The Pastime

According to the A’s official website, Alan Embree is now the designated LOOGY for Oakland. He signed a two year deal, and it’s not clear how much he’s earning.I like this signing for two reasons. Most directly, he’s a reliable leftie who is effective against both righties and lefties, though he has a reputation as just a LOOGY.Since 2002, Embree has had a ERA+ numbers of 204, 111, 118, 58, and 129. The 58 is a one year abberration that he spent with Boston and New York. Last year in San Diego, Embree posted a 3.27 ERA and struck out 53 in 52 1/3 innings, and only walked 15.Secondly, the indirect benefit is that it frees up Joe Kennedy to compete for one of the open spots in the rotation, so the A’s don’t have to look for a starting pitcher on the wild free agent market.

Also being reported is that Mike Piazza has agreed to a one year, $8.5 million deal to be the DH in 2007 for Oakland. Considering the market, and Piazza’s age, I’d consider it a good deal in terms of years and money. $8.5 may sound like a lot, but when Paul Bako, who hit .200 last year, gets $1.15 million, Piazza is worth it. If it doesn’t work out, it’s only a one year commitment, also.

Bill James has projected Piazza to hit .267/.344/.467 with 16 home runs, but that’s only over 315 at-bats. Only once in his entire career has Piazza had that few at bats. If you scale his numbers up to the 450 he’s been averaging over the last few years, you get about 23 home runs. Personally, I think that’s a low ball estimate, since it doesn’t take into consideration that Piazza will be a DH, not catching or playing first base, so he should stay healthy and be able to produce.

Piazza is moving to the American League for the first time in his career, a switch that has troubled many hitters (Mark Kotsay, Jason Kendall) at first. The AL has the reputation of being a breaking ball league, as opposed to the NL being a fastball league.

I don’t know Piazza’s reputation as to whether he’s a fastball or breaking ball hitter, but I’d assume that a guy who endorses a curveball pitching machine can hit one:

“Other than a ball, glove or bat, I can’t think of any piece of equipment more critical to my development than The JUGS Curveball Pitching Machine. No serious hitter should be without one.” - Mike Piazza

Oh, and one more thing about Piazza…

If you thought seeing Frank Thomas on the basepaths last season was ugly, and Piazza might be an upgrade, consider this. In my inbox today, I got this week’s edition of John Dewan’s Stat-of-the-Week. It was a summary of the baserunner +/- system that was introduced in this year’s Bill James handbook. See for yourself:

Top Five

Name            +/-

1. Chone Figgins   +28

2. Chase Utley     +27

3. Mark Ellis      +24

4. Orlando Cabrera +24

5. David DeJesus   +24

Bottom Five

Name            +/-

1. Josh Willingham -30

2. Adrian Gonzalez -24

3. Mike Piazza     -24

4. Frank Thomas    -23

5. Jason Giambi    -22

The good news? According to James, Mark Ellis is the third best baserunner in baseball.

But the bad news is that Mike Piazza is worse than Frank Thomas…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Oakland A's, Players, Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.