Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus (Update: Finalized!)

[UK]

You're right Jim...

Ricciardi indicated that third baseman Troy Glaus underwent successful surgery on his ailing left foot on Monday. The operation -- a nerve decompression procedure performed by Dr. Phillip Kwong in Los Angeles -- is expected to help Glaus recover from the plantar fasciitis issue that has troubled him all season.

"The doctor said everything went well," Ricciardi said. "He relieved the pressure in the nerve and said everything looks good and [Glaus] should have no problems being ready for Spring Training."

[Richie Allen]

I'll go on record as saying I'd rather having someone that is familiar with the actual player, knowing their tendencies and their personality, than someone that is solely basing the decision on numbers.

Maybe we'll see something like this:

Code: Select all

Year   League    Team     Age   G     W    L     WP   Finish

1993 AL West     Oakland   48   162   68   94   .420      7
 1994 AL West     Oakland   49   114   51   63   .447      2
 1995 AL West     Oakland   50   144   67   77   .465      4

I was going to reply, but that one was so much better.

But hey, if TLR feels that he can get more out of his teams by knowing their social graces and how they'll react in something like child labor instead of what the numbers actually say, I don't know...

The old smartass reply is so effective in making me care even less what your opinion is. Thanks (smartass thanks).

[GatewaySnayke]

Well, Rolen may be toast. But I sure hope that Troy Glaus, who is linked to PED's, going on 32, playing on a bad foot and already an atrocious fielder, isn't toast either.

The only thing this trade accomplishes is putting lipstick (home runs) on Sandra Bernhard (St. Louis Cardinals) and getting rid of the clubhouse drama.

But I think there will probably be more drama when the team is 10 games under by the middle of June and the middle infield has hit a combined one home run.

[GatewaySnayke]

The old smartass reply is so effective in making me care even less what your opinion is. Thanks (smartass thanks).

Don't care. But if you're so sure about Tony's omniscience while balking at numbers, perhaps you'd be willing to place a bet?

[jim]

You're right Jim...

Ricciardi indicated that third baseman Troy Glaus underwent successful surgery on his ailing left foot on Monday. The operation -- a nerve decompression procedure performed by Dr. Phillip Kwong in Los Angeles -- is expected to help Glaus recover from the plantar fasciitis issue that has troubled him all season.

"The doctor said everything went well," Ricciardi said. "He relieved the pressure in the nerve and said everything looks good and [Glaus] should have no problems being ready for Spring Training."

I am not familiar with this nerve decompression thing. What I am talking about is when they actually detaching and cutting the ligament. The nerve compression thing - is that the same thing?

I suffered big time from this, and I know there was some weird nerve stuff going on. I could touch parts of my heel and feel a toe burning etc.. Really weird stuff, so maybe they did something else.

But the surgery I am talking about has a pretty bad track record - like 50% or so success ratio. And "success" is the medical definition which is a lower standard than I have.

[skmsw]

I don't know if it's completely unrealistic to think that Izturis, at age 28, could possibly put up a season close to his career best

Sure he could, but we have a 3,000 plate appearances that say he's likely to do worse. That's not the way smart decisions are made.

2000, as the 670 from that year don't suggest that.

I'm including all that data. That's the fair way to do it, right?

Over a quarter of his ABs came from the season I referenced. Those 670 ABs do suggest he could put up those numbers. The remaining 2000 do not.

Selectively parsing out the numbers like that very frequently results in an inaccurate interpretation of what the numbers really tell us.

[haltz]

I've heard it speculated (help me God) by Christina Kharl and others, I think, that LaRussa had way too much sway in his last days in Oakland. That's why I posted that. Not because we need a manager that never loses.

And yes, Richie, we should include Izturis' one good year. It shows that he's capable of getting lucky on BIP and have his BA inflate his OPS+ to an 88. Maybe he'll do that. We are concerned with what is LIKELY, and the last three years say it isn't.

EDIT: I found it from a chat posted on the board. RC, apparently, wasn't buying it in the slightest.

Though, thinking about it some more, I can see some similarities (if only the end of a great run), and think she was right on with much of this:

Christina Kahrl: It's been the sort of odd, unhappy sort of season where I could see Jocketty walking away, but this is a much stronger organization in the rungs below him than what he inherited. The Cardinals' player development program doesn't seem as vestigial as it was five or ten or fifteen years ago, and to tip my cap to Gary's point, they're open enough to the benefits of analysis *and* scouting that they could promote from within that if Jocketty left they really shouldn't have any problem.

The real danger would be a scenario where Jocketty left, La Russa stayed, and Cardinals fans wind up with a repeat of the early-'90s misery in Oakland, where TLR's increasing power in player acquisitions created a bad, boring, and uncompetitive ballclub.

[greenback44]

Can't really argue with the way Tony has always done it, considering his record. Unless people feel he could have had even better teams if someone else would have been making the player personnel decisions.

I'll go on record as saying I'd rather having someone that is familiar with the actual player, knowing their tendencies and their personality, than someone that is solely basing the decision on numbers.

Nobody bases his decisions solely on numbers.

The Blue Jays fans over at Batter's Box seem to view Glaus roughly the way we view Rolen. He had to go, although the reason was the turf rather than the manager. Glaus's various injuries made him both fragile and painful to watch at times.

[planet planet]

Some of the snarkiness needs to be toned down. Good humor in light of the Cards situation is invited, but mean spirited sarcasm towards other posters isn't.

[dangerous]

A nerve decompression implies he had a tarsal tunnel syndrome (the ankle equivalent of a carpal tunnel) because surgery for plantar fasciitis is not done much anymore.