There aren't too many guarantees in life, but Frank McCourt, the owner of the Dodgers, had two guarantee in his arb decisions yesterday- Orlando Hudson and Randy Wolf were not going to accept arbitration. Both had a pretty good year in 2009, and were looking for multi-year contracts this offseason. But F McCourt didn't see it that way. The payback of a few draft picks was not enough for him to take a chance on offering arbitration to Hudson and Wolf.
He can't sell the team fast enough.
Speaking of guarantees, my pick in the Fake Teams early mock draft provides many-Mark Reynolds. Mark Reynolds is guaranteed to strike out alot. He is also guaranteed to hit 30+ HRs and he has a good chance at stealing 15-20 bases again.
Reynolds went 44-98-102-24-.260-.349-.543-.892 in 2009, but he struck out in almost 39% of his at bats. He increased his BB% from 10.6% in 2008 to 11.6% in 2009, and increased his ISO from .219 to .284 in 2009. He increased his HR/FB% from 18.2% to 26% in 2009.
His HR/FB% is not sustainable as it is 6 points above his career average, so I expect his HRs to drop in 2010. But Reynolds is still capable of hitting 35 HRs and stealing 20 bases in 2010. He may not hit for a very high average, but he did increase his average from .239 in 2008 to .260 in 2009, with the help of BABIP of .341, which is lower than his career average of .348.
Bill James projects Reynolds to go 40-103-107-18-.268-.356-.551-.907 in 2010. Is he a 1st or 2nd round pick in 2010?