Small market teams have to find their bargains, or so the argument goes. I remember JoPo saying that Emil Brown would hit nearly as well as Guillen for a lot less money.

Without taking one side or another, can we at least admit that Guillen’s superiority to Emil Brown is a separate issue than whether Guillen has justified the contract given to him?

He’s looking like Jesus at the plate lately.

Maybe not historically awful, but really, really bad. And Callaspo wasn’t even a part of the team when it was decision time on Guillen.

NY, you just keep beating this drum. It seems to drive you crazy, living in a world in which people disagree with you.

I just state my opinions. Sometimes people agree with me, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I agree with people and sometimes I don’t.

Guillen is striking out more than twice as often as Brown. In fact, Guillen is striking out almost one quarter of his at bats.

Relevance? What matters is getting on base and the quality of one’s hits. Currently Guillen’s OBP is a little below Brown’s. I’m sure that will be rectified shortly. If a guy has a decent OBP and SLG, I don’t care how many times he strikes out (see Adam Dunn).

Brown has stolen two bases. Guillen has none. Brown will steal about 10-15 bases this year. Guillen will not.

I don’t think 2 stolen bases alter the calculus much at all. And why do you think Brown will steal 10-15 bases this year? In the last 3 years, he’s stolen 12, 6 and 10 for an average of a little over 9. And now he’s on the team that is the least likely in baseball to attempt stolen bases. I don’t think there is any support for the contention that he’ll steal as many as 10 this year. Eight is definitely possible.

Brown has 33 RBIs, Guillen has 23.

You’re talking about RBI’s? Really? I don’t think I have to tell you that RBI’s say more about the other players getting on base than they say about the player himself. Unless you’re arguing that Brown is “clutch”.

Oh yeah, the biggest number. Guillen cost $36M. Brown would have cost $4M. So Guillen will significantly reduce the Royals chances of hiring another decent player for two more years, while Brown would have come at one third the price this year and with no long-term commitments.

Yes, Brown would have been a lot cheaper, and performed at around replacement level. This team didn’t need stagnation; it needed improvement. More on that below.

Most likely Guillen will be the better player over the next few years. But do you really think he will be $8M better than Emil this year? Leaving aside the $24M more Guillen will be owed over the next two years.

How much of a performance difference is worth $8M? That’s hard to say, but it is greatly dependent on the circumstances of the team in question. The Royals are a rebuilding team which is getting close(ish) to contention. Last season the Royals made many big contract offers that were rejected. According to Dutton, the Royals made the biggest offers to Kuroda and Silva and they rejected the Royals offer to take a smaller offer somewhere else. This isn’t anything new. Good players have been avoiding the Royals for quite a while. The Royals need to win more games both to sate the fanbase (and the revenues that come from them) and to tell FA’s that this team is for real and that it will be contending very soon so they will take the Royals offer when they make the biggest offer. The Royals couldn’t just sit on its hands this offseason, make no significant improvements, go with Emil Brown-like bargains, have a win total in the low-to-mid 70’s and then take their big chunk of money and sign two guys like Burrell, Dunn, Teixeira or Burnett. I really doubt any of those guys would go with the Royals who would appear to be a stagnating bunch of losers. The Royals needed to make improvements (like Guillen, Mahay, Olivo) so that they can take a big step forward the next year.

Short term, Brown has out played Guillen

Unless of course you look at the important and meaningful stats, like 66 points of OPS (so far).

while Brown looks like a bargain

Is $1.45M for a replacement level player (or worse) a bargain? Can’t you get a replacement level player for league minimum?

I know, we disagree. I can live with that. How about you?

Sure, I can live with it, but does that mean I shouldn’t share my opinions or create any fanposts about Guillen? He was the big FA signing of the last offseason. Isn’t analyzing him and his signing a worthwhile enterprise for this site?

considered in itself (that is, apart from the other considerations about the effect on other free agents NYRoyal brings up above). However, and I doubt there is much of a disagreement with you here djk, is that “bust so far” is sort of meaningless, particularly less than 2 months into the season. Just as saying “he’s a bust” after April is an overreacction, assuming that the last two weeks are his average level of performance is, also. But even now, 6 weeks into the season, categories like “bust” or “steal” for even a 1-year contract is too soon. If it wasn’t, then every Shea Hillenbrand signing over the past few years would be the “greateste signing ever!” at the end of May.

Aside from the impressive conceptual/temporal simultaneity of our posts, I love the phraes “the REAL Milton Bradley.” That would be an awesome reality show about the everyday life of an oft-injured, short-tempered, high-OBP pro baseball player. Milton goes shopping, Milton sulks after a strikeout, Milton gives a Turkey to a poor family on Thanksgiivng, Milton goes to anger management, Milton blows out his knee being restrained by a coach whlie arguing a call at first…

Too bad we didn’t get him.