Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Why Ichiro was a waste of $$

Ahh, Ichiro Suzuki. Over his career, both in Japan and in the United States, he has been a hell of a player. A HOF, indeed. Ichiro excelled in the field, with range and a strong, deadly arm. At the plate, Ichiro had the knack for beating out those pesky little infield grounders and according to other players, puts on a hell of a power display during batting practice. He's got power; he's just a slap hitter. Ichiro appeared to be done, hitting .272 in 2011, and declining to .261 with the Mariners in 2012.  After being traded to the Yankees, Ichiro rebounded back to an Ichiro-esque .322. But, he is a 39 year old outfielder. The previous season and a half is more representative of what should be to come.  Let's take a look at what should be the Yankees' 2013 Right Field Platoon.

Nate Schierholtz
Nate Schierholtz. Admittedly, not the sexiest name. Will he bring in loads of fans like Ichiro will? No, not at all.  If anything, he'll confuse fans with how to pronounce his last name. Nonetheless, Schierholtz would have been a cost affordable, one-year solution to half of the right field platoon.  He will make slightly over $2 million this season. Schierholtz is a left handed hitter, so he would play most days against right handed starters.  Schierholtz is a career .266/.319/.413 against right handed pitchers.  He does not have a discernible home/away or first half/second half split.  In fact, he has hit .287 against righties the last two seasons. So, let's predict what Schierholtz could do over a full year.  We'll give him the same number of at-bats as Raul Ibanez got last year as a comparable comparison: 425. If we take Schierholtz's stat line from last year against righties and put them at 425 at bats: .287/.360/.466 with 12 HR's, 107 hits, 35 RBI with 6 SBs.  The RBI should be increased factoring the Yankees' line-up and ballparks in the AL East.

Russ Canzler
You probably do not know Canzler.  You should.  Canzler was the AAA MVP in 2011.  Considering how Tampa Bay has struggled with offense for years, and last year, Cleveland's lack of right handed hitters (and Hafner getting hurt at DH), he would have gotten a chance to play regularly.  Canzler is a strong candidate to make the Yankees out of spring training (provided he produces).  He does not really "have a position" so to speak - but that versatility helps: corner IF and OF, in this case, RF.  If you take Canzler's numbers against lefties over a whole season (based on his MLB stats), he'll hit 41 HR's.  Not happening.  So, let's use Andruw Jones' at bats last year as a proportional representation - 269.  Considering Canzler's versatility, we'll bump that to 350 at-bats.  We'll also place his stats using his minor league #'s against lefties.  Canzler would hit .277 (but considering his track record, this should be closer to .300) .277/.346/.467 with 10 HR's,  97 hits, 44 RBI.

Between the two, this could be a tandem which produces .290/.355/.467, 22 HR's, 80 RBI and nearly 200 hits - a very good stat line.  Considering Schierholtz's defensive prowess and Canzler's pop, this is a more effective duo than what Ichiro would produce.  Not to mention, both players combined cost would be less than $3 million this season, less than half of what Ichiro is making.  That money could have been spent on Russell Martin instead of the garbage which will be behind the plate for the Yankees this year.  More on the RH Platoon soon.

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5 comments:

  1. What's more relevant... the fact that he hit .322 last season with the Yanks or his age? He hit .322 at age 38 and he's in a deadly lineup! Stop hating! :P

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  2. I have to agree, Canzler/Schierholtz might bring more power, but Ichiro's arm is still deadly, his defense is still solid and his bat, evidenced by the .322 average, is still deadly. But I like the Canzler addition. Good job by Yankees.

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  3. Ichiro added speed, defense, base stealing and small ball capability to a Yankees line up which lacked basically all of those

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  4. True Joseph, his speed and small-ball capability will be missed.

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  5. My main point is that the Yankees' money could have been more wisely spent. Joe, Brett Gardner's return will bring all of what you said back, and Gardner is better at all right now outside of batting average. A platoon in RF would be a lot cheaper and potentially more productive, but my professor said it best: he brings in the Japan market, which is millions of dollars. A platoon would also allow the Yankees to go year to year and not block their three very good OF prospects. I would have rather seen the Yankees spend that money on a legit catcher in Russell Martin and not have crap behind the plate this year and pay near the MLB minimum for a younger, productive platoon in the OF. Sure, great players like Ichiro and Jeter age better than others, but the Yankees are old enough. At least see my point?

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