Small Potatoes

Here’s some news that is probably only interesting to me.

In what appears to be a case of better-the-devil-you-don’t-know, the Giant and Dodgers have effectively worked a trade of middle reliever Guillermo Mota for middle reliever Justin Miller.  Not really, but it might as well have been.

You may recall that Miller pitched fairly well for the Giants last year (3.18 ERA in 44 relief appearances), but apparently couldn’t get even a small guaranteed deal from the Giants in 2010, so he signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers.

Now, the Giants have signed former Dodger reliever Mota to a minor league deal for 2010.  Mota’s 2010 is almost indistinguishable for Miller’s.  Mota also had a low ERA (3.44), but like Miller, his ratios weren’t good.

In my opinion, Miller is a slightly better bet for 2010 than Mota, although there really isn’t a lot of day light between the two.  Miller is four years younger (32 to 36 in 2010), and his 3.18 ERA pitching at home at AT&T Park is probably a little better than Mota’s 3.44 ERA pitching his home games at Dodger Stadium.  Reports have it, though, that Mota was still throwing a 94 mph fastball last year.

Seems kind of strange they couldn’t get the same minor league deals to stay in the cities they pitched in last year.  It kind of reminds me of those trades that second-division teams used to make back in the days before free agency, when they’d trade a couple of back-up players, as much to generate a little interest as anything else.

In a case of a guy getting more chances than he deserves, the Nationals just signed Kevin Mench to a minor league deal.  Around this time last year, when Mench signed a deal to play for the Hanshin Tigers in the Japanese leagues, I wrote a post on japanesebaseball.com about why I thought this was a terrible move for Hanshin.  The Japanese leagues are too good for players who are no longer even good AAA players, and Mench hadn’t been in 2008.

Turns out I was right on that prediction.  Mench was so incredibly bad in Japan, he only lasted 56  plate appearances before Hanshin gave him his walking papers.  Mench hit .148 with a .438 OPS.

Anything’s possible, but the odds that Mench is ever going to be a major league player again are so slim that no major league organization should waste its time.  If Mench still thinks he has something left, that’s what the Independent A Atlantic League is for.

For what it’s worth, one of the top ten hitters in the Atlantic League in 2009 was former Twin Lew Ford.  This is relevant only because Ford was the overpriced, too old and no longer any good American player who bombed for the Hanshin Tigers in 2008 and whose foreign player roster spot Mench took in 2009.  Ford hit .225 with a .656 OPS in 47 games for Hanshin in 2008.

After his fine play in the Atlantic League, the Reds signed Ford to play for their AAA team at Louisville late in the year.  Back in AAA, he hit a feeble .158 with a .572 OPS in 46 plate appearances.

Ford then played winter league ball in Venezuela this off-season.  However, after hitting .262 with a mediocre .711 OPS in 52 games there, it’s really time for Ford, now age 33, to consider getting a real job and getting on with his life.  Otherwise, it’s back to making $3,000 a month for a five-month season in the Atlantic League or the Mexican leagues.

Also, the Dodgers just signed their own mediocre 33 year old outfielder, Reed Johnson, to a one-year deal for $800,000.  This is a paltry sum by current standards, but it still galls me that Johnson can get a guaranteed deal, and Jonny Gomes apparently cannot.

Unlike Gomes, Johnson can play all three outfield positions, although according to fangraphs, he doesn’t play any of them well except for left field.  The thing that really bothers me, though, is that Johnson is four years older than Gomes, has a career OPS almost fifty points lower than Gomes, and is coming off a year when he had a .742 OPS playing his home games in Wrigley Field.  Playing in Dodger Stadium at age 33 in 2010, it will be a surprise if his OPS reaches .700.

Reed’s probably a good guy to have in the clubhouse, but I’d rather have Jonny Gomes for the same money.