Twins Sign/Claim/Acquire Ron Mahay, What I Mean Is, He Is Now On Their Team

by Freneau on Aug 28, 2009 3:54 PM EDT in Honoring & Remembering Former Kansas City Royals

Twins Acquire Ron Mahay: Analysis & Fallout - Twinkie Town

It's all over. Signed to a two year, $4 million dollar deal in December of 2007, Ron Mahay was a product of the happy times. The days when we all thought "Dayton knows pitching, Dayton knows bullpens". A few people were even happy that Glass was now willing to spend eight million dollars on Baby Boomer relievers. That's all over.

Not to kick dirt on the graves of the freshly dead, but the Mahay contract was just another failure around here. During his two seasons in KC, Mahay was a combined 0.1 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Free agent bullpen dude FAIL.

(Seriously, can the dudes at the Star get off the underperformers gag? Relevant example: Dutton used the word in his Mahay/Yabuta story. Yea, Mahay's performance, essentially in line with what he's done since 2002 was just an unfortunate underperformance. More bad luck for poor old Dayton...)

He was sorta ok in 2008 and he sucked in 2009. As noted before, Moore declined to trade him when he had the chance back in 2008. Why they would release him with a month left in this season, I don't know. There's a point where a sunk cost becomes so sunk, that it actually rounds back to being pointless to stop, sorta like a 75 year old who decides to stop smoking. Release Jose Guillen TODAY, don't do it in late August of 2010.

Anyway, farewell Ron Mahay. For now. (We thought Ho-Ram was gone for good once too.)

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I thought it was a pretty defensible signing

Certainly one of the least offensive things Dayton has done.

But yea, he probably should have traded him last year. I thought DM would be a big time trader, but for whatever reason – probably badly misjudging the market – he doesn’t seem to pull many trades at all.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Aug 28, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions

we had to make a run for 2009

apparently…

by Freneau on Aug 28, 2009 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions

and...

one of the big benefits of the signing was supposed to be the ability to later trade him, or get FA compensation

neither happened

by Freneau on Aug 28, 2009 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions

We did supposedly get $90,00 out of the deal

Allowing Dan Glass to purchase a Nissan GT-R

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Aug 28, 2009 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

good point

i consider all bonus royals cash “Gil Meche divorce settlement money” but that’s just me

by Freneau on Aug 28, 2009 4:24 PM EDT up reply actions

That car was focused in an episode of Top Gear...

very interesting, and a very nice car.

Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures

by averagegatsby on Aug 28, 2009 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Good luck to you Mr. Mahay

Phase 1: Assemble expensive, below average players
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: CHAMPIONSHIP!
-RoyalsRetro

by ratherfantastic on Aug 28, 2009 4:24 PM EDT reply actions

Mahay was really good for a few months

Then he hurt his foot? And our medical staff let him pitch on it…. or something to that effect. Then he was never good again.

Coffee. The NEW Performance Enhancing drug for Sport's Writers. Just ask Ken Rosenthal.

by 306008 on Aug 28, 2009 4:37 PM EDT reply actions

Sometimes you change your athletic motions to compensate for pain, and

it really screws you up. That should be basic knowledge. I experienced it first hand in college with golf. Broke my finger and had surgery for torn and partially torn ligaments (and had a compression fracture in my spine from skiing), tried to come back too early and could do nothing but hit towering popups with the driver that only went 180-200 yards. It may not sound like much, but it’s a big deal when you were used to hitting it 275 on average.

It would be nice if our training staff didn’t push players to come back before they’re ready. What’s the point? We’re just going to lose anyways, right?

by AxDxMx on Aug 28, 2009 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions

there are times when I wish I could hit my driver 200 yards...

"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell

by buddyball on Aug 29, 2009 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions

He was also incredibly lucky over those few months

As a flyball pitcher, Mahay is going to allow his share of HRs (as over time, about 10-11% of flyballs will leave the park). Through July last year, Mahay only allowed 2 HRs despite giving up lots of flyballs. In August, those flyballs started clearing the fence again.

by Gopherballs on Aug 28, 2009 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions

if we were stat savvy and therefore knew that,

we would have then traded him in July 08

Hopes fade once again from blue to red. Go New Chiefs!!

by kabrink on Aug 28, 2009 8:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Mahay needed to be about a 1 WAR reliever in each season of his contract in order to justify the contract

The last time he did that was 2004 in Texas.

Kinda thought it woulda been 2005.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Aug 28, 2009 5:58 PM EDT reply actions

Not that Mahay was used this way but . . .

how much bump do high leverage relievers get? I vaguely recall that it tops out around 1.0 WAR for those with the highest leverage, but I have not looked at that issue for awhile.

by Gopherballs on Aug 28, 2009 6:01 PM EDT up reply actions

From what I can see, there's not as much "consensus" about how to apply LI

The general idea at first is WAR times LI. Tango and others advocate accounting for “reliever chaining” (if one guy doesn’t get the high/low leverage innings, someone else has to), so they do WAR times (LI+1)/2. FanGraphs WAR does this, and uses gmLI.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Aug 28, 2009 6:11 PM EDT up reply actions