9-News: 43.018 – Roster Review: Designated Hitter

[RonCo]

Off Topic

As members of the Yellow Springs Nine head to Fools Gulch for Spring Training, it’s time for us baseball writers to have fun taking a look at the players in the organization and pretend like we know who it going to make a difference. In the past we’d wait until later in the year and do a prospect review, but this time we figured why not go full Monty and do it all at once, right?

Today we’re going to talk about the designated hitter position, focusing first on the guys we expect to see in Yellow Springs, and then a few others down deeper in the organization who could crack the lineup over the next several years.

Yellow Springs

Player	Age	B	OVR	HITTING	DEFENSE
Javier Rodriguez	25	L	55/55	6/7/9/8/4	NA
Mark Haynes	24	R	55/65	7/8/8/6/6	NA

Haynes and Rodriguez appear set to return to the team as the platoon DH tandem. Haynes had a fine season in 2042, posting a .283/.379/.644 slash with 18 homers in 211 plate appearances. He occasionally stepped out to play first base, but admittedly only in a pinch. He’ll be playing what is essentially a contract season as he heads into what he certainly hopes will be a lucrative arbitration season.

Which Javy-Rod
Will Show?

Rodriguez arrived to great expectation, and was mostly streaky. His apparently abysmal .210 batting average was at least off-set by 23 homers and a propensity to walk (.329 OBP), but the team was so afraid of his performance going down the stretch that they traded for Frank Mahaffey, Jr., a deal that did not work out and really just served to piss a lot of people off.

All is right now, however. This is the same guy who hit 38 and 45 homers in AAA the last couple years, right?

Ignore the fact that he hit only .211 in Indy when the team sent him down.


BEST CASE PROJECTION: Javy-Rod and Haynes become the lefty-righty Bash Brothers and the team’s baseball budget gets blown.
CONCERNS: Please, Javy, settle down.


Prospects


None. We don't consider any player a DH until they get to the bigs.