Results tagged ‘ Alfonso Soriano ’
An Unsolicited Response to RSBS
I love the guys at RSBS. If you haven’t stopped by their site, they have witty baseball posts, spiced with political commentary and the occasional (and almost always necessary for the topic) photo of beautiful women.
Yesterday they put up a post you can read here that I would like to respond to.
Now to be fair, Jeff didn’t write his post as part of a dialog with me and he wasn’t able to change his comments based on what I would have said. However, he did say what he did and I’m going to respond to those particular comments as they were written.
****** The writing in red and italics is from RSBS********
“Here’s an idea that will never become reality, but just for fun, let’s think about it.
Albert Pujols, while somewhat showing glimpses of his old self, is on pace to hit 15 homers and drive in 70-some RBIs — a whole lot less than the Halos thought they’d get from a a man making $24 million a year… FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS.
And how about the $20 million a year the Red Sox are paying Carl Crawford… FOR THE NEXT SIX YEARS. Good thing Theo got out of town!
Of course, Theo already knows, you don’t have to go outside of Chicago to find a big, fat pile of head-scratching contracts. Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano (yep, sCrUBBIES are still payin’ the bulk of that awful) are the most high profile, but until this year, the Dunn, Peavy and Rios contracts made Kenny Williams one of the south side’s most hated”. -RSBS
First of course is that it’s a little early to hold up Albert Pujols as a poster boy for bad contracts. Sure, he has had a rough go of things early on in the first season of his 10yr contract, but I think he should be given at least a full season, not 7 weeks, before we start to grade the success of this signing.
Second, it’s easy to remember those that don’t live up to the size of their contract (Soriano, Crawford, Zito) because they get the most press and draw the greater ire of the fans. Yet those on the other end of the scale (successful players), seem to be at a publicity “disadvantage”. Look, because of the very nature of a 100+ million dollar contract being so huge, no player will ever seem to outplay that contract. And when they do play well and earn their money (ARod 2001-10, M Ramirez 2001-08, D Jeter 2001-10) ……. well……. most fans will look at it as something that they were supposed to do: (ie – “That’s what their getting paid for”).
“The truth is, when money is on the line, pro athletes perform better. Consider the beyond stellar starts of Andre Ethier, Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, Kyle Lohse, Jake Peavy, Zack Greinke and many, many more. The one thing these fellas all have in common is… THEY’RE IN CONTRACT YEARS!” -RSBS
Actually, there’s little or no truth to this commonly held myth. I could use arbitrary examples like Miguel Montero, Robinson Cano, Jhonny Peralta, Mark Reynolds and others that are not performing well in this, their contract year; but it’s better to use actual empirical evidence.
From Bloomberg Sports in 2010:
“Over the past nine years, 177 players performing in the last year of a contract hit for a collective .282 batting average, with an .824 OPS. They also averaged 19 home runs, 51 extra base hits and 73 runs batted in per 500 at-bats.
That’s not much different from their collective numbers from the previous year: .283 batting average, .821 OPS, 19 homers, 51 extra base hits and 74 RBI”
*** Truth be told, I’ve found addition data from the guys at BaseballProspectus that suggests that performance may be up slightly in contract years using a different metric (WARP); however, their study from 1976-2000 was limited to “prominent free agents”, not all players in a contract season were used. If it’s true that players perform better in contract years; that truth should hold for all players, not just “prominent” ones.
“If your paycheck is on the line, you try harder. This is FACT. But if you have the means to fall back on (Albert, Carl, et al.) and you have no pressure to git ‘er done ‘cuz you already got BAZILLIONS in the bank, what incentive is their to be the superstar you’ve always been? I don’t care how bad@ss you are, the trend in performance speaks loudly: once a player reaches his monetary apex, he regresses.” -RSBS
The clear implication is that players only try to do their best when money is on the line. It suggest that they don’t play to “Win the Game”, play for pride, or just play for the simple love of the game. It says that money is the overriding force that drives the players, and that once they have that money, all bets are off when it comes to performance.
Let’s look at the first part, that players in contract years try harder….”FACT” as you say. The one major problem with that statement is that trying harder doesn’t necessarily translate into playing better. Michael Bourn can try as hard as he wants to hit 20 HR’s this year in order to increase his free agent value, but it isn’t going to happen, at least not without sacrificing another part (AVG) of his game. And as was pointed out in the Bloomberg data, the stats don’t reflect improved play as a whole.
The second part of your statement, which you suggest that players aren’t as incentivized to perform because they already have money in the bank, seems most cynical. Yet you are not alone in this line of thought. I hear fans of athletes from all sports say the same thing. But why is it that we only talk about athletes this way? Why not movie stars? Using this reasoning, I see no reason to view Tom Hanks next movie. Surely he must have phoned-in his performance because he is already rich. How about Warren Buffett? He’s super rich. Should I just ignore his next stock “buy” because he doesn’t really need it to show profit in order to make his next mortgage payment?
“There’s nothing wrong with paying a dude $25 million a year if he puts up $25 million a year numbers. So why not reward those who do and save money (and face) by doing it on a year-to-year basis?” -RSBS
The answer of course is that baseball free agency is one of the purest forms of free-market economics that exist. Each player is worth exactly what each owner is willing to pay and what each player is willing to accept. In Albert’s case, it was $240M. A huge salary to be sure, but the market can move the other way also. Vlad Guerrero was unable to find a buyer for his services this season at a price for which he was willing to perform. Why would we want to put artificial barriers on this market? Besides, to think that if we limited contracts to one year that Albert could have been had for “just” $24M is crazy. Pujols is getting $24M per year because the total guaranteed package is worth $240M. If Albert could only sign a 1 year deal , my guess is that it would take $35+M to get him for 2012. Why? Because if he struggles this year he wouldn’t be able to command nearly as much in 2013, so he has to get his money now. We see this play out all the time in the NFL. They don’t have guaranteed contracts, so the players command huge signing bonuses in order to get their money up front.
One last thing. It seems implicit in your overall comments that if teams weren’t under the weight of 10yr $100M contracts that they would have a better chance to win. I’m not really sure what makes you think this is the case. In fact, we can go back to the pre- free agency era and see that it’s not actually the case. Boston went from 1952 to 1966 without ever winning more than 84 games in a season. Philadelphia only had 3 winning seasons from 1954 to 1974. Bad management is bad management, it doesn’t matter if you have 10 year contracts or if you were are able to treat players as property.
“Don’t hate me ‘cuz I’m right.” – Jeff
I certainly don’t hate you, you guys have a great blog and I love reading it, but in this case, you’re wrong. 
~Russel
4 (+1) Things You Might Not Have Known- 2/22
Spring Training Edition
- Last spring Jake Fox lead all players with 10 spring training Home Runs. He hit 2 during the regular season.
- Alfonso Soriano hits well in spring training. Over the past 5 seasons with the Cubs, Soriano has hit .281 with 19 HR’s
- In 2011, Erik Almonte of the Brewers led all players in hits with 32. He finished the spring with a .416 batting average. During the regular season he was 3 for 29 (.103)
- I’ve watched the first two episodes of HBO’s Luck, maybe it will take some time to grow on me, but so far…… I’m not impressed.
Bonus. Last year’s World Series winning St Louis Cardinals were 14-16 in the spring. The best record belonged to Kansas City at 20-10. The Royals finished the regular season at 71-91.
Other things you may not have known
Cubs Outfield
HR…………….RBI…………….SB………………AVG
40…………….119……………..32……………….297
42…………….170……………..27……………….265
One is my prediction for LA outfielder Matt Kemp, the other is my prediction for the Cubs outfield trio of Alfonso Soriano, Marlon Byrd, and David DeJesus. I’ll let you guess which is which. Ouch!!!
Rice, Lynn, and Evans…this outfield is not……………
I know the Cubs have a new manager to go along with new management, but other than DeJesus, they have the same players. Not that that is Epstein and Hoyer’s fault.
No one is gonna take Soriano and the $56M he is owed off the Cubs hands. And if they aren’t going to contend this year, which they won’t; there is no reason to get rid of Byrd now on the last year of a very reasonable $6.5M contract. I don’t expect Byrd to be around all year though. His play, his contract, and most importantly his leadership almost demand that a team in contention come calling for his services around July 1st. And I expect Hoyer to make that trade and free up center field for the last three months of the season to Brett Jackson.
David DeJesus was a fine signing for the price (2yr/$8.5M), just don’t expect the stats he had with KC. At the age of 32, his speed has dropped off (just 7 total SB’s in ‘10-’11) and his average against left-handed pitchers took a nose dive last year (.174). I think you can expect to see Reed Johnson (.305 vs LHP) start in place of DeJesus every time there is a lefty on the mound.
Barring an injury, you can expect to see Soriano start 140 games in left for the Cubs. I know the thought of that turns some people’s stomach, but the truth is……..he’s your best hitting outfielder folks. The last two seasons he has hit an average of 25HR’s and 84RBI’s with a respectable .251 average. He’s not Billy Williams, but he’s not Gene Clines either.
So as I said, don’t think Rice/Lynn/Evans with this crew.
Think Burnitz/Hollandsworth/Patterson.
Soriano to Detroit?
Yesterday the Detroit Tigers announced that their star DH/Catcher, Victor Martinez, will probably be lost for the entire 2012 season after tearing his left ACL last week during a winter workout. The doctors will reexamine Martinez next week, but it is expected that he will have to have surgery.
Martinez joined the Tigers last year after 7 years with Cleveland and 2 with Boston. Despite missing some time with a groin injury, Martinez still had a great year, driving in 103 runs and hitting .330
Victor Martinez also provided protection for Miguel Cabrera in the lineup for a team that won the AL Central by 15 games. Even with Martinez out, Detroit will still be the favorite to win the division again in 2012, but they will have to replace that huge hole in the lineup if they hope to dominate as they did last year.
Several names have already been floated out there as potential replacements. They include in-house candidates like Clete Thomas and Jack Hannahan; or free-agents like Johnny Damon and Carlos Pena.
Another possible move would be to trade for a player. There were rumors last month that the Cubs and the Tigers were talking about a trade involving Matt Garza. If I was Jed Hoyer, I would use that already established report to call the Tigers up and see if they have any interest in Alfonso Soriano.
Despite the ire that Soriano has drawn from Cubs fans the past couple of seasons, mostly due to his contract and lack of defense, he can still hit for power (24 HR’s in 2010, 26 in 2011). However, it has become increasingly evident that Soriano is becoming more and more of a DH type player. 2011 Cubs manager Mike Quade would send in a defensive replacement for Soriano almost every time the Cubs had a late inning lead.
The problem of course is Soriano’s monster contract. The Cubs still owe Alfonso $54M over the next three years. That’s an M for Million. There is no way Detroit is taking on that kind of money. The Cubs would have to eat a huge portion like they did with Miami in the Zambrano deal. Is it worth it to the Cubs to pay $40M NOT to have Soriano play for them????
Trading Soriano would also free up the Cubs to play either Brett Jackson or Dave Sappelt.
Honestly, if I’m the Tigers. I either ask the Cubs for Soriano and Garza and cash; or I go out and sign Carlos Pena for 1 year $14M.
What If ……………Is Back
With the recent firing of Jim Hendry as the Chicago Cubs general manager, there has been much talk as to who will replace him in the Cubs front office.
One name that has jumped to the top of the speculation list is Oakland GM Billy Beane. Depending on your point of view, Beane may or may not be what the Cubs need.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Beane’s name has been linked to a new team. In 2002 the Boston Red Sox tried to hire Beane away from Oakland. Billy decided to stay with the A’s and Boston eventually went with Theo Epstein.
Beane is the main subject of the book Moneyball, as well as the upcoming movie of the same name.
And while wondering what Beane might do if he gets the job is interesting, I thought this would be a good time to bring back a Wrigley Regular feature that I haven’t used in a couple months, What If…….
The idea of What If is to take an event, alter that event, and then see what 5 things would be different because of the change. So with that in mind, let’s play What If.
What If…..… The Cubs had hired Billy Beane as their General Manager in 2002 instead of Jim Hendry?
1) Instead of signing with the Oakland A’s in 2002, Beane gets Scott Hatteberg to sign with the Cubs to be their starting catcher. Hatteberg becomes an instant team leader and pays off huge in 2003 when….. instead of having Paul Bako behind the plate in game 6 of the NLCS, Hatteberg goes out to the mound and settles Mark Prior down after Alou doesn’t catch a pop foul down the left field line. Prior then strikes out Ivan Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera grounds into a 6-4-3 double play started by Alex Gonzalez. The Cubs win the game 3-0 and go on to win the 2003 World Series.
2) In 2004, Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball hits the books stores. White Sox general manager Kenny Williams is unhappy about the way he is portrayed in the book and attempts to out-smart Billy Beane in a trade. That fall Williams trades overweight rookie pitcher Booby Jenks for catcher Michael Barrett. With Barrett behind the plate, the Sox don’t go out and get AJ Pierzynski in 2005 and use Damaso Marte as their closer. The White Sox don’t win the World Series and both Williams and Ozzie Guillen are fired after the 2006 season.
3) In the fall of 2006, several top free agents hit the market, including Alfonso Soriano who had just completed only the 4th 40/40 season in baseball history. But because Beane is fixated on on-base percentage plus slugging, he scratches Soriano and his then .820 OPS off his want list and targets JD Drew. Beane gets Drew and his .904 OPS for half the price of what the Angels pay for Soriano. In the five years after the signings, Drew plays 130+ games or more only once and is seen as a drag on the Cubs roster, meanwhile Soriano is a 5 time All-Star for the Halos at the DH position and wins the AL MVP in 2009 after leading the Angels to a World Series victory.
4) In the June 2007 Amateur Draft, Billy Beane and the Cubs select Jason Heyward with the number 3 overall pick. Heyward moves up through the minors quickly and wins the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year award. The Atlanta Braves get Josh Vitters with their first round pick. Vitters is still in the Atlanta system waiting for Chipper Jones to retire.
5) In the fall of 2011, Billy Beane is played by Brad Pitt in the movie version of the book Moneyball. Beane is able to see the movie as many times as he wants because he has nothing else to do after being fired in the middle of the season as Cubs GM. Chicago hires Jim Hendry as the new GM sighting the need to get back to “old school”, “I know talent only if I see it” type of scouting. The Cubs go at least another 20 years without winning a World Series.
Read my previous What If’s …. Here and Here.
If you have a What If that you would like answered, send it to WrigleyRegular@Comcast.net
Or add it to the comments below.
Making the Case: Jim Hendry
Jim Hendry was promoted from assistant GM/Player Personal Director to General Manager on July 5th, 2002. That was nearly 9 years ago. I think it’s fair to say that Hendry has had plenty of time to make his mark on the Chicago Cubs and that he is responsible for the players on the field. The question I’d like to look at today is, Should Jim Hendry be back next season as the GM of the Chicago Cubs? Let’s look at a couple of topics and I’ll make the case For or Against.
The Record:
Since Hendry’s first day back in ’02 thru Sunday’s extra inning loss to St. Louis, the Cubs are 718-712. During those nine seasons the Cubs have made the playoffs three times.
The first playoff appearance was the fateful 2003 season when the Cubs were just five outs from making it to the World Series before losing to the Marlins. Chicago also made the post seasons in ’07 and ’08, both times being swept out in 3 games in the NLDS. While a .502 winning percentage and only one playoff series win might not seem like much, let’s put things in perspective. In the previous 1430 games before Hendry, the Cubs were 670-760, .469, with only two winning seasons and one playoff appearance, which the team lost 3 games to nothing against Atlanta. Overall, the team has been more competitive the past 9 years and the playoffs always seem to be a possibility before each season.
Is this where we are at? Content with a .500 team, because that’s what Hendry has given us. Look, I’m not asking for 90+ wins every season, which is unrealistic. But there have been 59 teams that have won 90 or more games in the last 9 years and the Cubs have only done it once. Just on average they should have done it twice. And that is just not acceptable for a team that is in the top 10, if not top 5, in revenue. I’m not trying to say that money buys you wins, but it doesn’t hurt.
The Roster:
Over the years Hendry has made several good trades that have helped the Cubs both in-season and over the long run. In 2003 Jim made a trade with Pittsburgh for Kenny Lofton. Lofton made an immediate impact on the Cubs that summer hitting .327 and helping lead the team to the playoffs from the lead-off spot in the lineup. While Lofton turned out to just be a one year rental for the Cubs, Chicago also received Aramis Ramirez from Pittsburgh in that trade. Ramirez has been a cornerstone for Chicago at third base and has now played more games there than any other players except Ron Santo and Stan Hack. During his tenure Hendry has also traded for Derrek Lee and Nomar Garciaparra as well as getting other teams to take disgruntled players Sammy Sosa and Milton Bradley. In 2007 Hendry was able to sign the number 1 free agent on the market, Alfonso Soriano, the first time the Cubs have ever gotten the top guy and then came back in 2008 and signed the top Japanese player, Fukudome, that was out there.
As for the minors, the Cubs Opening Day roster in 2011 contained 16 players that started with and came up through the Cubs system. This includes players like Starlin Castro, Darwin Barney and 2008 ROY Geo Soto that look to be mainstays up the middle for a long time to come.
On the other hand, while Hendry’s signings and trades looked good at the time, the Cubs have since been hamstrung under the weight of those deals. But being buried under millions of dollars in deals doesn’t have to be a never ending problem, in fact Chicago will be freeing up huge amounts of salary after the 2011 season. The problem is, the Cubs didn’t win anything while they accumulated all those players and spent all that money. And without winning a championship, what’s the point.
As for the minors, the Cubs have only had 2 of their last 9 number 1 picks in the amateur draft make the team (Colvin & Cashner) and they have come up dry this season when they needed a pitcher or 4 to fill in due to injuries. It might be easy to say that they have a few guys that look good but just aren’t ready, but he has had 9 years to restock the minors, why do we have to wait another couple of years to see if they can play.
The Conclusion:
Considering the overall record of the Cubs under Hendry, which will probably be under .500 by the time this season is over, I can only think of one reason why Jim Hendry should remain as the Chicago Cubs GM this off-season.
Hendry and Pujols Hug it out : Courtesy - YahooSports.com
3-6 Home Stand
I feel like a broken record, singing the same line from the same song over and over. But there ain’t no Coup de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. <skip> But there ain’t no Coup de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. <skip>
Another home stand complete and another player goes on the DL. The Cubs placed Alfonso Soriano on the DL yesterday after he pulled a quad muscle on Monday running to first on a ground out. They also announced that Matt Garza would not be ready to return to the rotation this weekend after there had been talk that he might start on Saturday. And just to top it off, Aramis Ramirez got hit in the side of the face and mouth this afternoon when he dove for a ball down the third base line that took a funny hop and came up and hit him. Aramis suffered a lip laceration and will probably need stitches. Hopefully he won’t need to spend time on the DL.
The team as a whole didn’t fare any better. The Cubs were 3-3 after facing the Mets and Pittsburgh on this home stand before the Astros came in. Unfortunately the Astros outscored the Cubs 22-11 in the 3 games series and won all three. The biggest loss came Tuesday night when the Cubs and Carlos Marmol blew a ninth inning lead. It was Marmol’s worst performance as a reliever.
The Cubs have a much needed day off on Thursday before heading to St Louis for a three game series.
The Cubs currently stand a season low 8 games below .500 at 23-31, 9 games out of first place. Unless the Cubs came somehow go on a winning streak of 5 or more or maybe win 10 of 12 games, this is going to be a long summer.
4 (+1) Things You Might Not Have Known – 4/14
Home Run Edition
1. Last night Carlos Zambrano hit his 22nd career
home run. That places him tied for 10th on the all-time list for
pitchers. Wes Ferrell is the leader with 38 career homers. During Zambrano’s
career, 2001-2011, all other Cubs pitchers have combined for 15 homers.
2. 23 different Cubs
have hit 3 or more home runs in 1 game. 6 of those players have done it more
than once. 2 of those 6 are on the Cubs 2011 roster, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso
Soriano.
3. Kirk Gibsons World Series Home Run is the most memorable of my lifetime.
4. Three different Cubs have hit home runs in 5 consecutive
games.
Bonus: Only 20 players have hit 100 or more home runs in a
Cubs uniform. Number twenty on the list with exactly 100 is new Cubs radio
announcer Keith Moreland.
4(+1) Things You Might
Not Have Known – 2/9
Soriano
Over the past four seasons, no Cubs players have been talked
about more than Carlos Zambrano and Alfonso Soriano. For Zambrano the talk has
been about his antics and confrontations both on the diamond and in the dugout
with teammates and umpires, his bouts with anger issues, and oh yeah, his play
on the field. For good or bad, Zambrano has been the central figure around
which the Cubs media has circled.
Almost just as much talk has been focused on Alfonso
Soriano. His play, his defense, his contract, his spot in the batting order;
all of it has led to continual chatter. And during this time Soriano has seen his
popularity with Cubs fans steadily decline. The question is, has all the
negative energy directed at Soriano been warranted?
Let’s look at some numbers.
Over the past four seasons Soriano has averaged just over 26
HR’s (106) and 13 SB’s (52). To put
those numbers in perspective, his HR total is tops on the team for this period
of time by 13 and he is second in SB’s to the now departed Ryan Theriot.
Looking at it further, he is 11th in the National
League in HR’s since joining the Cubs. Now certainly HR’s aren’t all that make
a good ball player, far from it, but being able to drive the ball over the wall
and into the seats can make up for other deficiencies.
Defense has not been Soriano’s specialty. He clearly has
issues with balls hit deep over his head near the wall. We’ve seen Reed Johnson
and Aaron Rowand give up their bodies to make a play, but Soriano is not going
to run into a wall, brick or otherwise, to make a catch. But let’s at least
give some credit when due, Soriano has 42 outfield assists during his time with
the Cubs.
When you look outside the overall numbers, the two biggest
issues have been his place in the batting order and his contract. When Soriano
came to the Cubs, he was a leadoff man. And that’s where he wanted to stay. In ’07 he batted from the leadoff spot in 125
of his 134 starts. He put up solid numbers that year with 33 HR’s and 19 SB’s.
The next season (2008) he also predominantly batted leadoff, but that year he
hurt his hamstring muscle and only played 109 games.
In the late fall of ’08, Lou Piniella suggested that Soriano
move down in the order for the 2009 season, his running game was basically gone after the
leg problems and his OBP was not what you should expect from a leadoff guy. The ‘suggestion’ didn’t really go over to well
and Alfonso started Opening Day in the leadoff spot. He played 70 games in the
1 hole with just a horrible .295 OBP before Lou finally made the switch and
moved Soriano down in the order. Last year Soriano never hit leadoff and spent
most of the season batting sixth.
The entire “leadoff” issue created a lot of conversation
about Soriano from the end of the ’08 season until Lou finally removed him from
that spot late in the summer of ’09. Nearly 12 months of should he/shouldn’t he
be leadoff. During this time most of the blame fell on Soriano. He wanted to
bat leadoff, he didn’t want to move, and he was being the obstacle. But he was
not the one making out the lineup card, Lou Piniella was. I really put the blame
on Lou. For over a year he kept suggesting that Soriano should move down in the
order, as if Alfonso was just going to walk into his office and say “bat me
sixth today coach”. Piniella was the manager; he is the guy that makes out the
lineup card. If he wanted Soriano to bat sixth, all he had to do was right it
down. When Lou finally did move Soriano down, he was very defensive to
questions about the change, in the end he basically just said that I’m the
manager and this is what I think is best. Unfortunately, he was 6 months to
late with his decision.
The last issue is the biggest issue, Soriano’s contract. Over
the past 4 years the Cubs have paid Soriano a reported $60M. Over the next four
seasons, including 2011, they still owe Soriano $72M. Last season Soriano was
the 3rd highest paid player in the National League.
Let’s face it, most Cub fans do not believe that Soriano has
lived up to his contract. And that’s the biggest problem. When Soriano signed
an 8 year/$132M deal, he was coming off a 46HR/41SB season in Washington. That’s
what we wanted here, that’s what we thought we paid for, and we haven’t gotten
it. And now most fans will always look at Soriano through the prism of his
contract and what he did before he was a Cub and not what he’s done since he
became a Cub.
But if you could magically wipe his contract from your mind,
Soriano has probably been the Cubs best player over the past four seasons, at
least in total. From what I’ve read and the numbers I’ve seen this spring,
Soriano is supposedly in better shape than he has been in two years and he’s
hitting the ball all over the field.
I for one am still a fan of Soriano, and I am expecting him
to have another good season.
Aramis Ramirez – 2011
If the Cubs are to do anything this year in the NL Central,
Aramis Ramirez will have to be a large part of the equation. Last season
Ramirez struggled during the first half of the year with a thumb injury that
eventually landed him on the DL. In fact, 2010 was the third time in the last
four years that Aramis played in 132 games or less.
Let’s look at Ramirez’s split numbers:
Apr-Jun: 201AB, 6HR,
23RBI, .179BA, .550OPS
Jul -Oct: 264AB, 19HR, 60RBI, .288BA, .893OPS
(CBSSports.com)
Clearly the injury was effecting his power in the first half,
couple that with a much lower than normal(30) H%
of 20 and Aramis saw his batting average take a dive.
During the second half of the year his H% was 28 and his
power returned.
So what should we expect for 2011?
Well the first thing to hope for is that he stays on the
field. When Aramis is healthy, he hits. And although it seems like he has been
around for a long time, he will be just 32 years old when the season starts.
The generally accepted range for players prime seasons are ages 27-32.
I’m not sure what the lineup is going to be, but I kinda
expect Aramis to hit 4th behind Marlon Bryd and in front of Carlos
Pena. Pena should provide some protection for Ramirez.
My Projection for Aramis:
148G, 590PA, 29HR,
91RBI, .283BA
The “I didn’t know that!” stat – Aramis Ramirez is 7th
on the Cubs all-time home run list with 213, he is 11th on the RBI
list with 713.
WrigleyRegular
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