Joe Crede

[Milkman delivers]

Well then, why single out Boras clients?

 

It's baseball's reserve clause, arbitration process, and GM's that hand out foolish contracts that you have a problem with. Offhand, I'm having trouble coming up with many foolish contracts handed out before a player reaches free-agency, specifically 2 years before a player reaches FA.

 

Daren Driefort is the worst case that I can come up with off the top of my head, and he was in the same boat as Garland, a year from FA.

 

There's relatively little risk in signing Crede to a 3-year deal with a 4th year option following this season. The first two seasons, you give him at or below what he would get at arbitration, and then fair market value for his 2 years following that.

 

People around here really don't seem to understand that defense is worth $$$. And that $5M for a slick fielding SS with pop is not overpaying, it's below market value.

 

Well, if you're saying I'm one of the people who don't value Uribe's defense, then you're wrong.

 

And I guess we just disagree about Boras clients, fluke years, etc.

[VAfan]

Wrong.

 

Okay, what was the offer, and do you have a link?

[VAfan]

Not trying to start an argument, but in what way has Konerko outperformed Crede this year? Paul has a bunch more walks, which leads to a higher OBP, but other than that the numbers are surprisingly similar.

 

Sox stats

 

Conveniently they are the top two on the page.

 

But walks are important because the alternative usually means making an out. I think RC27 (runs created per game by a team filled with 9 of those players) is still the best and most easily understood measure of a player's offensive value. Looking at that, Jim Thome comes up 4th in baseball at 9.27, Jermaine Dye is 7th at 8.48 (I ranked him above Thome, however, because he plays the field), Paul Konerko is 37th at 6.93, and Crede is 66th at 6.15. It's the walks that make up almost all of that difference.

 

At 16 walks (Crede's number when I posted this thread), Crede is off-the-charts bad at this. What he seems to have learned to do is to get his bat on all those borderline pitches to foul them off -- thus the very low K totals. What he needs to learn is to judge those pitches balls and take them for walks. Of course, the Sox are filled with players who have no idea how to walk -- AJ Pierzynski, Juan Uribe, Sandy Alomar, Jr. -- so Crede has plenty of company.

[whitesoxfan101]

His value is that he's a damned good 3rd basemen. I don't want to rank him "on the Sox" since that's difficult, but he's a guy that was must keep around. Unless you get David Wright or something, you can't really upgrade at 3rd if Crede isn't around.