged the Indians to their second World Series in three years. He later joined the New York Yankees, where he became the MVP of the AL championship series before helping to lead the pinstripe bunch to another world championship. When he ended his career with a playoff trip with the Oakland A’s, he had reached the playoffs six times after his trade from the Braves. He also retired as the all-time postseason leader in games played, at bats, extra-base hits, runs, hits, total bases, walks and RBIs.
This isn’t to say Jones will become Robinson or even Justice during his post-Braves career.
This is to say why even take the chance?
Why? Because David Justice allowed the Braves to keep Glavine and Maddux. Moore's love for David Justice is on par with Joe Morgan's dreamy eyes for Gary Sheffield. According to Morgan, the Tigers problems has nothing to do with their pitching not being healthy as an effective as it was in 2006. It was all Sheffield. Well, Moore's little obsession with Justice is an every column add-in.
Justice was an asshole. He wasn't traded because he was, but he was an asshole. He was also expensive and coming off an injury - and beginning to look injury-prone. In his career, he had played in 150 games once. The Braves needed to find money somewhere to keep the pitching together. They were loaded at the time with outfield prospects, too, including Andruw Jones. Yes, Justice had some great time in the AL. The DH was keeping him healthy, too.
The implication that Justice got his teams to the playoffs is laughable. He played on some damn good teams after his trade. But he didn't make his teams that much better.
Jones will make his team better, I believe. His defense will help out. But Andruw is not on his way out cause he's 30. He's on his way out because he doesn't provide nearly enough bang for the Braves buck. He's out because he has more trouble the past two seasons than ever with injuries.
Andruw's gone because it's best for the Braves.
Cry, Terence, cry.
I do like how you closed comments because you were being made a fool of.
1 comment:
I know this is 4 years late, but I was telling some friends the other day how I once read an article in the AJC that was such an embarrassment to journalism that it was the final straw in my desire to ever open a newspaper again. This was that article, and I haven't touched a copy of the AJC since.
Looking at your analysis, though, I would like to add something. Atlanta's most embarrassing representative wrote the following: "He is the hidden reason the Braves produced Cy Glavine, Cy Smoltz and Cy Maddux." You've noted they haven't had a Cy Young Award winner since it's obvious defensive decline. But note this as well: of the 7 Cy Young Awards won by these three great pitchers, 6 -- yes 6!! -- were before Jones' rookie season! Tom Glavine won the Cy Young in Jones' 2nd year. That's it. That's the list. Hidden reason?
It's one thing to be a racist loudmouth who is completely ignorant of baseball statistics and strategy. But Google was around in 2007 when this brilliant piece of investigative journalism was penned. Seriously?
Anyway, a walk down Memory Lane with the worst example of newspaper writing I've read in my lifetime. Well done, Terence. It's no wonder the most prestigious award you've won in your career celebrated the fact that you were hired a long time ago and had avoided getting fired until that point.
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