is apparently $3 Mil over 2 years

They better give callaspo a fair shot at winning the 2B job or im gonna be pissed off even more… COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY MOVE

dayton moore does not understand how obp works…a .322 career obp does not make one an on-base guy, it makes him a poor addition to a lineup, especially with a VERY low slugging percentage. a .377 obp is a clear outlier in gloadquist’s career line. it appears dayton has gone about building on-base percentage by cherrypicking guys with one solid year of on-base pct…see crisp, coco…..this just really pisses me off, because callaspo earned his roster spot last year and has a long track record of obp. all in the name of defense dayton, fuck this.

This means TPJ or Esteban are definitely off the roster

He’s like Gathright, but without the jumping ability.

are starting

I mean really. No OBP and .285 SLG last year. .285! Just stupid.

“He’s an on-base guy*, a speed-type player and a hustler,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “He’s a Craig Counsell-type who really plays hard, hustles and knows how to play.”

• - on base guy? As evidenced by his .322 career OBP?

I think a 1 yr 700 K Minor league deal would have been better.. with a club option

OK, here goes. From Marcels:

-12.8/700 hitter, CHONE has him as a -2 defender at second, -5 at SS… you know i’ll go with SS since that’s more generous to mhim

so -12.8 offense + -5 defense = -17.8

+25 AL replacement level + 7.5 SS= 32.5

-17.8 +32.5 = * 85% playing time converted to wins = about a 1.2 WAR player, if he’s a starter.

Hmmm… Look at the salary chart.

A 1 WAR player should get $8.3M for two years.

Now, I think it’s fair to say they plan on Willie being a bench guy, to perhaps 0.5 WAR or something is the expectation, and, in deed, the chart says 2/$3.2M is about right.

CHONE gets somewhat similar results by a different method.

Not a willie fan, but this isn’t terrible, unless they really think he should get a shot at starting. Nothing compared to the mind-bendingly stupid Farnsworth deal, and, given that Willie projects to be about as valuable as Jose Guillen… well, I have to go vomit now.

Kyle Farnsworth at $4.5 million
Mike Jacobs at $3.5 million
Horacio Ramirez at $1.9 million
Ross Gload at $1.9 million
Willie Bloomquist at $1.5 million
=$13.3 million

Probably coulda gotten an impact FA for that. And that’s not counting Coco Crisp, Jose Guillen or Miguel Olivo, all of which could be considered expendable.

I was going to post this as a “quote” fanshot, but didn’t want to clog up the board. I was actually surprised that he came out as “well” as he did by the projections. Here’s another perspective, from an earlier Fangraphs piece on WAR:

If you’re having a tough time visualizing what a replacement level player looks like, there’s probably not a better example in baseball than Willie Bloomquist…. Over the last three years, he’s racked up 644 PA – just barely more than one season’s worth – and accumulated the following totals: -16 batting, -3.8 fielding, +0.9 position adjustment = -18.9 runs below average. He’s not a very good hitter, but he can play a bunch of positions, run the bases okay, and doesn’t cost much. He is, essentially, the poster boy for replacement players. By adding in the replacement level adjustment, we’re simply adjusting from saying that Chase Utley is +58 runs above average to +78 runs above Willie Bloomquist.

Keep in mind that fangraphs doesn’t adjust for the different AL/NL replacement level for position players… so Willie is really awesome.

A short list some Replacement level Royals: Bloomquist, Farnsworth, Waechter, Gload, Guillen and Ho-Ram are pretty close, too…

what do all these guys have in common?

Using Data from Fangraphs

Here is his stats (lifetime):

OBP:.322
SLG:.324

71 for 86 stealing bases

UZR/150 (0 value is league average):

2nd: 3
SS: 2.3

Worth 1.2 mil on the open market.

We really needed some one to back up SS besides TPJ and German and Callaspo are HORRIBLE at short.

Perfect for the backup role. Short of injury to Callaspo or Aviles, he does have more then 100 AB and should be a decent pinch runner.

BTW: He is not German, TPJ or HWSNBN

Bloomquist is an upgrade over TPJ as a backup, so the roster talent did just improve. He also provides some insurance should Aviles fall of the face of the earth.

But 2 years? Seriously? Didn’t we just go through the same thing with Gload last year?

I would place it about average as d_f figured. I think this leads to the TPJ getting sent away which is nice. At least GMDM hasn’t locked in any of these contracts past 2 years.
Gone at the end of 2010 contracts

Crisp- if they pick up this years option 8M maybe gone 2009
Guillen
Farnsworth
Mahay- Gone at the end of ’09
Jacobs-Arbitration player

They aren’t locked into any of these guys past 2010. If the players develop that we are hoping/somewhat expecting them to then KC will have a 2011 youth movement.

Crisp= D.Robinson or Paulo Orlando
Guillen=Moustakas
Farnsworth=Rosa, Pimintel or Cortes
Mahay= Rosa, Pimintel or Cortes
Jacobs=Butler or Kila

These are probably best case scenarios but I guess I like that none of these deals go past this point currently.

They already signed German and Bloomquist is essentially the same player as Callaspo (below avg defense, good contact/eye no pop). I wonder if GMDM can’t look past the DUI or whatever it was he got.

The Battle for Grass Creek continues

I’m going to close comments here since I have a post up now.