House of Cards

Looking for a good book on the fall of Bear Stearns? House of Cards is decent. Although I don't think the book was particularly well written, it does a good job of chronicalling the events that surrounded the distressed sale of the fifth largest investment bank to JP Morgan. William Cohan, who also wrote the history of Lazard, took a bit of a lazy approach in this book. Rather than recreating scenes like a good author will, he fills his stories with phrases such as, "So he says to me...and then I say to him... and then he says...." At times such writing can be frustrating to read.

The book was recommended to me by a former Bear employee, so I imagine it correctly captures the demise.

Next up for me is "Too Big to Fail" by the New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin. Whereas House of Cards spends most of its time describing the period of 2007 and 1Q 2008, Too Big focuses its time around the disaster that was the Fall of 2008. According to one review, they make good bookends to each other.

Back to Orlando

The Red Sox need a reliable shortstop, and an old face is in need of a job. Since trading Nomar in 2004, shortstop has been a revolving door in Fenway park; however, the man that first took the job could have/should have held it for years. In 2005, Orlando Cabrera was fresh off a World Series win, but on a new team. The Sox were leary about paying Cabrera's price, and instead paid the same dollars to sign Edgar Renteria. We all know how that went.

Yesterday, the Minnesota Twins declined to offer the mid-season acquired Cabrera, who made $4 million last season, arbitration making him an unrestricted free agent. Consequently, any team that signs him does NOT have to give the Twins compensation.

The 35-year old Cabrera is only two seasons removed from winning the gold glove at short stop. Between Oakland and the Twins, Orlando batted .284 with 77 RBIs and a .316 on-base percentage last season. Those stats aren't stellar, but the average and on-base percentage are almost exactly what Alex Gonzolez posted for the Sox last season. Current Sox target, the 34-year old Marco Scutaro, batted .282 with Toronto last season, but did have a more distinguished on-base percentage of .379.

It also should be noted that Cabrera's batting average inside Minnestota's cave, known as the Metrodome, was a terrible .231, and post the All-Star game he batted .308. In the last three years, his combined stats at Fenway were .294 avg/.368 obp/.412 slg

Let's bring back Orlando to where he belongs!