If you read this article you would think that Ray Durham has made all the difference in the world to the A's.
Well, he has and he hasn't. But, it was a curious time for the article since Durham missed Sunday's game due to a still undiagnosed illness and may miss considerable time on the field. It could be a kidney infection or it could be kidney stones. Test results for kidney stones came back negative, but, then again, mine did, too. Two weeks later I was spitting out a sand castle.
The A's production has picked up in the last few days, but I would hardly think Ray Durham was the end all reason for that. The A's had been slumping prior to the trade deadline
Miguel Tejada has been consistent as the rest of the team had been inconsistent
Eric Chavez snapped out of his downward funk and started his upward funk last week
The A's were in Texas for part of that time and routine fly balls are 425 feet in Arlington
It's nice that the media is going out of its way to embrace Ray Durham, especially since he is in the final year of his contract and the A's would like a chance to resign him. However, it really doesn't do much for the keen eye fan who realizes that he is reluctant to play the outfield and Mark Ellis has done a fine job after the A's played Russian roulette at second for the first two fifths of the season.
Ray Durham is a quality athlete. He reminds me of Tony Phillips. Though, I have difficulty warming up to him because I've seen him play with Chicago and earlier this year he seemed to have hamstring problems. He pulled himself out of a game against the A's in April. This was when the A's were mowing the field with the White Sox in a weekend series. Last week, during a loss to the Indians, he scraped his knee sliding into second and missed Wednesday's game. Durham was a little disturbed by the trade and has made it clear the idea of playing the outfield does not sit well with him.
Durham is making $6,300,000 this year. With Darin Erstad signing a ridiculous contract for 4 years, $32 million-Rob Neyer wonders what Carlos Beltran is worth compared to that figure. What Neyer doesn't mention in his article is that Erstad is already overpaid at $6,250,000 a season (It seems the Angels first mistake was signing the previous contract). What would Durham be worth even is he only occasionally played in the outfield?
Durham is still one of the top five 2nd basemen in baseball without a single stint past the infield dirt. A few dozen games in the outfield wouldn't hurt him at all, especially since he leads the league in errors at second base with 16. Plus, fantasy owners would be giddy about a utility player that scores 100 runs a year.
Baseball Prospectus has more on the Erstad signing.
All this talk makes me wonder where the A's would be if the had kept their two other 2nd base prospects in house. Scott Spiezio is playing 1st base and DH'ing for the Angels while Mark Bellhorn is batting leadoff and playing 2nd, 3rd and 1st for the Chicago Cubs.
With Spiezio, you might get better clubhouse music (he has a band). Bellhorn had several chances with the big club. He never got unhinged and produced at the plate for Oakland. Bellhorn has his own troubles in Chicago with Bruce Kimm as manager.
It has to be rough playing in the A's farm system knowing they are loaded with young talent in the bigs. With Miggi (I've been told that Miggi prefers this spelling to 'Miggy') at short, Chavez at 3rd and the outfield and 1st base overflowing with available bodies it's no wonder the Sacramento River Cats have gone into the toilet this year.
That smells like a segue to another post.
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