Royals - Acquired Jacobs

Kansas City Royals - Acquired 1B Mike Jacobs from the Florida Marlins for P Leo Nunez. From a pure value-for-value standpoint, Mike Jacobs is worth giving up Leo Nunez, who isn't really a 143 ERA+ reliever. However, I just don't see it as a good move for this team in particular team. The team does improve going from Ross Gload to Jacobs (you have to feel for Gload, finally getting real shots on the far slope of his career), but the Royals aren't a serious contender in 2009. A rebuilding team always has questions that it seeks to answer and a lot of the questions the Royals have involve the 1B/DH position. It gets even more crowded if Alex Gordon continues to develop as a hitter but plays as poorly defensively at third as he did this season. Sure, in theory, they could flip Mike Jacobs later on, but Jacobs also happens to be a very limited defensive platoon 1B and if he could be flipped for something more valuable than Leo Nunez, the Marlins probably would have done it.

The Marlins will probably have the 1B spot fairly wide open in the spring training, with Cantu/McPherson/Sanchez and probably a few others in the 1B/3B mix.

2009 ZiPS Projection - Mike Jacobs
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              AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+  DR   
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2009         478  67  125  33  1  24  82  36 100   1  .262  .313  .485   106   -7
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Opt. (15%)   544  84  152  40  2  30 101  44 104   1  .279  .334  .526   122   -5 
Pes. (15%)   412  43   98  24  1  17  60  28  94   0  .238  .287  .425    84  -10 
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Top Offensive Comps: Rico Brogna, Gordy Coleman

2009 ZiPS Projection - Leo Nunez
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            W   L   G  GS   IP    H   ER  HR  BB  SO   ERA   ERA+
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2009        2   2  43   0   49   49   23   6  19  36  4.22   101 
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Opt. (15%)  4   2  47   0   56   50   20   5  18  45  3.21   133
Pes. (15%)  2   2  36   0   39   43   23   6  19  27  5.31    81 
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Top Comps:  John Verhoeven, Joey McLaughlin