Aaron Miles - the final analysis

[inari]

But hes white and non confrontational.

 

So am I.

 

Are you also left-handed?

 

Yes! Where's my contract?!

[NCCubFan]

(Think Sean Marshall can play 2B? He posted a better OPS this year, and then Lou could do that cool lefty-righty switch off thing.)

No, but he can play LF. :D

[CUBZ99]

Aaron Miles was terrible this year.... In other news grass is green and the sky is blue.

[chuckywang]

I think Aaron Miles awfulness has already been detailed extensively on this board. He was awful, let's move on with our lives.

 

When you consider that Miles signed his 2-year, $4.9 million contract on December 31, 2008 and Orlando Hudson signed his 1-year $3.4 million contract with the Dodgers on February 20, 2009, one could argue that his awfulness hasn't been addressed anywhere near enough.

 

Hudson was a Type A free agent which drove down his value considerably. And Hudson would have never signed with the Cubs without the team promising him the starting job. One of the reasons the Cubs traded away their starting 2B in the first place was because they felt Fontenot was ready for more at-bats. They weren't going to trade DeRosa just to sign another starting second baseman who also would have cost them their 1st round pick.

 

The Miles contract is bad enough on its own. There's no reason to need to make a very flawed comparison with Hudson who had different costs associated with him and was signed for a very different purpose.

 

Speaking of which, why did Hudson not accept arbitration? He made over $6M in 2008, so his arbitration offer couldn't have been much less. Instead he choose free agency and only got $3.4M. Was it just a poor decision on his part?

[CubColtPacer]

I think Aaron Miles awfulness has already been detailed extensively on this board. He was awful, let's move on with our lives.

 

When you consider that Miles signed his 2-year, $4.9 million contract on December 31, 2008 and Orlando Hudson signed his 1-year $3.4 million contract with the Dodgers on February 20, 2009, one could argue that his awfulness hasn't been addressed anywhere near enough.

 

Hudson was a Type A free agent which drove down his value considerably. And Hudson would have never signed with the Cubs without the team promising him the starting job. One of the reasons the Cubs traded away their starting 2B in the first place was because they felt Fontenot was ready for more at-bats. They weren't going to trade DeRosa just to sign another starting second baseman who also would have cost them their 1st round pick.

 

The Miles contract is bad enough on its own. There's no reason to need to make a very flawed comparison with Hudson who had different costs associated with him and was signed for a very different purpose.

 

Speaking of which, why did Hudson not accept arbitration? He made over $6M in 2008, so his arbitration offer couldn't have been much less. Instead he choose free agency and only got $3.4M. Was it just a poor decision on his part?

 

I don't think anybody expected contract values to drop as quickly as they did. I can't remember what he was demanding during the offseason (I believe it was something like 3/30) but I know he wanted 15 million per year in free agency when he was talking about it the offseason before.

 

Eventually, guys like Hudson, Abreu, Cabrera, and Cruz had to drop their demands significantly or risk skipping the season.

[davell]

Hudson was looking for 5-45 or close to that this past offseason.

[mcgoobs]

Fangraphs puts Aaron Miles value at negative $5.8 million.

[flyseye]

Fangraphs puts Aaron Miles value at negative $5.8 million.

 

If it wasn't for all those screaming line drives hit right at people....

[Soul]

The final analysis on Miles:

 

He blows chunks.

 

/Miles

[NewUserName]

not to defend the crap that is aaron miles but in 1981 the cubs ran ivan dejesus out for 460 ABs in a strike shortened season with this line .194/.276/.233/.509 with a 44 ops+ I am not sure that aaron miles even comes close to that kind of badness given the amount of ABs

[circlecitycub]

not to defend the crap that is aaron miles but in 1981 the cubs ran ivan dejesus out for 460 ABs in a strike shortened season with this line .194/.276/.233/.509 with a 44 ops+ I am not sure that aaron miles even comes close to that kind of badness given the amount of ABs

 

So, trading him for a Sandberg like player would be par for the course.