No Clock

On Walter O’Malley:

Former Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley was selected for the Hall of Fame yesterday to a great deal of criticism. Journalists in New York are still bitter that he moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Commentators claim he was instrumental in establishing the unjust hegemony ownership had over players until free agency. This is all true.

O’Malley moved baseball West and we have all seen how badly that turned out for the sport. Baseball is ruined everywhere and New York City’s shattered ego has yet to be repaired. To this day, residents walk with their heads down in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers have not sold 3 Million tickets for something like twenty consecutive years. Nope. They can barely fill that Chavez Ravine place up.

And contracts in baseball are way too low. It is a wonder these fine athletes can play 162 games what with all the starving. Owners have far too much power of their contracts. What tragic abuse.

And Walter O’Malley? O’Malley was only Branch Rickey’s assistant general manager.

His role in the signing of Jackie Robinson was just a coincidence. Helping develop the farm system as a paradigm for player development? Fluke. Walter O’Malley was just an old coot.

Lastly, Walter O’Malley looks exactly like the prototypical baseball executive of his time. Heavyset, well-dressed, glasses, slicked back hair. He smoked cigars and came off more like a high-powered mobster or robber baron than baseball man. If anything, he deserves to be in the Hall for just the image.

And for my (optimistic) money, letting too many people into the Hall of Fame is a trivial error.  The real injustice lies in keeping the wrong people out. But more on Shoeless Joe and Buck O’Neil later.

On the Marlins-Tigers Trade Today:

The Marlins today, sent two huge commodities to Detroit in one trade. Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis for a group of talented young players and prospects. I have no real interest in the trade; its effect on the Dodgers will be negligible. But I find the deal surprising on both sides.

By packaging two of their most valuable possessions, Florida marginalized the value of both. That is the nature of selling in bulk. In order to move more product, prices are lowered across the board.

Why did Florida do this? Obviously they did not find the individual markets for Cabrera and Willis as satisfying as they would have liked. Early on, their negotiation strategy seemed to be just hold onto Cabrera until a sufficiently exorbitant offer came along. No offer came. So to sweeten the deal, and get the types of guys they wanted, they had to include Willis. The whole thing just reeks of desperation and dangerous impatience.

After all, Willis is a valuable player. He remains, despite his recent decline, a talented, cheap, and at the very least competent left handed pitcher. Consider the markets for similar (albeit better) players like Johan Santana and Erik Bedard. It seems that Florida would have been wise to market Willis as an individual piece. He would have had greater value as a consolation prize for those more lucrative sweepstakes.

On the Detroit side, this trade is equally perplexing. Quite simply because they bargained the future for the present. Over the past few years, the Tigers have moved to a more and more traditional, veteran based front office policy. But this is a massive leap. Miller and Maybin are almost sure to be successful major league players and would have remained under Detroit control for much longer and at a lower cost than Cabrera and Willis.