The Brewster

Valencia made their last major move of the off-season by adding to their infield when it acquired the services of first baseman Zenobius Kazantziakis. The terms of the deal are for 4 years/$28M.

Zeno offers a comparable glove to his predecessor, Kenny Blackwell while adding a little more speed on the basepaths. Zeno hit .276/.347 with 6 homers and 26 stolen bases last season with New Orleans.

The infield seems pretty set defensively with the following:

1B Zenobius Kazantziakis – Zeno has a 10 position rating with a 5 range rating.
2B Miller Shed – Miller has a 8 position rating with 8 range. He also did it with the bat hitting .322.
SS Tyler Conklin – Gobbles up everything in sight with his 10 rating and 10 range although his bat was pretty anemic at .257.
3B Tim Bartlett – Plays the hot corner with a range of 6, position rating of 8 and a 9 rated arm. Had a impressive start at the plate on his way to 26 homers.
C Luis Gonzalez – Has an 11 catcher rating and a 10-rated arm resulting in throwing out 32% of the runners trying to steal a base. His average was a mere .235 at the plate though.
Backup infielder Carlos Schumann – Although he is listed as a backup, he still gets 300 at bats per season. He has a 9 range and 9 rating at second base/7 at shortstop.

This is your acquisition that I am most skeptical of. I don’t see enough of a bat.

Same. I probably should have went with Blackwell again since he worked his way from $4.4M down to under $2M. I had my eyes set on Bishr for too long. Did not expect him to go over $20M.