Twins - Signed Lamb and Everett

Minnesota Twins - Signed 1B-“3B” Mike Lamb to a 2-year contract; signed SS Adam Everett to 1-year contract.

Doing Twins entries is hard because if I’m not quick, Aaron Gleeman will beat me to it.  He beat me on the Everett transaction and I have to agree with his points.  The difference between weak-hitting Everett and weak-hitting Punto is that there’s really strong evidence that Everett’s glove is of an elite level and he’s at a hair on the harder side of the defensive spectrum.  Using linear weighted zone rating, or LWZR (aka, the Dial Method), I get Everett at 59 runs better than average defensively over the last 4 years.  I have Punto at 7 runs better it what combines to slightly less than a single season so while he’s apparently a good defensive 2B, he hasn’t played there a lot and the chances of him whipping out an Everettish +20 seems seem fairly long.  I gave Everett an EX on my DMB disk for 2008, one of only three of the 22 teams I’ve projected (the others are Vizquel and Tulowitzki).

In other words, Everett’s a good enough defensive player that he’s a reasonable stopgap at SS, especially when the prospect of playing Casilla stares you in the face.  A long-term contract wouldn’t be a good idea, though.

Lamb’s kind of the opposite.  He’s a decent enough hitter, but he’s quite lousy at 3rd, probably in the -10 to -15 range.  It will still be an upgrade over Punto last year, however.  As I said, the Twins could improve a lot by simply finding non-terrible players for their holes and both Lamb and Everett fit that description.

2008 ZiPS Projection - Mike Lamb
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              AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+
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Projection   334  48   88  15  2  10  45  32  59   0  .263  .329  .410    95

2009?        331  48   87  15  2   9  44  32  58   0  .263  .329  .402    93
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Opt. (15%)   374  65  112  22  3  14  62  41  57   1  .299  .370  .487   125 

Pes. (15%)   267  33   65   9  1   6  31  22  54   0  .243  .302  .352    73  
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Top Offensive Comps:  Andy High, Bernie Allen

2008 ZiPS Projection - Adam Everett
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              AB   R    H  2B 3B  HR RBI  BB  SO  SB    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS+
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Projection   361  37   85  20  1   4  36  21  66   8  .235  .284  .330    63
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Opt. (15%)   431  52  109  28  3   7  49  32  73  13  .253  .311  .381    83

Pes. (15%)   334  28   69  16  0   3  28  15  70   5  .207  .245  .281    39
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Top Offensive Comps:  Hal Rhyne, Bobby Wine