Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
The metaphor doesn't work if you don't know Wicked, or at least the story of Wizard of Oz, but J.P. Ricciardi is now playing the part of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
That's not an insult.
Again, you have to know the story of Wicked, but it turns the story on its head. Good is boring and ordered, a bit surprised by her own power. Evil isn't so evil, a bit more interesting and easily rooted for.
By signing AJ Burnett, BJ Ryan, and commencing a series of trades, Ricciardi is defying the laws of gravity that he and his team know well and taking the chance that the house falls on his head. If Rogers' checkbook gave him the ruby shoes, the bold moves made are both the broomstick he flys on and the house.
That's not to say I agree with the moves. I don't. I'm just saying that there's more than one way to look at things and while I can admire boldness, I'm not going to be standing next to JP, just in case that house comes down.
At age 28, Burnett has 4 semi-full to full seasons, with ERA+ of 104, 121, 112, 117. Dreifort had 3 and his ERA+ were 97, 93, 104. Similar Ballpark factors too I imagine. So Dreifort's best year was about the same as Burnett's worst. Not that you need the numbers, really, any fool should have known this intuitively.
But it's disappointing to read a fairly respected BP author and have to say to yourself "now you're just making sh** up." I usually reserve that for the Plashcke's of the world.
Burnett may have that same magic quality, which means it's an idiotic signing.
There's no hard evidence at this point. He was relatively healthy, then had TJ and has had a reasonably normal post TJ career. He and hundreds of other pitchers.
No, Sheehan was talking about performance as well. And saying that 114OPS+ on average is comparable to 98 is simply misinformed and "making stuff up".
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