Royals sign Yuni Betancourt to be utility IF; $2 million plus incentives

[RockCoCougars]

That's simply not true. Here are the stats:

 

Escobar 2010: Games/Chances/Errors 138/552/20

Yuni 2011: Games/Chances/Errors 149/606/21

 

Chances per game:

Escobar 4.00

Yuni 4.06

 

The team pitching staffs had about the same number of strikeouts, but the 2010 team gave up about 10% more hits than the 2011 team. It follows that more balls were put in play during 2010.

 

Going further, I looked at their defensive WAR for the seasons in question.

 

Escobar -.4

Yuni .5

 

Isn't that almost 1 'win'?

[MJLiverock]

Got it, so now WAR isn't the stat to use since it doesn't prove YB is the worst player in baseball. Scouts and eyeballs are now the test to use when evaluating players. Because we all know that YB is the worst player in baseball and no one even comes close to his level of putridness.

[Funketown]

Total Zone is a pretty clunky way to calculate defense though. Their error rates look pretty similar, and I don't think there's much of an argument to be made to say that Yuni had more range in 2011 than Escobar in 2010.

 

Escobar wasn't good in 2010 by any means, but he was nominally better than Betancourt in 2011.

[Invader3K]

Guys, he's not on the team any longer. He can't hurt us anymore. The only way he comes back to curse us is if the Brewers and Royals somehow meet in the World Series and he manages to put up an .850 OPS in the playoffs again.

[RockCoCougars]

The bottom line here is that the Brewers kept the wrong shortstop. Basically, we have lowered the bar so much at shortstop I would be happy to get 2009 J.J. Hardy (also known as 'he deserves to go to AAA') production from Gonzalez this year.

[Funketown]

I don't think many of Yuni's detractors are really saying he has been the worst player in baseball. It's my opinion that he has to be a candidate for worst MLB full time starter over the past three years though.

 

Using only players with 1500+ PA's in the last three seasons, Yuni is tied for last in WAR with Wiggington at -0.7 (next lowest is Delmon Young at 1.3), lowest in wOBA at .284 (Cabrera 2nd at .289), third lowest in Fangraphs' fielding value (-33.1), last in OBA (.277).

 

If you include players who received between 500 and 1499, Yuni moves up to about 15th worst in WAR. He's not the worst player in baseball, but he is certainly in a small group of players that could be considered the worst players to receive a full time job over the past 3 seasons.

 

But yeah, he's definitely become the whipping boy of the internet baseball community, and he isn't as bad as we often say he is. I think there are several guys that could probably be ripped on just as much as Yuni, but I guess it's just more fun when it's Yuni. There's something about the way "Yuni sucks" just rolls off the tongue.

[MJLiverock]

I agree Yuni isn't good it just annoys me that people are excited he is gone and that the Royals are stupid for signing him as a back up yet the Brewers replaced him with a player like Izturis who is no better and may be worse. I literally would rather have Counsell than Izturis as a bench player and I think Counsell was one of the worst bench players in baseball last year. If there were unlimited roster spots and guys who can't hit out of a paper sack could just play defense then fine, but when guys who are barely above average at defense and can't hit better than the pitchers are taking up valuable bench spots and PH 50 times or more it handcuffs the manager and kills rallies.

[Invader3K]

I agree Yuni isn't good it just annoys me that people are excited he is gone and that the Royals are stupid for signing him as a back up yet the Brewers replaced him with a player like Izturis who is no better and may be worse. I literally would rather have Counsell than Izturis as a bench player and I think Counsell was one of the worst bench players in baseball last year. If there were unlimited roster spots and guys who can't hit out of a paper sack could just play defense then fine, but when guys who are barely above average at defense and can't hit better than the pitchers are taking up valuable bench spots and PH 50 times or more it handcuffs the manager and kills rallies.

What? I really disagree with your post. They replaced Yuni with Alex Gonzalez, not Izturis. And Counsell was clearly washed up last season. At least Izturis can still play good defense and is about ten years younger than Counsell.

[StearnsFTW]

I agree Yuni isn't good it just annoys me that people are excited he is gone and that the Royals are stupid for signing him as a back up yet the Brewers replaced him with a player like Izturis who is no better and may be worse. I literally would rather have Counsell than Izturis as a bench player and I think Counsell was one of the worst bench players in baseball last year. If there were unlimited roster spots and guys who can't hit out of a paper sack could just play defense then fine, but when guys who are barely above average at defense and can't hit better than the pitchers are taking up valuable bench spots and PH 50 times or more it handcuffs the manager and kills rallies.

Izturis is better than Counsell in pretty much every way. Offensively they're similar, but Izturis is a switch hitter and faster. Defensively Izturis is better.

 

Izturis really has nothing to do with Betancourt. Unless you would've considered keeping Betancourt as a bench player.

[TheCrew07]

The 2011 Escobar was likely going to be an upgrade over the 2010 Escobar, I'm not sure what the 2010 Escobar has to do with anything to be honest. Yuni was part of the deal to acquire Greinke, that's it...

 

No GM in baseball would have traded Escobar for Betancourt straight up. Escobar was a better player in 2011 and will be a better player in 2012.

 

Once again I agree that Escobar was as bad as he could possibly be in 2010, but there was more to the situation than Hardy just stinking up the joint in 2009, and Escobar was better than Hardy in 2009. Escobar will never hit like JJ, he doesn't have the power, but it's not like JJ set the world on fire in 2010 either. This all goes back to identifying who your core players are, locking them up prior to arbitration so you can buy out some FA years cheaply, and moving on with everyone else. It's clear that Melvin doesn't really have a set plan in that manner... many speculated that Fielder would have jumped on a contract when he was in tax trouble and posted as such here on the site at the time, trying to lock up McGehee (really Doug?), trading 2 MLB SSs in 3 years, Braun's 2nd extension, etc...

 

With Melvin every year is it's own vacuum. What holes do I need to plug this year? There hasn't been a discernible long term plan. I might be his most vocal critic, but even I don't believe there was anyway Melvin could afford to sign JJ and trade Escobar when his payroll was already nearly maxed out. If JJ would have performed in 2009 he would have signed an extremely lucrative FA contract the following winter. If JJ was in the long-term plans he should have been offered a contract in 2006 or 2007 but Melvin didn't even make an attempt, he seemed to prefer to go year to year with everyone. I wish he'd operate more like Tampa locking up those young guys to good contracts that are movable if better talent comes and aren't paralyzing throughout their duration, but Doug just hasn't taken that tact. The way the team has been operating swapping Hardy for Escobar was inevitable, they needed the salary relief.

[The Truth]

http://sportsillustrated....lb/12/22/prince-fielder/

 

My question is: if Gord Ash (and presumably the rest of the Brewers front office) knew that Yuni B was that bad, why didn't they upgrade SS at the trade deadline in what was supposed to be a year where they were "going for it all". In that article Ash says that Gonzalez should be worth about 30 runs over Betancourt!

[RockCoCougars]

As far as I'm concerned, the Hardy fiasco is right behind the Suppan signing as the biggest blunder of the Melvin regime. As we've seen, young all-star caliber SS do not grow on trees. In scapegoating Hardy/Hall for the disaster of '09, Melvin killed any trade value that Hardy had while handing the job to someone that hadn't earned it. Melvin redeemed himself a bit by moving Escobar while he still had value, but now there is a fairly tenuous situation (overpaid, aging veteran) at SS with no help from the minors in the foreseeable future.

[StearnsFTW]

http://sportsillustrated....lb/12/22/prince-fielder/

 

My question is: if Gord Ash (and presumably the rest of the Brewers front office) knew that Yuni B was that bad, why didn't they upgrade SS at the trade deadline in what was supposed to be a year where they were "going for it all". In that article Ash says that Gonzalez should be worth about 30 runs over Betancourt!

That is a great question I'd love to hear on honest answer to. Obviously the fact that he knows how many runs Gonzalez is worth over Betancourt leaves out the possibility that they're using HR and RBI as deciding factors (even though that's all Doug could talk about when Yuni was acquired).

[brettac1]

http://sportsillustrated....lb/12/22/prince-fielder/

 

My question is: if Gord Ash (and presumably the rest of the Brewers front office) knew that Yuni B was that bad, why didn't they upgrade SS at the trade deadline in what was supposed to be a year where they were "going for it all". In that article Ash says that Gonzalez should be worth about 30 runs over Betancourt!

Exactly. That was a massive botch by the organization. It was the last year to win it with Fielder and they essentially stood pat on a left side of the infield that was killing the team both offensively and defensively.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yep, that's a painful but fair summary of Melvin's failure last season.

[logan82]

The worst part is they had guys readily available on the team but still failed to use them.

[Ennder]

The fan scouting reports came out and while I don't put a ton of stock into them they are another data point to add for defense which can be a tough part of the game to judge. Betancourt came it at -29 which is the worst fielder at any position in baseball. Gonzalez came in at +13 good enough for 4th best SS in baseball. Escobar was +15 good for 2nd best SS.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/...&team=0&rost=0&players=0

[TooLiveBrew]

'The fans' usually do a pretty good job on that survey. I think, if anything, they tend to err on the side of being critical. But if you take that grain of salt when reviewing the numbers, this survey is always pretty useful & objective.