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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, September 10, 2007
Hey…when did Ryan Zimmerman become just a “complementary position player”?
And they have a nice core of complementary position players in Ryan Zimmerman, Dmitri Young (and/or Nick Johnson), Ronnie Belliard, Wily Mo Pena, Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Brian Schneider (and/or Jesus Flores).
What the Nationals don"t have, however, is a true offensive superstar. The kind of hitter a team can build its entire lineup around. A 40-homer, 120-RBI behemoth who has the respect of his teammates and strikes fear in opponents.
...But Kasten and Co. have insisted all along they plan to start acting like a big-market club as soon as they move into their new ballpark. Big-market clubs go after Andruw Jones. And winning clubs have a bona-fide bopper in the heart of their lineup, the kind of game-changer who can help a burgeoning young team take the next step toward contention.
Repoz
Posted: September 10, 2007 at 12:21 PM | 12 comment(s)
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1. Gainsay Posted: September 10, 2007 at 01:06 PM (#2518073)They've had a few players (Kearns, Lopez, etc) who are dramatically underperforming.
Then you have to account for the park; RFK kills anyone but extreme pull hitters.
That being said, they ARE something like 40 runs from next-to-last and that doesn't explain all of it. With a big bat (assuming Andruw gives a normalish season for him) and the change in park next year (dimensions seem like a pretty good hitter's park), they could be middle of the pack in runs.
Of course, the opposite happens to their pitching, and they're right back where they started from...
Smart teams, regardless of revenue, will go after the guy with a similar career line who is a year younger, plays better defense at this point, and is a far better bet to age well in a long-term contract in Aaron Rowand.
AR, 106 OPS+, 2500 ABs
AJ, 8 seasons with an OPS+ above 110
AR, 3 seasons with an OPS+ above 110
Regardless of revenue, I'm taking Andruw in a heartbeat and it isn't even close.
AR, 106 OPS+, 2500 ABs
AJ, 8 seasons with an OPS+ above 110
AR, 3 seasons with an OPS+ above 110
Regardless of revenue, I'm taking Andruw in a heartbeat and it isn't even close.
No, what they've done up until now isn't even close. You do realize contracts aren't retroactive, right?
I'll take the guy a year younger, playing better defense with a better offensive season and the obscene work ethic to boot over the fat guy when it comes to a contract that will pay both of them well into their thirties. This is at equal value, of course. Given Jones' track record, he may well end up making much more, making it even more advantageous to get Rowand.
Anybody familiar with The Gold Club has to take issue with your accusations of non-obscenity regarding Mr. Jones's work ethic.
Work ethic is over rated, and impossible to measure in this context (obviously AJ must have some ethics or else he would have glided last season and gone for broke this year), so I choose to ignore.
Oddly, this is not what most people around here were saying at the time. I think Buddha and I were the only ones defending these two signings.
Kearns is "dramatically underperforming"? His OPS+ from 2004 to 2006 was 103. It's at 98 this year. I think he's just not that good.
Not just here, but pretty much everywhere. The only analyst I recall defending those signings was Nate Silver.
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