Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey

The Seattle Mariners have made their signing of Jeff Weaver official, trotting him out in front of the Seattle media mopes.

Everyone knows that Weaver’s agent is The Evil One, who apparently lawyered up Weaver before the press conference:

I mean, after the season ends and you have certain people telling you they’d like to have you back and you’re a piece to the puzzle. And it’s two, three months later and things are still dragging … you want to feel wanted.

Even The Evil One got into the act, as quoted by Bernie Miklasz:

The thing I want fans to know is Jeff Weaver waited on the Cardinals. He waited for them. He turned down millions of dollars and more years from other teams so he could wait for them. And when it came down to it, the Cardinals’ offer just wasn’t there.

I understand that the waiting is the hardest part. But what of Weaver’s alleged desire to remain in St. Louis? Let’s ask him:

Eventually, (stability) would be a major point.

I’d say that one year is less stable than the two years the Cardinals were said to have offered. Add that to a seemingly good relationship with Dave Duncan and the eternal gratitude of Cardinal Nation. But I guess that and $12 million (what the AP article reported was the Cards’ offer) won’t get you a venti soy latte.

So he’s right back where he started last offseason, waiting for a multiple-year, big-dollar contract that never comes, taking instead a one-year deal from a team that resides in a division that historically has given him trouble:

Weaver vs AL West teams

LAA: 5-5, 2.78 ERA, 5 HR in 74.1 IP
OAK: 3-3, 5.61 ERA, 9 HR in 61 IP
TEX: 2-5, 5.25 ERA, 7 HR in 58.1 IP

He also hasn’t pitched well at Safeco, going 1-2 with a 6.55 ERA in three starts and a relief outing against the Mariners.

Whatever, dude. Thanks for pitching so brilliantly during last year’s postseason. We’ll see you again in July on the DFA heap.

Arbitrary moves

(UPDATE 10:49 pm: The broken links are now fixed. I am a dumbass.)

Friday was the deadline for teams to offer their free agents arbitration, and of the several Cardinals eligible, only Jeff Suppan and Mark Mulder had the offer extended.

That Suppan and Mulder were offered arbitration is not surprising, nor that Jeff Weaver wasn’t isn’t either.

Weaver made $8.325M base in 2006 and had he been offered arbitration, he likely would have accepted. He certainly would have been awarded more than his 2006 base. Because both sides have expressed interest in Weaver’s return, an offer not substantially higher than last year’s likely would have negated any goodwill as far as re-signing him goes.

Getting back to Suppan and Mulder, I think that the arbitration offers mean both are as good as gone. Despite his career league-averageness, Suppan’s postseason heroics will mean that someone will throw mad dollars in his direction. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said last week that the Pirates are gunning for Suppan, although the figures quoted there ($8M-$9M) may be on the low side. Other teams with reported interest include the Giants and the Blue Jays.

Suppan’s status as a Type A free agent means that if/when another team signs him, the Cardinals would/will receive the team’s first-round draft pick and and a supplemental pick.

Mulder is receiving attention from all over the league as well: Arizona is totally hot for him, as is Tampa Bay. Other teams rumored to be interested include San Diego and Baltimore.

While Mulder is coming off of surgery and won’t be ready to pitch until later in the season, some team is likely to offer him multiple, guaranteed years to separate themselves from teams offering a one-year, incentived deal, which the Cardinals are likely to do.

Lest you think a multiple-year deal for a pitcher coming off of serious shoulder surgery amounts to lunacy, a somewhat similar deal was struck back in 2003. After he shredded his elbow the previous season, the Yankees gave Jon Lieber two years guaranteed, the first of which was for $300K while he rehabbed his elbow. The second year paid him $2.45M, although the Yankees declined their $8M option for 2005, when he eventually signed with the Phillies.

While Mulder will probably get a similarly structured deal (two years guaranteed, club option for a third) he’ll certainly will get much, much more than Lieber’s $2.75M guarantee. He’s a Type B free agent, meaning the Cardinals would get just the supplemental pick if another team resigns him.

Tony and the Tigers

(Charles Krupa/AP)

Friday night at work, a co-worker/Cubs fan tried messing with me saying he heard on the radio that he who shall not be named could be in line to start Game 1 of the World Series today. I laughed in his face.

Now, it’s official: Anthony Reyes will start.

Worried? Don’t be. Disregard his mediocre regular season. Throw out his crappy NLCS start. I think this is the perfect setup for the Reyes boy.

Does that make me crazy? Possibly. But think about it: There’s no pressure on the kid. Nobody expects the Cardinals to win, so he needn’t worry about the burden of high expectations. He can just go out there and deal.

Plus, he did pretty OK against that one American League team that had never seen him before.

—————————-

Jeff Weaver is in line to start Game 2 on Sunday.

He’s one of the several “story lines” that Fox will flog mercilessly. Once upon a time, he was considered a future ace by the Tigers, who ended up trading him in 2002 to the Yankees, a deal that eventually netted the Tigers their Game 4 starter, Jeremy Bonderman.

I don’t know the conditions under which he left Detroit back then. But it seems that today, Todd Jones has little regard for Weaver:

There’s no love lost here that he’s gone.

At least Weaver was an adult about it, basically ignoring Jones and expressing his happiness for his former teammates and the city of Detroit:

They were here for the worst of times, and now they get to see the best of times.

I’ve never been fond of trash-talk. At best, it’s juvenile. At worst, it’s disrespectful. But Todd Jones is the straight-shooting type. He’ll tell you how he feels, and I guess I have to respect him for that. It still doesn’t make it right.

Props to Weaver for not fanning the flames through the media. The best way to tell Jones to go scratch would be to shut down the Tigers in Game 2.

Then Jones might have a legitimate reason for saying there’s no love lost.

Aloha, Mr. Hand

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Wow.

We really are just one win away from the World Series, thanks to yet another stellar outing from Jeff Weaver. He didn’t dominate, but he got the outs when he needed them. I can’t seem to stop gushing about that guy.

Albert Pujols perhaps extinguished one story line by homering off of Tom Glavine, who I’m sure was more than a little chagrined to have had to intentionally walk him before he was relieved, but perhaps ignited another.

In the top of the ninth with Cliff Floyd batting, Floyd bounced one to Pujols, who in his normal hard-headed “Fuck you, Jobu, I do it myself” routine, ran to the bag to make the out himself instead of flipping it to Adam Wainwright, who was over to cover. But on VEB’s Game 5 overflow thread, commenters Hardcore Legend and EBroglio suggested that maybe Pujols took it himself to make Floyd run hard to the bag knowing Floyd had a bad Achilles tendon.

I wouldn’t put it past the muckraking New York beat writers to suggest such a notion; if so, there will be a shitstorm of epic proportions in the fishwraps and on the blogs this morning.

Again, wow. This whole up-3-games-to-2-in-the-NLCS thing is weird and scary to me. I still can’t believe So Taguchi hit a home run the other day. I’m at a loss for words. Interesting ones, anyway.

He pitched like a dream

It’s a shame that the hitters couldn’t get anything going last night against Tom Glavine, because Jeff Weaver was nails the whole night, save for one pitch.

Yadier Molina had set up away, and Weaver instead put it middle-in. Carlos Beltran then punished Weaver for the one mistake he made in six solid innings of work.

I don’t know how trustworthy the network radar guns are, but Fox was showing Weaver consistently hitting 93-94 mph with his fastball. He also was spotting his breaking ball welll, although I will grant that the strike zone was fluid throughout the evening.

In all, a fantastic outing from Weaves. He seems to be making a habit of those, evidenced by his start in the NLDS and his last three regular-season starts. The poor body language that I’ve railed against seems to be gone, meaning he’s got actual confidence in his stuff and in himself, and it’s showing in his results.

And for as much crap (much of it rightfully) that Dave Duncan has had heaped on him this year, Weaver says Duncan deserves a lot of the credit for turning his and the Cardinals’ seasons around:

“Both [Dave] Duncan and [Tony] La Russa since day one have showed their support. I started out a little slow when I got to St. Louis, but like I said, they always had my back.”

The confidence of others in one’s abilities can go a long way in reinforcing confidence in one’s self. Given the way he’s pitched lately, it would neither surprise nor upset me to see the Cardinals look to re-sign him in the offseason. And with Weaver’s appreciation for Duncan’s tutelage, I think staying in St. Louis would be something he’d at least consider, even though his agent is The Evil One.

When’s Mulder back?

Wait. Did I just actually pine for the return of Mark Mulder in the post title? Desperation makes a terrible cologne.

Faithful readers of this Web log (“all four of you”) know that earlier this season, I had written off Mulder to be of any use anymore.

Then Jeff Weaver happened.

The latest addition to the Cardinals’ collection of No. 5 starters has been nothing short of horrendous. In four starts, Weaver has put up an 8.68 ERA, 2.04 WHIP, .376 BAA, given up 6 HR, walked 6 and struck out 5 in 18.2 innings. That’s like (Mulder + Marquis) – Carpenter = Weaver.
I’ve seen enough.

So, back to my original question. LBoros postulates an Aug. 16 return for Mulder. Even continuing our current trend, we won’t be that far out, if at all. We just have to hope that Mulder has put his time off to good use and comes back with his head clear and pitches the way he did before the 2004 All-Star break.

And to help faciliate that, I am officially wiping the slate clean with Mulder. You have been given new life at The 26th Man offices. Don’t fritter that goodwill away.

Godspeed, little doodle.

Daddy issues

James A. Finley/AP

Albert Pujols entered Thursday’s game against the Dodgers with a career batting line of 9-for-14 (.643) with four homers against Odalis Perez.

He exited the game at 10-for-15 with five homers.

Odalis Perez: Who’s your daddy?

Curious move by Grady Little to bring in Perez, who has the aforementioned Daddy issues with Pujols (and with Scott Rolen, to a lesser extent), when Danys Baez, who obviously handles right-handers better, was still available. Plus, Pujols has never faced Baez, a situation that might work in the pitcher’s favor. Was Baez being “saved” for closing out a Dodgers’ lead? Kind of a moot question now, I guess, but nobody accused Grady Little of being handy with the bullpen.

Other things I think:

Jason Marquis won his third straight start, with a 3.17 ERA and a 14/5 K/BB ratio in that period, which followed two losses in which gave up 20 earned runs in 11 innings, which followed a stretch in which he won six straight decisions but had a K/BB ratio of 17/21, which followed four straight losses, etc. To say he’s confounding is something of an understatement. Good Marquis Thursday, though. So, yay!

Jim Edmonds went 1-for-6, but the 1 was huge, a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh. Things are looking up for Jimmy Ballgame: He’s .306/.400/.750 during July. Eight of his 11 hits have been for extra bases, and he’s routinely making the great catches again. Welcome back, brother.

Jeff Weaver makes his Cardinals debut as a pinch-hitter?

The elder Weaver acquired

According to FSN’s Dan McLaughlin, the Cardinals have acquired Jeff Weaver and someone named Cash Considerations from the Angels for minor-league neo-Braskyite Terry Evans.

UPDATE 12:21a: Here’s The Associated Press story on the trade via the San Jose (that’s ho-zay for you central Illinoisans) Mercury News.

Back in January, I pontificated on a Ken Rosenthal piece that speculated that the Cardinals were pursuing ol’ Weaves. I can’t believe you don’t remember! Anyway, I wasn’t too keen on the idea:

He seems to be the way I was when I pitched Little League. The slightest bit of adversity flusters him, which leads to more adversity, which in turns flusters him more, etc.

That observation is based on a game I attended back in 2004, when he seemed to take personally a mini-barrage of hits:

… with each successive baserunner, it seemed that his shoulders slumped more and more and more. His body language gave it away.

I wrote what I felt six months ago, and it still holds true today. I just don’t see how this improves on our situation. Is it better than nothing? I dunno. Maybe. I’d hate to think that this was a move to just make a move. But I don’t see how this is going to give us anything more than what “Weave” been getting from Sidmark Suppquis.

What are you gonna do, though? I mean, besides whine about it in a pointless fashion. I suppose I’ll have to suck it up and pull for the guy, sort of like when we traded for Larry Walker. I had an unfavorable opinion of that guy, too, but reluctantly gave it up when he became a Cardinal.

I guess we truly are just rooting for laundry.

Weaver wobbles

Ken Rosenthal over at FoxSports.com reports that the Cardinals presumably are one of the teams rumored to be pursuing former Dodger Jeff Weaver.

I sure hope he doesn’t end up here. I’ve never cared for him as a pitcher even when he was with the Tigers. When he was traded to the Yankees, I thought that was a nightmare waiting to happen. Sure enough; Game 4 of the 2003 World Series sorta proved that inkling correct. It seems that if he gets hit around a bit, he loses his confidence and starts chucking it up there just to get the hook.

I happened to catch one of his starts in 2004 when the Dodgers were at the Stadium. The inning in particular (a shout-out to Retrosheet for jogging my memory) was the fifth, when the Cards managed to string together some hits off him, and with each successive baserunner, it seemed that his shoulders slumped more and more and more. His body language gave it away. Anyway, it was bases-loaded situation in the fifth, with the crowd really getting behind the team. He steps off and asks for a new ball to try to quiet the crowd. All that did was turn the cheers into boos. He rushed his delivery and left a pitch up to the inimitable Hector Luna, who stroked it into center to score Lankford and Edmonds.

He seems to be the way I was when I pitched Little League. The slightest bit of adversity flusters him, which leads to more adversity, which in turns flusters him more, etc.

In passing on the link to Rosenthal’s story Thursday, lboros at Viva El Birdos says the Cardinals theoretically could afford the free-agent Weaver. To do so, the team would have to trade Jason Marquis. lboros then astutely points out that it would be counterproductive given that Marquis is a similar pitcher and he’s already here.

And speaking of similar pitchers, I checked out Weaver’s comparables on Baseball Reference. While Marquis wasn’t on the list, the following dudes were: No. 7 was Our Own Sidney Ponson, and No. 3 was Brett F. Tomko. Eep! Anybody who hasn’t repressed their memories of Tomko’s 2003 (the first half, anyway) for the Cardinals will shudder in horror at the recall. Those kinds of numbers we don’t need, certainly not for the amount of money he’ll end up getting from a more pitching-starved team.