From: ez027993@dale.ucdavis.edu (Gary The Owners Are Lying Bastards Huckabay)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Sierra with A's: 5 yrs/$30MM
Date: 29 Dec 92 17:32:40 GMT
Organization: Oakland A's Bad Pitcher Club (Heaverlo Division)

boell@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Donald P Boell) writes:
>Come now, do you really believe that Canseco could have been kept for less.
>What with the contracts Bonds and Puckett got (and the one McGwire is likely
>to get) it would have been in character for Canseco to whine to Sandy about
>renegotiating the remainder of the current contract.  

Dead wrong, but thanks for playing.  Canseco has NEVER whined about 
renegotiating his contract, and has stated publicly in several venues that he
thinks he got a fair shake from the A's, and that he had every intention
of honoring his contract.

Furthermore, Canseco was under contract until when, 1995?  At $23.5 Million
over five years, four million of which was paid as a signing bonus.  Cheaper
than Sierra.

>If Sandy goes along
>with it then Jose gets more $ than Sierra.  If Sandy refuses then the A's
>get a moody player who complains (ala Rickey) and does not give 100%.

Can you prove that Canseco doesn't give 100%?  Do you know what sciatica
feels like?  Back problems can be positively debilitating.  This, in and
of itself, may be enough reason to prefer Sierra, but I don't think it's
a reason to question Canseco's work ethic.

>I love the pop in Jose's bat, but I really think Sierra is a better fit for
>the A's.  He has decent power and average numbers and plays much better D than
>Jose.

Not.  Canseco's defense is consistently very good.  I don't know why he
has a bad defense rap.  I don't have DA numbers here, but I would guess
that Sierra is not a better fielder than Canseco.  I know that Jose's
RF this year was considerably better than Sierra's, but that metric leaves
a lot to be desired.  I think a lot of his bad defense rap comes from his
back-impaired performance in the 1990 WS.

Sierra doesn't get on base as much as Canseco, doesn't slug as well as
Canseco, and plays inferior defense.  However, he is younger, and he's
durable.  Personally, I'd rather have Canseco for 550 PA and Dann Howitt
for 150 than Sierra for 700.

But let's take a look at the Oakland A's 1993 lineup:

1.  Henderson, R.    LF
2.  Henderson, D.    CF
3.  Baines, H.       DH
4.  McGwire, M.      1B
5.  Sierra, R.       RF
6.  Steinbach, T.    C
7.  Blankenship, L.  2B
8.  Browne, J.       3B
9.  Bordick, M.      SS

I don't like Bordick's D at SS, but that looks like a 750 run offense
in Oakland to me.  I'd rearrange it a bit...

1.  Henderson, R.    LF  (.260/.380/.415, 42/10 SB/CS)
2.  Browne, J.       3B  (.258/.370/.340)
3.  McGwire, M.      1B  (.240/.380/.480)
4.  Baines, H.       DH  (.260/.340/.450)
5.  Sierra, R.       RF  (.290/.330/.450)
6.  Blankenship, L.  2B  (.250/.380/.360)
7.  Henderson, D.    CF  (.240/.310/.370)
8.  Steinbach, T.    C   (.270/.320/.390)
9.  Bordick, M.      SS  (.250/.290/.300)

I think Bordick's a time bomb, actually.  A .500 OPS waiting to happen.
I might shift Hendu and Steiny, and the numbers I list are my personal
guesses, based only on the top of my head.  I don't have the STATS books,
so anyone with a different set of numbers should certainly jump in if they
have something interesting.
-- 
*    Gary Huckabay     * "Hi, Joel, it's Kathy."  "Hi, Kath."  "I think you 
*  "Official keeper    *  better come over.  Gary's not well.  He's chewing 
*  of the r.s.b. ammo  *  on the carpet, his eyes are red, and he's sobbing 
*   and weapons hoard."*  uncontrollably." "The A's signed Storm.  He'll live." 
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