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I am still pissed that Cinn got Phillips for nothing last season.

raddy wrote:I am still pissed that Cinn got Phillips for nothing last season.

No team in MLB wanted him. He'd been miserable at the MLB level, and only average at even the AAA level.

It was a gamble on their part. It paid off. I don't fault any MLB team for not jumping up and down and salivating all over the guy at that point.

RC21 wrote:I like Popeye's point, but I don't see Adam Kennedy as representative of that point. He's a decent player, a solid defender, an intelligent baserunner, and hopefully he can recover some of his early-career pop.

I feel like we have enough hoping going on already. That's my issue. I don't mind dealing with this on Molina because it's clear to me he is stellar defensively, young and cheap. There's no reason we can't carry him and it's not likely we could pick up some other quality such as speed at that position.

I'm not going to harp on it. It's baseball, and the unknown, especially after a World Series, has it's attraction. But personally I'd prefer a higher scoring offense than we're likely to have now. I really hope Gonzalez is called up for bench duty at some point because I'd like to see what he can do.

haltz wrote:

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:Instead we got a guy who is mediocre (at best) in both categories. What are we saving the cash for?

Kennedy is an excellent fielding second baseman. Until last year (90) he's always been right around a 100 OPS+ from second base. He has the same career EqA as our starting right fielder (JuanE).

You lost me... what is OPS in regards to defense?
And I was reaching a tad on my post about looking at Reggie Sanders. I guess last night's game just really frustrated me.

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:

haltz wrote:

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:Instead we got a guy who is mediocre (at best) in both categories. What are we saving the cash for?

Kennedy is an excellent fielding second baseman. Until last year (90) he's always been right around a 100 OPS+ from second base. He has the same career EqA as our starting right fielder (JuanE).

You lost me... what is OPS in regards to defense?
And I was reaching a tad on my post about looking at Reggie Sanders. I guess last night's game just really frustrated me.

He is just saying that Kennedy has a good OPS relative to other players at his position.

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:

haltz wrote:

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:Instead we got a guy who is mediocre (at best) in both categories. What are we saving the cash for?

Kennedy is an excellent fielding second baseman.

As far as his offense goes: Until last year (90) he's always been right around a 100 OPS+ from second base. He has the same career EqA as our starting right fielder (JuanE).

You lost me... what is OPS in regards to defense?

There ya go.

thrill wrote:

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:

haltz wrote:

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:Instead we got a guy who is mediocre (at best) in both categories. What are we saving the cash for?

Kennedy is an excellent fielding second baseman. Until last year (90) he's always been right around a 100 OPS+ from second base. He has the same career EqA as our starting right fielder (JuanE).

You lost me... what is OPS in regards to defense?
And I was reaching a tad on my post about looking at Reggie Sanders. I guess last night's game just really frustrated me.

He is just saying that Kennedy has a good OPS relative to other players at his position.

Can't be that... Kennedy usually posts an OPS in the .700's range.
I'm also at a loss for EqA. Damn. I'm an idiot.

Even more confused than ever. It's time to go home.

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote: Can't be that... Kennedy usually posts an OPS in the .700's range.

It is that because most second basemen don't post great OPS.

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote: I'm also at a loss for EqA. Damn. I'm an idiot.

EqA stands for Equivalent Average. An EqA over .300 is good and .260 is around league average.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EqA

Ankiel_Fan_66 wrote:Even more confused than ever. It's time to go home.

Those numbers are adjusted, he's played his career in the AL West. OPS+ is just relative to park and league, with 100 being average. EqA is another context adjusted comprehensive stat that also takes baserunning into account, and it's made to look like a batting average. My last sentence might be more of an indictment of our right fielder though.

As far as his defense goes, according to The Fielding Bible and what UZR and Slwts numbers I can pull up he's a bit of an underrated all around player. Last year he wasn't all that impressive with the leather, but I am sure the Cards are counting on him rebounding there after his injury as well.

It's not like I am saying that the team wouldn't be better with Ray Durham, but these moves aren't made in a vacuum. Kennedy was a good deal when we signed him, and we were still trying to get pitching after that. Think about the gnashing off teeth around Weaver-time that would have gone on if the signing of an old middle infielder had seemingly precluded us "spending th extra $2M" or whatever there.

I guess my point is that Kennedy should be solid, and a significant upgrade over Miles, like Jim said. I'm much more worried about our bullpen, our catcher, our fifth starter, and our outfield. It would have been nice if the value there would have given us the room to upgrade elsewhere, and I think that was the idea, but a lot of the hindsight analysis of offseason moves doesn't reflect how dynamic a process it is. Nate Silver made it sound like the Cardinals could have just gone to the Ray Durham tree and plucked one off for seven million bucks.