my-op-ic [mahy-op-ik, -oh-pik]
–adjective
1. Ophthalmology. pertaining to or having myopia; nearsighted.
2. unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
3. lacking tolerance or understanding; narrow-minded.
Scott Boras called it a MYOPIC decision to bench for the Tigers to bench Magglio Ordonez. Looks like someone got one of those word-of-the-day calendars.
"I admit to you that Magglio had a rough April (.240) batting average," Boras said. "But if you want to talk about why his production is down in 2009, it's about one thing and one thing only: His home runs are down by seven. I submit to you that's not compelling information for declaring failure."
The "only seven homers" line caught some debate - Ill break it down quickly: Ordonez is currently at .273/.347/.343. To see how far he is "off", we need to establish the baseline that he is off of. His 2008 line was .317/.376/.494. Its tough to look further back, as he had a freakishly high BABIP in 2007 and was dealing with injuries prior to that. Given his age and injury history, we can discount last year's numbers slightly to a line of... well lets use the PECOTA line of .297/.364/.485. Ok, now if we give him seven homers in place of outs, that bumps his line up to .306/.376/.472. Some of the counting stats are still light - if we give him 12 RBI on those seven homers, that still only puts him on a pace for 80, but I think we can see where Scott was coming from.
Lets look to Rob Neyer to help understand what is really going on here:
The move might be myopic, but Ordonez's .301 batting average over 30 days isn't the most brilliant piece of evidence. Those 30 days include 22 games, 20 singles, four doubles, zero triples, and zero home runs. Ordonez's line in those 22 games: .301 (yay!) / .359 (yay) / .349 (boo!). Not that you can blame Boras for trying, for of course he's due for a nice little chunk of that $18 million next year ... if Ordonez gets it.
To make his $18 million, Ordonez needs 1) 135 starts or 540 PAs in 2009 or 2) 270 starts or 1,080 PAs in 2008-09. This year, he's got 57 starts and 242 plate appearances. Last year, he got 144 starts and 623 plate appearances. To qualify at the two-year threshold, he needs 69 more starts or 235 more plate appearances. To qualify at the one-year threshold, he needs 78 more starts or 298 plate appearances
Look, I dont blame the Tigers for wanting to save $18 million. I have a lot of respect for $18 million - even to a professional baseball team, that falls under the category of a "fortune" to me. Boras and Ordonez signed the contract with the playing-time clause, and they should have to live with the consequences. But Leyland's response is just ridiculous:
"If you looked closely at that story, I felt it questioned my integrity, and I'm not going to take that from anyone," Leyland said. "I have a great deal of respect for Scott Boras, and for the work he does for his clients. I don't know him to go after managers — I was shocked by his comments."
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
Come on Jim, are you shocked? Really shocked?
