by Hans on September 12, 2009
Been a while since the last post at the Dugout. At the time, Boston still had the edge on the Yankees, Texas still led in the AL West, and the Mets actually had a shot at the playoffs.
Also of note, on June 21st, Adam Dunn’s average had fallen from his April .310 to .267 while his HR pace had fallen from 52 at the end of May to an un-Dunn-like 36. Some said that strikeouts, a weak surrounding lineup, and a stadium with larger dimensions than the bandbox in Cincy were and would continue to expose him for what he always was - a liability.
Instead, Dunn spent July with a .319 average and a whopping 1.043 OPS. In August, he followed that with a .297 average and a 1.112 OPS and is batting .302 so far this September.
There's no power outage in the nation's capital
He’s now on pace for 43 HR’s and could end the year batting north of .280 - despite having never finished a single season in his career with .267 or better.
All this, Nationals fans got for a 2009 salary of only $8 million. In contrast, other 2009 free agent signings include Cleveland’s Kerry Wood ($10 million 2009 salary), San Francisco’s Edgar Renteria ($7 million) and Randy Johnson ($8 million), New York’s Oliver Perez ($12 million), Tampa Bay’s Pat Burrell ($7 million), Chicago’s Milton Bradley ($5 million - $21 million more due in 2010/2011), and Los Angeles’ Rafael Furcal ($6.5 million - $20.5 million due in 2010/2011).
With this offseason’s free agent class headlined by Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, it will be interesting to see what bargains exist among the Aubrey Huff’s, Orlando Hudson’s, Adrian Beltre’s, and Bobby Abreu’s of the league.
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by Hans on March 18, 2009
The Washington Nationals announced today that they have signed left-handed reliever Joe Beimel to a one year, $2 million contract. Beimel, whose lack of contract this late in the spring was a surprise to some, will serve as the primary setup man for closer John Hanrahan.
Washington has built a halfway decent bullpen rather quietly, adding lefty Beimel to right handers Saul Rivera (3.96 ERA in 70 innings), Stephen Shell (2.16 / 50 ), Jesus Colome (4.31 / 71), and well regarded starting pitching prospect Garrett Mock.
While the Nationals probably won’t drive ticket sales with this move, they did acquire one of the game’s best lefty specialists late and on the cheap. But that’s not all. At the beginning of the offseason, Beimel was tagged as a Type B free agent. The Dodgers, probably expecting to pay quite well for his services, chose not to offer arbitration forfeiting their rights to a supplemental 1st round draft pick in this year’s amateur draft. If Beimel pitches as well as he has, the Nationals could wind up with a compensation draft pick in the 2010 draft should he leave as a free agent.
To put that in perspective, the Red Sox drafted Clay Buchholz with a supplemental pick in 2005. The Yankees drafted Joba Chamberlain with the same in 2006. Washington themselves took full advantage of this in 2007 selecting now top prospect Michael Burgess.
As the first official move made after the Jim Bowden era, the Nationals have made a good step in the direction of competence. Let’s hope they keep up the good work.
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