Barmes, Hurdle reunited

[love_that_reefer]

Pirates signed SS Clint Barmes to a two-year, $10.5 million contract.
Barmes passed his physical Monday in Pittsburgh, thus making the deal official. The 32-year-old is expected to start at shortstop for the Pirates in 2012 after batting .244/.312/.386 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI in 123 games this past year for Houston.

Not a terrible deal for the Pirates. Barmes is good defensively so they don't lose anything from that aspect compared to Cedeno and we all know Barmes brings more offensively. They get an upgrade and it's only a two year deal. They were said to be interested in Furcal so this is a better deal than the two year, $16 million deal Furcal wants.

[Kingdom]

Clint Barmes will be 33 years old in March, which is one of the reasons why you wouldn't usually think he'd be getting a two-year deal from the Pittsburgh Pirates, or any other team. Here are some of the other reasons:

His career on-base percentage is .302. Barmes tends to strike out a lot -- 88 times in 446 at-bats last season. He's not a big extra-base-hit guy (39 last season) despite playing his home games in Houston last year.


But there are two things that work in favor of Barmes. First, among all shortstops who played at least 700 innings at the position, he ranked fifth in UZR, and even if you acknowledge that there is no absolutely sound defensive metric, that standing for Barmes does confirm the general perception that he is pretty good at catching the ball.
And second, Barmes is a free agent at a time when there are many teams looking for a shortstop. In fact, the shortstop market is like a game of musical chairs with 10 participants and only four chairs.


The Miami Marlins have an incumbent shortstop, Hanley Ramirez, and they're trying to sign Jose Reyes. The New York Mets would like to keep Reyes but probably won't pay him, so they'll need a shortstop. The San Francisco Giants' priority is to add an outfielder, but they're having conversations about shortstops. The St. Louis Cardinals are focused on re-signing Albert Pujols, but their second priority is a shortstop.


The Milwaukee Brewers might secretly prefer somebody better than Yuniesky Betancourt, but might re-sign him because the shortstop market is so thin. The Atlanta Braves need a shortstop and reportedly have told the New York Yankees they like Eduardo Nunez, but Derek Jeter will be 38 years old this summer and they would probably have to be overwhelmed to part with a shortstop.
The Houston Astros need a shortstop. The Tampa Bay Rays don't know who their full-time shortstop will be. The Arizona Diamondbacks don't know when Stephen Drew will be back, which is why they moved quickly to lock up two guys who can play shortstop, John McDonald and Willie Bloomquist.


The Philadelphia Phillies are built to win now, with their money invested in a lot of older players, and in a vacuum, they might not be thrilled about giving Jimmy Rollins a long-term contract. But as soon as Reyes signs, Rollins will be the best shortstop on the market, and he is reliable defensively, and with such a thin shortstop market, he probably is going to get a pretty good contract.
After all, Barmes did: two years and a reported $11 million from the Pirates. The price seems steep until you realize that Pittsburgh just grabbed one of the few decent defensive shortstops available, and that when the music stops, there will be three or four teams left without a shortstop.

Jamey Carroll is a walking gold statue compared to Barmes.

[Kingdom]

Oh, that article is from Buster Olney's blog.