Gotta be the shoes

Danny Valencia and Billy Butler in
presumably friendlier times.

You may have heard about this already: Danny Valencia, former Twin, and Oakland teammate Billy Butler got into a fight in the clubhouse last week. Butler got the worst of it; he missed two games over the weekend and now has gone on the concussion disabled list.

As reported by Susan Slusser in the San Francisco Chronicle, the altercation originated when a representative of an equipment maker asked Valencia about a pair of off-brand spikes in his locker. Valencia assured the rep that he doesn't wear those in games, whereupon Butler interjected himself into the conversation to say that Valencia was lying and Company X should drop his endorsement deal.

There are three things here, at least one of which is probably no surprise:

• Danny Valencia is willing to lie to get or keep an endorsement deal worth several thousand dollars.
• Billy Butler is willing to go out of his way to get in the way of that deal.
• Somebody thinks Danny Valencia's choice of game spikes is worth several thousand dollars to the maker of those spikes.

.The third is the one that puzzles me.

Giancarlo Stanton, Russell Martin, Jason Hayward and Billy Butler

A few significant moves the past couple of days, and even through they don't directly affect the Twins, there are still points to be made.

Giancarlo Stanton agrees to a long-term deal with Miami. Exactly how long term is difficult to say. It's Stanton's choice, basically; it's either 13 years for $325 million or six years for $107 million. He has an opt-out clause after the 2020 season.

This is a heavily backloaded contract, so much so that I can't see how the Marlins avoid getting badly scalded at the end. (Remember, I'm the guy who wrote last March that the Twins should offer a pair of 20-year, $200 million contracts to Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano; I'm hardly opposed to really long-term deals for really talented young players).

Stanton is just 24 now; his best years figure to be ahead of him. They figure to be behind him when the opt-out comes. I don't know how likely he is to decide that the market will support $31 million for him in his middle 30s. If he does opt-out, the Marlins dodge the bullet they just fired into their future.

In total, however, this is probably not a terrible contract for the Marlins. Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs did an illuminating analysis of comparable players to Stanton -- this level of production ages 22 to 24 -- and found 18 others since 1950. Most of them, he concludes, were productive enough to justify the complete 13 years of this deal.

Jason Hayward traded to St. Louis. Stanton is a star because he has one very important tool: He has top-level power. Hayward's power isn't as impressive, but he does everything else better. As a result, he's been a better player than Stanton, but few recognize that. (The two are about the same age, Hayward being about three months older.)

With Hayward a year from free agency, the Atlanta Braves chose not to pay him. They traded him to St. Louis for two young pitchers, notably Shelby Miller, on whom the Cardinals seemed to sour a bit last year.

Jose Posnanski goes into detail on the Hayward-Stanton comparison here. It is intriguing, the different approaches the Braves and Marlins took on these two outfielders.

Russell Martin strikes a five-year deal with Toronto.  OK, I can defend the Stanton contract. I can defend trading one year of Hayward for almost 10 years of pitchers. .

I can't see the logic in committing $82 million over five years to a 31-year-old catcher. It almost doesn't matter that Martin has had just one good year at the plate in the past six seasons. If it were five good years at the plate, the problem would still be there: He's a catcher entering the collapse years for hard-used catchers.

The Blue Jays are putting a lot of faith in his defense and his clubhouse intangibles, more than I think is wise.

Billy Butler agrees to a three-year deal with Oakland. Huh?

Another signing I don't get. Butler has no defensive value, he grounds into about two dozen double plays a year, his power has been in steady decline. I can't see why Billy Beane is sinking $30 million into this guy.

I don't imagine the Royals are sorry to see "Country Breakfast" go. His departure certainly opens a hole in the middle of the Kansas City lineup for a right-handed hitter, and the Royals are said to be pursing Torii Hunter hard.

K.C. makes more sense for Hunter than Minnesota does. He's looking for a ring, and the Twins are not ready to contend, while the Royals just went to the seventh game of the World Series. I think Hunter will sign with the Royals.

Which, as a Twins fan, is fine by me. I don't want Hunter with the Twins.

More on what ails the Royals

Elaborating on the Monday print column:

I was probably generous to the Royals in suggesting that luck was a factor in their years in the wilderness compared to the Twins.

Management makes its own luck. Was there a Joe Mauer in the 2005 draft? Probably not — but after the Royals took 3B Alex Gordon with the No. 2 overall pick, the Nationals took 3B Ryan Zimmerman (fourth) and the Brewers took 3B Ryan Braun (fifth). Braun, of course, has since moved to left field, but there's a couple of All-Stars K.C. passed up.

Then there's Troy Tulowitzki (seventh overall to Colorado,) Ricky Romero (sixth to Toronto), Andrew McCutcheon (11th, Pittsburgh) ... the Twins took Matt Garza 24th, which is, of course, a whole 'nother story itself.

Eyeballing the first round, I see at least 10 players taken after Gordon who have clearly established themselves as better major league players. (And a number of out-and-out busts as well. C.J. Henry, anybody? Brandon Snyder?)

The Royals made the conventional choice in taking Gordon. The Twins made a slightly unconventional choice in taking Mauer over Mark Prior (and Mark Teixiera) in 2001. But the Twins have done their best work in the upper rounds of the draft when defying the conventional wisdom. The Royals really haven't done any best work in the upper rounds of the draft (other than taking Zack Grienke in 2002).

Further deepening the Royals-Twins comparison: The Mike Jacobs fiasco is worth considering. Last winter, Kansas City had on hand for first base Billy Butler (above), then 22, who appeared hopeless defensively, and Kila Ka'aihue, a 24-year-old who had raked the upper leaves of the minor leagues (a combined OPS of 1.085 in Double A and Triple A.) Two young hitters with defensive shortcomings.

The Royals eyed those options and traded a decent middle relief arm (Leo Nunez) to Florida for Jacobs, an older hitter (now 28) with defensive shortcomings and a $3 million-plus contract.

Butler has taken over first now; he's worked on his fielding — not that he's threatening Carlos Pena or Teixiera for a Gold Glove. Jacobs is a part-time DH with a miserable OBP (.305) and slugging percentage (.422). Nunez is closing for Florida. Ka'aihue? He's in Triple A amassing a .400 OPB.

This, as my brother would say, is dumb with a capital M. If you have Butler and Ka'aihue, you don't need Jacobs. But everybody in baseball can use an arm like Nunez, and everybody can use an extra $3 million in the budget.

Then there's the manager. Joe Posnanski is an unabashed Ron Gardenhire admirer — has written often that Gardy is the best manager in the game — and that admiration is only understandable in the context of the silly decisions he's watched Royals managers make over the years. Here's a Posnanski post on one such.

And as long as I'm linking to blogs complaining about the Royals — consider this piece of bitterness from Rany Jazayerli, although I should warn you that there's a semi-edited obscenity involved.

There's no disgrace in being bad for a few years. Being relentlessly bad for as long as the Royals have ... that's another matter. That the Royals stand here today, with ONE player under 25 on the roster and headed to a sixth 100-loss season in nine years ... well, that may deserve an obscenity to describe it.