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The Pujols Awards: Weeks 23 and 24

The Alberts

The Luis

For being bad employers and the Blue Jays for not insisting on this basic provision being in the contract. "Hundreds of labour activists attended a Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto to draw attention to the city's only major non-union sporting venue and the concession workers employed there.

Aramark recently took over the contract to provide concession services at the Rogers Centre and has designated all staff as probationary employees even though many have worked at the venue for years."

They apparently have asked the city of New York for an extra $400,000,000 to complete their new stadium. I had to write out the amount, it just looks impressive. You know, those billion dollar TV deals just aren't what they used to be now that gas is $4 per gallon. The Yanks claim that the stadium may not be able to be completed without the infusion of taxpayer dollars. Oh well, four hundred million is two years worth of player salaries, but hey they have Carl Pavano at only 11 million! What a bunch of friggin' crap.

I found this excerpt that I found amazing. I assume this is a mainstream newspaper?

The Reds have an option to bring Ken Griffey back next season for $16.5 million. It is not clear what the club's plans are, or whether Griffey will retire as Red. Last year Griffey told a group of young fans that he wanted to hit 700 home runs. Currently only two other players have hit that mark: Aaron and Bonds. — Cincinnati Enquirer

I guess the Cincinnati Enquirer have never heard of a guy called Babe Ruth?

A Luis (or worse) for the .207/.330/.329 hitting outfielder of the Washington Nationals, Elijah Dukes. Sure, he threatened to kill his wife and children, impregnated a 17-year-old foster child in the care of a relative, choked a teammate, fought his coaches and so forth, but hopefully he will turn his life around. This nomination is for showing up an umpire by turning around to the umpire and thumping his chest after hitting his only home run this year (several pitches after showing frustration with a borderline strike call), showing up a pitcher after scoring (Dukes looked back at Capps in a move that his manager seemed to have perceived as taunting the opposing pitcher) and showing up his manager after the game—all in one week.

I am going to make your day, Mr. Brattain, and nominate J.P. Ricciardi for a Luis.

Why?

For assembling a scrap heap and calling it an offense.

I reached my limit June 9, when the team dropped a 2-1 10-inning game to Seattle, at the time sporting the worst record in baseball. They lost on a safety squeeze (top of the tenth) and a 3-2-3 double play (bottom). Talk about finding new ways to lose!

I counted the spare parts in the Blue Jays offense, and their competitors’, on a purely subjective basis. What’s a spare part? A spare part is a player you can generally pick up for next to nothing. Or, if he is one your roster, he’s a player that, realistically, is not going to generate any widespread interest as trade bait.

I love Gregg Zaun as a player, but he is 37 years old and at this stage a good season is (relatively) injury-free and an OPS+ of 95.
Shannon Stewart, 34. He's coming off of OPS+ seasons of 101, 88 and 87. Spare part.
Matt Stairs, 40. He's been great for the Jays but clearly a spare part.
Marco Scutaro, 32, is a nice pick-up, doing well ... a spare part.
Rod Barajas ... an upgrade from Sal Fasano
Brad Wilkerson, 31. His OPS+ going backwards by year: 82, 89, 104, 86, 103. Spare part.
Kevin Mench, 30. I thought he retired.
Joe Inglett, 30, is obviously a player you could build a championship team around ... in the Eastern League.
David Eckstein, 33, is a borderline spare part. But where is the Jays’ future at this key infield spot?
John MacDonald, 33. In this man’s hands???

This crew of 10 spare parts has "batted" 1,459 times so far this year—and anyone wonders why the Jays have scoring problems?

Exactly one of the 16 offensive players who have appeared in 20 games or more for the Jays so far this season is 26 or younger (Aaron Hill is 26).

Adam Lind, were he with the big club and posting an OPS+ of 86 (his MLB average at this point in his career) would definitely NOT be a spare part. At 24, he has some upside.

I did spare parts inventories of the offensive players (20 games or more) in Boston (5 – Lugo, Crisp, Casey, Cash and Cora), New York (6 – Molina, Ensberg, Betemit, Moeller, Duncan and Gonzalez) and Tampa Bay (6 – Bartlett, Gross, Floyd, Hinske, Riggans and Haynes).

I’m not saying spare parts are bad ball players or that teams don’t need them. In a competitive division, spare parts can be the difference between winning and being an also ran. But you can’t field a team of spare parts and expect to win, no matter how good your pitching.

And that, it appears to me, is exactly what JP Ricciardi is trying to do in Toronto. That’s Luis material in my book.