Bleacher Bums Forum

You cant really hate on that.

Dude has been able to go damn near 40 years without having to work, at least made it to the show, and if he's lucky enough to get a post playing days coaching job may be able to go his whole life without having to get a real job.

I doubt he's a rich man by any means but how much money do you really need?

Buzz Arlett--432 home runs. Played most of career with historic Oakland Oaks and Minneapolis Millers clubs.

Check out his excellent offensive one-and-out season with Phillies in 1931. Arlett must have been one heck of a bad defensive player.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=arlett001rus

I think back in the 20's and 30's, a lot of top players in the PCL were just content to stay there instead of move on to MLB, and that might have been the case for Arlett.

That still doesn't quite explain why he didn't get another major league opportunity after his one season with the Phillies, though.  It sounds like the bad temper and bad defense might have played a part in it.

Only surprise is that it wasn't called a strike

Wow!

His contract was up at the end of the year and he has been connected to the Blue Jays in the off season.  I wonder if the Red Sox might want to bring him back to replace Larry.

Just wondering what do you have against Russell?  Yeah I know he doesn't throw hard, doesn't K a guy per inning, and I'm sure Fangraphs is saying he'll blow up any day now.

But the guy is doing his job and holding lefties to a .600'ish OPS.  What else do you want from a LOOGY?

And I'd also venture to say, if you start cutting guys who do a good job just because advanced metrics suggest a blow up is about to happen, what kind of message does that send to other players in the clubhouse? Or potential free agents like he was earlier this season who can help us out?   

Russell has to be really perfect with his pitches to be effective. He has zero room for error. Torres ERA was 3.18 . . .

So what if Russell has to be perfect with his pitches?  Doesn't that go for most guys who aren't in the Zack Greinke/David Price class of pitchers?  He's done pretty well with what he has up to this point. 

And judging by Torres's 26 BB's and 6 HR's in 34 IP and his .799 OPS vs. lefties, he's been a little less than perfect with his pitches this season and has been a little less perfect than Russell. 

Not everyone has to throw 95 mph to be effective in the league. 

I really doubt Price would care if the DFA'd James.

Yeah I'm sure if we offer David Price the most money and the most years, he doesn't give a flip about what we'd do with a guy like Russell.  He's asking "where do I sign?"

I'm thinking more along the lines of minor league free agents or middle of the road free agents who can help a team out.  If I'm a minor league free agent and I see the Cubs are going to cut a guy like Russell who's done a good job just so they can get a shinier castoff from another team who has been inferior to him in every other way this season other than that he throws a couple of mph harder, is that a team I really want to join if I have some other opportunities available?

Or if I'm in the Cubs clubhouse or in the Cubs bullpen and see us cut a guy who's been doing his job just so we can sign someone like that?  Perhaps clubhouse morale and all of that doesn't mean much today, but I can't imagine a transaction like that does a lot create a positive atmosphere on the team, especially when we're in the playoff hunt. 

Advanced metrics, velocity, and all of that are things to consider when making personnel decisions, but too much can definitely be read into them.  Teams can't be run totally by computer or like someone's fantasy team.