Post by The Vermont Bombers on Nov 1, 2014 21:13:12 GMT -5
Washington Times
Are the Senators Mad Scientists or just Mad ?
By Fernando Butterman, Lead Baseball Writer
Part 1: The Prelude: January to March
This year is has been another brutal year in the nation’s capital, and not just because of politics. While the Senators on the Hill are dealing with their own problems, the fans of the team of the same name are looking at another season that’s uglier than the politics on the Hill. The Senators are not a good team. They have not been a good team for the better part of their tenure in the Nation’s Capital. It’s a toss-up as to who has been more disappointing, the politicians or the players. The first part of this two part article will address the moves that the team made from January 1st to before the All Star break.
The team’s last winning season was in 1956 when the team went 79-75. The last winning season before that was the league’s inaugural season when the Senators were 81-73, combining for a record in their winning seasons of 160-148, a winning percentage of .519. Around those seasons the team has gone 418-506, a .452 winning percentage. This has been due to both good and bad decisions by Ownership and Management, as well as some very bad luck.
Team ownership and management has made good decisions, and the Senators have a very good Scouting Department. That Scouting department found maturing slugger and Franchise cornerstone Harmon Killebrew, Tom Haller, the number two rated prospect in the entire league, Outfielder Lee Maye (more on that later), stud Shortstop Clete Boyer (see; “Maye, Lee”) and Pitchers Luis Tiant, Jack Hamilton and Joe Hoerner. It also found late bloomers like Outfielder Bud Zipfel and Shortstop Bob Saverine, and unrecognized gems such as rookie Reliever Rollie Sheldon.
The team has also made good trades and bad trades. The most memorable bad trades saw them send Lee Maye and Clete Boyer to Pittsburgh. Both are blossoming young stars now. It’s fair to say that most of the team’s trades have not necessarily worked out in their favor. Some offered the illusion of a short term gain, such as adding a part or two for a playoff run that never materialized. Others were just salary dumps where the team took on a fringe or longshot prospect or struggling player with the hope of a sudden spurt of maturity or a “change of venue” turn around. While the majority of them can’t be qualified as “failures”, it’s also not appropriate to call them “successes” either. Washington seems to be a team that’s good at coming up “just short” a lot of the time. Unfortunately, in Baseball coming up “just short” tends to lead to long term failures, if only for the fact that they don’t pan out as desired.
Perhaps it is this litany of failures that pushed Washington management to make the decisions that it made starting before the 1960 season even started. Most of these moves appear to have been made in order to clear salary and build up the Minor League system, which while it has the number two rated prospect in the league, Catcher Tom Haller, is still ranked only ninth overall of all of the systems in the league. As the Senators have only two of the league’s top 100 prospects, this overall rating is due more to having Haller than it is to having a deep farm system.
The Senators, who are soon to move to Bloomfield, Minnesota, seemed to see all of these parts on the board and realize that they were a team that was not constructed to win now and didn’t have a Farm System with enough immediate punch in it to make them a contender in the next season or two. One can only speculate, but perhaps it was with these things in mind that lead them to start the 1960 season by making a handful of small moves by the end of February. Those moves were a hint at the team’s philosophy for the remainder of the season and going forward. Let’s take a look at those moves from month to month.
January: SP Marion Fricano to St. Louis for SS Jerry Adair and RP David Baldwin
It made sense for Washington to ship out the 37 year old Fricano and his five million dollar contract due to his age and Washington’s position in the division and the league. The move made sense for both teams. It gave St. Louis another veteran pitcher that could either start or relieve and help them compete and it helped Washington by relieving them of his five million dollar contract while helping them add two more prospects with potential to their farm system.
This trade gets a C grade mainly because of the talent of Reliever Dave Baldwin. At 22, Baldwin looks like he will be an easy Major League regular when he’s done developing and could be a shutdown Set Up arm if his walk rate matures a bit more. His greatest asset is his split-fingered Fastball, which helps him generate a 68% groundball percentage. Given his 8.38 ERA and nearly even K/BB rate at AA Charlotte, Baldwin is going to start the 1961 season back in the warm sun of the Carolina League. Washington would be happy to see him end it at Triple A Chattanooga. Adair looks like a longshot prospect. He put up decent numbers in Double A and Triple A, but if he gets called up it won’t be for his bat as he walks too little and strikes out too often. If he could improve his bat just a little, Washington would be happy to bring him up for his glove alone, as he has above average range and good hands, although he could stand to improve his fielding a bit more. Baldwin is the player with a future in Washington/Minnesota, anything that they get out of Adair above Triple A would be considered a bonus.
Verdict: C
February: Re-signed CL Joe Presko to a 3 year, 12 million dollar contract
This was obviously a bridge move for a very bad bullpen that has a lot of young talent in the minor leagues and a solid young arm in John Oldham maturing in the Majors. Thirty two year old Presko (31 at the time of his contract singing) had spent the previous three and a half seasons with Washington, most of his tenure as a Starting Pitcher. The move made sense in the short term and as it is not a long term move and Washington would probably trade him if given a good offer for him, this move receives no grade.
Verdict: N/A
March: Washington made no moves in March, either in the trade front or within the organization. The agressive rebuilding would begin in April.
The first three months of the season didn’t give much away as trading a veteran for two prospects and re-signing a veteran pitcher aren’t generally very indicative moves for any team. Washington would really set the tone for the future of the organization in the coming months. Part two of this series will cover the month of April, as the Washington Front Office was very busy and really aggressively set the tone for the rebuilding of the organization.
It's hard to say much about the first three months in order to give them an overall organizational grade. Moving Fricano made perfect sense and it could be argued that due to his age that his return wouldn't be great. That they got a longshot prospect in Adair is no real surprise. Getting a Relief Pitcher with the future of Dave Baldwin was a bonus and one that could pay huge dividends. As trades go, it could be said that it was an even trade across the board. Fricano had a decent season for St. Louis, although he pitched mostly out of the bullpen and St. Louis ultimately finished third and failed to make the playoffs. One cannot blame that on him. It's a long season and this just wasn't St. Louis' year. Washington knew that it wouldn't be their year and gave him a chance to play for a team that had been a winner. The Washington system was still relatively barren and the team was still mediocre. If one were to make their decisions based on assumptions, it would be easy to assume that March was the month that Ownership decided to take the team into full rebuild mode. Their Front Office doesn't tend to make trades just for the sake of making trades, so chances are more likely that the trade market was just really quiet that month and Washington wasn't sent an offer that they really liked. That would all change dramatically in April.
Forthcoming articles: Part 2: April: Re-Seeding the Farm
Are the Senators Mad Scientists or just Mad ?
By Fernando Butterman, Lead Baseball Writer
Part 1: The Prelude: January to March
This year is has been another brutal year in the nation’s capital, and not just because of politics. While the Senators on the Hill are dealing with their own problems, the fans of the team of the same name are looking at another season that’s uglier than the politics on the Hill. The Senators are not a good team. They have not been a good team for the better part of their tenure in the Nation’s Capital. It’s a toss-up as to who has been more disappointing, the politicians or the players. The first part of this two part article will address the moves that the team made from January 1st to before the All Star break.
The team’s last winning season was in 1956 when the team went 79-75. The last winning season before that was the league’s inaugural season when the Senators were 81-73, combining for a record in their winning seasons of 160-148, a winning percentage of .519. Around those seasons the team has gone 418-506, a .452 winning percentage. This has been due to both good and bad decisions by Ownership and Management, as well as some very bad luck.
Team ownership and management has made good decisions, and the Senators have a very good Scouting Department. That Scouting department found maturing slugger and Franchise cornerstone Harmon Killebrew, Tom Haller, the number two rated prospect in the entire league, Outfielder Lee Maye (more on that later), stud Shortstop Clete Boyer (see; “Maye, Lee”) and Pitchers Luis Tiant, Jack Hamilton and Joe Hoerner. It also found late bloomers like Outfielder Bud Zipfel and Shortstop Bob Saverine, and unrecognized gems such as rookie Reliever Rollie Sheldon.
The team has also made good trades and bad trades. The most memorable bad trades saw them send Lee Maye and Clete Boyer to Pittsburgh. Both are blossoming young stars now. It’s fair to say that most of the team’s trades have not necessarily worked out in their favor. Some offered the illusion of a short term gain, such as adding a part or two for a playoff run that never materialized. Others were just salary dumps where the team took on a fringe or longshot prospect or struggling player with the hope of a sudden spurt of maturity or a “change of venue” turn around. While the majority of them can’t be qualified as “failures”, it’s also not appropriate to call them “successes” either. Washington seems to be a team that’s good at coming up “just short” a lot of the time. Unfortunately, in Baseball coming up “just short” tends to lead to long term failures, if only for the fact that they don’t pan out as desired.
Perhaps it is this litany of failures that pushed Washington management to make the decisions that it made starting before the 1960 season even started. Most of these moves appear to have been made in order to clear salary and build up the Minor League system, which while it has the number two rated prospect in the league, Catcher Tom Haller, is still ranked only ninth overall of all of the systems in the league. As the Senators have only two of the league’s top 100 prospects, this overall rating is due more to having Haller than it is to having a deep farm system.
The Senators, who are soon to move to Bloomfield, Minnesota, seemed to see all of these parts on the board and realize that they were a team that was not constructed to win now and didn’t have a Farm System with enough immediate punch in it to make them a contender in the next season or two. One can only speculate, but perhaps it was with these things in mind that lead them to start the 1960 season by making a handful of small moves by the end of February. Those moves were a hint at the team’s philosophy for the remainder of the season and going forward. Let’s take a look at those moves from month to month.
January: SP Marion Fricano to St. Louis for SS Jerry Adair and RP David Baldwin
It made sense for Washington to ship out the 37 year old Fricano and his five million dollar contract due to his age and Washington’s position in the division and the league. The move made sense for both teams. It gave St. Louis another veteran pitcher that could either start or relieve and help them compete and it helped Washington by relieving them of his five million dollar contract while helping them add two more prospects with potential to their farm system.
This trade gets a C grade mainly because of the talent of Reliever Dave Baldwin. At 22, Baldwin looks like he will be an easy Major League regular when he’s done developing and could be a shutdown Set Up arm if his walk rate matures a bit more. His greatest asset is his split-fingered Fastball, which helps him generate a 68% groundball percentage. Given his 8.38 ERA and nearly even K/BB rate at AA Charlotte, Baldwin is going to start the 1961 season back in the warm sun of the Carolina League. Washington would be happy to see him end it at Triple A Chattanooga. Adair looks like a longshot prospect. He put up decent numbers in Double A and Triple A, but if he gets called up it won’t be for his bat as he walks too little and strikes out too often. If he could improve his bat just a little, Washington would be happy to bring him up for his glove alone, as he has above average range and good hands, although he could stand to improve his fielding a bit more. Baldwin is the player with a future in Washington/Minnesota, anything that they get out of Adair above Triple A would be considered a bonus.
Verdict: C
February: Re-signed CL Joe Presko to a 3 year, 12 million dollar contract
This was obviously a bridge move for a very bad bullpen that has a lot of young talent in the minor leagues and a solid young arm in John Oldham maturing in the Majors. Thirty two year old Presko (31 at the time of his contract singing) had spent the previous three and a half seasons with Washington, most of his tenure as a Starting Pitcher. The move made sense in the short term and as it is not a long term move and Washington would probably trade him if given a good offer for him, this move receives no grade.
Verdict: N/A
March: Washington made no moves in March, either in the trade front or within the organization. The agressive rebuilding would begin in April.
The first three months of the season didn’t give much away as trading a veteran for two prospects and re-signing a veteran pitcher aren’t generally very indicative moves for any team. Washington would really set the tone for the future of the organization in the coming months. Part two of this series will cover the month of April, as the Washington Front Office was very busy and really aggressively set the tone for the rebuilding of the organization.
It's hard to say much about the first three months in order to give them an overall organizational grade. Moving Fricano made perfect sense and it could be argued that due to his age that his return wouldn't be great. That they got a longshot prospect in Adair is no real surprise. Getting a Relief Pitcher with the future of Dave Baldwin was a bonus and one that could pay huge dividends. As trades go, it could be said that it was an even trade across the board. Fricano had a decent season for St. Louis, although he pitched mostly out of the bullpen and St. Louis ultimately finished third and failed to make the playoffs. One cannot blame that on him. It's a long season and this just wasn't St. Louis' year. Washington knew that it wouldn't be their year and gave him a chance to play for a team that had been a winner. The Washington system was still relatively barren and the team was still mediocre. If one were to make their decisions based on assumptions, it would be easy to assume that March was the month that Ownership decided to take the team into full rebuild mode. Their Front Office doesn't tend to make trades just for the sake of making trades, so chances are more likely that the trade market was just really quiet that month and Washington wasn't sent an offer that they really liked. That would all change dramatically in April.
Forthcoming articles: Part 2: April: Re-Seeding the Farm
