Monday, December 7, 2009

Thus Spoke Sabethustra

This Torres/Velez leadoff meme refuses to die.

Andres Torres' lifetime OBP is .290 (.343 in 170 PA in 2009, career .358 in the minors)

Eugenio Velez' lifetime OBP is .305 (.308 in 307 PA in 2009, career .342 in the minors)

This is ludicrous. Velez is versatile, so I understand his appeal as a utility guy. Torres is a terrific fielder, fleet baserunner, and has some pop off the bench. He's an excellent 5th OF.

But these guys are not starters and certainly should not get the bulk of the team's ABs. Obviously the Giants are not going to keep Fred Lewis around, despite his career .355 OBP, and I understand that. His limitations as a fielder, propensity for strikeouts, and lack of power doom him as an everyday player. With his age and pending arbitration (2011), the Giants don't see a future for him. But I think he could be useful as a stopgap leadoff hitter, and certainly could do a better job as a regular than either Velez or Torres. But that's not the handwriting I read--I expect the Giants will try to trade Lewis. Whether Fred could do the job at this point is moot. This Velez/Torres platoon nonsense is here to stay. Unless we want to throw 2 years and $30 million at Johnny Damon, that is. I don't figure that to happen, do you? Meanwhile, we have a serious leadoff hitter crisis, which is certainly no worse than our who's-the-other-guy-besides-Pablo crisis, and our FSanchez-is-our-2nd-best-hitter crisis.

Since we're having a crisis of sorts, I'm going to have a Xanax.

Have a nice evening.

3 comments:

Ron said...

Bye Bye Brad Penny, too. I was kind of hoping that we'd find a way to keep him.

Torres/Velez sucks ass. I'd rather see future signing Edgar Renteria hitting leadoff, with Bowker & Schierholtz in the lineup, & Torres/Velez on the bench.

Ron said...

Obviously, 'future signing' was a mistake in that last post.

Zo said...

For once I agree with you. I would love to see Velez as a Rickey Henderson-type lead off hitter, fast, able to steal bases and with some serious pop. But what I have seen of him says that he has a lot of improvement to make for that to happen. Torres, same thoughts - flashes of brilliance but they have been oh, so brief.

Losing train of thought thinking about creamy Irish coffee.....