Have we given up on Tex?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=5375 Youks

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=4937 Tex

It also increases the amount of time the HH’ers spend praising the various virtues of Mike Soscia’s aggressive-baserunning/small-ball/anemic-offense ways, and then puking up bitter jealousy and venom when they inevitably wilt in the postseason. Cheap fun at any price.

…solid gold.

The thing about Wakefield is that he’s dirt cheap for a starting pitcher, and will continue to be dirt cheap in perpetuity. We need someone to pitch on Day 5, and he can do so about 28-30 times a season and give the team a 50% chance to win, or so. He’s also less likely to tail off with age, because he certainly doesn’t rely on his Howitzer of an arm. This year may have been the start of his drop-off, but maybe not, after all, his ERA, IP and WHIP are consistent with ’07 and ’05 when he won 16 and 17 games. The rocky W-L is likely explained by the Tampa Bay D-Bags Rays kicking (our) ass this year, as they were reliable Wakefield patsies in years past.

In economic terms, Wakefield’s an easily movable part – a low-cost starter who effectively has a lifetime contractual commitment to us, while we have no such commitment to him beyond the current season. That said, he’s only more useful than average as a cog in a larger plan to develop young pitching. I think we have enough young talent on the farm to justify Timmy’s continued presence, but it also needs to be mentioned that this role makes infinitely more sense if he’s SP5 and not SP4 – whichis his role as things currently stand. So really, I think feelings about the presence of Wakefield and about the acquisition of a starter depend largely on whether you think Buch, Bowden or Masterson is a viable SP4 MLB starter this year.

As an aside, the major cost of Wake, in terms of flexibility, is that he requires a caddy – meaning our back-up catcher position is determined 95% by whether they can catch the knuckler and 5% by stuff like OPS, their ability to throw out baserunners, and breathing. Speaking of which …

As to Varitek, the comment from the Joe-Morgan-verse (and my internal Joe-Morgan-verse agrees) would of course be to mention his veteranly goodness and his unparalleled ability to be present when a no-hitter is thrown, and to suggest that he – much like the “other” Captain Intangibles – is a “true leader.” I think that there’s something to all of this, but it doesn’t blind me to the stats line, which is underwhelming to say the least. My question is what else is available? I-Rod? Zaun? Chad Moeller? Not much at all.

While I hope he’ll rebound, Tek right now is Crash Davis without the power: a heady pitcher-manager whose limbs put together aren’t worth seven cents a pound. His value is in (1) being a game-caller (and though not measurable, I think this is a skill, and he’s an All-Star), (2) a clubhouse guy, and (3) a first-and-sandwich compensation-getter if signed elsewhere.* The second category always has some value, but not enough to pay considerable cash or hemorrhage considerable wasted ABs for. The first category has considerable value given that we have a young pitching staff to develop and a young catcher (either from within or without).** The third category has value in two senses – the first is that it depresses ’Tek’s value as a free-agent, given that teams are required to give up future talent, and the second obviously is that we get rewarded if ’Tek does sign elsewhere, and we play the season with offensively comparable and Wakefield catcher-able Kevin Cash.

Would I do a ‘Tek for Mauer/Soto/Martin straight up? Sure. But given the constraints of reality as we know it, I think we’ve managed our catcher situation fairly well…

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 * – This all assumes that ‘Tek does not accept arbitration. If he does, we’ll see what the arbitrator thinks.

 ** – I hear Texas lowered their offer to Buchholz, Masterson, Lester, Pedroia and Superman for Saltalamacchia.

TROLL?

We use both as loving jokes about the teams.