Sorry man, I never disagreed that he isn’t worth every penny of his miniscule 550k contract. All I said was that he is not good, evidenced by his 1 year deal just above league minimum.

If it means displacing someone off of the 40 man roster who has some present or future value, no. As for DH, I’d rather use that to give our young players more experience at the plate, if Haf is done.

It’s a shame his career was cut short so abruptly. He could have challenged Jim Rice’s record 36 GiDPs. Who knows what might’ve happened next?

Happens all the time. When you click “post,” it updates your post on your screen immediately. Other people’s posts update on your screen only once you receive it from the server. Thus, real-time messages sometimes live-update on your local screen in the wrong order.

I think Affleck catches.

Please, Damon couldn’t even reach second on one hop. Garko at least can peg it down there when the pitcher rolls his mitt over in between innings.

He actually did throw some runners out as a pro catcher, y’know. I don’t think the online minor league stats go back that far, but I seem to recall his % wasn’t that horrible at Lake County.

I suspect Garko’s arm isn’t wide enough nor long enough for you to be able to run atop it.

What if I’m actually Marvin Lewis?

It makes up for everything, ever.

You two need to stop doing this.

Well, yeah.

It looks like a lot of people give Ryan Garko ice cream.

Alls I’m sayin is its very easy to sit back and be critical.

Yep, it sure is! And so we should… what? Do things the hard way? Only point out the flaws of players in haiku form? Actually I think we’ve tried that before.

I do sympathize with this point of view. I’ve written many times about the bizarre anger directed sometimes at role players (like Todd Hollandsworth), who are merely doing the best they can in the role they’re playing, and who should not be expected to be stars.

If you’re sensing some animosity towards Garko, it isn’t directed at him as a player or as a man. It’s directed at the idea that Garko is a guy you would want on your roster. There is a large disconnect between fans who have a sophisticated view of “comprehensive value” and those who put enormous emphasis on RBI.

It’s an unfortunate fact that “the idea of valuing a player like Garko” is often just expressed as “Garko.” I rooted for this guy for years, since the day he was drafted (“Jeremy Guthrie’s personal catcher!”) and up through that awesome 2007 postseason blog he had. It’s sad that, in refuting the RBIdiots, we are sometimes reduced to running down our own players.

I will say that there’s no real difference between analysis and criticism. There is no real analysis without unfettered criticism. Having said that, it’s not worth criticizing a player, personally, simply for not being good. If we’re going to criticize Garko, we might say that he perhaps bought into his own idiot stats when his luck was running hot and never really got serious about getting better pitches to hit. It’s no reflection on his character, however, that he’s only worth 550K; it’s just a fact.

I think there’s a difference and the criticism of Garko I found to be beyond analysis.

It’s not that Garko isn’t a major league quality player. It’s that he can’t play defense and can’t hit reliably enough to make up for it. He can hit righties lefties well enough to enjoy occasional playing time. As a pre-arb player he was a fine part to plug in (though not ever a solution to any real problem). As a near league minimum he’s a fine part to plug in (though not ever a solution to any real problem).

I have no beef with Garko. He is what he is – a marginal major league talent that used effectively on a roster can be a worthwhile component on a team. But his usage is considerably more limited than most major league players at this point, so I am not surprised he signed a near league-minimum contract.

It’s pretty hard to argue against, put this way.