Good Article by Jim Caple...

by Nadingo on Nov 14, 2007 12:35 PM PST

with one huge glaring exception.

Caple's article offers up a reasoned rebuttal to the hordes of rabid sportswriters and fans who hate A-rod for his arrogance, phoniness, and supposed un-clutchiness.

He makes several great points about how talent matters far more than chemistry and all that junk, but then he gets to this:

I understand people worrying that signing A-Rod would preclude their team from obtaining other necessary players. But that's a needless concern. Signing someone like A-Rod, Derek Jeter or Manny Ramirez to a contract for $20 million to $25 million per year isn't what hurts a team financially. It's signing the likes of Jeff Weaver for $8 million and Richie Sexson for $15 million, then trading for Horacio Ramirez and his $2 million salary (not that I have any particular team in mind). As Bill Veeck once said, "It isn't the high price of stars that is expensive; it's the high price of mediocrity." In that sense, signing A-Rod might help financially, because you'll be less likely to waste your money on some stiff who won't produce (hello, Adrian Beltre).

Ah, Jim, you had me right up until those last two words!

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Hahaha

I was just reading that and was going to link here - It gave me a great laugh, but really that only was to hide my tears and bury my pain.

Someone needs to put a copy of that on Lincoln's desk - his GM is the laughingstock of the baseball world.

We want the funk! Give up the funk!

by thejew4u on Nov 14, 2007 12:44 PM PST reply actions

Umm... Red should comment.

Beltre produces. Everything else he said about the Mariners is right, but that's a really stupid statement that has no statistical proof backing it. Sexson sucks, Beltre gets paid less than Sexson and does not suck. One of these things is not like the other.

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 12:50 PM PST reply actions

OK, so I just spent the last 20 minutes

leaving my opinion about Mr Caple and ESPN on the message board overthere. I hit post comment and it said it couldnt be displayed and erased the entire comment. Now Im more pissed than I was reading the article. Articles like this are the reason that I only go to ESPN to look at boxscores, there is no bias in boxscore numbers. Seriously, I wonder how many Mariner games he actually WATCHED this year? Im guessing its less than 10. What a hack!

Seriously...Who the FUCK steals another mans bobblehead?

by RED29 on Nov 14, 2007 3:42 PM PST up reply actions

You should email Caple

Do so here. He's actually a pretty reasonable dude, and that parenthetical seems to be a throw-in to appease someone.

As for the number of games he watches, I'm guessing it's probably more than 10, since he lives in Portland he has pretty easy access to M's broadcasts...

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 3:44 PM PST up reply actions

Oh

He's reasonable? Than disregard that puppy kicking comment... That must have been someone else.

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 3:45 PM PST up reply actions

I've met him a couple times

and while I don't claim to know him well, I would certainly say that he knows more about the Mariners than your average ESPN guy, which is what makes the Beltre parenthetical all the more baffling.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 3:47 PM PST up reply actions

I shot him an email

I tried to keep it as professional and kind as possible so he would possibly respond to it.

We'll see, if he doesnt respond though...well, I wont do anything.

Seriously...Who the FUCK steals another mans bobblehead?

by RED29 on Nov 14, 2007 4:04 PM PST up reply actions

I heard he was constipated

And that he kicks puppies.

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 3:45 PM PST up reply actions

I love Jim Caple

I think he is the only one sometimes who writes like the West Coast/Northwest exists.

And he is hilariously dead-on (except for the Beltre part, but I think that is just laziness)

I fucking hate you Mariners

by kentroyals5 on Nov 14, 2007 12:54 PM PST reply actions

Only because...

He's from Seattle, graduated from the UW and worked at the PI before moving up to ESPN.

Detect-O-Vision

Favor the Bold

by IcebreakerX on Nov 14, 2007 4:15 PM PST up reply actions

i was going to post this too

but i was too lazy to log in.

"then trading for Horacio Ramirez and his $2 million salary "

i think someone needs to remind him that 1. ho makes more than 2 million... and hes coming back. and 2. we didnt just trade for him; we traded one of our best relief prospects for him

on the other points... sad... it hurts because its true...

by seattlebruin on Nov 14, 2007 1:06 PM PST reply actions

except

the part about adrian beltre sucking. that is most certainly not true

by seattlebruin on Nov 14, 2007 1:07 PM PST up reply actions

Funniest thing was that

I read this like 15 min ago, and thought about coming here but was too lazy.

He's dead-on until the jab at Beltre.

There's a ridiculously stupid article by philbrick or something detailing why a team shouldn't get A-Rod. Terrible, terrible arguments

FREE ADAM JONES

by dbroncos31 on Nov 14, 2007 1:12 PM PST reply actions

The theme of the day is "lazy"

Jim Caple was apparently too lazy to look up Beltre's actual stats, and other posters here were too lazy to make a diary about the article. And I only made the diary because I'm too lazy to get any actual work done as I sit at my desk.

by Nadingo on Nov 14, 2007 1:38 PM PST reply actions

I'm so lazy

that I can't even be bothered to fini

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 1:42 PM PST up reply actions

ROTFLMFAO!!!

"I restore a sense of childlike wonder to people's lives; you give them Zunes and Vista." -- Fake Steve Jobs to Borg employees

by PositivePaul on Nov 14, 2007 1:50 PM PST up reply actions

TROTHLMFAOBITLTADI

"Typing Rolling on the floor laughing my fucking ass off because I'm too lazy to actually do it."

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 1:52 PM PST up reply actions

Even lazier

Saving 1000 words, because a picture says it so much better:

"I restore a sense of childlike wonder to people's lives; you give them Zunes and Vista." -- Fake Steve Jobs to Borg employees

by PositivePaul on Nov 14, 2007 2:07 PM PST up reply actions

Nice.

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 2:20 PM PST up reply actions

Impressive.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 2:20 PM PST up reply actions

pdb wins the thread

by Gomez on Nov 14, 2007 3:17 PM PST up reply actions

There was nothing wrong with that WEaver signing

So fuck you resto f planet it was the right call. Fuck you as well peopl ehow agree with it.

by Graham MacAree on Nov 14, 2007 2:04 PM PST reply actions

Drunk Corco? Is that you?

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 2:20 PM PST up reply actions

I'm not Corco

Also, fuck you >:(

by Graham MacAree on Nov 14, 2007 2:26 PM PST up reply actions

Man.

I wish I could be drunk at 2 in the afternoon.

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

by Phil Hatzenbuehler on Nov 14, 2007 2:38 PM PST up reply actions

Me too

I mean, without fear of getting fired. Of course, Graham's 8 hrs ahead of everybody on the west coast, and it's almost closing time there, so he's had a head start.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 2:46 PM PST up reply actions

He's in England.

Yesterday's Pants
A blog-thingy about the Mariners and stuff.

by BrettJMiller on Nov 14, 2007 2:53 PM PST up reply actions

I don't know whats sadder

The fact that so many people feel the need to post while drunk or how I feel that I must post from my cellphone while drunk.

by Robert on Nov 14, 2007 3:47 PM PST up reply actions

I think he's talking in code

by Robert on Nov 14, 2007 3:45 PM PST up reply actions

My Beavis and Butthead joke of the day.

01000010
01101111
01101110
01100101
01110010

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 3:47 PM PST up reply actions

I'm a Beavis & Butthead fan,

and I don't get that one.

I overvalue prospects

by Thingray on Nov 14, 2007 3:52 PM PST up reply actions

Boner

by Robert on Nov 14, 2007 3:54 PM PST up reply actions

You misspelled

Flight of the Conchords.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 3:55 PM PST up reply actions

Come on sucker, lick my battery

by Graham MacAree on Nov 15, 2007 1:25 AM PST up reply actions

I'm glad someone posted this

I sent Caple a pretty scathing e-mail about Beltre after reading the article.

Actually, has anyone noticed the ARod lovefest going on at espn.com right now? Their "sports nation" poll is pretty effing ridiculous ("Who would you rather have for $25M: A) Alex Rodriguez or B) Torii Hunter and Kyle Lohse").

by Katal LM on Nov 14, 2007 4:13 PM PST reply actions

c)

I'd rather have 25 million dollars.

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 4:15 PM PST up reply actions

Actually that WAS option C...

"Are you really going to make me choose one?"

We want the funk! Give up the funk!

by thejew4u on Nov 14, 2007 8:54 PM PST up reply actions

My favorite one:

9. Which player would you rather have?

69.6% Alex Rodriguez
30.4% David Eckstein

Yup. 3 out of 10 people that frequent espn.com would rather have one of many Willie Bloomquist clones on their team than Alex "Best Player Of My Generation Or The One Before Me" Rodriguez.

And my friends wonder why I say never to take anything on espn or espn.com seriously any more.

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Nov 14, 2007 4:19 PM PST up reply actions

eh

Jose Vidro (DH - Ms) was arrested today in an Idaho Bathroom for having a wide stance and sucking.

by CapSea on Nov 14, 2007 4:24 PM PST up reply actions

I voted for Eckstein

out of spite.

by Katal LM on Nov 14, 2007 5:16 PM PST up reply actions

Come now,

Eckstein is "scrappy", and thus overrated, but he's not a bloomquist clone.

Until this year, UZR considered him a very good defender. And he has actually been an about average offensive player in 2 out of the last 3 years.

visiting A's fan.

by rfloh @ Lookout Landing on Nov 15, 2007 10:06 AM PST up reply actions

Isn't that a bit much?

I don't think we need to jump all over him for being very wrong about 5% of his column while being right about the other 95%. And Caple definitely knows more about the Mariners than just about any other national columnist. He just made the same mistake that pretty much all other national sportswriters make when talking about Beltre.

by Nadingo on Nov 14, 2007 6:34 PM PST up reply actions

Being mostly right doesn't excuse

being glaringly wrong in one instance. There's no excuse for any national sportswriter to still be down on Beltre. 2005 is long over.

by Katal LM on Nov 14, 2007 6:40 PM PST up reply actions

People still call A-Rod a playoff choker

by Gomez on Nov 14, 2007 10:21 PM PST up reply actions

Ok I'll defend Caple

Adrian Beltre is valuable but he has not lived up to the expectations we had when we signed him. I like him but I think its valid to say Beltre has disapointed so far.

Over the last three years he has basically been average offensively. From Baseball Reference, he's been worth about 6 runs above average offensively and over the last three years I'd guess optimistically 25 runs above average defensively. That works out to about 10 runs above average per year for $12 million per year. Is 1 run above average worth a million dollars? I hope not.

I was expecting to see Beltre produce much like he did last year for the first two years of his contract. He isn't a bust because of what he did last year. What is killing him is how poorly he performed in the first two years of his contract (mostly 1st year).

We'll just need to wait back and see what type of production we can expect from Beltre as time goes on. I'm happy we have him but I think there is a strong case that can be made that at this point he has been a free agent bust.

by Edgar for Pres on Nov 14, 2007 6:56 PM PST reply actions

2005 aside, he's produced exactly as I had hoped.

2005 was an undeniably terrible season, and I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand, but he's been a pretty damn valuable player since then.

The only way you can see Beltre as a bust is if you honestly expected him to put up 2004 type numbers every year. Were that the case, he'd be A-Rod with better defense. Also, he's just now entering his peak years. He's been around so long that I think people forget that fact.

by Aaron Campeau on Nov 14, 2007 9:13 PM PST reply actions