El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox

RAIN DELAY

Last night I watched the President instead of writing about my experiences in Baltimore. As some of you may know, I am not a fan of Bush, but he came off fairly well last night. I understand his reasonable position on Iraq, although I still disagree. My biggest concern is that Bush did not layout a plan to exit Iraq.

Okay. Okay. This is not a political blog; back to baseball.

Two nights in a row?

For selfish reasons, I would not mind getting a rainout tonight. As part of my tenth man package, I have a ticket to this evening’s game but will not be able to attend. If the game was rained out, it would likely be rescheduled as part of a day-night double header during the O’s final trip to Fenway in September. In that case, I would be able to go. I love double headers even day-night double dips. The best is the old school type – admission to two games for the price of one – but day-nighters are good as well. They allow you to get a good meal in between games or drink cheaper beer. I can certainly justify taking a day and half off for two games. One game is tough. On the flip side, it further screws up the Sox pitching schedule in the short-term. In the long-term, the club does not need to play two double headers before going into a MFY series.

Is Arte Moreno turning into Tom Hicks?

I am not going to analyze his deal in a stat/SABR/OBP manner because it is a no brainer. A club should not give a career 328 OBP hitter $48 million. But the deal still doesn’t make sense if you look at it through Anaheim’s eyes.

Anderson has been productive. He has driven in over 100 runs each of the past four seasons but a team pays for future production. Even if a club highly values RBIs, $48 million over four years for a 31 year-old corner outfielder playing center is too much in today’s market. It is only $2 million less than Vlad’s average annual value!

Allowing Anderson to walk after this season would have given the club the choice of moving Erstad back to center, where he has some value, and shop for a first baseman like Carlos Delagdo, David Ortiz, Richie Sexson. Anaheim could have also gone after the biggest prize next winter, Carlos Beltran. Moreno could have inked the best free agents in consecutive years. Both players being Latino would have fit nicely into Moreno’s marketing plan as well. Those possibilities are likely dead now.

Other than Vlad, Moreno has overpaid for each of his signings over the winter - Colon, Guillen, Escobar - and now Garrett Anderson. The Anderson deal provides evidence on the side of Nomar and the other Sox free agent to be-s’ case that the market has not dropped for All-Stars. Even in this new market, some clubs are still willing to pay.