Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Roster decisions

We’ve reached the point of the regular season when teams are evaluating their rosters and accepting that decisions have to be made.  It’s not easy for a general manager to look at an off-season acquisition and accept that the move hasn’t worked out as planned.  Some GM’s will hold on in the hope that the player will come good and save their blushes, but more often than not such indecision only makes a bad situation worse.  The best GM’s recognise that a change is needed and then act quickly, even if that means casting aside a popular veteran.

Two such veteran players were collecting their belongings from their respective clubhouse this week. 

Sox send away Smoltz

The Boston Red Sox designated John Smoltz for assignment on Thursday and the timing couldn’t have been more painful for the veteran pitcher.  Smoltz was pummelled and sent packing with his team embroiled in a battle with the Yankees, the type of big-game, pressurised situation that he had relished in the past. 

Smoltz didn’t make it up to the Red Sox’s roster until 25 June after spending the preceding months on the DL recovering from shoulder surgery.   Early struggles were put down to rust and the hope was that he would quickly return to form, but such hopes were never realised.  In eight starts, Smoltz was 2-5 with an 8.33 ERA.  He made it through at least six innings only twice during that span and conceded twenty-five runs in his last four starts.  With other pitchers struggling as well, the Red Sox finally reached the point where they could no longer wait for Smoltz to turn the corner at the Big League level.   We now have to wait and see whether Smoltz accepts a move to the Minor Leagues and if he can make his way back up to help the Red Sox later in the year.

No one likes to see a great of the game being laid to waste as time catches up on him.  His former team the Braves would have felt for Smoltz as much as anyone, but their GM Frank Wren could be forgiven for feeling a slight sense of justification.  Wren was castigated by many in Atlanta when he ‘allowed’ Braves-lifer Smoltz to walk away prior to the 2009 season.  The argument was that no other team should have valued the pitcher higher than the Braves and Wren should have matched the Red Sox’s offer.

It was an argument based on emotion, one that overlooked the fact that the Red Sox were in a very different position to the Braves, as I noted in this column back on 28 June:

“The Red Sox’s plentiful pitching options and payroll flexibility allowed them to sign up Smoltz despite knowing that he would miss at least the first two months of the season.  His rehabilitation from right-shoulder surgery could be conducted at a considered pace so that when he did finally make his way back onto a Major League mound, he would have every chance of staying healthy for the rest of the year”.

The Braves didn’t have, and still don’t have, such luxuries to fall back on.  Smoltz’s deal signed with the Red Sox amounted to an initial $5.5m with incentives on top that could have doubled the outlay.  Wren weighed up what he thought he would get in return from his investment in Smoltz and decided that the dollars could be spent better elsewhere. 

It looks like he made the right call, even if it was unpopular at the time. 

Giambi and A’s part company again

The Oakland A’s decision to release Jason Giambi on Friday was another sad reflection on how their 2009 season has panned out. 

I watched the press conference live online when his signing was announced and no A’s fan could help getting caught up a little in the moment.  The cheek and charm of the Giambi of old (i.e. the pre-Yankee Giambi) was in full evidence and everyone, from the beat writers to the player himself, was clearly delighted to see him back in Oakland.  We all wanted one last hurrah.  We didn’t expect another 2000 MVP performance of course, just a solid season with a 25+ bombs to remind us of the good old days (albeit with the knowledge that the ‘good old days’ might not have been the ‘cleanest’ of days).

It wasn’t to be and on reflection the press conference gave us all a clue that this might be the case.  Billy Beane was keen to stress the positive influence that Giambi would have on the clubhouse, which was not the sort of thing you would normally hear Beane trumpeting too much.  Performance on the field is all that really matters.  Had Giambi been holding his own in a decent team then those additional benefits might have counted for something.  However, it’s difficult to be a ‘clubhouse leader’ while hitting .193 on a team nowhere close to .500.

So Giambi ‘earned’ his release, following fellow ’09 offensive additions Matt Holliday and Orlando Cabrera out of the door.  They at least left because other teams wanted them and the A’s were back in selling mode (if they were ever really out of selling mode).  Giambi’s future is less certain.  

From hope in April to an unconditional release in August, baseball can catch up on a veteran very quickly.  Still, with reports that several teams have already contacted his agent looking for an extra bat down the stretch, maybe there will be another twist to Giambi’s 2009 season?