Insomnially inspired ramblings

I know I wasn't planning on writing during the end of the semester, but it's 4 in the morning and I can't sleep. So... I thought I'd jump on the computer and randomly start complaining about the sad state of major league baseball's front offices. (If you care, please read and then scrutinize to death in the comments page. If you don't, skip to the last paragraph or so.)

Really, this entire offseason has been a total joke. It is absolutely unbelievable how much money is being wasted on overrated, overhyped players.

The world champion White Sox (I still can't believe I'm saying that) may be the standout idiots in a sea of brainless franchises this offseason. They'll be the ones throwing $43 million at Jim Thome for the next three years, praying that he forgets that he's 35, and returns to his prime (or, at the very least, stops hitting .207). They gave up possibly the best defensive player they had in Aaron Rowand, and they got a guy in return who gets paid six times more to play the DH role.

The Yankees were pretty stupid to drop $17 million on Kyle Farnsworth, but I can forgive them... for four reasons. One, they're the Yankees... what's another seventeen mil? Two, Brian Cashman's a hardworking guy. He doesn't have time to look at the man's career numbers; one season with a 2.19 ERA is good enough. Three, they were desperate... they didn't keep Flash, they missed out on Ryan and Wagner, and they needed someone to set up for Mo Rivera. And four...

It's not as though it was their idea to overpay for setup men coming off of overperforming contract years. It's the Cubs... oh, the poor, poor Cubs... who plan on paying their setup men $23 million through 2008. I have nothing against Scott Eyre and Bobby Howry. I'm sure they're both fine upstanding human beings. But neither name exactly makes me think "multimillionaire." Forgive me.

Then you have the Oakland A's. Billy Beane may be the holiest of holies in the baseball world, but I still have no clue of where he gets the idea that a $21 million contract for Esteban Loaiza fits into his "Moneyball" philosophy. Unless he's found some crazy new market inefficiency that makes it okay to break the bank on mediocre pitchers as they turn 34, the guy has just lost it.

And finally... it's the Big Three. The others were just mini-rants.

The Marlins... how can I put this... aren't even trying to have a competitive team. They claim to be rebuilding the franchise around Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, but in the meantime, it leaves them with no chance of success in the short run. They can barely field a team of major leaguers. I believe middle reliver Ron Villone is the only player they have with more than five years of experience in major league baseball. Apparently, they just decided that since they couldn't outspend the Mets or Braves, it would be better to just give up on competing at all. As promising as guys like Gaby Hernandez and Hanley Ramirez are, firesales like this really make me mad. People talk about steroid users and compulsive gamblers when they discuss the almighty Integrity Of The Game -- what about teams ruining their leagues' competitive balance because they aren't willing to put money into building a real team?

The Blue Jays, on the other hand, are trying, but they're trying a bit too hard. I suppose it's just supply and demand -- the pitchers on the free agent market just aren't that good this year -- but really? Fifty-five million over five years for Average AJ? He has no control, a career ERA of 3.73, and a career losing record, despite the fact that the Marlins have always fielded a decent (and in 2003, championship-winning) team. He's also not that young. He'll be 29 when he throws his first pitch in 2006.

Then you have BJ Ryan.

In the words of The Hardball Times' Dave Studeman... "When was the last time a reliever signed a five-year contract? I'm not sure, but maybe ... never?"

Ryan definitely had a solid year, but any time you give a reliever (who's pushing 30, and only has two good seasons under his belt) a $47 million contract, it just smacks of desperation. And given the surplus of great relief pitching in this year's free agent class, I fail to see a reason for said desperation. And it makes me laugh when I realize that next year's $9.4 million is 30 times what Huston Street got in Oakland last year, 26 times what the Nats paid Chad Cordero, and 19 times what the Astros gave Brad Lidge. My point is that closers, as impressive as they can be, are easily replaceable. Throwing away tens of millions of dollars to pay an already semi-established one is fairly mindless.

Last but not least, you have the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Note: I tried to put a picture in this entry, but it kept coming out really huge and the text-wrapping looked kinda weird. So I gave up.)

Now, I could talk about Milton Bradley and Jeff Kent ruining the team's chemistry. I could talk about how you know your rotation sucks when Derek Lowe's your ace. But, of course, I'd rather talk about William Grady Little, the man who will have the honor of piecing together some semblance of a decent major league baseball team (I could have sworn Los Angeles used to have one).

Now, I suppose that firing Paul DePodesta was the first step toward abandoning this whole Moneyball craze. It just wasn't working for them, and they gave up on it. But honestly... does that mean that you have to go out and hire Grady? Either Lasorda's gone senile, or he's just too nice in his old age to tell Ned Colletti that he's an idiot.

It's one thing to abandon the over-reliance on statistics that the Dodgers are blaming for their recent failures. Now, in my opinion, even that is moronic, but LA went a step further. Grady Little isn't just an "old-school manager" who goes on instinct rather than following the numbers. Sure, the Dodgers would like to think that, but really, that's a bullshit euphemism for "stupid redneck who probably couldn't pass fourth-grade math." (Rumor has it that the man literally threw his front office's scouting reports in his trash can.)

I could probably write a book about Ramiro Mendoza and Byung-Hyun Kim being put into countless games in which they had no business pitching. Or about Jason Varitek hitting 25 homers and sharing the bottom of the lineup with the batting title-winning Billy Mueller. Or about Grady blowing the American League pennant by leaving Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the ALCS. But no one would want to read any of those, because they'd be so horribly biased and angry. So instead, let's leave it at this: we'll let the results do the talking. A year from now, let's see how those Dodgers are doing.

That's about all I have to say right now. I'm holding off on the story-of-my-life type entries until either this Thursday or next Thursday (or maybe sometime this weekend). I'm trying to find a good time, one when all the things I have to talk about are over and done with, so I actually have some sort of complete story to tell. Right now, my life is too much of a mess. Hopefully I can get that mess cleaned up at some point, but right now, I'm too sleepy.