The Futility Infielder

Did I promise "more chat?" The title of this post was bestowed upon me by Baseball Prospectus' Jason Grady, who clocked my BP Chat debut -- scheduled to run two hours on Thursday -- at three hours and 35 minutes. That's believed to be a BP record, coming only a few weeks after Christina Kahrl broke the three-hour barrier. What can I say? Like Christopher Columbus, I didn't set out trying to make history.

I answered 56 questions in all, from a diverse international group (Canada and England represented along with the US) that included family (my brother Bryan), friends, fellow bloggers, FI readers, and a surprisingly large contingent of women (seven or eight, with about another three or four that went unanswered). GMs were the hot topic, with questions about Paul DePodesta, Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, the Brewers' Doug Melvin, and Pat Gillick, the Phillies' new hire, abounding. Folks had a lot of questions on the World Champion White Sox and their ability to repeat, and several off-topic questions about New York City as I shared a bit of background with my audience. Wrestling references abounded, and I'm pleased to announce that Vince McMahon has cast one Screamin'J to be in a steel cage match coming to you via pay-per-view very soon. Of course, I spent a fair deal of time talking about the Yanks, Dodgers, and Red Sox, but I also expanded and spent a good deal of time on the Brewers, Mets, Rockies, A's, and other teams.

A few of my better answers:

Amol (Poughkeepsie, NY): Derek Jeter finally manged to be an above average shortstop, at least according to the statistics, and it even seems to be confusing Clay Davenport. Previously, I had thought that it might be an A-Rod effect, but considering his performance this year, it seems unlikely. Do you have any theories?

Jay Jaffe: It's a real puzzle that we were discussing on our internal mailing list the other day.

Judging by our numbers, I do think it's an A-Rod effect. Jeter's strength is his arm, so going in the hole toward third base and making the strong throw is his bread and butter, while his footwork and moving to his left towards second is his biggest defensive weakness.

Scott Brosius and Robin Ventura were excellent 3Bs but nowhere near as athletic as Rodriguez. With him to his right, Jeter can shade towards second and get to more ground balls than he did before.

...

DrLivy (Charleston, WV): Jay: Did aliens suck Theo's brains out this year, after he was so smart last year? I mean, that payroll and that pitching. Wow. Forrest Gump could have put together a better staff.

Jay Jaffe: Theo made some good moves and some not-so-good ones last winter, and many of the breaks that fell the Sox way in 2004 did not in 2005. For bad moves, I'd start with the Edgar Renteria contract (4/$40 MM) and suggest that the Varitek contract was a Faustian bargain he had to make to stay in the good graces of the locker room and the fan base.

I think the Wells deal worked out OK, that Clement's season was affected by his getting drilled, that Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke left bigger pieces of themselves on the field last October than anyone realized at the time (and that the team should have spent more time insuring they were fully healthy before pitching in 2005), that Wade Miller was a worthy gamble, and that no matter how much they missed Pedro Martinez, resigning him at those prices was a huge risk not worth taking.

I'm somewhat surprised Theo couldn't pull off a midseason deal for an extra starter by dangling a prospect, but I think that goes to show that he had reasonable expectations for this year and was looking out for the organization's longer-term interests. If you're a Sox fan whose 86-year wait has just been ended, I think you have to respect that.

...

Vince McMahon (Hell): Dan Shaughnessy and Bill Plaschke vs. Christina Kahrl and Joe Sheehan in a cage match. Pay-per-view spectacular! What do you think?

Jay Jaffe: In the words of Homer Simpson, "I have two questions: 'How much?' and 'Give it to me!'" My money is on the BP tag-team.

Speaking of Shaughnessy, I learned that his nickname, Curly Haired Boyfriend, was given to him by Carl Everett. If so, I think that almost justifies Everett's entire existence on this planet (which was, contrary to his opinion, once covered with dinosaurs).

...

scareduck (somewhere west of Hell, MI): Any comments on the firing of Paul DePodesta?

Jay Jaffe: Is that RMc of 6-4-2? Glad you could join us.

The firing of DePodesta is a travesty wrapped inside a debacle inside a catastrophe. For firing their GM three weeks after he ditched the manager, the McCourt family should be forced to wear matching t-shirts that say, "I'm With Stupid".

Seriously, bowing to the public pressure created by no-brain hacks like Plaschke and Simers and scrapping a five-year plan after year two is one of the dumbest, most thin-skinned things I've seen since the George Steinbrenner '80s. Why any GM would want to take the Dodger job -- even with that great looking farm system and the chance to build on the groundwork left by Dan Evans and DePo -- is beyond me. McCourt and the backstage machinations of Tommy Lasorda would appear to have poisoned the well.

On that last note ("a travesty wrapped..."), my pal Nick (who had a question of his own answered) offered up this assessment via email: "So it's something like a Turducken, then?" I practically fell out of my chair laughing and meant to work it into the chat, but it got away from me.

Reading over the transcript, some of my answers are pretty superficial; that's a product of the situation of having two questions pop up for every one that you answer. It's a blessing that I can't actually hyperlink in there or stop to look up splits every time somebody asked a really deep question about what Team X should do, or I'd still be there eleven hours deep. But it was a hell of a good time, and I thank everybody who submitted a question and/or stopped by for the chat. Check it out (it's free), and if you were somebody who submitted a burning question that didn't get answered, drop it in the comments and I'll take a crack at it at my leisure.