As some of you have noted in e-mail to me, my typical output has slowed in recent weeks. Fear not, it's a temporary condition. Mrs. Malo, the Monkeypants and I have just moved into a new apartment, and life has been nuts. By mid-month I should be back to my usual logorrheic self.
And as we get ready to play ball yet again, look for a new ELM design. Fancy stuff, I promise. Meanwhile, I'll post intermittently in the next couple weeks, with a guest column or two to spice things up.
I also apologize to those who've sent requests to get on the blogroll. I've now updated the list. Welcome to the Dodger Hater, Paapfly, and Croix de Candlestick.
Also noted in the small print: Brian Wilson's 2010 salary of $4.4 M. He and the Giants split the difference between their filed arbitration figures.
Garko for $550K. Things that make you go "Hmmmmmm."
On top of Burnsie for the major league minimum. "Bargain bin" shopping or shrewd financial moves?
Thumbs up to our Gigantes for avoiding an arbitration hearing with Wilson, who is already sensitive and erratic enough. Next up: getting the Timmah deal done?
re. Garko for $550K: It makes you wonder. The giants recognized he wasn't worth what he would make in arbitration. But when they traded for him they knew he was due an arb-related raise. So did they think, well, if he comes here and hits the crap outta the ball, he'll be worth the $2M+ salary, otherwise, we'll let him walk? Or did they know when they traded for him that no matter what, they'd let him walk (which meant they knew they wre trading Scott Barnes for two months of a platoon player)?
Not to change the subject (but I will anyway), there’s an extremely interesting projection on the upcoming season at the Replacement Level Yankee Weblog. The Giants don’t do so well but they’re still two games better than the Nationals. The reasoning is that the pitching and fielding will regress.
That projection seems a bit unreasonable. No way the Giants are going to have a losing season.
RE: Garko for $550k...No matter how you look at it the Giants look ridiculous on the Garko deal. I thought, at the time anyway, one of the reasons they sought out Garko was that he had additional years of team control. On the other hand, perhaps they really are willing to make definitive judgements on what, 80 AB's? So they were either willing to dump one of their better pitching prospects for 2 months of a player they planned to DFA or the small sample player evaluations. Yuck. More often then not, Sabean doesn't make me go "Hmmmm," rather he makes me go (insert puking sound)