Keeping Track

Weekly Winterball Whiparound

The good:  Aaron Bates hit .356/.396/.556 in 45 at-bats (Caguas, Puerto Rican).  Alexi Casilla hit .343/.427/.422 in 102 at-bats (Cibao, Dominican).  Pedro Florimon is hitting .319/.412/.431 in 72 at-bats (Escogido, Dominican).  Daniel Ortiz is hitting .269/.296/.577 in 26 at-bats (Mayaguez, Puerto Rican).  Nelvin Fuentes is 0-0, 2.63, 0.95 in 13.2 innings (Mayaguez, Puerto Rican).  Deolis Guerra is 2-1, 3.71, 1.05 with 23 strikeouts in 26.2 innings (Magallanes, Venezuelan).  Luis Perdomo is 0-0, 2.11, 0.80 with 16 strikeouts in 21 innings (Aguilas, Dominican).

The middle:  Joe Benson hit .216/.355/.373 in 51 at-bats (Aragua, Venezuelan).  Jairo Perez hit .231/.375/.269 in 26 at-bats (Lara, Venezuelan).  Wilkin Ramirez is hitting .232/.303/.333 in 69 at-bats (Este, Dominican).  Eddie Rosario is hitting .214/.313/.286 in 42 at-bats (Mayaguez, Puerto Rican).  Jacob Younis is hitting .273/.377/.303 in 68 at-bats (Sydney, Australian).  Pedro Guerra is 0-1, 3.95, 1.39 with 23 strikeouts in 27.1 innings (Magallanes, Venezuelan).  Lester Oliveros is 0-1, 1.62, 1.44 with 17 strikeouts in 16.2 innings (Anzoategui, Venezuelan).  Deinys Suarez is 1-1, 3.62, 1.61 in 27.1 innings (Ponce, Puerto Rican).

The bad:  Matt Carson hit .115/.233/.192 in 26 at-bats (Oriente, Dominican).  Estarlin De Los Santos hit .158/.200/.211 in 19 at-bats (Cibao, Dominican).  Joshua Hendricks hit .118/.211/.118 in 17 at-bats (Melbourne, Australian).  Angel Morales is hitting .186/.286/.256 in 43 at-bats (Ponce, Puerto Rican).  Rory Rhodes hit .184/.310/.286 in 49 at-bats (Brisbane, Australian).  Deibinson Romero hit .176/300/.176 in 17 at-bats (Escogico, Puerto Rican).  Rene Tosoni hit .195/.283/.195 in 41 at-bats (Lara, Venezuelan).  Cesar Ciurcina is 0-0, 5.74, 1.79 in 15.2 innings (Aragua, Venezuelan).  Aaron Thompson is 0-1, 6.10, 1.84 in 10.1 innings (Este, Dominican).

The insignificant:  Oswaldo Arcia is 0-for-2 (Aragua, Venezuelan).  Luke Hughes is 1-for-3 (Perth, Australian).  Dereck Rodriguez is 1-for-8 (Caguas, Puerto Rican).  Ramon Santana is 0-for-7 (Este, Dominican).  Samuel Deduno is 0-0, 1.50, 1.67 in 6 innings (Aguilas, Dominican).  Sam Gibbons is 0-1, 9.00, 2.25 in 4 innings (Melbourne, Australian).  Yorman Landa is 0-0, 6.75, 2.25 in 2.2 innings (La Guaira, Venezuelan).  Gonzalo Sanudo is 0-0, 0.00, 1.50 in 2 innings (Culiacan, Mexican).  Anthony Slama is 0-1, 3.12, 1.04 with 12 strikeouts in 8.2 innings (Mazatlan, Mexican).  Manuel Soliman is 0-0, 0.00, 3.86 in 2.1 innings (Escogido, Domincan).  Junior Subero is 0-0, 9.00, 3.00 in 1 inning (Caracas, Venezuelan).  Todd Van Steensel is 0-0, 6.75, 1.80 in 6.2 innings (Sydney, Australian).  Esmerling Vasquez is 1-1, 3.00, 1.56 in 9 innings (Oriente, Domincan).  Brendan Wise is 0-0, 0.00, 1.00 in 1 inning (Perth, Australian).

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 20

Jack Manning (1853)
Harry Stovey (1856)
Jimmy Williams (1876)
Branch Rickey (1881)
Fred Merkle (1888)
Butch Henline (1894)
George Pipgras (1899)
Gabby Hartnett (1900)
Spud Davis (1904)
Eddie Leishman (1910)
Julio Becquer (1931)
Oscar Gamble (1949)
Cecil Cooper (1949)
Ken Bolek (1953)
Jose DeLeon (1960)
Augie Ojeda (1974)
Aubrey Huff (1976)
David Wright (1982)

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to spookymilk and mrs. milk.

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Minnesota Twins

Cost of the Status Quo

2 Comments

Thought experiment! Let's say that the Twins were so taken by the 2006 squad that they decided to keep each player from that team as long as they were good enough to play professional ball. In this experiment, we could think of all the Twins' players as restricted free agents where the team would always match the offer sheet. Looking back at that squad, there are a bunch of guys who make next to nothing these days (or are out of baseball), but there are some pulling down big money. The list, by 2012 guaranteed compensation:

$24M -- Santana
$23M -- Mauer
$18M -- Hunter
$14M -- Morneau
$11.9M -- Lohse
$10M -- Cuddyer (est, full contract is $31.5M over 3 yrs)
$7M -- Kubel (est, full contract is $15M over 2yrs)
$7M -- Nathan
$7M -- Garza (arb. estimate)
$6.5M -- Baker
$5.5M -- Bartlett
$5M -- Liriano (arb. estimate)
$4.5M -- Crain
$3.75M -- Guerrier
$2M -- Silva (yes, the Cubs still owe Silva $2M next year)
$1.5M -- Punto
$1.5M -- Perkins (arb. estimate)
$1M -- Casilla (arb. estimate)

So that's $153M for 18 players (but 17 active players.) Figure about $1M/player for the last 8 spots on the active roster and $400K/player for the 15 spots left on the 40-man, and that gets you to $167M for a full 40-man roster. If you figure that Blackburn and Span make the active roster, then you're up to about $173M. I'm not sure how many wins that team would be expected to win, but at first glance I wouldn't be too optimistic.

Of course, if the Twins had managed their roster this way, Luis Castillo would never have been traded and we wouldn't have gone through the Drew Butera experience. Maybe that's worth $173M all by itself.

Keeping Track

Spanning the Globe

DOMINICAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Escogido 3, Cibao 0 in Escogido.  Pedro Florimon was 1-for-3 with a double for Escogido.

Oriente 2, Aguilas 1 in Aguilas (11 innings).  Esmerling Vasquez walked two but gave up no runs in 1.1 innings for Oriente.  Luis Perdomo was charged with a run, giving up a walk in two-thirds of an inning for Aguilas.

Licey 5, Este 0 in Este.  Wilkin Ramirez was 1-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch for Este.

Sunday

Licey 6, Aguilas 0 in Aguilas.  Luis Perdomo pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits for Aguilas.

Escogido 6, Este 2 in Escogido.  Pedro Florimon was 2-for-3 with a double and a run for Escogido.  Wilkin Ramirez was 1-for-4 with a run for Este.

MEXICAN LEAGUE

Sunday

Obregon 7, Mazatlan 4 in Mazatlan.  Anthony Slama struck out three and gave up only a walk in 1.1 innings for Mazatlan.

PUERTO RICAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Ponce 4, Caguas 2 in Ponce.  Angel Morales struck out in his only at-bat as a reserve for Ponce.

Mayaguez 8, Carolina 7 in Carolina.  Daniel Ortiz was 0-for-4 for Mayaguez.  Nelvin Fuentes struck out two but gave up a run on a hit in 1.1 innings for Mayaguez.

Sunday

Mayaguez 3, Ponce 2 in Mayaguez.  Daniel Ortiz was 1-for-3 with a walk for Mayaguez.  Angel Morales was 0-for-3 for Ponce.

VENEZUELAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Magallanes 8, Anzoategui 0 in Magallanes.  Lester Oliveros hit the only man he faced and was charged with a run for Anzoategui.

Sunday

Zulia 5, Magallanes 1 in Magallanes.  Pedro Guerra allowed a run on four hits in 1.2 innings for Magallanes.

AUSTRALIAN LEAGUE

Saturday

Sydney 11, Canberra 0 in Sydney.  Jacob Younis was 1-for-4 with an RBI for Sydney.  Todd Van Steensel pitched a scoreless inning for Sydney, allowing no hits and no walks.

Perth 2, Melbourne 0 in Perth.  Brendan Wise got the save for Perth, allowing only a walk in one inning.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–December 19

Ford Frick (1894)
Al Kaline (1934)
Tony Taylor (1935)
Walt Williams (1943)
Rob Gardner (1944)
Geoff Zahn (1945)
Kevin Stanfield (1955)
Stu Cliburn (1956)
Stan Cliburn (1956)
Tom Lawless (1956)
Clay Parker (1962)
Bill Wegman (1962)
Mike Fetters (1964)
Chito Martinez (1965)
Russell Branyan (1975)
Rafael Soriano (1979)

Clay Parker was drafted by Minnesota in the twenty-first round in 1984, but did not sign.

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At The Movies

Third Monday Movie Day

89 Comments

Movie of the Month: The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)

It's a classic, but it moves slowly - a lot of screenwriters were still treating scripts like stageplays; the script is very talky and 90-95% of the movie takes place in just a couple of locations. Bogie blew up after this...apparently the world was ready for a lead character that wasn't all that redeeming (nobody in this film is particularly redeemable, but they're all interesting).

First time director/screenwriter John Huston blew up after this too - he would have a 46-year career until his death, though it was very front-loaded; he'd arguably made his five best films all in the first 15 years, and Bogart was in a few of these.

I don't have much to add to this one, since it's a classic that probably most of you have seen if it's on your radar, but it was a third straight light movie month.

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.