Sacred Cow Ausmus finally led to graze on bench

(the heavily edited DC version)

With the Astros struggling offense dragging the team to a 12-17 May record, manager Phil Garner and GM Tim Purpura finally came to a long overdue conclusion: Brad Ausmus is not an everyday catcher.

Ausmus has long been a Houston favorite, giving terrific quotes to all the beat writers and being a leader in the clubhouse and in the community. The club has been very successful since he rejoined in 2001, peaking in 2005 with a World Series appearance. Because of the high esteem that he’s been held in, Ausmus has become somewhat of a sacred cow on the Houston sports scene. Nobody wants to write ill of someone who by all accounts seems like a good guy and gives great quotes. However, despite the hustle and intangibles he is known for, Ausmus’ on-field play has been holding back the Astros offense for years.

In his last seven years with the Astros, Ausmus has never hit above .260, never hit ten homers, and never driven in more than fifty runs. Moving beyond the triple crown stats shows an even more telling picture; Ausmus’ .314 on-base percentage in his second tenure in Houston has been keeping runs off the board that the Astros could have used in close playoff races. Taking out the intentional walks that he is given in front of the pitcher lowers this to .304, and he has grounded into over a hundred double plays throughout the same period of time, killing many rallies.

Fifty-six games into the season, the Astros have scored only two hundred twenty-seven times, ahead of only the Nationals and Cardinals among the NL’s sixteen teams. Ausmus is hardly the teams only offensive problem; Lance Berkman is off to a slow start, Craig Biggio’s quest for 3,000 hits has been sputtering along slowly, and Adam Everett has never been able to hit. However, Berkman will bounce back, Everett has his sterling defense to fall back on, and Biggio will probably lose playing time to Mark Loretta as soon as he reaches his milestone. Ausmus has three Gold Gloves, the most recent of which came last year, and also carries a reputation for working well with young pitchers.

Unfortunately, the gold gloves are more an indication of reputation than actual skill. His 2006 Gold Glove was laughable, as he only threw out twenty-two percent of runners attempting to steal. By comparison, the American League Gold Glove catcher last year, Ivan Rodriguez, threw out fifty-one percent of attempted basestealers. As for his reputation with young pitchers, the Astros haven’t broken in a rookie starter with an ERA under 4 since Tim Redding in 2003, and Redding hasn’t been in the majors since 2005.

So today’s ultimate solution for the Astros with Ausmus is to let him split time with failed ex-Tigers prospect Eric Munson, a career .212 hitter. Munson has demonstrated that he can hit well at Triple A, but this has never translated to the majors. While this probably isn’t a permanent solution, recognizing the problem is the first step. For far too long, the Astros have been content with Brad Ausmus sucking up outs at the bottom of their order.

Actual solutions will be harder to find. Cubs catcher Michael Barrett could be available, especially in the wake of last Friday’s fight with star starter Carlos Zambrano. The problem is that the Astros have very little to offer; their farm system is downright barren now that Hunter Pence has graduated to the majors. What the Astros need to do is something that Tim Purpura has never demonstrated an ability to do: get creative. Trading a career backup who has shown an ability to hit but never gotten an extended opportunity would make a lot of sense for the Astros. A few players who could fit this bill include Mike Redmond of the Twins, Javier Valentin of the Reds, and Kelly Shoppach of the Indians.

The Astros main trade chip will probably be Brad Lidge, who has quietly lowered his ERA to 2.70 after being removed from the closers role early in the season. Given the Reds penchant for trading for relievers, it’s not impossible to envision a trade between these two teams involving Lidge. Perhaps a deal of Lidge for recently demoted but promising third baseman Edwin Encarnacion and Valentin would work out for both teams. Especially since the Astros seem to hold Morgan Ensberg in a much lower regard than most teams around baseball.

Either way, the first step to solving the problem is admitting you have a problem. Brad Ausmus has clearly been a problem for the Astros for years, and it’s nice that they’ve finally realized it. Getting a quality catcher isn’t easy, but if the Astros just get a little creative, they can turn a weakness into a strength.

No whammies, no whammies

STOP!

I've been pondering what to write about the huge contracts doled out this offseason without saying "OH GOD YOU'RE ALL RETARDED!", and this offseason kind of feels like 2000 all over again. The best comparison I can come up with is related to Press Your Luck contestant Michael Larson, who broke the system. After we got the whole collusion business out of the way, free agents have broke the system again, and are eager to take the dollars before the GM's realize what they just did. As evidence, just look at the free agent market; I can't remember a year where so many top players signed before the Winter Meetings even began. The only real marquee player left on the market is Barry Zito.

How I envy the Cardinals, not only are they in a weak-ass division, and not only do they get 6 free games against the Royals year after year, and not only did they win the World Series, but everyone in their division that actually spends money seems to throw it down the trash can. The Astros paid $100 million to a player who, while very good, doesn't seem like someone who will age well, and was far from elite. Meanwhile, Carlos Beltran is making a similar salary (with one more year), when he could have been a key factor towards the Astros playoff runs in 2005 and 2006. This just goes to show you: When you have a franchise player, you do not let that guy walk. Beltran's move to New York set the Astros back from the moment in happened, and after this years abysmal CF production, it sewed the seeds for the signing of the wrong Carlos. The Astros, by the way, have still done nothing to remedy the fact that Willy Taveras, Brad Ausmus, Adam Everett, and the pitcher will all be batting in their lineup. Craig Biggio is no bet for real production either.

Going back to Beltran, a lot of people (myself included), assumed the leader for his services would be Arte Moreno and the Anaheim Angels. They had a hole, no real prospects who could play center, and the internal options were marginal players at best. Well, after passing him up for Steve Finley, who promptly fell off a cliff faster than SportsCenter did, they were forced to turn to Chone Figgins for much of last year. Once again, the lack of desire to chase a franchise player hurt, and they are going back to the well again this year, with the strange signing of Gary Matthews Jr. for 5 years and 50 million. This contract, like Lee's, will be a sunk cost by year four at the latest; Matthews had a career year and will be 37 by the time the contract ends.

I wonder how much of that 50 million was made just by that one phenomenal catch against the Astros last year.

Slightly better was the contract handed to Juan Pierre, which is damning with bated praise. At an average of one million or so less a year, the Dodgers have their very own league average center fielder. Unlike Matthews, Pierre has been universally weighed as a good defensive center fielder in terms of range. Also unlike Matthews, he's 28 and probably won't fall completely off the cliff by the end of the contract.

One last thing I want to weigh in on regarding these players: The Giants are said to have offered as much or more to all three of these guys. They were fortunate here and it got me to thinking: Without Barry Bonds, would the Giants just be the West Coast Baltimore Orioles?

Just look at their signings the last couple of years:
2006
-Matt Morris, aging rotation vet, horrible.
-Mark Sweeney, aging righty masher
-Tim Worrell, aging mediocre pen arm
-Jose Vizcaino, aging fuck you for Game 1 of the 2000 WS

2005
-Omar Vizquel, aging but surprisingly has played well, although losing a step or 9 defensively.
-Armando Benitez, not quite aging, but horrible.
-Mike Matheny, aging and horrible defensive catcher.
-Jeff Fassero, decomposing
-Moises Alou, aging and pretty good
-Released AJ Pierzynski after giving up Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, and Boof Bonser for him.

You have to go back to the Alfonzo and Durham signings after 2002 to find players that were added in their prime to the Giants team. The farm system has been completely barren-exempting players they've traded. They finally came up with Noah Lowry and Matt Cain (who is promising), in the last few years. Before that, we have a list of shredded arms (Jesse Foppert, Kurt Ainsworth), and mediocre starters/passable bench players (Pedro Feliz, Marvin Bernard). When the best you can produce is mediocrity, and you actively engage in losing draft picks to avoid paying them money (Michael Tucker), you need to be signing free agents in their prime to keep the ship moving. The Giants have not done that, and as such look to be in the bleakest non-Pirates/Royals situation of any baseball team over the next few years.

Baseball around the World, 9/29/06

MLB:
Roger Clemens shits bed, Astros playoff hopes, and all but mathematically eliminates the Reds - Is Clemens the A-Rod of pitchers? The only World Series win he took part in, he threw a bat at Mike Piazza. He also has failed to win games despite his ERA, yet fans make excuses for him. Not that I think wins matter, I'm just interested as to the big difference in vitrol between the two of them. The Reds will need the Cardinals to lose the last three games and they'll need to win their last two to tie them.

Philadelphia rapes Brian Moehler to keep Phillies mathematically alive for wild card - Time to go back to sandpaper. Fun fact: Brian Moehler is the second highest paid player on the Marlins this season.

Poker legend Paul Phillips, Emil Brown, come up with clutch win to keep the race for #1 pick interesting - With two games left, the Royals hold only a one game lead on the Devil Rays, who managed a "shocking" 2-1 loss when Seth McClung "accidentally" walked in Jhonny Peralta with 1 out in the ninth. The Royals still have the clear advantage as they are playing a team with incentive to win, but this could come down to the wire with the Rays starting Jae Seo and Jason Hammel for the last two days of the season.

Japanese League:
Buffaloes linked with Terry Collins - After having respected manager Akira Ogi die before the the season and going in with replacement Katsuhiro Nakamura, the Orix Buffaloes are now looking to bring in former Astros and Angels manager Terry Collins to the club. Collins would join Marines manager Bobby Valentine and Nippon manager Trey Hillman as the lone foreign managers in the twelve team league. Anyone actually wanting to hire Terry Collins should take a look at this September game log from 1996.

Tigers win ninth straight, move within 2 of Dragons - This is a huge series at Koshien for the home-standing Tigers, who have a chance to completely tie up the Central League with about two weeks to play. They took game one behind the efforts of Makoto Imaoka, who had his first hit since June be a pinch-hit three-run double that broke the game open. The CL winner wins an automatic berth to the Japan Series against the winner of the PL's playoffs. On an unrelated note, try to see how much sexual innuendo Jim Allen can fit into one column.

Dutch League:

DOOR Neptunus' Raily Legito, who won the MVP after hitting .366, won't be playing.

Game 4 of the best-of-5 Holland Series will be played this Saturday, with Konica Minolta Pioneers (25-17) playing host to Corendon Kinheim (33-7-2). Pioneers lead the series 2-1. Kinheim sends stopper Patrick Beljaards (12-2, 1.76) up against the Pioneers Richard Orman (6-4, 3.55), a rematch of the game two starters, where Beljaards threw a CG and gave up just one earned to get Kinheim's one win. Pioneers seem to be a team of destiny this year though, especially after knocking off DOOR Neptunus, which had won the last eight Holland Series. In other Dutch league news, Instant Holland Almere 90 (14-26-1) earned the right to stay in the league with a 3-0 sweep in the promotion/relegation series with RCH-Pinguins.

Apparently, this guy will be putting up a live play-by-play. You'll have to suffer through the Dutch, but it's exciting baseball!

Mexican League:
The season is long over, I just wanted to point out that the Mexican league has perhaps the dumbest playoff structure ever. There are 16 teams, 12 make it, and the 2 "best losers" get to play in the second round too. Just in case you thought the NBA was bad.

Spoilers

The Pirates are back in their spoiler role tonight against the Astros, one night after pecking Ian Snell to death via 12 singles. I am no great fan of this whole spoiler business because it tries to insert meaning into games that, for the Pittsburgh Pirates, really have none. Playing "spoiler" causes Jim Tracy to say even dumber things than he usually does:

"When we left on our last trip [Sept. 18], it appeared there would be the opportunity in this series for us to play some younger guys," Tracy said, "but, obviously, things have changed dramatically."

So the reason Rajai Davis will never see the field and Shane Youman probably won't get another start is because the Astros still have a chance to make the postseason? I missed the part where this has anything to do with the Pittsburgh Pirates whatsoever.

Hell, if losing to the Astros means Tony the Prick's boys miss out on the postseason, I don't even want to play spoiler. Honestly, I don't care who wins or loses these last five games, especially since Shawn Chacon is pitching at least one of them. I just want to see Freddy win the batting title, Sal break Teke's franchise appearances record, fun stuff like that. If we win games, it's all the more fun. But I'd really love an October without Tony's gigantic head.

But as far as tonight's game goes, I'll really be surprised if we pull out a win. Shawn Chacon has already lost to the Astros by scorelines of 13-1 and 14-1, including a home run to mound opponent Roy Oswalt in one of those games. He's also given up a home run to Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Carlos Marmol. In all, he's served up 11 long balls in just 40 2/3 innings since Craig Wilson was sacrificed to the Yankees. He has pitched better of late, allowing two or less earned runs in three of his last four starts, driving his Pirates ERA down to 5.09 which is mildly impressive given the amount of extremely ugly box scores he's been involved in. He's still walking more than he strikes out, which never bodes well. But he is a VETERAN RIGHTHANDED STARTER so he'll most likely be back again next season. Sigh.