Kevin Millar, ambassador of baseball. And KFC.

You hear a lot about clubhouse cancers these days, what with Manny Ramirez killing and taking the souls of every team member he’s ever encountered, and Gary Sheffield slaughtering an infant for every one of the 499 home runs he’s hit. But fear not, citizens, there is a cure, and that cure lies in the heart of Kevin Millar.

MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez makes the case for Millar’s presence on any team, despite his woeful 87 OPS+ last year:

Millar is more than just a carefree guy.

“Even though [Millar] has that reputation, when the lights come on and it comes to getting ready to play — even though he’s relaxed — he’s going to give you what he’s got,” [Aaron] Hill said. “[He's a] great guy to have in your clubhouse, [a] great guy to have when you’re winning and losing, and he’s just got a good attitude.”

Pretty much everyone in Major League Baseball loves this guy, and he’s routinely cited, for better or worse, as part of the winning chemistry that brought a World Series ring to the Red Sox in 2004.

But what is America without dissent, this time coming from the thorn in Tony LaRussa’s side Scott Rolen. “[He's] overweight,” he told Gonzalez, “[has] limited ability [and is a] dead-pull hitter. [He's] lucky to have a job.”

I wonder how lucky he really is. Looking at Millar’s stats, his OPS+ lifetime is 112, despite his bad year last year. Rolen’s, however, is 125, though he’s played a full season in two of the past five years. Both of them have pretty great careers behind them, but at least Millar isn’t a dick.

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Joe Blancato alden gonzalez, blue jays, kevil millar, mlb.com, scott rolen

Going on a road trip! Next up: world's largest ball of twine.

I’ve recently taken a job offer on the West Coast and have to plan an epic road trip across the country from New York. So chances are updates will be coming in at weird times and very sporadically. Unless one of our intrepid readers would like to jump in and help out, we’re in Rick Vaughn’s hands for a little while.

Let’s pray the car doesn’t break down.

Joe Blancato dam bait, site updates

Sheffield is drawing interest from the Phillies, but Tigers fans are still getting over his departure.

Now that the ink has dried on Sheff’s walking papers, folks familiar with the Tigers organization have been able to offer more than confused shoulder shrugs at the announcement of the slugger’s departure. Billfer at the Detroit Tigers Weblog (unofficial) has offered some perspective on the team’s decision to move on.

Billfer thinks making Marcus Thames a permanent fixture in the lineup takes away from the team’s production, assuming Sheffield is healthy. But after last season and his turning 40, Sheffield bouncing back from injury isn’t a safe bet.

He also comments on Sheffield’s boisterous personality, which he believes wasn’t actually a clubhouse issue: “He certainly is controversial and he’s quick to burn bridges. But you never hear his teammates complain about him. In fact Thames and Jeff Larish went out of their way to praise Sheffield as a teammate. The beat writers don’t attack him, largely because he almost always was willing to speak and not speak in cliches. My impression is that Sheffield wasn’t in this for the love of the game. Baseball is a job for him. It’s not romantic, but it’s far from being a cancer either.”

It’s tough to be sure either way, but Sheffield’s comments are usually directed at people other than his current teammates. Typically, he has a problem with management and up.

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Joe Blancato detroit tigers weblog, gary sheffield, marcus thames, tigers, transactions

McPherson creams righties but has undergone invasive back surgery.

While the Yankees are ostensibly happy with Cody Ransom filling in for A-rod the month-plus the all-star is out, Mike Axisa at River Avenue Blues caught an interesting prospective add on the waiver wire: Dallas McPherson, a former prospect in the Angels’ system, who made his way over to the Marlins last year but was just released by the team.

McPherson has battled injury problems all his career and can’t hit lefties, but Axisa thinks  the Yankees could platoon him with Ransom, who destroys left-handed pitching, and then use Ransom to spell the rest of the infield when McPhereson starts.

Of course, the idea does have its holes, as Axisa admits: McPherson is drawing interest from other clubs who are more likely to give him a full-time role, and McPherson likely wouldn’t stay in the Majors with the Yanks once A-rod returns. But it’s still interesting to watch a team have to cope with losing its best player at a relatively shallow position.

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Joe Blancato a-rod, dallas mcpherson, mike axisa, river ave blues, yankees

Alyssa Milano does all Dodger fans proud.

April 1 is usually a slow news day. The divide between super serious journalists and the rest of the internet that can’t get over April Fool’s Day usually means anyone with really groundbreaking content waits a day to post it. So to the middle ground we go.

Benjamin Hoffman at the NY Times blog Bats tossed a few questions at baseball ambassador Alyssa Milano, covering her new book “Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic,” as well as her campaign to get the color pink off women’s athletic wear.

Hoffman does hit her with a bit of a gotcha, regarding a typo in the book where she flubs Jackie Robinson’s position on the Dodgers, but she handles it pretty well:

“Branch Rickey discovered Robinson when he was playing shortstop for the Monarchs. Jackie played first base his rookie year and then moved to second for the rest of his career. Total brain fart by not only me, but the publishing professionals that took 20 passes looking specifically for my brain farts. I apologize. Profusely. If I were to write that sentence today it would have read “…no other team could have done what his team did, which was to hire a black shortstop as its first baseman and then second baseman, and end segregation in baseball.”

I’m still not exactly sure how Milano has risen to the role she’s assumed in the past few years, but there are far worst potential house guests every time they pan the crowd at a Dodgers game, so what the hell.

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Joe Blancato alyssa milano, bats, benjamin hoffman, dodgers, interview

Jason Giambi's mustache provided a much-needed drag reduction as he ran the base paths in 2008.

Benjamin Kabak at River Avenue Blues got a bee in his bonnet over Joel Sherman’s comment about Jason Giambi’s base running. Sherman claimed Giambi was “station-to-station” and “offered no threat on the bases,” which is more or less true, but the guy was second-highest on the Yankees last year in terms of OPS. So this caused Kabak to wonder, how much of a detriment can a guy be when he hits 32 home runs and gets on base better than the vast majority of players?

While he doesn’t provide a definitive answer, Kabak does some math and figures out that Giambi’s one of the least efficient base runners in baseball, at least in terms of runs scored per times he reached base.

With an OBP of .373 in 565 plate appearances, he reached base 211 times last year. He scored just 68 runs for a conversion rate of just 32.2 percent. As Sherman notes, when we omit Giambi’s home runs, he scored 36 runs in 179 times on base. That means that in just 20 percent of his non-home run times on base, Jason Giambi scored a run.

Compare that 20 percent with a league-average 31.5 percent. Now, who knows exactly what that means? Giambi’s ability to score once he reaches base has as much to do with the people hitting behind him as it does his ability to go first to third.

Of the people hitting behind him, he was getting a fair amount of help last year. Throughout the year, Giambi could count on some combination of Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano and Xavier Nady hitting behind him, all guys who get on base quite a bit and posted slugging percentages of .424, .468 and .474, respectively, last year. So it’s safe to say he had a good amount of extra-base hits behind him in the lineup.

Without a larger sample size, though, it’s pretty much impossible to determine just how much Giambi’s scoring efficiency affected the Yankees last year, but Kabak’s numbers still make for a good jumping-off point.

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Joe Blancato benjamin kabak, hideki matsui, jason giambi, river ave blues, robinson cano, xavier nady, yankees

Not pictured: Bronson Arroyo hurting his wrist.

Must be a slow week over at the Reds’ training camp, because Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has taken it upon himself to shed light on a often-misunderstood disease, one that doesn’t just plague the nation’s secretaries and computer nerds: carpal tunnel syndrome.

Reds starter Bronson Arroyo first developed symptoms of the disease in 2004 when he was with the Red Sox, and has battled occasional pain and numbness in his pitching wrist since then. “My fingers were weak,” he told Mayo, “like they were falling asleep. Then it went away. After I pitched the ALDS, it came back.”

Arroyo also plays the guitar, but he claims that hasn’t affected his wrist negatively.

Now that he’s on the Reds, team doctors have begun treating the disease, but there’s no telling what Dusty Baker may do to aggravate the situation.

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Joe Blancato bronson arroyo, injuries, mlb.com, reds

Jose Canseco's defensive woes could have impacted his net worth in the developing market.

Eric Neel has a great article on the developing world of defensive sabermetrics at ESPN. He details how GMs around the league are all warming up to run differential as a way of evaluating a player’s overall contribution to a team.

Neel drags out all the usual suspects: He mentions Bobby Abreu’s fear of padded walls, Derek Jeter’s range to his left and the giant hole in Adam Dunn’s glove. He also talks about how more front offices are adopting stats like WARP and UZR to determine how much they’re willing to spend on a player.

Of course, baseball is steeped in tradition, for better or worse, so this new renaissance of glove work is born less out of progress and more out of precedent, namely the 2008 Rays:

In 2007, Tampa Bay had one of the worst defenses in modern history; according to BP’s calculations, the fielders cost the pitchers 117 runs compared with a league-average defense. But a few smart moves turned it all around: switching B.J. Upton from second base to centerfield; trading Delmon Young, who had been playing some center; and establishing Jason Bartlett, acquired in the Young deal, as the starting shortstop. Then, two weeks into the season, Evan Longoria came up from the minors and solidified third base. The collective result was one of the best defensive teams in baseball, saving 59 runs in the field. The net turnaround, from –117 to +59, accounted for almost 20 wins.

It’s hard to argue with that.  I doubt baseball will start throwing record-breaking contracts at the Christian Guzmans of the world, but in an era where power numbers are in decline, teams will need to find new metrics to be successful.

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Joe Blancato adam dunn, bobby abreu, christan guzman, derek jeter, eric neel, espn, statistcs

Sheffield has a personality as big as his numbers.

Big news today: The Detroit Tigers have released possible Hall of Famer Gary Sheffield. Jason Beck at MLB.com has the story, which came as a surprise to Sheffield and at least one teammate, Miguel Cabrera:

As Sheffield talked with reporters, he shook hands with Cabrera when he arrived.

“I’ll see you,” Sheffield said.

“Where are you going?” Cabrera asked.

Ian Casselberry at Bless You Boys shared his opinion about the release as well: “I have to say, I’m pretty stunned by this and didn’t see it coming. … his certainly allows the Tigers more lineup flexibility in terms of shuffling players around the outfield and DH spot.  Sheffield looked to me like an immovable object at DH, anchored by that $14 million contract and a manager that seemed to be exceedingly loyal to him.”

Sheffield’s career has spanned seven teams. He began life in the Majors as a Brewer before having his best years in the late ’90s for the Marlins. He also spent time with the Braves, Dodgers and Yankees before heading to Detroit to reunite with manager Jim Leland.

While his personality never quite endeared him to the press and ruffled more than a few feathers, his performance on the field was herculean. For instance, last year was the first year he had a season’s worth of plate appearances where his OPS+ was under 100 (it was 90). In his best offensive year, 1996, his OPS+ was 189 (real OPS: 1.089). That and his 499 home runs makes him a viable candidate for the Hall, assuming he were to retire today.

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Update: The Phillies just released Geoff Jenkins, which may indicate their interest in Sheffield.

Joe Blancato gary sheffield, mlb.com, tigers, transactions

Connie Mack knew how to build a ballclub.

Frank Fitzpatrick at the Philadelphia Inquirer put together a pretty compelling article comparing the great Athletics team of the early ’30s to the ‘08-and-on Phillies. The 1930s A’s were outshadowed by the Yankees of a similar time, even though they beat them for the pennant three years in a row. If it wasn’t for the Great Depression hitting, Fitzpatrick and others believe that the A’s could’ve been a force to be reckoned with for even longer than the three-year span in which they were dominant, but budgetary constraints caused Connie Mack to cut back on the team.

Fitzpatrick sees parallels to the ‘08 Phillies in the early-’30s A’s. He says:

“If the 2009 Phillies are to emulate the 1930 Athletics and repeat, they will do so in a far-different era but with a very similar formula.

“Like those A’s, these Phillies remain virtually unaltered from the previous October. They too will rely on a potent lineup that mixes speed and strength, will be powered by a monstrously strong first baseman, will have a dominant lefthander at the head of their rotation, will have a 46-year-old veteran on their staff, and will play solid defense.”

That, and Great Depression II: Electric Boogaloo is extremely nigh.

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Joe Blancato athletics, connie mack, frank fitzpatrick, philadelphia inquirer, phillies