Tony Batista

by Twins Territory on Feb 16, 2007 9:29 PM EST

I was looking at ESPN and found an article saying that the Nationals had signed both Tony Batista and Dimitri Young. To me, it was strange to see that Batista was picked up to play in the major leagues, but after reading the reasons for the signings, it became pretty funny.

Bowden referred to the players as "assets," saying they could wind up providing depth for Washington at first base or third base -- and also could be dealt to another team for prospects. He also had this comment, "It's important to have pieces to trade."

According to ESPN, Batista won't report to the Nationals major league camp, but will instead report to their minor league camp a week later.

To me, it is obvious that no other teams want him because he was released half-way through last season and hasn't been picked up since. But then again, Bowden is the one who gave Cristian Guzman a deal worth nearly $17 million.

I also read a story about this same story at Nick & Nick's Twins Blog the story can be found here. At the same site, they have an interesting story recapping the Twins 2006 off-season.

This can also be found at my blog over at Twins Territory. I'm not going to put my posts here, but I thoguht this was interesting.

http://www.twins-territory.blogspot.com/

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If anyone in the world still needs proof...

that Jim Bowden is the worst GM in not only baseball, but probably all of sports, look no further.

Utterly ridiculous.

by djskilbr on Feb 17, 2007 4:05 AM EST reply actions

All of sports?

That's some mighty stiff competition when you've got Kevin McHale and Isaiah Thomas beating their respective fanbases into submission year after year.

But man, I do still giggle every time I think about that Guzman contract. Hehehe.

by ravenfly on Feb 18, 2007 11:53 AM EST up reply actions

Hendry

Let's not forget about the terrible spending of Jim Hendry now...

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 18, 2007 10:06 PM EST up reply actions

MLB.com...

...had an article about it as well (about a week ago). They praised Batista's "versatility" saying that he can play third, first, and even short if needed. It was laughable. But, then again, MLB.com is probably the worst site to read for insightful baseball analysis on the web.

-Flip

by Flip27 on Feb 19, 2007 10:39 AM EST reply actions

Correction

The article said he coule play second or short, but he hasn't in a few years. But it also said that he played great defense when he was with the Expos.

-Flip

by Flip27 on Feb 19, 2007 12:04 PM EST up reply actions

It might not...

...have been great, but it was likely good defense. Tangotiger's UZR had Batista as an average fielding 3B from 2000-2003 cumulative. That makes sense with what you might expect from a SS converted to 3B. He wasn't always fat and immobile.

by ubelmann on Feb 19, 2007 12:58 PM EST up reply actions

That's true...

...but it still seems really uninformed when you're talking about what Batista means to the Nats this year. Even if he was a good option at second and short years ago, he certainly is not anymore. Mentioning it in an article about the Nationals' offseason moves (on MLB.com and the Nats' site) is just putting a overly positive spin on a pretty meaningless signing.

-Flip

by Flip27 on Feb 20, 2007 1:08 PM EST up reply actions

Sure...

...it's completely misleading to mention Batista's potential use at any position other than PH or emergency 3B/1B. Batista's not too unlike Matthew LeCroy at this point, except that I think LeCroy can hit LHP much better. Batista can play 3B like LeCroy can catch.

by ubelmann on Feb 20, 2007 2:54 PM EST up reply actions

Well

Batista is bad, but I wouldn't say THAT bad at third. At leas the can get the ball SOME of the time.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 20, 2007 3:19 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe not quite the same...

...but it is a pretty big liability. It's just less obvious than LeCroy's liability as a catcher, but in the end, I think it's basically just as important. LeCroy's problem lets runners take an extra base, but Batista's problem lets runners reach base more often, which is arguably a bigger problem than a few extra bases. (It's like looking at the value of OBP compared to SLG.)

At any rate, I'm sure there's some difference between LeCroy's value on defense and Batista's value on defense, but the bottom line is that you don't want LeCroy catching or Batista playing third except in case of emergency.

by ubelmann on Feb 20, 2007 3:36 PM EST up reply actions

Even

Let's say Batista get's to 50% less balls than a normal thrid baseman. That's bad, but it still ony affects the 3 or 4 balls that come to him every game. Lecroy touches the ball exery pitch when he catched. He isn't just poor at throwing out runners, but he's bad at blocking the plate because he's too slow. Then EVERY time, probably over 10 times a game, someone gets on base, he's many times mroe likely to steal. Lecroy throws almost NO ONE out, so that gives extra bases to, (let's be nice about this) 5 out of an average ten guys that get on (probably more if the other team wanted to , as shown last year). that hurts more than an extra 2 hits.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 20, 2007 4:45 PM EST up reply actions

Missing the point...

If Batista is allowing 2 extra hits per game, he is not competently fielding his position, just like LeCroy can't competently field the catching position. Thus, Batista shouldn't be considered a 3B and LeCroy shouldn't be considered a C.

by ubelmann on Feb 20, 2007 5:24 PM EST up reply actions

Two things

One: I agree, Batista is an abysmal third baseman, so no argument.

Two: That was an exaggeration (I'd say it's more like just over 1 a game), but either way, Batista is still awful, but I would say Lecroy is worse. at any rate, it's trivial, because they both suck.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 20, 2007 8:05 PM EST up reply actions

worst GM in sports

Matt Millen?

by diehardtwinsfan on Feb 19, 2007 4:04 PM EST reply actions

touche...

I think Bowden is without a doubt the worst in baseball though. Bavasi is making an interesting run though.

by djskilbr on Feb 19, 2007 9:48 PM EST up reply actions

Hendry

I still say Hendry is worse. Hendry puts together awful teams and he has a big budget. After spending 300 million on all over-valued players, maybe Hendry has gotten his team above 500...

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 19, 2007 10:02 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah...

...I can't say I'm a big fan of Hendry's work. Perhaps his worst move was keeping Dusty Baker around to run his best pitchers into the ground. (And for that matter, keeping Baker around to use Jacque Jones as an everyday player.)

Some of his free agent signings this offseason were okay, but in general I'm not a big fan of spending that much money on non-marquee talent.

by ubelmann on Feb 19, 2007 10:06 PM EST up reply actions

I don't know...

...Bowden made arguably two of the best ten or so trades in the last six months (getting two everyday players for two middle relievers and getting a couple intriguing prospects for a player with a big contract and no place on the team). I'm to the point where I think that Bowden is definitely not good, but more uneven than anything else.

In addition to Bill Bavasi, Dave Littlefield is pretty low on my list of GMs.

I guess I just don't think there's a huge difference between Bowden and the rest of the bad GMs in baseball.

by ubelmann on Feb 19, 2007 10:03 PM EST up reply actions