Thursday, December 6, 2007

Another one bites the dust

After Torii Hunter signed with LAA, it was not surprising that the other CF signed with LAD. I would have taken a chance on Jones, and I'm glad we passed on Hunter. Jones is a bopper, his big stick could have helped us. I don't have any regrets about NOT signing him, but the fact that the DODGERS signed him is bad. They have improved their team. We have not. At some point, we have to address our power issue, or, I should say, LACK of power issue. If Cain and Lincecum are untouchable, and I hope they are, then we have to be willing to deal the rest of our young arms (Hennessey, Correia, Sanchez, Wilson, etc.) for a young hitter or two. I'm OK with avoiding old, injured guys like Scott Rolen (although he would be a huge upgrade over Feliz), but I'd take a chance on him if we can't land someone like Edwin Encarnacion. Rolen is a better player, of course, but Encarnacion is only 24 and still has some upside. I hope we do something smart and I'm terrified we will do something dumb.

Check out this site if you have time for some serious nerd analysis of The Linkster.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Encarnacion is the better player. He is 9 years younger, so may improve instead of become worse. Rolen's 2008 ZiPS projections, by Dan Szymborski of Baseball Think Factory (for the link, see sidebar): .255/.331/.397 for avg/obp/slg. Encarnacion's 2007 ZiPS: .275/.351/.489. His 2007 stats: .289/.356/.450. I have seen some discussion that suggests that Rolen could be better than his ZiPS, factoring in an improvement from a 2007 shoulder problem, but this assumes nothing in 2008. I do not know if Encarnacion is available via trade. Maybe Dusty (Wayne Krivsky, actually) would trade for a young pitcher not named Cain or Lincecum and one of his old buddies, like Ray. Or Richie.

JC Parsons said...

Wow, Zo is quoting fancy schmancy stats. I'm impressed.
Rolen sure was good once, but it would be a risk. He seems like a head case.
I forgot about Dusty...that does make a Ray or Rich trade much more likely. Oh please, oh please.
I LOVED that article about "The Enchanter". I still have a boner. Tim is going to be SO GOOD. If we trade him I will have a real decision to make....