Claymores Beat Writer
The Edinburgh News
Scottish fans today have just one question: Have the Claymores thrown in the towel on this season already?
In light of last week’s news of a blockbuster trade with Bakersfield, which sent star outfielder Pat Barry and two minor leaguers to the Bears in exchange for SP Neil Maes, outfielder Dave Yarbrough, and two minor league pitchers.
“What are they doin’,” asked season ticket holder Lachlan MacAdams. “Barry was the only one of those bums hitting worth a damn. My gran could do better with her thistle stick than Vincent Powell this year. Maybe the front office should cut back on sipping the Ardbeg 10-year-old scotch and try doing their jobs sober for a change.”
Pat Barry
Sports talk radio in Edinburgh was flooded with calls from distraught fans wondering why the team had decided to cut ties with the popular Barry, who was leading the team with a .304 batting average, 13 home runs, and 35 RBIs.
The answer was not one that fans could easily accept:
Money.
“The sad fact is that Barry’s $24 million contract was a driving force in that deal,” said Malcolm Wilkes, a columnist and analyst for PEBA Weekly. “It would have paid him for another two seasons after this one, and the team just flat didn’t want to pay it.”
General Manager Vic Caleca said Wilkes was mistaken, though.
“That’s just Malcolm’s typical ill-informed bombast,” Caleca said via Skype from his Central Indiana office. “We looked at the team and realized that we weren’t progressing the way we’d hoped.
“It was clear we weren’t going anywhere this season with Barry in the lineup, so we decided to make a move. When Bakersfield contacted us, we went through a number of options and settled on that ones that made the most sense for us.”
When it was pointed out to him that both Maes and Yarbrough are on contracts that expire at the end of the season, Caleca shrugged.
“So?” he asked.
Doesn’t that suggest, he was asked, that money might have at least a little something to do with the deal?
“Well, maybe just a little,” Caleca said with a grin. “But, hey, who knows? Maybe we’ll re-sign one or both of those guys.”
Really?
“Well, probably not,” Caleca said.
Still, the question remains, what are the Claymores’ prospects going forward this year?
For better or worse, the Scottish have remade their rotation since opening day. Maes now, likely, goes into the top spot, followed by free agent acquisition Oniji Yokoyama; and veterans Carlos Pérez; Francisco Robles; and Clark Snow.
“It’s better than that collection of losers they started the year with,” Wilkes said, “but it still isn’t exactly elite.”
As for Yarbrough, he’ll likely split time between DH and left field, hitting second in the lineup to take advantage of his ability to draw walks and slap out base hits.
Just who will drive him in, though, will be a thorny question for the rest of the year, unless outfielder Powell can rediscover his hitting stroke. He currently is slashing .197/.262/.409 with 6 home runs and 17 RBIs.
If Powell or someone else doesn’t step up quickly, look for the Claymores to struggle in the scoring – and wins – departments.
“But at least they’re saving money, right?” said embittered fan MacAdams. “Cheap bastards.”
!