Stewart and Piazza decline arbitration
by dougald1 on Dec 8, 2007 6:21 AM PST
28 comments
Shannon Stewart and Mike Piazza declined arbitraton last night. With the old rules in baseball the A's could not resign either player until May 1st, but I belive that rule is no longer in effect. Not that the A's are likely to resign either.
We were all probable holding are breath and praying that Piazza would not accect. A's could only cut Piazza's pay by 20%.
So here is hopeing that both Stewart and Piazza continue their baseball playing with another team. Two Compinsation picks no worse than 48 and 49 would be a nice add to a draft with picks 12 and some pick around 60.
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It's really not.
Stewart is hoping for more money and probably a longer deal after last season, so he's got no reason to want arbitration.
Piazza was doing us a favor in exchange for not trading him to Minnesota during the season.
That said, I doubt we'll get two picks here. Piazza is getting zero interest from MLB teams. Why would he? He can't catch, and it's debatable whether or not he can hit.
by Nate on Dec 8, 2007 7:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It's a Saturday morning
Even AN junkies like to sleep in on weekends.
by grover on Dec 8, 2007 8:54 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
pshh
i'm at work not working.
by rebus on Dec 8, 2007 9:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Stewart hustled for us last year
and I wish him well.
by A s Eh on Dec 8, 2007 9:20 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Piazza hustled for us last year
(and was still thrown out at second on 4-hoppers to the LF wall) and I wish him well.
by Nico on Dec 8, 2007 9:45 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
as the A's expected
they should get a draft pick for Stewart once he signs with someone (depends on which team, since some have protected picks).
I also expect Piazza to retire.
by OaklandSi on Dec 8, 2007 9:56 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
weren't there some rumblings
about the padres being interested in bringing piazza back?
by guy incognito on Dec 8, 2007 10:23 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I saw those rumors
he'd have to be a bench pinch hitter and reserve catcher (with an even weaker arm than before his 2007 injury).
by OaklandSi on Dec 8, 2007 10:27 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
There were
but Michael Barrett accepted arbitration, and they still have Josh Bard as well. They have no use for a third catcher, particularly one who can't throw.
by andeux on Dec 8, 2007 11:03 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Exactly one minute too slow!
by pickinmachine on Dec 8, 2007 11:05 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Barret accepted padres arbitration
Probably will make about 4-5 mil
by pickinmachine on Dec 8, 2007 11:04 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Don't teams just have to wait a certain period
to sign them so that they don't have to cough up a pick?
by JediLeroy on Dec 8, 2007 12:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Type B picks
Teams won't sacrifice any picks if they sign Piazza or Stewart since they are only Type B free agents. We will get a compensatory pick in the Supplemental 1st round, but no team loses any pick.
by BlameChannel53 on Dec 8, 2007 3:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Actually...
and this might be a rather silly idea. Ok, it IS a pretty silly idea... but if there's no interest in Piazza around MLB from other teams, and if he'd take a reasonable deal (say $5M or less) to do it, why not re-sign him for DH and pinch-hitting and even last-ditch catcher/1B back-up purposes?
He's still a potent RH bat who simply lost half a season to a freak injury and the A's front office's reluctance to bring him back soon enough to steal Cust's thunder (or interrupt Cust's MLB evaluation period, I should say.)
He's probably interested in playing another season, but doesn't want to go to Japan because of family issues and isn't really any kind of viable catching option except as an emergency back-up, and 1B never worked as an alternate position. There's not a lot of interest around the league. Heck, there probably isn't any interest, because nobody wants to overpay for a DH/PH option and/or they don't have room for him on the roster.
But here's the thing- if he knows that, and is willing to take less money to play another year and have a full, healthy season and then retire on his own terms feeling good about his career, then maybe he'd be interested in part-timing with Cust at DH and helping out as a PH and occasional back-up C/1B? And mentoring Suzuki and Bowen a bit on the art of game-calling and the A's hitters in general on the art of hitting?
The way I see it, if Beane and Co. are NOT going to trade Haren and/or Blanton and/or Street this off-season, then they've got no other real option but to build for a real run this year at the division and they may as well be creative about it.
What would be so bad about getting creative by signing BOTH Piazza AND Bonds to reasonable (for who they are, at any rate) deals to DH/PH/occasionally play in the field along with Cust? Talk about some serious PH threats late in the game.. and the ability to keep both Piazza and Bonds healthy... and keep the OF fresh in general too as both Bonds and Cust can play some OF as basically 4th and 5th OF.
Hey, I said it was pretty silly. Still, whaddaya think? :)
by still bills kingdom on Dec 8, 2007 12:59 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
not enough roster spots
by rebus on Dec 8, 2007 1:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I think that's true
even if they get rid of Kotsay and DJ for whatever minor league prospects they can get and potentially eat most or all of Kotsay's salary (so as not to impact the 25 man roster with any acquisitions if they can trade either one of them) I agree there still wouldn't be room for this scenario probably.
by still bills kingdom on Dec 8, 2007 2:15 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Point by point:
"and if he'd take a reasonable deal (say $5M or less) to do it, why not re-sign him for DH and pinch-hitting and even last-ditch catcher/1B back-up purposes?"
$5M is not a reasonable price for a 40 year-old catcher who can't catch. It's a reasonable price for a designated hitter who can hit, but it's debatable whether he can hit anymore. Certainly not well enough to DH. He be nothing but a pinch-hitter, and we may not have the roster space for that even if he'd work for the major league minimum.
"He's still a potent RH bat"
He MIGHT still be a potent RH bat. He wasn't last year, and the guy is 40 years old. "Lost years" around this point tend to be known as "career-ending injuries". As for being right-handed, he had a .748 OPS against left-handed pitching, a full 38 points lower than Jack Cust.
"There's not a lot of interest around the league. Heck, there probably isn't any interest, because nobody wants to overpay for a DH/PH option and/or they don't have room for him on the roster. "
There's no interest. Period. He can't play a position, and basically every team in the American League but us has their DH essentially set.
New York - Giambi
Boston - Ortiz
Toronto - Thomas
Baltimore - Huff
Tampa Bay - Gomes
Cleveland - Hafner
Detroit - Sheffield
Minnesota - Kubel
Chicago - Thome
"Los Angeles" - Guerrero
Seattle - Vidro
Of the three teams that don't, two of them (KC and Texas) are cellar-dwellers. As for us, we've got at least one superior option, and possibly a 2nd that will be far superior. As for "extreme backup 1B", how many backup 1Bs do we need? Barton's the likely starter, Swisher could play there easily enough, DJ's still around, I'm sure any utility infielder can fill in. Hell, we even had Kotsay play a few games there last year. It's the easiest defensive position in baseball and Piazza COULDN'T HACK IT.
"What would be so bad about getting creative by signing BOTH Piazza AND Bonds"
Look at our roster. Assume 12 pitchers. We need Suzuki and a backup catcher, so that leaves eleven non pitcher/catcher spots to fill:
Barton
Johnson
Ellis
Crosby
Murphy
Chavez
Hannahan
Cust
Bonds
Kotsay
Denorfia
Swisher
Buck
That's 13 players for 11 spots. Even if we cut the bullpen down to six guys AND we don't sign Bonds, there's no one on this list I would drop for Piazza. All of them will either play a position or hit significantly better than Piazza in 2008. There's no room, and quite frankly no demand.
by Nate on Dec 8, 2007 9:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Jason Kubel, Designated Hitter
<snerk>
by Nico on Dec 8, 2007 10:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah it's a stretch
But so is a Santana-less Twins squad in the market for Piazza.
by Nate on Dec 8, 2007 10:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
He's a big upgrade
over Jeff Cirillo, Jason Tyner, and Rondell White.
by andeux on Dec 9, 2007 11:13 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
It still boggles my mind
that a major league baseball team actually played Jason Tyner at designated hitter.
It kind of boggles my mind that any baseball team would play Tyner at any position at all, but seriously: DH? Jason Tyner? This is a man who makes Duane Kuiper look like a power threat.
MN had Mike Redmond, who would be a starting catcher for 2/3 of the teams in MLB, rotting on the bench while this parade of excellence got about half of the starts at DH for them. I'm pretty sure Minny gave away at least 2-3 wins just through appalling roster management last year.
by PaulThomas on Dec 9, 2007 1:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Hey, the guy homered last year - lay off him!
by Nico on Dec 9, 2007 6:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
and a slight upgrade over
the native Minnesotan we've been trying to trade them.
by iglew on Dec 10, 2007 12:52 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, I totally agree on the roster space issue
and had admitted as much earlier in the afternoon (see prior comments in this fairly silly thread started by a fairly silly "what if" kind of premise...)
While I can see ways around it, such as several players not being ready to go at the beginning of the year (Chavez, Kotsay, Denorfia... heck, we don't even know for sure how ready Crosby or Buck will be but I'm guessing they'll be good to go) and others not being on the roster anymore (like DJ perhaps) and still others never joining the team at all (Bonds) I do have to agree with the general thought that he'd be a less useful piece of the overall puzzle than somebody who can adequately field a position.
I'll add the caveat that neither you nor I know whether or not he could still be a perfectly potent RH bat at this point, and we won't know unless he plays this year and stays healthy (you know, doesn't get his shoulder mangled in a freak collision- hardly the result of his body breaking down due to the rigors of age/baseball) and is allowed to focus on hitting like he was supposed to be doing this past season.
Oh, and he's 39 and won't be 40 'til early September from what I know about it. :)
I'll add the further caveat that at the right price, which I actually would hope is somewhere way below $5M, he wouldn't be a terrible bat to have to split DH duties with Cust or something IF the A's don't sign Bonds and IF other personnel decisions and whatnot make having somebody to DH and come off the bench exclusively a luxury the A's think they can afford.
But I think you're right that there's no real demand around the league and he's probably just going to retire.
by still bills kingdom on Dec 8, 2007 11:50 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Still not seeing it.
While I can see ways around it, such as several players not being ready to go at the beginning of the year (Chavez, Kotsay, Denorfia... heck, we don't even know for sure how ready Crosby or Buck will be but I'm guessing they'll be good to go) and others not being on the roster anymore (like DJ perhaps) and still others never joining the team at all (Bonds) I do have to agree with the general thought that he'd be a less useful piece of the overall puzzle than somebody who can adequately field a position.
More to the point, I don't imagine we have that great a margin of error. If we're at the point where we're losing large numbers of hitters from our roster right off the bat like that, the season is likely lost anyway. Either our team is good, and we don't need him, or they're not good...in which case we won't need him.
I'll add the caveat that neither you nor I know whether or not he could still be a perfectly potent RH bat at this point, and we won't know unless he plays this year and stays healthy (you know, doesn't get his shoulder mangled in a freak collision- hardly the result of his body breaking down due to the rigors of age/baseball) and is allowed to focus on hitting like he was supposed to be doing this past season.
The injury may have been an accident, but the player trying to come back from it is still a guy who caught 1,629 games of major league baseball over the years who happens to be pushing forty. You don't necessarily bounce back from that the way a 27 year old does.
The last thing I'll note is that over the last 10 years, Piazza has made somewhere between $100 and $110 million. Unless he really can't let go of the game, he's not coming back for six figures. I think $5M or something like it is probably the minimum he'd work for. And for that, I just don't see him providing the kind of offense to justify that, especially as a part-time player.
by Nate on Dec 9, 2007 12:08 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
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