Rockies sign Podsednik to minor league deal worth up to 700K

[zurch1818]

Podsednik signed a minor league contract with an invite to spring training.

 

700K if he makes the team, otherwise 13K each month in minors

 

Here

[brettac1]

Well, you know they're going to win the whole thing, now.

[brewtank34]

Well, I would like to congratulate DM for trading for Lee. The Crew has definitely won out in that trade over the long haul. Even w/losing Coco this year, we without a doubt got more out of that trade than the Sox. Keep it up DM !!!!!

[berniebrewer4life]

Wow, he has fallen pretty quickly. Is it due to his legs starting to go, or something else? Oh well, he still has that hot wife of his to fall back on.

[sgtcluels]

I'll take Scotty Po's minor league salary. I could handle 13k a month!

 

Ohh and his wife.

[jason21nl]

Let the Podsednik bashing begin, because thats whats going to happen in this thread

[Tisko]

I'll take Scotty Po's minor league salary. I could handle 13k a month!

 

Ohh and his wife.

Took the words out of my mouth. I would not be surprised if he made the team. After all Finley made it last year as a non roster invite for the Rockies.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

I would be surprised, personally. Between Hawpe, Holliday, Spilborghs, & Taveras, that's 4 guys who likely are better than Scotty as of now. Plus they have Jeff Baker who can play some corner OF, and I'm sure at least one prospect that could give Scott a run for his money.

 

I'll grant that Taveras's game is much different from Po's, but with them being basically based on speed, I'll take the younger Taveras (plus, he's a solid defender iirc).

[mothershipconnection]

Speaking of lopsided trades, the Rockies also signed Victor Zambrano to a minor league deal. THAT GUY fetched Kazmir. Maybe if NY would've forgone Zambrano's services, they wouldn't have needed to trade for Santana and give him huge bucks. O.K., so Kazmir ain't Johan, but still.

[RightFieldCoder]

Doesn't Scott provide veteran leadership? And he knows how to win since he has a ring.

[ILuvDaBush]

Isn't it a bit funny that the guy has NO thump and he's played for teams that play in complete bandboxes. I think he's taken Greg Maddux's advice about chicks digging the long ball a bit too seriously. You cannot magnify something that isn't there.

[GAME05]

naw, i don't think you can totally bash Podsednik anymore. with the Brewers he started strong and then just fell off, so the bashing was maybe more justified. but at this point the Rockies know exactly what they're getting and you're taking him for what he is.

[BrewCrewForever]

I actually really liked Podsednik when he was here in Milwaukee. During his time here he was my favorite player on those teams. I hope he makes the Rockies roster.

[JohnBriggs12]

All he did was be the sparkplug for a championship team in 2005 including winning a World Series game in extra innings.

 

In 2007:

 

White Sox with Podsednik starting: 30-25 .545

 

Without Podsednik starting: 42-65 .393

 

Yep, a completely worthless player.

[RobertR]

Correlation does not equal causation.

 

That said, I see nothing wrong with a team signing Podsednik to $700K as a backup/insurance policy. He runs well and it's not like he's been putting up .500 OPS seasons where there's no justification for his bat in the lineup. Really, is he any worse than Craig Counsell offensively?

 

Robert

[TooLiveBrew]

White Sox with Podsednik starting: 30-25 .545

 

Without Podsednik starting: 42-65 .393

That's nothing but coincidence and probably at most an example of how poor their OF depth was that year.

[endaround]

By the same "logic" the Brewers are a much better team without Ryan Braun

[jason21nl]

All he did was be the sparkplug for a championship team in 2005 including winning a World Series game in extra innings.

 

In 2007:

 

White Sox with Podsednik starting: 30-25 .545

 

Without Podsednik starting: 42-65 .393

 

Yep, a completely worthless player.

been down this road before. You will not convince the stat heads that pods was a key player in the WS run. Even though, his manager, and all his teammates say he was. Its all about the stats. If you don't have good stats, you're no good as a player, simple as that.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

No need to be so smug. He's not a good defender, and he's not a very good offensive player. He's a one-tool guy (speed), with a career OBP below .340. He steals bases pretty well, but he's not of much use if he's only getting a chance to steal in < 34% of his total PA. Because his CWS teammates like/d him, objective observation is to be done away with? He had one good season (2003), and DM somehow managed to pawn him off on the White Sox for one of the game's best sluggers (obv. Vizcaino was included, too) even after an horrific 2004 campaign.

[jason21nl]

Like I said, we have been down this road before. Like I also said, you stat guys will throw a bunch of stats at it saying how horrible he is. a player doesn't always need eye popping stats to make a difference. Sometimes I think you and some others fail to understand that. You said it yourself, one tool guy and thats speed. Well thats one thing that the Sox had 0 of until he got there. Its not always about the SB% either. You put the thought of the SB in the pitchers mind, and he could hurry his pitches causing walks or serving up meat balls right down the plate. You can't put a stat on that. He was their spark plug, he did the things he needed to do to help the team win. He did have MVP votes in 05 and went to the ASG. He might not be the best player ever, but the guy didn't suck in 03 and didn't suck in 05.

 

DM pawned him off to the Sox but the Sox ended up winning the WS. So Id bet that their GM would do the trade all over again. The had sluggers, they didn't need another one in lee, they needed speed, and thats what they got.

not saying podsednik was the only reason, or even the main reason the won the world series but he wasn't riding the bench during the run either.

[TooLiveBrew]

Like I said, we have been down this road before. Like I also said, you stat guys will throw a bunch of stats at it saying how horrible he is. a player doesn't always need eye popping stats to make a difference. Sometimes I think you and some others fail to understand that. You said it yourself, one tool guy and thats speed. Well thats one thing that the Sox had 0 of until he got there. Its not always about the SB% either. You put the thought of the SB in the pitchers mind, and he could hurry his pitches causing walks or serving up meat balls right down the plate. You can't put a stat on that. He was their spark plug, he did the things he needed to do to help the team win. He did have MVP votes in 05 and went to the ASG. He might not be the best player ever, but the guy didn't suck in 03 and didn't suck in 05

"You stat guys"? Come on. While I can agree that the threat to steal can have a nice impact, it has nowhere near the impact of carrying a high OBP, or not striking out much, etc. Podsednik is a non-slugger who strikes out at the rate of a power hitter. Are you really arguing that having their LF faster than most other teams' LF was the difference maker for CWS in 2005? Try career seasons from Dye, Konerko, Iguchi, Buehrle, Garcia, Garland, Contreras, Hermanson, Cotts, & Politte.

 

I went out of my way to point out that Scott had a great year in 2003. He got on base well enough in 2005 (.351 OBP) to negate most of his horrid SLG (.349). CWS could have won the WS with a league-average replacement in LF in 2005, especially since Podsednik was actually below-average (AL avg. LF in 2005: .278/.335/.437/.772). If you're convinced that his speed was enough to overcome his offensive weakness, then of course my entire post has been just another "stat guy" rambling on about numbers.

 

 

not saying podsednik was the only reason, or even the main reason the won the world series but he wasn't riding the bench during the run either.

 

Neither was Juan Uribe or Carl Everett.

[rluzinski]

You put the thought of the SB in the pitchers mind, and he could hurry his pitches causing walks or serving up meat balls right down the plate. You can't put a stat on that.

 

That statement just doesn't make much sense to me. If Pod's presence on the basepaths had anywhere near the effect on the pitcher as you suggest, how could you NOT put a stat on it?

 

This stuff has been studied. One of the most recent studies I've read (I think it was on hardballtimes.com but I can't find it) actually concluded the opposite; would-be basestealers (I think they only looked at the elite basestealers, while they were at first base) seemed to disrupt the batters more than the pitchers. Does that study mean the case is closed? Of course not. The study could be incomplete or just plain flawed. But none of the studies I've seen has found a systematic negative effect on the pitcher, so if there is a negative effect on the pitcher, it's darn hard to find. Maybe it's too small to detect statistically or maybe only a subset of pitchers are affected enough to offset the batter. Whatever it is, its not large or obvious.

 

I know it goes against general baseball theory but why is it so unbelievable that it could be wrong? Science books have been rewritten countless times over the last 200 years, yet I'm supposed to believe that baseball got everything figured out right the first time? Let's have a more open mind than that, please.

[jason21nl]

I think a guy that is almost always trying to take a base on you is going to distract the pitcher. Pitchers will even change their delivery going with a slide step rather than their normal motion. You always hear announcers say that the pitcher should stop worrying about the base runner and pay more attention to the batter.

[logan82]

JohnBriggs12 wrote

In 2007:

 

White Sox with Podsednik starting: 30-25 .545

 

Without Podsednik starting: 42-65 .393

 

Yep, a completely worthless player.

Going by that we should get rid of Ryan Braun.

 

28-19 .595 before call up

 

55-60 .478 after call up

[rluzinski]

I think a guy that is almost always trying to take a base on you is going to distract the pitcher. Pitchers will even change their delivery going with a slide step rather than their normal motion.

 

Any runner at 1B is going to have some effect on the pitcher to some degree. Most will have to modify their windup of course. Also, any runner at 1B opens up a larger hole on the infield. That effect is more prominent when a left handed batter is up, of course. What the studies I've read have tried to determine is whether a prolific basestealer hinders a pitcher greater than the average baserunner. I've seen no evidence to support that theory (I don't claim to have read every study, however).

 

You always hear announcers say that the pitcher should stop worrying about the base runner and pay more attention to the batter

 

The question isn't whether the pitcher is paying attention to the baserunner. I don't need the help of an announcer to realize that the pitcher is mindful of a possible steal attempt. The question is whether that fact hurts his overall performance enough to overwelm any negative effects the basestealer might have on the batter's performance. Why do you dismiss the possibility of the batter being negatively effected, anyway? It seems a pretty reasonable theory (whether it's true or not). Because the announcer doesn't talk about that?