Sunday Morning links

Courtesy of Deviantart.com

This is a slow time of the year for roster moves, but there’s always plenty of good baseball related reading material out there.

-Ever heard of Ferris Fain? Me neither, but Troy Patterson of THT explains why fans should know who he was.

-Dave Cameron of Fangraphs asks if modern bullpen management is yielding better results.

We’re told that defined roles are supposed to make a reliever’s job easier by giving him a usage pattern he can adapt to. This makes sense from an intuitive standpoint, but the results don’t really show much of an effect. Teams have essentially taken two roster spots away from position players and handed them to the bullpen without seeing a tangible improvement in performance from their relievers overall.

The ROI on the modern bullpen just isn’t there. At some point, someone is going to get back to using relievers the way they were used 30 years. The current paradigm takes up too many roster spots and simply shifts innings from your best arms to your worst ones

This has been studied before and similar results have been found. That’s not to say that managers shouldn’t play match ups. If you have a batter due up who eats fastballs but has trouble with breaking balls and a flamethrower on the mound who lacks a curve, you’d be foolish not to make that move. But today’s bullpen usage has gone far beyond that into micromanagement that leaves some fans scratching their heads. Results aren’t the only goal of holding down the innings of relievers, as Cameron himself notes. By spreading around the workload you’re holding down the innings of both starters and relievers, in the hopes of keeping them healthy longer.

-On the heels of Jorge Posada’s retirement, Larry Stone of the Seattle Times recalls how close he was to being traded for Tino Martinez

According to a story by long-time Mariners beat writer Bob Finnigan in the Seattle Times on Dec. 4, 1995, the Mariners nixed a trade that would have sent pitcher Sterling Hitchcock and Posada to the Mariners for Martinez and a reliever, either Jeff Nelson, Bill Risley, or, wait for it, Bobby Ayala.

Tino was a terrific player, so that wouldn’t have been a completely one-sided deal. But the Mariners eventually settled on 3B Russ Davis and Sterling Hitchcock and the Yanks received Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir, which is one of the best trades GM Bob Watson made and helped build the late 90s championship teams.

-Chad Jennings of LoHud imagines what the Yanks might look like today if they reversed some of their recent trades and FA moves.

LINEUP

CF Austin Jackson
RF Melky Cabrera
1B Lance Berkman
C Jesus Montero
3B Wilson Betemit
LF Jose Tabata
DH Shelley Duncan
2B Jimmy Paredes
SS Alberto Gonzalez

ROTATION
RHP Ian Kennedy
RHP Alfredo Aceves
RHP Arodys Vizcaino
RHP Dustin Moseley
RHP Hector Noesi

Before you hit the pillow tonight, say a little thank you prayer for Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally.