A’s - Signed Giambi
Oakland A’s - Signed DH Jason Giambi to a 1-year contract worth $5.25 million.
The A’s lucked out this offseason in that there are a glut of defensively-challenged sluggers, which is something that they sorely need given the woeful offense. With Holliday and Giambi, the A’s offense should be better (though hardly one of the better ones in the league) and if they get lucky, Oakland could make the division interesting since the offseason plan of the Angels has essentially been to hide under the living room table in a fetal position.
Maybe third time’s the charm for New York newspapers declaring AGING OFFENSIVE HITTER DONE, IGNORE PREVIOUS STATISTICS, LOOK HOW BAD HE LOOKS! at the end of April. Giambi rebounded to have a fairly typical season for him at this stage of his career.
Obviously, it’s bad news for Daric Barton. While the A’s could find a configuration in which Daric Barton is a regular, they’re not longer in a position where they don’t have a choice in the matter. You won’t find many people more gung-ho on giving players real chances, but the team showed a lot of patience last year with a 1B with a .675 OPS. Giambi not being a model of durability, letting Barton beat up pitchers in the PCL for a few months wouldn’t be the end of the world.
At Giambi’s age, there is a substantial downside risk, but the price is right. The A’s were terrible enough last year at the plate that free agent disappointments would be substantial upgrades at a lot of positions.
ZiPS Projection - Jason Giambi (1B)
—————————————————————————————————————
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG OPS+
—————————————————————————————————————
2009 326 34 75 12 0 18 65 54 73 1 .230 .361 .433 112
—————————————————————————————————————
Top Offensive Comps: Darrell Evans, Willie McCovey, Reggie Jackson
ODDIBE
Offense %
Top 5th 11
2nd 5th 27
Mid 5th 20
4th 5th 24
Low 5th 8
OPS+ % OBP % 3B % Hits %
>160 1 >.400 7 >10 0 >200 0
>140 8 >.375 27 >5 0 >150 0
>130 18 >.350 60
>120 34 >.325 85 2B %
>110 54 >.300 98 >45 0
>100 73 >30 0
>90 87
>80 95
>60 100
BA % SLG % HR % SB %
>.350 0 >.550 1 >50 0 >70 0
>.325 0 >.500 9 >40 0 >50 0
>.300 0 >.450 34 >30 1 >30 0
>.275 4 >.400 73 >20 27 >10 0
>.250 21 >.350 96 >10 93
(Based on Projected PA)
Dan Szymborski
Posted: January 13, 2009 at 07:23 AM |
20 comment(s)
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1. Ivan Grushenko of Hong Kong Posted: January 13, 2009 at 10:08 AM (#3050403)C: Mike Piazza
1B: Jason Giambi
2B: Dan Uggla
SS: Hanley Ramirez
3B: Ryan Braun
LF: Manny Ramirez
CF: ?
RF: Jermaine Dye
Also, I thought that Piazza was just really bad at throwing runners out, but otherwise pretty average defensively?
A run is a run, and adding a defensively challenged player who has to play the field because of Cust seems like it would help/hurt any other team just as much as it would the A's.
The 34 runs despite 18 dingers seems sadly reasonable.
Some people at athleticsnation did some analysis and thought that the defensive difference between Barton and Giambi made them roughly equals overall in 2009. I think they are crazy what do you think?
Wouldn't that really just involve putting the top 8 hitters on the field, regardless of position?
Like your starting shortstop would be Jim Thome?
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