Get Out the Pick-Axe

Our keeper list was decimated this season. It began with Jason Bay’s trade to the Red Sox last summer. It continued when Florida traded Mike Jacobs to KC. And then our best keeper, $3 Kerry Wood, signed with the Indians. It didn’t leave much.

The Pickled Pecklers are going to rebuild. We’re waiving the white flag. We’re dumping it all except for the obvious keepers:

Soto 11-2010
Pence 5-2009F
Maholm 2-2010
Lidge 26-2010

We haven’t decided on one more guy. We have Eric Byrnes on a contract at 18. It’ll cost us a Benji to dump him. There are rumors he’ll be the Dbacks’ #4 outfielder. We don’t know about his physical condition, having torn his hamstring.

On the other hand, he had a couple of incredible seasons in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 he had 26 homers and 25 steals. He followed that up with 21 homers and 50 steals in 2007. That’s a lot of stats for $18. Of course, with his suspect hammys, he probably won’t steal quite like that again, but if he went 15-15, wouldn’t that justify his $18?

Boof asked me 4 times in an email conversation if we were throwing him back. I told him 4 times we had plenty of time to decide, that we didn’t know. But it’s an interesting question, worth a discussion of the ground rules. Is it worth $100?

That $100 is our profit from last year, give or take. We played hard, made some good moves and made some mistakes and ended up with the thinnest keeper list in BABI. I hate to give it away.

Clearly if he hasn’t recovered, we’ll toss him. He’s got to get us SOME stats, and if he’s hurt, he’ll be much cheaper in the auction.

What if his role is undefined coming out of spring training. What if it looks like he’ll be splitting time with Conor Jackson in left, with Jackson moving to first against lefties, and Byrnes getting some extra playing time backing up Young and Upton? And throw in some extra playing time when Arizona plays in AL parks.

He seems sure to get 250 at bats. How about 350? Clearly if we think he’ll get 450 at bats, it’s worth keeping him. What do we do if we don’t think he’ll reach that 450?

The problem, of course, is we may not be sure on cutdown day what his status will be. Personally, I think they love Byrnes in Arizona. They gave him $30 million and he has a no-trade clause. He’s only one season away from his career year. I think it’s all BS. Of course, I WANT to think it’s all BS. How can they bench the highest paid player on the team who is also their heart and soul?

I really don’t want to pay that $100. This is a game about money, and the $100 counts. We worked hard for that $100, and didn’t sell Manny Ramirez and Brandon Webb last year so we could finish 4th.

Plus, we love Eric Byrnes. He’s what we all love about baseball. He’s us. He loves the game, he respects the game. He’s becoming a media talent, but he’s too young for that yet. He needs to have a chance at one more big year. And we’ve got just the team for him to do it on – the Pickled Pecklers.

I’m going to call him in March and ask him what I should do. Really. I’ve got a personal connection – I’ve known his aunt for 30 years. We were both at her wedding many years ago, although he was probably about 7 years old. I’m sure he’ll remember me, though.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in him, or any of the other guys on our roster not listed above, they are available cheap. We want to get younger – hey, don’t we all?

PS – This is our 400th post. Whoodathunkit? I’m happy to have Byrnesey be the subject of #400. I’m sure glad it’s not about Boof or Mr. Leaguer, or any of you mooks.