Un-noticed Super-Event: The Allard Baird Super Bowl

by royalstern05 on Jul 8, 2008 9:04 AM EDT Comment 10 comments

Last night, July 7, 2008, featured perhaps the most amazing and underrated event in baseball history.

Two Allard Baird prodigies, Runelvys Hernandez and Denny Bautista, got decisions in the same game, for the Astros and Pirates, respectively. Some would say that the real story was that there are at least 2 other GM's in MLB who also believe that the above-referenced players belong on an MLB roster. I contend that the true story is reflected in the box score:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=280707123

Houston Astros
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
R Hernandez (L, 0-3)	4.0	13	10	10	4	3	2	99-62	10.29

Pittsburgh Pirates
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
P Dumatrait	3.1	9	7	7	2	1	1	72-38	5.26
D Bautista (W, 2-1)	2.2	0	0	0	0	3	0	35-25	4.50

Runelvys sucks, that is apparent. But the success of Bautista, albeit one game, in a relief role is what is most interesting. (In retrospect - having Bautista in a middle-relief role, instead of Yabuta or - gulp - Nomo, and Ryan Shealy not sucking at-bats away from someone more deserving in AAA would probably have been nice.)

Clearly Baird wouldn't have foreseen how Bautista could more likely than not be a success out of the pen. The questions I ask everyone at Royals Review are: Why didn't GMDM see this? and Does it matter? Was the risk/reward of the Shealy acquisition worth it? Are we upset about letting Bautista go????

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Comments

Yes, I am totally broken-hearted

over turning loose a pitcher with a career 6.31 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP. Just devastated.

Two other teams have dumped the guy since we did. Fungible commodity.

Sarcasm™. It's the new gravy.

by jonfmorse on Jul 8, 2008 9:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I really thought Bautista was going to be the shiz

And I do think he’ll become a serviceable reliever, but he was more than expendable. Trading two unproven, inconsistent relievers for a guy with the power potential of Shealy was a great move, even if it didn’t work out.

I wouldn’t quite say Bautista is a rousing success quite yet either. He was released once already this year. He still hasn’t found his command (15 walks in 27 innings).

Put him in the pile with Jeff Keppinger and Donnie Murphy as “guys we let go, who could be sorta useful, but aren’t that big a deal”

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jul 8, 2008 10:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I liked the trade at the time

Affeldt had been a pretty persistent failure and the Royals had control of him for only 1 1/2 more years. Bautista had been even more of a failure. And the Royals needed a first baseman. Lots of scouts and analysts liked Shealy (I recall that Sickels said he was a B+ prospect at the time, which is high praise for him). If Bautista actually does become a serviceable middle reliever (he’s not quite there yet), I don’t think I’m going to lose much sleep.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jul 8, 2008 12:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs