According to a report from Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest, Carl Crawford is "livid" over management's decision to pick up his $10 million option for next season and now wants out of Tampa. Says a source with the knowledge of the situation:
"He wants out of Tampa bad. He had a handshake agreement with management that they would renegotiate the contract instead of picking up the option and they went ahead and did it anyway. He's pissed beyond belief."
Crawford, 28, signed a four-year, $15.25 million extension with the Rays in 2005, with club options for two additional years. He is expected to be among the most coveted free agents next winter.
While not impossible, it would be irresponsible to give this rumor too much validity. Silva deserves credit for getting the Wally Backman-Brooklyn Cyclones story right, but he also found an MLB executive who said the following about "Moneyball" and advanced metrics:
Among other sewage that has oozed to the surface is the erroneous belief that statistics are the end-all in baseball today, a myth perpetrated by the garbage called "MoneyBall." Moneyball geniuses have flopped like DePodesta, Ricciardi, and even the infamous Billy Beane whose exploits have all lacked a World Series trophy. It is all a tool to be used by the uninitiated. I'll take a good scout and player development people anytime; the statistics are very secondary. How do you account a .220 hitter for being the hero of the World Series or a guy who hits three home runs a year wins the pennant clincher with a home run? Pitchers often get the best of hitters in the playoffs. There are a million examples of things going against the logic of statistical analysis.Let's just say his "sources" might not know what they're talking about.
How do you account a .220 hitter for being the hero of the World Series
Uhh, so, refresh my memory... who was the last .220 hitter who was the hero of a world series?
Al Weis was worse than .220 in his career than had big series against Baltimore in 1969 as part of the Amazin' Mets. Gene Tenace of Oakland was a virtual unknown than hit 2 HR's in Game 1 of the 1972 World Series against the Reds. The A's went on to win the series in 7. I believe Brian Doyle of the Yankees was a fill-in player in 1978 for Willie Randolph and shined in the WS vs LA. Yankees went on to win in 6.
Nice job, Bobby, the examples are numerous. The thing that makes this game great is the random events that no scout or Sabermetician can account for. Nobody has all the answers.
who was the last .220 hitter who was the hero of a world series?
It's probably not the most recent occurrence, but Rick Dempsey was WS MVP in 1983, hit ~.230 for a career and ~.230 during the regular season.
I would be pissed, too, if I had to play another year in that gunite tumulus called "Tropicana Field," easily the ugliest stadium, both inside and out, in all of baseball. If you're over 40, stand outside of that monstrosity and contemplate what it passes off as architecture, and after a while you'll be having involuntary falshbacks to the TV news coverage of Chernobyl. I'm surprised the team's official jingle isn't sung to the tune of "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the Rays spike the water cooler (and the beer kegs) with antidepressants to keep their players from drinking themselves into a stupor at home as well as on the road, and their fans from jumping off the mezzanine. Crawford must feel like Number Six from The Prisoner every time he drives up to that place. Good luck with your Great Escape plans, Carl.
Why does everyone continue to legitimize NYBD? This was all about them getting links just in time for googles page rank update. Now he has active backlinks everywhere from the St. Petersburgh Times to MLBTR to MetsBlog to here, and who knows where else. And regarding Backman, how does he get credit for that? Backman was hired and told he would manage one of the single-a teams when Teufel was promoted to Binghamton back in early October. Once Edgar Alfonso got the gig in Port St. Lucie it was obvious Backman would take over at Brooklyn. Plus Adam Rubin had already hinted it on his blog the day before. Geez, wise up people.
Old Gator-You are an angry little man aren't you? Why such venom? Does the stadium really bother you that much? Get a life my friend.
Got one. Several, in fact, not a few of which included extensive experience with things like art, architecture, landscaping, sculpture, even (or perhaps especially) Japanese garden design. Ergo, I know ugly when I see it, and the Tropicana Crypt is ugly. It makes matters worse to walk out of the Salvador Dali museum after gazing at all of his magnificent paintings and then have to look down the street and see the top of that repulsive thing, like one of the beanies on Tweedledum and Tweedledee, only grayish-brown (and whether that's the color of the cement itself of caused by mold I cannot say). Hell, if you woke up next to a hallucination with a puss as ugly as the Tropicana Tomb, you would chew through your mind to get out of bed without waking it up. I mean ugly, you know? What's more, I'm not angry at all; I'm just a little queasy from thinking about that blot on the landscape (insofar as you can call that area of St. Pete a "landscape").