Jeffrey Hammonds is insulted to not be mentioned in this article.

I think the glow around Arizona has burst. The team is terrible and even a healthy Webb wouldn't change too much. They can't hit and their supposedly brilliant GM traded away a 40 HR bat. Upton is the lone bright spot.

Speaking of Webb, he looked so bad in April I'd be shocked if he weren't headed for major surgery.

It is rare that I get to point to a good decision by the Orioles in recent years past, but note that even the Orioles passed on keeping or signing Byrnes or Matthews.

Isn't this playing monday morning quarterback. We shouldn't assume that Scutaro is necessarily a .800 OPS hitter, but given the last six weeks of production, it certainly suggests he's a playable option (at least in comparison to what we knew at the beginning of the season). What about Mark Loretta, career backup, who went gangbusters in 2003, maintained down-ballot MVP performance for two years, and followed that by being a playable starter at second for another three years? What about Jayson Werth or Shane Victorino, both of whom had blemishes like "platoon player" or "fourth OF who might get run down if he plays full time" but have still blossomed into above average starters?

What about Casey Blake? He was nothing special in the minor leagues and got no real shot until he was 29, but he's maintained a similar level of production since then. Or Ronnie Belliard's late career surge towards adequacy? Or Placido Polanco's emergence from fifth infielder to allstar calibre 2B?

Eric Byrnes is a player who had one fantastic season where he was probably one of the top twenty players in the NL. It was a fluke and you called it. It doesn't make it impossible that a good portion of Scutaro's or Overbay's improvement to be real. Byrnes was a dynamic player that year and it looked like a real breakthrough for a player whose power and speed skill set would age well. The amount of money they gave him was likely above his market rate; that was a real mistake. But, given the information Arizona had at the time, it may have made sense to make some type of commitment to him. Stating that Byrnes's downfall from cornerstone to useless is pure monday morning quarterback, discovering a narrative in the data that isn't there.

With Buster Posey waiting, the Giants would be crazy to sign Molina to an expensive, multi-year contract. (But then this is the team that likes to sign players in the 30s to expensive multi-year contracts (e.g., Dave Roberts).)

I was convinced before reading this article that the contract given to Byrnes and the resultant trades of Quentin and Hairston are the biggest factors in the current decline of the Diamondbacks. Joe's excellent analysis just confirms my opinions. Added to the equation is the organization's ongoing delusion that Chad Tracy and Tony Clark can ever again be productive hitters. With no capable veterans to lead the way, it's easy to see why the Diamondbacks' young hitters have mostly regressed in the last two years. It's hard to believe that the team that was the top organization in baseball just a couple of years ago may need to start a rebuilding effort.

Christian Guzman, whatever PECOTA says, is a candidate for this list, on age and career performance standards, whatever happened in the limited ABs over the past two years.

You're attributing the Jays performance to Scutaro? That's just silly. Since May 1st he's .261/.329/.381 - almost exactly his career norms. The Jays are 8-3 in that span. As long as Scutaro plays average SS and hits his career norms, he's doing more than any option they have and cheaper than any option available on the FA market last winter.

There's not much to suggest that JP will overpay Scutaro when the time comes for a contract. He dumped a player with more grit scrap in Reed Johnson. Sure there's Eckstein but that wasn't a terrible gamble.

Look elsewhere for your blame for the Jays making your pre-season predictions look bad. How about Cito? (After his hire the Jays have the best record in MLB). Nah. Gene Tenance? Nah.

I'm not saying the Jays are "for real" (I don't particularly care) but they were a good team last year and JP has been focusing on drafting and obtaining pitching FOR YEARS... there's no accident that there's pitching depth even on a staff rife with injury; that's been the GMs focus. My advice, sit back and enjoy a team beat up on the big boys and cheer when 43,000 show up in a stadium usually filled with 20,000-something. It is more fun than wringing your hands over empty seats down the baselines at the house that was steroids built.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. The Phillies signed Jayson Werth to a 2-year, 10 million deal based on basically a half-season of full-time play in his later peak (age 29 season). That seems to have turned out pretty well, as Werth is one of the most underrated players in baseball, a 25-25 guy with great OBP skills and plus defense in right field.

30 years from now I will remember one thing about Eric Byrnes. He will dive sometimes 3-4 steps after he catches a fly ball. He is a bigger outfield hot dog than anyone I've ever seen play the game.

Hard to believe that you can write an article on Scutaro and Byrnes without mentioning that Billy Beane spotted both of them, got some productive use out of both, and let them go when they got a little more expensive. (Although, in Scutuaro's case, considering the injury histories of Ellis and Chavez, he should have ponied up the $1.1 million per, instead of trying to backfill with players being paid the minimum.)

I'm always reminded of the line from "Veeck as in Wreck" when I hear about these insane contracts for middle relievers, scrappy outfielders and guys getting the mid-level exception in the NBA:

It isn’t the high price of stars that is expensive; it’s the high price of mediocrity.

Michael Cuddyer was Eric Byrnes before Eric Byrnes was.

I'm forwarding this article to the sports talk guys here in Cincy, because whilst the Redlegs have been throttling the Snakes this week, there has been a lot of talk about how Eric Byrnes would be the perfect solution for our LF hole.