Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Who to ditch?

There's a question I've seen kicked around a lot lately that really bugs me. Finally, after seeing it in today's Q&A with Dejan, I feel spurred to action. And by action, I mean angry typing. The basic
question is this, "I know the offense has been really bad, but who do you change to fix it?" The reason this question bugs the crap out of me is that it's incredibly narrow minded. Where to start?

  • I love Xavier Nady. Seems like a great guy, he's got a great nickname, looks like a badass, I could go on. Weapon X's problem is that God did not put him on earth to hit right handed pitching. He doesn't even have a .700 career OPS against righties. He should never play against a right-handed pitcher.
  • I know Ronny Paulino hit .310 last year. That's fantastic. But when you consider his numbers as a whole, his OPS+ was below 100, meaning below average. Still a good year... for a catcher. Paulino's defense has been waay below average this year and I think we finally put the cERA myth to bed. Ryan Doumit is a good hitter. He's not a great hitter and he'll rarely be more than an average hitter at right field or first base. But he'll be an above average hitter as a catcher. Letting him catch full-time would allow for his bat in the lineup along with a right fielder and a first baseman. That's a good recipe for a team that hasn't found a way to clone Jason Bay.
  • I know people hate it when I say this, but I still see no evidence that Chris Duffy can be a reliable contributor every day in center field.
  • Jack Wilson's career OPS+ is really bad. It's 75. Average is 100.
It's not to say that no major league team could win with Xavier Nady or Ronny Paulino or Jack Wilson or Chris Duffy in the lineup. It's to say that one can't win with all of them in the lineup. And yeah, I know there's no immediate help in right field or at shortstop or in center field. I realize this. But saying that there's no one to pull out of the lineup to help the offense just is not true.