Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Dream of the Day: Flipping Out


I was at a performance of some sort.  One act had just finished and we were waiting for the next to begin.  A young black girl appeared on the stage.  On older black man appeared on the stage.  He had gold teeth and a black curly beard.  I immediately thought that he seemed skechy.  The girl was at one side of the stage, and the man at the other.  She ran towards him and he lowered his hands for her to step into.  He launched her into the air.  Immediately I was aware that something was wrong.  She was supposed to go straight up but she was going backwards.  I heard people around me screaming.  She landed with her back hitting the corner of the stage.  I looked away and wanted to run away but knew I had to help since I had medical training.  I shouted for someone to call 911.  I knew that wasn’t what I had learned.  I acknowledged individuals and had them dial 911.  I ran to the girl.  She was on the floor below the stage with her face away from me.  I knelt beside her and touched her arm.  She turned to look at me.  “You’re going to be ok,” I said.  She had minimal reaction.  She started to roll over.  I tried to tell her not to because I was concerned about her spine.  She continued to roll, people might have been assisting her in rolling.  I tried again to get her to stop.


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Trade Review: Paul Konerko for Jeff Shaw


One trade that always bothered me was the Paul Konerko for Jeff Shaw trade in 1998.  Trading a cost-controlled slugging first baseman for a reliever is rarely a good idea.

How'd the trade work out when viewed through the WAR lens?

1998: Karros 2.6, Shaw -0.2, Konerko -0.3
1999: Karros 5.2, Shaw 0.9, Konerko 2.0
2000: Karros 1.8, Shaw 0.3, Konerko 1.7
2001: Karros -0.1, Shaw 0.3, Konerko 2.4
2002: Karros 1.7, Shaw (retired), Konerko 2.2

From 1998 to 2002 Karros and Shaw produced 12.5 combined WAR for the Dodgers while Konerko produced 8 WAR for the White Sox.

Dodgers win the trade? right?  They ended up with 4 more wins.

Well, there's also the issue of salary.
From 1998 to 2002 Karros and Shaw earned a combined $44.9 million.
From 1998 to 2002 Konerko earned $6.8 million.

If LA hadn't made the trade they would have had an extra $38 million with which to try and buy 4 more wins.  I think they may have been able to achieve that.


An interesting thing to look at is just how similar Konerko and Karros were during that period (1998-2002):
Karros: 823 Games, 3289 PA, 128 HR, 481 RBI, .274/.334/.457 for a 108 wRC+
Konerko: 802 Games, 3164 PA, 129 HR, 475 RBI, .279/.342/.471 for a 108 wRC+

Hard to get more identical than that.

However, Konerko was more of a DH than 1B man.  Karros accounted for 17 defensive runs saved while Konerko was at -8.  That leaves total WAR at that time at 11.2 for Karros and 7.6 for Konerko.

Still, that's a trade I'd like to have back.

*Karros, Konerko and Shaw data from FanGraphs.
*Salary data from Baseball-Reference player pages