Thursday, June 26, 2008

Guzman for 2 more years?

Sounds like the Cristian Guzman experience might not be ending after all... I don't have time right now to think about this in any depth, but here are my immediate gut reactions:

1. Just because the first Guzman contract was a collossal blunder doesn't mean that we should rule out signing him again, depending on the terms, which haven't been reported. If it was 4 more years at $16m and cost us a draft pick, no way, but obviously that's not going to be the case this time around. I'll need more time to think about how much is too much, but suffice it to say it'll depend on the terms.

2. A 2-year contract, if the price is right, for a stop-gap might make sense. We have nothing remotely in the pipeline that I'm aware of at SS (you know who's fault I think that is!), so we're going to have to do something. I
f you buy into the Plan, and you believe that any theoretical future core of young talent is at least a couple more years away, then next year and probably the year after will still be rebuilding years, and it won't make sense yet to break the bank on top-of-the-line FAs like Furcal. You'd have to commit to him for a lot of years, not just a lot of money, and that means tying up a bunch of salary on a guy who will be a declining 34-year-old come 2012 when we're hopefully finally contending.

3. All that said, regardless of whether it's a good idea to re-sign Guzman to something short-term, it seems like a bad idea to have this conversation now, when his negotiating position is stronger than it's ever been or is ever going to be.

4. The title of this blog notwithstanding, I'm not going to oppose the deal, if there is one, just because Bowden's cutting it. Bowden's done some good things (Dukes, drafting Zimmerman, Loaiza), and we can admit that without concluding that he's the best choice to lead our team to the promised land.
  • Harper Gordeck does an excellent piece on why Guzman's performance this year is not what you should expect in the future, in case you wanted a bunch of smart data argument to back up what your gut already told you.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did anyone catch the latest repression of Free Speech in this town? On Wednesday night, someone called the post game call-in show to promote the Fire Jim Bowden blog site. He was rudely cut off by the Nazi host.

Steven said...

It wasn't me! But whoever it was, thanks!

There was a similar thing I heard earlier this year when a caller on Nats Talk Live called Felipe "FLop." He got shut down pretty fast too.

I guess they thing unrepentant homer-dom is the best way to get listeners.

Dave Nichols said...

two things: if they expect Guz to hit lead-off for the next two years, this contract will be as bad as the last http://bottomfeederbaseball.blogspot.com/2008/06/so-i-guess-we-can-cross-furcal-off-wish.html

and

did you see LoDuca's diatribe at Nats Journal? wow, what a self-serving douche. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2008/06/a_1030word_speech_from_paul_lo.html#comments

Anonymous said...

He was rudely cut off by the Nazi host.

No he wasn't. The host said "Thank you for the call" and moved on. And boy, that caller sounded like a dweeb. Nervous as hell, barely got it out in the first place. Should have been cut off on that account even before he said anything, if ya ask me.