2058.20: San Fernando Annual Performance Review - Position Players

[BaseClogger]

10/28/2058


I’m going to steal Bob’s excellent format he uses to review Montreal’s position player performance. Hopefully I’ll post a second part focusing on pitching in the coming days.

Catcher:

+3.4 WAR from prior season. We righted the ship here after a disastrously negative WAR contribution in 2057.

Left-handed hitting Clinton Tyler did most of the heavy lifting on the long side of the platoon batting a reliable .243/.323/.333. He was every bit the pitch framer Joe Zwicker was while doing a better job controlling the running game. Tyler made $8.5M in 2058 but that drops to a more reasonable $6M next season, his final guaranteed year. Two team option years follow.

Dale Olds, age 23, made his big league debut this season. The switch-hitter was responsible for the short side of the platoon at catcher and hit .259/.319/.406. He’s more of an average defender but I’m optimistic about his bat. We’ll run it back with this pair in 2059 and hope Olds proves he’s ready to be a primary catcher going forward, allowing us to buyout those team options on Tyler and reallocate the spend to other positions.

First Base:

-1.4 WAR from prior season. Part-time players torpedoed the position’s overall production.

Michael Schultz spent the last month of the season on the IL. Despite the injury, his 44 home runs tied for the fourth most in the BBA. His .307 OBP and mediocre defense prevented him from being an above-average player.

Then there was a parade of players who combined for -1.0 WAR attempting to replace Schultz who aren’t worth going into because they were either playing out-of-position or have left the organization. Keeping Schultz healthy and hoping his BABIP and defense improve is the goal for next year.

Second Base:

-0.8 WAR from prior season (which wasn’t much to begin with). Several players saw time at second base and none excelled.

Intended starter Dick Walton dealt with injuries and was ineffective when he played, batting .268/.316/.315 representing what was a huge step back for the wrecked middle infielder. He didn’t get consistent enough playing time to really get going defensively at a somewhat new position. I’m inclined to buyout his team option rather than commit $11M for 2059.

Rookie Takeichi Suzuki, age 23, demonstrated a decent bat (.295/.328/.424) in half a season worth of ABs and was adequate defensively but his poor base-running limited his overall productivity. I’m likely to give him a platoon role next season and hope for further growth from the youngster.

Third Base:

-1.1 WAR from prior season. Our veteran starter gently slid down the aging curve.

Another productive season for the always underrated Roberto Rivera, age 34, who turned in a slash line of .251/.328/.491 with 29 HR and 3.0 WAR as the everyday guy. His defense remained above-average at +1.2 ZR. He’ll make $12M again in 2059 followed by a couple of team option years.

Jose Perez saw some time at the hot corner while Rivera was injured and struggled, managing a meager .207/.278/.287 batting line. He reminded me of his offensive potential by batting .562 with 2 HR in our postseason series against Twin Cities. He’ll return to AAA but remains the long-term replacement for Rivera.

Shortstop:

-0.5 WAR from prior season. The impact guy we brought in was traded away at the trade deadline.

Sammy McNeill was just heating up when we traded him to Long Beach. His offensive production was in-line with his career averages and his 2.3 WAR was buoyed by a +11.9 ZR.

Thanks to his injuries and being traded away a couple other players saw time at the position. Kevin Corbett is just good enough offensively and defensively to be offered his final year of arbitration but he’s not a starting-caliber player. Kensaku Kato, age 24, is more of a second baseman than shortstop but it was all hands on deck down the stretch. Kato hit the ball with more authority than I expected, slugging .391. Both players are reasonable options to platoon with Suzuki at second base next year.

Left Field:

+3.7 WAR from prior season. This position was consistently great.

Jeffrey Smith was a stud before I sent him packing. In his first year in the field since 2052 he played adequate defense and hit 58 XBHs for us.

Part of the return in the Smith trade to make the money work was Martin Hemming. He came over and maintained this position’s excellence by posting a .960 OPS. He’ll soon become a free agent.

Center Field:

-2.2 WAR from prior season. All four contributors posted negative WAR.

A repeat of our 2057 platoon, Kei-thing Law and Miguel Montero, was the Opening Day plan. Law lumped a point of outfield range in the spring and contributed -0.4 WAR before getting claimed off waivers by Calgary. Montero had a -0.9 WAR when he succumbed to a season ending injury.

We claimed 37 year-old Manny Pena off waivers and he gave us -0.3 WAR. He’ll depart as a free agent.

After selling some expiring contracts at the deadline we got aggressive and traded for Des Moines’s Sonny Bigalow to hopefully upgrade this position. We knew his hit tool was questionable but batting .157 is another thing entirely. He was worth -0.4 WAR in his brief stint wearing a Bears uniform. He’s extended for $6M annually for the next six years.

Right Field:

-2.8 WAR from prior season. Our starter took a step back.

The chief culprit for our production drop at this position was our primary guy, Tommy Harrison. He was still an effective player but his wRC+ dropped from 175 in 2057 to 116 in 2058. The 23 year-old’s defense remains positive and I look for his BABIP to settle his batting stats back somewhere in between the last two seasons.

Kenny Qasim handled right-handed pitching after getting claimed off waivers from Las Vegas. He was a replacement-level player and will not be offered arbitration.

Designated Hitter:

-0.3 WAR from prior season.

Most of the starts went to Don Moore who was a fine hitter with a .803 OPS but that won’t generate much WAR at DH. The estimate for his final year of arbitration is $7.5M and I’m 50/50 whether I offer it.

A year after Ski Melillo hit .339 for us as the platoon DH against LHP we once again experienced a bit of a BABIP miracle that enabled Tynan Rose to balloon his batting line to .358/.406/.599 and 2.2 WAR. That’s obviously unsustainable but I see no reason to not run him back as some sort of platoon guy off my bench.

Summary:

Catcher largely offset the production drops around the infield and left field mostly offset the rest of the outfield. My three major acquisitions (Tyler, McNeill, Smith) were all pretty effective but almost every position player holdover regressed from 2057.

Performance Improvement Plan:

Although he didn’t play any better than the guys he replaced, I already made my move to improve center field with Sonny Bigalow. I’ll have $30M-$50M to play with this offseason depending on the decisions I make with Walton and Moore. I’m unlikely to replace the production I got from left field and I’d just be happy to match the WAR we got from shortstop and DH. There’s a lot of “hopefully” in the writing above related to improvement from guys like Schultz, Suzuki, and Harrison.

So it’s nice to know I’ll have money to play with but easier said than done on how it should be used to fortify this offense.

[Trebro]

Great assessment of your team.

One thing I'm really studying this off-season is the fact that while teams. include mine have $$ to spend, how good will the FA pool be, especially at the key positions. Watching the scouting reports on the 35+ crowd carefully.

[BaseClogger]

Great assessment of your team.

One thing I'm really studying this off-season is the fact that while teams. include mine have $$ to spend, how good will the FA pool be, especially at the key positions. Watching the scouting reports on the 35+ crowd carefully.

A good example of needing to understand the FA class is the option decision I must make on Walton. $11M for him isn’t a good deal, but avoiding the buyout saves like $3M and is there going to be anybody better available who can play shortstop? I could see there being a bidding war requiring a multi year commitment.

[Trebro]

Great assessment of your team.

One thing I'm really studying this off-season is the fact that while teams. include mine have $$ to spend, how good will the FA pool be, especially at the key positions. Watching the scouting reports on the 35+ crowd carefully.

A good example of needing to understand the FA class is the option decision I must make on Walton. $11M for him isn’t a good deal, but avoiding the buyout saves like $3M and is there going to be anybody better available who can play shortstop? I could see there being a bidding war requiring a multi year commitment.

That's why I extended Picot. Is he really worth 13 million? No. But I needed someone like him in the rotation for the next few years and if I had let him go to market, I think he gets 15 or more. Totally get it.