Lester Looking Ahead to World Series

As some of you may’ve heard, the Red Sox made some big moves this offseason.  They started out by trading for power hitting first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, and then followed it up by signing Carl Crawford, Bobby Jenks, and Dan Wheeler to free agent contracts.  When you factor in the return of Josh Beckett, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Mike Cameron, all of whom missed significant time due to injuries in 2010, it’s easy to understand why people in Red Sox Nation are pretty excited about the prospects of this year’s team.  

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe had a chance to talk with ace starting pitcher Jon Lester at a promotional event for People’s United Bank the other day.  Apparently, Lester is already preparing to pitch deep into the postseason.    

“Mentally and physically, I’m preparing for the World Series,’’ he said. “I’m doing extra right now to make sure my body holds up for late October. You look at the kind of team we have and I don’t see why can’t get there.’’

As a Red Sox fan I love both his enthusiasm, and his desire to prepare his body for additional wear and tear in October.  While his goal of pitching in October should be at the forefront of his (and every player’s) thoughts, I can’t help but wonder if he’s being a little presumptive.  It is only January after all.  Still, I love his confidence.  If the rest of his teammates are as motivated as Lester, the Red Sox could be in for one heck of a season. 

Still, as fans, we shouldn’t get too cocky just yet.  Championships aren’t won on paper in January.  Instead, they’re one on the field in October.  The Red Sox’s impressive offseason won’t mean jack, if they can’t put it together between April and October. Plenty of unexpected things could happen over the next nine months that could derail their season.  It’s important to keep that in the back of your mind.

In 2010, Lester made his first All-Star appearance and finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting.  He went 19-9 with a 3.18 FIP, 9.7 K/9, 2.71 K/BB, and 5.3 fWAR.

Rangers Leave Door Open for Vlad

When Rangers President Nolan Ryan speaks, people tend to listen.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact he's a living legend, or maybe it's because he's shown that he lacks the internal monologue most of us employ.  Either way, he's direct, and you always know what's on his mind.  Yesterday, he took some questions from fans at the Rangers fan fest, and had this to say about Vladmir Guererro.

"They were looking for a two-year contract and we had agreed with him and his agent that it was a mutual option this year, so we agreed to let them go out on the market and see what the market bared. And he hadn't been able, to this point, to get a two-year contract. Is there still a possibility that he could end up signing with us? Yeah, there is. But I'm not for sure what other interest is out there as far as he is concerned. I think that will play out in the next 20 days before spring training. ... You'd love to have that bat, another right-handed bat on the bench, or him DHing when Michael Young is playing a position. That will obviously come into play in the decision of where he's going to go. How many at-bats he thinks he's going to get somewhere."

I would like to remind you that the last time Ryan left the door open to sign a free agent, that man was Adrian Beltre.  Within a week, Beltre was a Ranger.  I'm not predicting he'll sign with the Rangers.  I'm not even saying there's a pattern here that we should keep an eye on.  I'm just pointing out the similarities in the situations. 

Much like the Beltre situation, there isn't an obvious fit for Guererro.  The Rangers currently have Michael Young covering the DH spot, and there's absolutely no chance they give Vlad another shot to play the outfield; especially after his dreadful performance in Game 1 of the World Series.  That leaves him with one option if he decides to sign with the Rangers--agree to a one year contract and be their part-time DH.  Otherwise, he can continue to troll the free agent market in hopes of scoring a starting job with either the Orioles or Angels, both of whom are projected to be non-contenders.  Both options have their benefits and drawbacks.  It's almost like a poison pill.  Such is the life of an aging slugger.

Morneau to Resume Baseball Activities in February

According to Twins GM Bill Smith, first baseman Justin Morneau  has started working out, and should be ready to swing a bat by February 1st.

"Well he called the other day and I had a great talk with him.  I hadn’t talked with him in probably a month and he told me that he has had a real good week of workouts.  He said he pushed it, I think he said - this was Monday night - so he said on Friday he pushed it about as hard as he can in any workout and he didn’t have any problems.  And that’s a great thing for us."

This is great news for the Twins.  Last season, Morneau was having an MVP quality season when a concussion derailed his (and one of my fantasy baseball teams) season just prior to the All-Star break.  Typically, players return fairly quickly (anywhere from 2-4 weeks) from concussions.  Unfortunately for Morneau and the Twins, his symptoms persisted, and he never made back on to the field.  After several months of recovery, Morneau appears to be on the "up-and-up" and on the verge of resuming baseball activities a few weeks ahead of schedule. 

Usually, teams have trouble replacing a player that produced a .447 wOBA and 5.3 WAR in 81 games, but not the Twins.  Instead, they made the appropriate adjustments, put up a 48-32 record over the course of the rest of the season, and surpassed the White Sox and Tigers to secure their sixth division title nine years.  Still, even with the success they had last season without Morneau, the Twins are a much better team with him both in the lineup and on the field.  Their second half performance was largely unsustainable when you consider that (a) the replacement defensive alignment the Twins sent out to the field was simply atrocious, and (b) the Twins received huge offensive production out of 40 year old slugger Jim Thome, who likely will not give an encore performance in 2011.

Hopefully, Morneau continues to recover as expected.  With him in the lineup, the Twins will be the odds on favorite to secure their seventh division title in ten years.  If he's not, they might end up being a 75-80 win team.

Papelbon Still on the Block

Well, this is an interesting story line.  According to Nick Carfardo of the Boston Globe, the Red Sox are still very open to trading All-Star closer Jonathan Papelbon.

7. Jonathan Papelbon, RHP, Red Sox — Jon Heyman of SI.com reported that the Sox considered dealing him to the White Sox or Oakland, but the $12 million salary nixed things. But a Red Sox source said this: Papelbon won’t be off-limits in spring training or during the season, no matter where the Sox are in the standings and whether Daniel Bard or Bobby Jenks is ready to take the closer job.

This really shouldn't be considered a surprise considering the ridiculous one year $12M contract Papelbon signed last week.  It wasn't all that long ago that he was one of the top two or three closers in the game.  Now?  Not so much.  After struggling with mechanics, inconsistent command, poor pitch selection, and an inability to avoid walks, Papelbon has stumbled into a second (or maybe even third) tier closer.  Second and third tier closers are nice, but they're not worth the salary he's going to be making in 2011.   

Trading Papelbon will prove to be extremely difficult for the Red Sox.  If they expect to get anything in return for the struggling closer, they're going to have to be willing to eat a sizable portion of the money he's owed.

In 2010, Papelbon went 5-7 with 37 saves in 45 chances, 3.51 FIP, 10.21 K/9, 2.71 K/BB, and 1.2 WAR.

Join Me on Twitter

Hey guys.  I just wanted to invite all of you to join me on Twitter.  Before you say, "But Chip, Twitter is so stupid and lame," please allow me to convince you otherwise.  While Twitter is perhaps a little geeky, so is writing and reading a baseball blog; therefore, you are all geeks by association.  Being on Twitter allows you to get real time updates on the latest baseball information, share interesting articles with others, and participate in conversations.  Also, where else can you get incoherent real time updates from Kanye West and Ozzie Guillen?  If anyone is would like to join me on there, my name is Chip_BBIMH.  Hope to see you there!

Weekend Round-Up - 1/23/2011

These links have been brought to you by Rex Ryan and John Madden.

Rex Ryan:  Does athlete's foot get in the way of your toe sucking and love making agenda?  It used to get in the way of mine.   Luckily, I met John Madden, and he told me about... 

John Madden:  Boom!  Tough Actin' Tinactin!  (pause)  What?  Wait a second.  Is that why you asked me about Tinactin?  So you could suck on your wife's toes? 

Rex Ryan:  Hell yeah, I suck toes!  

John Madden:  I'm not sure if I'm more disgusted by the idea of you sucking on your wife's toes, or the fact that your wife had a disgusting foot fungus that "interrupted your agenda."

Rex Ryan:  Don't judge me. 

On to the links...

• Bill James asked an interesting question the other day.  How would a player's career look if we traded 500 of his walks for 325 singles?  Joe Posnanski takes this idea and runs with it.  He uses current Hall of Fame candidates as his sample, and comes up with some interesting results.  Here's the original post, and his follow-up.
• I kept meaning to write about Gil Meche's retirement, but other, more interesting things kept coming up.  Or at least that's what I thought at the time.  Is there really anything more interesting than a player leaving $12.5M on the table because he feels retirement is the more honorable option?  Rob Neyer takes a look at how the Royals benefit from Meche's recent decision. 
• Craig Calcaterra has a take on Jeff Pearlman's decision to track down some of his more fervent internet haters.  Not surprisingly, he take is perfectly rational, which is ironic because Pearlman seems to be anything but rational.
• There were a lot of great articles on Fangraphs this week, but Dave Cameron's piece on what $75M can buy a team in 2011, takes the cake.  Not surprisingly, all of the options are better than Vernon Wells.  Shocking!
• Jason and the boys over at IIATMS put up so many great articles this week, it's impossible to name just one.  The first is by Mark who takes a look at just how ridiculous the AL East really is.  The second is by Larry regarding the Yankees "accidental budget".  The last two is a two part article by Brien and Jason regarding the state of Joba. 
• This has to be one of my favorite articles of the week.  As many of you know, Rich Lederer of Baseball Analysts is likely the reason Bert Blyleven has finally made it into the Hall of Fame.  In this piece, Lederer writes about his first meeting with the recently elected Hall of Famer--just a couple of weeks ago.
• Dave Studeman of Hardball Times shares a little bit of Bill James's four part series on the Hall of Fame.  This excerpt is on closers and their inclusion.
• The Common Man over at the Platoon Advantage, has his own clever take on the Vernon Wells trade.  Yes, everyone has an opinion, but this one is worth reading.
• I can't believe I missed this for last week's links.  Bill Baer at Crashburn Alley takes a look at Chase Utley and Robinson Cano.  It's short, but certainly worthy of a discussion. 
• More on the Meche retirement.  This time Rany Jazayerli weighs in.
• Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness looks at the Gibbons/Thames platoon in left field. 

More Thoughts on the Wells Trade

Well, it took me awhile, but I finally found someone that likes the trade that sends Vernon Wells to the Angels.  Victor Rojas, a TV commentator for the Angels, has come out strongly in support of the trade in a recent piece he wrote on twitlonger.com.  Here's what he had to say.

"The players the Angels sent to Toronto are two very good guys...I like them both personally but I believe things had run its course & it was time to move on (that actually happens in sports...you know, where a team has decided to cut ties with someone & they have some value on the market)."

On this point, Rojas is dead on.  Things had run their course with Napoli and Rivera in Los Angeles, and both probably needed to be moved.  Rivera, 32, is coming off of a terrible season in which he produced a .252/.312/.409 triple slash line, which is the very definition of a replacement level hitter.  As a player that doesn't hit for average, draw walks, run the bases well, or play adequate defense at a corner outfield position, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Rivera has an expiration date of two or three season at most.  While Rivera could show a power resurgence while playing half of his games at the homer happy Rogers Centre, it was still probably the smartest move for the Angels to move him.

Napoli, on the other hand, is an incredibly useful player that the Angels seemed to irrationally dislike.  Despite exhibiting positive baseball talents like the ability to hit for power and draw walks, the Angels seemed to prefer the light hitting Jeff Mathis over Napoli.   Why?  Defense, of course.  Never mind the fact that Mathis has actually allowed more passed balls (21 to 20), wild pitches (14 to 2), or a higher percentage of runners to steal a base (77.3% success rate to 76.1%) despite catching 614 fewer innings.  None of that matters because the Angels were convinced that Mathis was better at calling games than Napoli.  Is it true?  You tell me.  Last I checked, there's neither a viable way to measure game calling skills, nor a credible study showing that a specific catcher can have anything more than a minor impact on a pitcher's ability to perform.  The Angels were essentially basing their opinion on faith, not fact.  That's there choice.  They can run their team anyway they want.  I'm just a man at the keyboard who disagrees with their flawed thought process.  Based on their actions, it's clear that there wasn't a long term future for Napoli with the Angels.  As such, he needed to be moved to a team that appreciates his talents.

Removing the "contract" (4 years and roughly $75mm remaining after you back out the app. $11mm for Napoli/Rivera in '11) for a moment, would you have traded Napoli/Rivera for Wells in a straight baseball move? My answer is yes and that's what the Angels did with the blessing of Mr. Moreno (who, by the way, is the guy that's ACTUALLY footing the bill) and they did so without losing a draft pick and without affecting arbitration & free agency. As Mark Healy (@baseballdigest9) asked this morning - "When did #MLB fans decide that this sport is now a contest for who spends their money most wisely? Unless you're an investor, who cares?"

Contrary to popular belief, Wells is actually a pretty average ballplayer.  He has the reputation of being a plus-defender due to the three Gold Gloves he won between 2004-2006.  While he may've been deserving of that reputation at the time, that time has passed.  Since 2007, he's been among the worst defensive center fielders in the game by multiple defensive metrics (UZR, Total Zone, and DRS), and probably would benefit from a position change from center to left.  As a power hitter, Wells also has the reputation of being one of the games top hitters, but even that's undeserved.  Outside of hitting home runs, Wells's offensive skill set is pretty limited.  Wells is an "out machine" who's averse to taking a walk.  In seasons where he failed to hit for a high average (see 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009), his OBP plummeted to unacceptable levels.  As such, he's produced below average wOBAs in two of the last four seasons.  True All-Star caliber players (especially those making $20M per season) don't produce two offensive seasons like that in such a short period of time unless they're pitchers. 

Last night on Twitter, there was an interesting exchange between Sky Kalkman and Dave Cameron.  Kalkman opined, "At $5M per win, Vernon Wells has to produce 17 WAR over the next four years, or something like 5/4.5/4/3.5. It *could* happen."  To which Cameron smartly replied, "Only 23 position players produced 17+ WAR over last four years. The worst player in that group is Curtis Granderson."  So how many WAR did Wells produce over the last four seasons?  Exactly 7.0.  Yes, that's right.  Wells was ten whole wins worse than Curtis Granderson.  While Granderson is a very nice player, I don't know of anyone that would willingly agree to pay him $80M+ over the next four years--and he's 27 months younger than Wells.  That's what makes this trade so baffling.  Wells is just not that good of a player, and at 32, he projects to decline even further.

As Kalkman stated above, using the typical regression pattern of 0.5 WAR per season, Wells would have to produce something along the lines of 5/4.5/4/3.5 WAR over the next four seasons in order to justify his contract.  For a 32 year old player who's only produced 7.0 WAR in the previous four seasons (4.0 WAR coming last year alone), it's highly unlikely the perfect scenario Kalkman presented will come to fruition.  So how will Wells actually fare over the next four years?  Based on my weighted 5/4/3 WAR regression, I have pegged Wells as being a 2.0-2.5 WAR true talent player in 2011.  Assuming a 5% increase in the average cost of a win on the free agent market, and using the same 0.5 WAR regression pattern Kalkman used above, here are my projections for the next four seasons.

                 Age      WAR          Value          Salary        Variance        Cost/Win
2011          32         2.5           $12.5M        $23M         -$10.5M          $5.00M
2012          33         2.0           $10.5M        $21M         -$10.5M          $5.25M
2013          34         1.5           $8.3M          $21M         -$12.7M          $5.51M
2014          35         1.0           $5.8M          $21M         -$15.2M          $5.80M
Total                      7.0           $37.1M        $86M         -$48.9M
 
Between 2011 and 2014, I project that Wells will provide $37.1M in performance based value despite receiving a salary that is more than twice that amount.  In reality, this makes Wells a sunk cost for the Angels--not an asset that will improve the team both in the short and long-term.  Furthermore, a contract of this magnitude hampers the Angels financial flexibility as they've now committed around 15-20% of their payroll to a player that may not be worthy of being a starter within two seasons.  When that happens, there's no way they'll ever be able to move Wells or his toxic contract.  No GM in their right mind, not even Brian Sabean or Jim Hendry, would take on Wells's contract unless the Angels were willing to take on an equally toxic contract like Barry Zito's or Alfonso Soriano's.  Essentially, the Angels are stuck.  They might not realize it now, but when they do, it will be far too late.

The Angels had the opportunity to spend that money more wisely on players like Carl Crawford, Cliff Lee, and Adrian Beltre, but they chose not to take that route.  Instead of making those players serious contract offers, Moreno and the Angels grossly underbid each one of them.  Then, they seemed shocked and dismayed when said players spurned the Angels for other teams with better offers.  Now, in order to placate a restless fan base and critical media, the Angels have overreacted by trading for Wells and his ridiculous contract.  You can try to remove the contract from the equation all you want, but as Rob Neyer has frequently stated, teams trade contracts not players.  Wells is owed $86M over the next four seasons, and the Angels will be picking up $81M of it.  The fact that Arte Moreno was on board with absorbing Wells's contract doesn't justify it as a strong business move.  It only shows that Moreno was either foolish or desperate enough to agree to it.

The Delusional Mind of Frenchy

I don't know how it's possible, but I've managed to go more than three months without making a single Jeff Francoeur joke.  I'm not sure how that happens because they pretty much write themselves.  Luckily, he's given me an opening.

In an interview with Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star yesterday, Frenchy had this to say about hitting in Citi Field.

"Citi Field is a damn joke."

Yes, that's it.  It's Citi Field that made you hit like crap.  You never had any problems when you played in Atlanta.  I mean, you never were demoted to AA to rebuild your confidence.  Nope.  Never happened.  Oh wait, except it did. 

The truth is that Frenchy's an abysmal hitter that's registered a below average wOBA in four of his six major league seasons.  The only thing that's keeping him from being a true replacement level player is his ability to avoid injuries.  That's it.  It disturbs me to my inner core that he's somehow making more money than Manny Ramirez--who, despite his flaws, actually has redeeming baseball qualities.

I can only imagine how poorly he's going to hit once he starts playing half of his games at Kaufman Stadium--another pitcher's park, I might add.

What They're Saying About the Wells Trade

As I mentioned yesterday, Twitter was afire with tweets regarding the shocking Vernon Wells trade.  I thought it would be fun to share some of those tweets.


Mike Axisa of River Avenue Blues - If they send Napoli and Rivera to Toronto, I hear the Angels will fill the extra roster spot by picking up Albert Haynesworth.

Ed Price of MSNBC - Maybe MSNBC was able to dump all of Olbermann's contract on the Angels.

Evan Brunell of Fire Brand and CBS Sports - Wait, the Jays only kicked in $5 million!? AA must be partying hard.

Joe Posnanski of SI - Hunter, Abreu, Wells, Piniero ... Have to say it. The Angels are absolutely favorites to win the 2002 World Series again.

Alex Speier of WEEI.com - So #angels wouldn't pay crawford $20.3M for ages 29-35, but will pay Wells $21.5M for ages 32-35?

Keith Law of ESPN - Better ideas than trading for Vernon Wells' entire contract: Dressing up like an elf and rappeling down an office building

Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus - The Wells trade is so seismically bad it forces us to re-calibrate the bar for all other trades. KC's trade for Yuni gets upgraded to an F+.

Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus - Wait, when did Bill Bavasi retake power in Anaheim?

Jon Heyman of SI - still a fantastic job by #jays anthopoulos to unload all but $5 mil of wells' absurd pact. early frontrunner for exec of yr

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN - I think "Little Fockers'' got better reviews than Tony Reagins' acquisition of Vernon Wells and his $86M contractual obligation.

Craig Calcaterra of NBC Hardball Talk - No cash in the Wells deal. It ought to be a fun press conference.

Jonah Keri of Fangraphs - Also, Alex Anthopoulos is a ninja: http://3.ly/km98 / AL East should just secede and form its own omnipotent nation.

Dave Cameron of Fangraphs - I did not think it was possible for the Angels off-season to get any worse. Boy, was I wrong.

Larry Stone of Seattle Times - If Angels are picking up all $86 million owed Wells, plus giving up Napoli and maybe Rivera, they're nuts

Erik Manning of Fangraphs - There is not a snark strong enough to describe the Wells-for-Napoli deal, at least at the moment.

As you can see, everyone's reaction to the trade was rather scathing and snarky.  There is not a single person on my Twitter roll that liked the trade--and no, I didn't just conveniently choose not to include them.  Nice job Angels.  You've given Brian Sabean a reason to believe he can unload Barry Zito's contract. 

Review: Summer Catch

Plot: Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is an MLB baseball prospect with a history of messing up his opportunities. When he's given a chance to pitch for his hometown Chatham Athletics in the Cape Cod Baseball League, Ryan realizes it might be his last opportunity to make it to the big leagues. However, when Ryan starts to fall for rich girl Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel) he may be forced to choose between his dream of becoming a major league pitcher or the girl of his dreams.

Review: Hey remember when guys like Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel, Matthew Lillard, Brittany Murphy, and Wilmer Valderrama were A-list Hollywood stars? No? Well neither do I and it's probably because much like Dontrelle Willis's return to form, it never happened. I'd hesitate to call any of the people I just mentioned A-listers in any case. In fact they are more in the Q to W range. And yet they are all in the lamentable 2001 film Summer Catch, easily the worst baseball movie of all time.

Basically the sports themed equivalent of a bad episode of Dawson's Creek, (redundant I know) Summer Catch is a trite, unrealistic, and sappy romantic "comedy" that has about as much redeeming value as a lamp from the Dollar Store. Although to be fair what else did anyone expect from director Mike Tollin creator and producer of such gems as All That, The Amanda Show, Kenan & Kel, and One Tree Hill. Combine all those television shows together and you have enough teen angst, melodrama, and bad acting to make Mischa Barton vomit.

Screenwriters Kevin Falls and John Gatin's characters are more transparent than wax paper. Prinze's Ryan is typical and cliche. The athlete with talent but anger issues who is struggling to get out of his hometown and away from his father's landscaping business. Prinze often turns to his brother Mike Dunne (Jason Gendrick) for advice. I only bring this up to point out the fact that Jason Gendrick was in Iron Eagle demonstrating that there are so many has-beens in Summer Catch it is a wonder that Leif Garrett didn't do the soundtrack. Prinze's "acting" ability doesn't stretch much behind brooding glances and longing looks at love interest Tenley. (Seriously Tenley? How pretentious of a name is that?) Prinze's relationship with Tenley is the been there-done that story of poor boy/rich girl from two different families that belongs on an After School Special. Biel's acting is equally atrocious. She had a a better chance of Summer Catch being her big breakaway from 7th Heaven than Ozzie Guillen being intelligible...ever. Biel's only purpose in this film is to seemingly look hot. It's a one trick pony that somehow has kept her employed for over a decade now. At one point Tenley actucally mows Ryan's lawn to show much she cares about him marking the first time Jessica Biel has ever mowed a lawn. Her character has little substance and possesses no redeeming qualities.

And let's not forget about supporting character and Ryan's friend Billy Brubaker, played by acting virtuoso Matthew Lillard. Lillard plays a catcher who finds he can't hit with a wooden bat. What is Ryan's solution to the problem? Hook him up with Dede Mulligan (Britany Murphy) the local town slut. Apparently Ryan thinks the solution to Brubaker's hitting woes is to give him gonorrhea. The only thing more preposterous than Ryan's solution is that it actually works.

As if the ridiculous nature of the "plot," the horrible acting, putrid directing, sloppy editing by Harvey Rosenstock, and sub-par cinematography by Tim Suhrstedt wasn't enough, the most infuriating thing was the actual representation of baseball in this film. Aside from occasionally throwing in baseball terminology like "tweener" and "dink" Summer Catch also manages to stereotype women like Tenley who don't know what a no-hitter is. The worst is the final scenes in the film where Ryan is of course pitching the "big game." Somehow he pulls it all together (after advice from the Iron Eagle brother) and manages to increase the velocity on his fastball from 85 mph at the beginning of the game to 96 mph by the eighth inning. Um...no. And the person measuring that velocity and scouting? The real Hank Aaron. Just sad that he'd be in this movie. Want to go one better? Ryan actually leaves with one out to go in a no-hitter to chase down Tenley. Yeah that makes sense. I've know you a month but I'm going to pass up a no-hitter to track you down before you get on a plane. Yes this movie is so cliche that Ryan stops Tenley from getting on a plane.

It all works out in the end though (of course) as Ryan gets the girl and a minor league contract with the Batavia Muckdogs. In the movie's bizarre coda we see Ryan several years later pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies and giving up a HR to Ken Griffey Jr. By this time I was wishing it would be a comebacker that would destroy Prinze's face. No such luck though. Oh well at least that was end of the movie.

Summer Catch represents everything that is wrong with Hollywood. By using a formulaic system (i.e getting a bunch of fresh hot faces, put them in a movie that barely has a script, fill it with a lot of longing and see what happens) the producers create another drek filled, painfully unwatchable film that panders to teens and horny high-schoolers. Summer Catch is a strikeout of massive proportions.

My rating (and I rarely do this): 0/10