Releasing Giles

Can't blame the Braves for releasing Giles, as his declining production the last 3 years the justification for not paying him six million a year. He didn't rank in the top ten among NL second-baseman, while McCann, Andruw, Chipper, LaRoche, and Diaz ranked in the top five at their position, and Renteria ranked sixth. Andruw will be gone after this year. Chipper will stay because no one will assume his salary. Seems like the sentiment is slightly in favor of the Braves in releasing Giles. Of course 680’s Perry Lorintino was against the move.

Giles’ .728 OPS last year did not rank in the top ten for NL second-baseman. Does this justify paying him six million a year? The Braves think not. The public shakes it’s head when outlandish salaries are given to players, but when one of their favorites is let go, they don’t understand why…refusing to believe the diminishing statistics.

YEAR…AVG…OPS…OBP…SLG.…K.…SB-ATT-%
2003…..316..…916…..390..…526.…80…
2004…..311…..821…..378…..443.…70…17-21…81%
2005…..291…..826…..365…..461…108…16-19…84%
2006…..262…..728..…341…..387…105…10-15…66%

The only thing about Giles is that his salary replaces the left-fielder’s salary. There would be an outcry if Giles went to the Mets, not that JS would worry about that. It wouldn’t affect attendance. Resigned to Giles being non-tendered, but wondered if they’d hang onto him into spring training to see if they could trade him then – but with the way they were going after trades last week, probably not…considering how they’re right at $80 million already.

Can’t blame the Braves for not getting sucked in to overpaying for middling, aging, and injured talent. For every Jason Schmidt or Adam Wainwright deemed expendable based on performance and expectation but blossom elsewhere, you can count two Bruce Chen’s who became journeymen, bouncing from team to team. Jason Marquis and Kevin Millwood had some success, but not commensurate with the money they were paid. In return the Braves received lower-priced players who helped them win pennants.

Hopefully age will catch up with the Mets next summer. But Julio Franco would then keep the team from imploding emotionally!

Every time I go to SC I grab a few late 1980’s Sports Illustrateds from a pile of old magazines to go through. One had an article about Series Goats by Bob James. He made the comment that the public always remembers one event, while there are usually several factors that contribute to that game being lost, as well as the other three games the team loses.

Howard Stern came out on Letterman last night dressed as Santa, without pants, and gave Paul, Dave, and the entire audience Sirrius satellite radios. Said he was the white Oprah.

Last week betting on the underdog on all NFL games, you would be 9 winners and 5 losers. The same record even with the points.

The guys in the small group went to see The Illusionist, and it was pretty good…one of our better selections. We had small group Friday night…we met at El Porton for dinner. We may do that Marriage Perspectives 8 week class taught by a facilitator from NP. Saturday afternoon Will had a Colt baseball practice, so I helped out. Turned out to be a beautiful day. The kids made gingerbread houses at a friend’s Saturday night. Sunday I took the boys to get haircuts, and then they watched High School Musical, while Ceil shopped. I rented The DaVinci Code (I liked it, just not as well as the book).