Monday, June 27, 2005

Beer and Hot Links

It's a virual plethora of posting today, isn't it? I'm just chock full of stuff to say, what with my unexpected day off.

Here's some interesting rumour mill fodder I've picked up.

One is involving Jason Jennings of the Colorado Rockies.

The other is involving Eric Milton of the Cincinatti Reds.

Although they're only rumours, when taken together they could well mean something -- Brian Sabean is on the warpath for a starting pitcher. That's good news.

The bad news: those two pitchers just aren't prize possessions.

Jennings pitches in Coors, of course, which skews things a bit, as does Milton's pitching in the Great American Ballpark in half his games -- both hitter's parks.

However, the price for Jennings in the article is stated as Yorvit Torrealba and Merkin Valdez. Unfortunately, this sounds all too familiar -- Sabean trading away youth for...whatever Jennings is. Sounds too high to me, unless the Rockies were to throw in Shawn Chacon, another pitcher who was once thought to be suffering greatly from Coors. Both Jennings and Chacon still can't be seen as anything except a gamble, but when taken together I can see giving up Valdez and Torrealba for them. But for just Jennings? I hope this one doesn't have any truth to it.

Eric Milton is simply too expensive, and not any good. This one would be another milemarker on Sabean's Run for Insanity, if indeed it were to come to pass. The article states that the Reds would pick up half Milton's salary, but who cares? They could pick it all up if they wanted -- Milton hasn't pitched anywhere he's been.

You want to see something eerily similar? Look at some of the career peripherals stats of both Milton and Brett Tomko, here for Milton, and here for Tomko.

If you're as lazy a bastard as I am, then I'll list them for you. These are career stats, remember:

k/9 (strikeouts per 9 innings): Milton (6.54), Tomko (5.89)
k/bb ratio (strikeout to walk): Milton (2.49), Tomko (2.00)
p/gs (pitches per game per start): Milton (97.6), Tomko (98.1)
opponents' line against: Milton (.263/.315/.462), Tomko (.267/.325/.450)

We'll go even a bit further:

Career w/l record: Milton (74-66), Tomko (78-68)
Career ERA: Milton (4.96), Tomko (4.58)
Team's winning % when starter takes the mound: Milton (.529), Tomko (.534)

Ain't that just a bit weird?

Milton is three years younger, which is one difference, and the other? Milton's on a phat contract that the Giants won't be able to afford next season, and Tomko's fairly cheap for what is obviously similar performance. Even if the Reds were to pay all of Milton's salary this season, this'd be a loopy move for Sabean to make. Milton's a great 5th starter, but as his contract averages out to $8 million per season, a 5th starter isn't what the Giants need -- they have a couple of those already.

2 comments:

Aneel said...

My god.. if the Giants trade for ERIC MILTON I'll swear of the team for the rest of the year. Well, no, I won't, but I'll be pretty pissed. Pitchers park or not, Milton serves up more dingers than Lima!

Daniel said...

Milton wouldn't be that horrible if he was making the same amount of money as Lima -- but making an average of 8 mil per?

But it's not as bad as the millions the Giants have shelled out to injured closers the past several years. Eek.