Miami Marlins starting pitcher Kevin Slowey (45) pitches against the Philadelphia Phillies in the first inning at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
We are now three weeks into the season, way too early to read much into statistics. However, we have to keep up with the teams using numbers, so let’s take a look at how the team is doing so far.
This was a busy and bad week for roster moves for the team. The Cubs claimed old team member Cody Ransom off waivers (but because I already released him, he isn’t part of my team anymore and I can’t add him again as he wasn’t signed as a free agent) and designated Hisanori Takahashi for assignment. He was then outrighted to the minors, so I am keeping him on my minors/inactive part of the roster. To make room, I had to release Carlos Torres, who has been okay starting in Las Vegas (the Mets AAA). I also corrected Takahashi’s salary, as I had him making .5 million, but he is making 1 million.
John Lannan was also placed on the DL after an awful start with a strained tendon in his left knee. To make room for him in the minors/inactive part of the roster, I released Rich Thompson, who might have been a useful bench piece later in the year if the Rays called him up, but he had gotten off to a horrible start and I felt like I had to release an outfielder because my pitching depth has evaporated. Injuries continue to haunt the team, as Ryan Madson still doesn’t look very close to returning.
The Cubs also signed Kevin Gregg six days ago and he is on the MLB roster. He isn’t the kind of guy I would normally target, but I have a couple of roster spots open now, so I added him to the team and hopefully he will give me some value. His salary has not been released yet, so for now, we will assume it is 451,000 (500,000 prorated over 146 games instead of 162 because 16 games have been played. My updated salary for 2013 should be 99.611 million dollars, meaning I have just over 8 million dollars left to play with for the rest of the year.
The Kraken
| Name | fWAR | rWAR | WARP | WAA | Position | 2013 Contract | Future Contract |
| James Loney | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1B | 2 mil | |
| Maicer Izturis | -0.6 | -1 | -0.5 | -0.7 | 2B | 3 mil | 6 mil |
| Marco Scutaro | 0.1 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0 | 2B | 6.66 mil | 13.33 mil |
| Jeff Keppinger | -0.7 | -0.7 | -0.5 | -1 | 2B | 4 mil | 8 mil |
| Jack Hannahan | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 3B | 2 mil | 2 mil |
| Eric Chavez | 0 | -0.2 | 0 | -0.4 | 3B | 3 mil | |
| David Ross | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | C | 3.1 mil | 3.1 mil |
| Geovany Soto | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | C | 2.75 mil | |
| Yorvit Torrealba | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | C | .5 mil | |
| Juan Pierre | -0.5 | -0.4 | -0.4 | -0.6 | OF | 1.6 mil | |
| Melky Cabrera | -0.2 | 0 | 0 | -0.3 | OF | 8 mil | 8 mil |
| Dewayne Wise | -0.1 | -0.1 | -0.1 | -0.1 | OF | .7 mil | |
| Andres Torres | -0.1 | 0 | -0.2 | -0.1 | OF | 2 mil | |
| Nate Schierholz | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | OF | 2.25 mil | |
| Oliver Perez | 0 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.2 | RP | 1.5 mil | |
| Shawn Camp | -0.1 | -0.5 | 0 | -0.5 | RP | 1.35 mil | |
| Jason Grilli | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | RP | 2.75 mil | 4 mil |
| Jeremy Guthrie | -0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | SP | 5 mil | 20 mil |
| Hiroki Kuroda | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | SP | 15 mil | |
| Scott Feldman | -0.1 | -0.3 | 0 | -0.4 | SP | 6 mil | |
| Kevin Slowey | 0.3 | 1 | 0.2 | 0.9 | SP | .5 mil | |
| Bartolo Colon | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.2 | SP | 3 Mil | |
| Kevin Gregg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | RP | .451 mil |
Minors
| Name | fWAR | rWAR | WARP | WAA | Position | 2013 Contract | Future Contract |
| Scott Baker | SP | 5.5 mil | |||||
| Randy Wells | SP | MiLB | |||||
| Michael Olmsted | RP | MiLB | |||||
| Ryan Madson | RP | 3.5 mil | |||||
| Mitch Maier | OF | MiLB | |||||
| Brian Bogusevic | OF | MiLB | |||||
| Thomas Neal | OF | MiLB | |||||
| Bobby Wilson | C | MiLB | |||||
| Mike Fontenot | 2B | MiLB | |||||
| Matt Downs | 2B | MiLB | |||||
| Travis Ishikawa | 1B | MiLB | |||||
| Dan Johnson | 1B | MiLB | |||||
| Ryan Ludwick | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | OF | 7.5 mil | 7.5 mil |
| Hisanori Takahashi | -0.1 | 0 | -0.1 | 0 | RP | 1 mil | |
| John Lannan | 0.1 | -0.2 | 0.1 | -0.3 | SP | 2.5 mil |
Former/Released
| Name | fWAR | rWAR | WARP | WAA | 2013 Contract |
| Freddy Garcia | MiLB | ||||
| Ryan Sweeney | MiLB | ||||
| Hector Rondon | MiLB | ||||
| Zach Braddock | MiLB | ||||
| Endy Chavez | MiLB | ||||
| Chris Volstad | MiLB | ||||
| Kyle McClellan | MiLB | ||||
| Ryan Sadowski | MiLB | ||||
| Brandon Allen | MiLB | ||||
| Cesar Izturis | MiLB | ||||
| Nate McLouth | 2 mil | ||||
| Tim Brydak | MiLB | ||||
| Tim Wood | MiLB | ||||
| Ryan Reid | MiLB | ||||
| Neal Cotts | MiLB | ||||
| Jason Bourgieous | MiLB | ||||
| Zach Phillips | MiLB | ||||
| Mike Ekstrom | MiLB | ||||
| Bill Bray | MiLB | ||||
| Dan Wheeler | MiLB | ||||
| Cody Ransom | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.2 | .5 mil |
| Carlos Torres | MiLB | ||||
| Rich Thompson | MiLB |
So how is team doing so far according to the metrics?
.3 fWAR, 5 wins 11 losses
1 rWAR, 5.7 wins 10.3 losses
.1 WARP, 5.22 10.78 losses
-1.5 WAA, 6.5 wins, 9.5 losses.
So no matter, which measure you use, I am at least better than the Astros, Marlins, Cubs, and Padres. It has been a really rough start, but at least I wouldn’t be the worst team. My infield is just playing atrocious right now, with Maicer Izturis and Jeff Keppinger leading the way. In fact, James Loney is by far my best infielder (with catchers included) and my best position player except maybe Nate Schierholtz. Kevin Slowey is my best player. Another example of just how small of a sample size we are working with so far is that while I complained last week about Hiroki Kuroda, he is now one of my top players after two good starts.