It was brought up somewhat in the thread below, and Dave has an entire post up about Ryan Langerhans as a decent candidate to replace Endy Chavez. I felt like throwing a couple more names out there. Now, I am not saying the team can or even should trade for one of these, just that in looking through the list of guys who:
-bat left-handed
-have not terrible defensive numbers
-are destroying Triple-A this year
-have decent Triple-A track records
-are not overly young and/or seem unlikely to crack even a reserve role any time soon
these popped up.
Jeff Fiorentino (BAL) L/R, 26
career MLB OPS: .679 over 98 PAs
career AAA OPS: .788 over 475 PAs
2009 AAA wOBA: .402
defense: good over a sample size so small as to not exist
blocked by: Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Nolan Reimold, Felix Pie
John Rodriguez (NYA) L/L, 31
career MLB OPS: .811 over 388 PAs
career AAA OPS: .891 over 1753 PAs
2009 AAA wOBA: .394
defense: between -5 and 0 based on a really sample size
blocked by: a bunch of guys paid real money
Todd Linden* (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Japan) S/R, 29
career MLB OPS: .638 over 559 PAs
career AAA OPS: .875 over 2643 PAs
2009 AAA wOBA: .387
defense: +20 UZR/150 in a corner, still a small sample
blocked by: the Pacific Ocean
I don't really like any of these over the Ryan Langerhans idea, but hey, you know, options and junk.
*I don't know what it would take to get Linden back from Japan. Also, he's from Edmonds, WA.
0 recs | 23 comments
How about Brandon Boggs? He's a switch hitter with reasonable offensive numbers and a what looks like average defense?
I guess that would be a trade within the division though.
abender20 - June 22, 2009
Avoiding trading intradivisionally is something I find annoying.
CapSea - June 23, 2009
Todd Linden went to Central Kitsap High School.
Aaaand he was an asshole.
Phil Hatzenbuehler - June 22, 2009
A baseball that is an asshole?
Never heard of that before.
Fin - June 22, 2009
Baseballs are made from the hide.
Hotdogs are made from the assholes.
Jed MC - June 22, 2009
Well played.
Fin - June 22, 2009
Once again, if what we're looking for is replacement level offense, a good glove, and left handedness
don’t we have like five in the system to choose from? I mean, service clock and all that, but this is exactly the player type we shouldn’t need to go looking for.
Bearskin Rugburn - June 22, 2009
I'd rather our actual prospects stay in the minors until they're going to play every day.
Aaron Campeau - June 22, 2009
Well Langerhans in particular is quite a bit better than the guys you're talking about
Jeff Sullivan - June 22, 2009
Right
I guess I was thinking of direct replacements for Chavez, not improvement. Langerhans would improve the team, possibly considerably.
Bearskin Rugburn - June 22, 2009
You're underestimating Endy. His performance this season was about league average.
Aaron Campeau - June 22, 2009
What do you expect out of him going forward?
Take away his crazy April and he’s a ~replacement level bat.
Bearskin Rugburn - June 22, 2009
With a fantastic glove
It boggles my mind that the M’s can stand 35-34 with the worst offense in baseball and people can still say “ehh, outfield defense, it’s not that big a deal”. You just got a three month up-close-and-personal view of why its a big deal.
davidcameron - June 22, 2009
Why would you take away his April?
Chavez posted a .308 wOBA through 54 games. His career wOBA is .300. He hit like we expected him to hit.
Jeff Sullivan - June 23, 2009
Name them.
Because we don’t.
The closest thing we have is Jerry Owens, who cannot hit, at all.
Matthew - June 22, 2009
Is Mark Grudzielanek available?
How about Jim Edmonds?
Seems like those two wanted to play this Spring, but never signed with anyone this year.
I guess Grudz hasn’t played SS in years.
Mariner Optimist - June 22, 2009
Edmonds is kind of interesting
.353 wOBA, lefty. But his defense was terrible last year. -23.3 UZR/150, albeit in center field. Not sure how much a shift to left would remedy that. Also, having not used defensive metrics over a long period of time, is a drop off like Edmonds regular at his age? He went from above average with the Cards from 2002-2006, then posted a -2.7 UZR/150 in 2007, then the huge drop in 2008.
Regardless, he may not be ready to play for a while anyway.
And in unrelated news, Aumont just picked up his second loss in as many appearances in AA.
Fuckmikereilly - June 22, 2009
I think it's a good idea.
Poochie - June 22, 2009
From what I remember, J-Rod is an absolute circus in the field.
Poochie - June 22, 2009
Scott Thorman
Probably would be a below average outfielder but at least his SSS UZR in LF was positive. This would be balanced out by his bat still having some potential after being mismanaged by the Braves. He is showing signs of life again with the Omaha Royals and has reduced his K% to below 20.
tdot mariner fan - June 22, 2009
He was on my original list but I nixed him because I figure his cost would be too high.
Matthew - June 22, 2009
Heh
Trying to imagine Scott Thorman as an outfielder. He was fat and immobile as a first baseman when I saw him in the SAL/CAR leagues years ago.
davidcameron - June 22, 2009
.
Jeff Sullivan - June 23, 2009
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Lookout Landing to post a comment.