The Alex Sanchez Sweepstakes!

Actually, I hate all the Alex Sanchez hate. He's not the best player ever, certainly erratic and mercurial, but he's talented enough, and I've never read anything that says he's an asshole or "unteachable." So what gives?

He is the new Tom Goodwin - an ideal 4th OF / pinch-runner type that should not get regular PT ever. (Woe be unto the Cubs if Dusty Baker gets ahold of him.) Anyone starting AS fulltime really needs to reassess what they want from baseball - hello Detroit Tigers!! Sanchez is speedy as all get out, but is a menace on the basepaths (for his own team), hits for a low average (inexcusable given his speed - dude, hit the ball ON THE GROUND), hits for no power at all (I'm thinking his flaxseed oil has much to do w/ his career-high sluggosity this year) and his fielding adventures are legendary.

Someone like, oh I dunno, Manny Ramirez gets away w/ his bouts of wanderlust because he can fall out of a ten-story building and still hit .300 w/ 40+ HRs (this year notwithstanding). Sanchez's lack of bat prowess doesn't excuse his scenic-route fielding technique. Or his break-even stolen-base success rate. I think, given his career rate of production, AS has COST his team many many runs, which is whoa nellie.

[xpost - I had no idea who Skip Bayless was before that YW post; I hear his name, I think Homicide] [hahaha - I bet you guys think "homicide", too!]

NB: I will investigate this Jonny Gomes.

Sanchez's EQA (like w/ BA, .260 is an average average):

2002: .258
2003: .245 /.254
2004: .258
2005: .301

Sanchez's Batting Runs Above Average (the difference between the runs he created and the runs a player with a .260 Equivalent Average creates given the same # of outs):

2002: -1
2003: -9 (combined between Milwaukee & Detroit)
2004: -5
2005: 6

Sanchez's Fielding Runs Above Average:

2002: 2
2003: -1 (combined between Milwaukee & Detroit)
2004: -8
2005: -6

1) Those performance-enhancing drugs did him a world of good this year at the plate.
2) His performance this year (at the plate) is way out of line w/ his career performance to date.
3) Any benefits gained by his newfound hitting prowess are mitigated by his horrendous fielding.

As for cutting loose a .346 hitter - it was only in 100+ ABs, and Sanchez is IDEALLY not going to be in Tampa Bay's future. I can envision a situation, tho, where Sanchez puts up a nice .330 BA abetted by his newfound gap power for some down-on-luck team, and earns himself a nice arbitration bump-up OR a long-term contract, and then goes back to doing what he usually does.

But, like I said, Sanchez wasn't in Tampa Bay's future - Gomes is 5 years younger, has shown a lot more power and patience for a lot longer than AS ever did, and (most importantly) needs to be given MLB PT in order to ascertain whether he's worth a damn. Having Gomes up and playing makes it more likely that they'll flip a high-priced guy like Huff (or a pan-flash guy like Damon Hollins) to a contender for some prospects, and if Baldelli comes back healthy, an OF of Crawford / Baldelli / Gomes could potentially be a damn good one. Having a NRI like Sanchez take away PT from younger players with brighter futures isn't the way for Tampa Bay to get their dumb asses out of the cellar. If I'm going to lose, I'd want to lose w/ guys that are going to be around for when the team might win. And I can't think of any team that would actually TRADE for Alex Sanchez. (I'd say the Phillies would be the first ones to call, but they already got Endy Chavez, so that's no-go.)

A guy like Brady Clark is in a situation that's similar to Sanchez - team snatches him off the scrapheap, he gets a chance to start for a struggling team w/ an OF hole, and he proceeds to slap the crap out of NL pitchers for at least 2 months. Actually, Damon Hollins and Brady Clark seem to be the same sort of guy - early-to-mid-30s, minor-league lifers, just looking for a chance to stick. And those guys are great for a year or two as stopgap measures. Keeping those guys around as long-term solutions, though, is where teams get shafted. The Red Sox, under Dan Duquette's GM run, were notorious for this. Duquette would pick up great fly-by-night AAAA-players like Troy O'Leary & Brian Daubach for cheap, and they'd be fantastic for a year or two. Then Duquette would ink these guys to relatively expensive multi-year contracts, and they'd proceed to fall off the face of the earth and turn into boo fodder. Of course, the Red Sox own Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin, so they could vaguely afford such stupidity. A team like the Brewers or the D-Rays really can't.

And I would really like to know what Lou was drinking / smoking / freebasing to think that batting Sanchez THIRD makes any ding-donging sense.

so what if he's "old,"
he has raised his game and he
deserves some respect

see david newhan, last year's oreos!

(hoping this is not the case, but wouldn't be surprised)

All we have beneath
Brady is Dave Krynzel, who
is just like Brady

crossed with Podsednik
for better or worse, so that
my friends is that

So who's potentially vying for the services of one AS?

nats or he goes back to cuba.

:)

``It doesn't concern me, because he wasn't the last,'' Alou said. ``He has plenty of company. The fact that he's clean now puts him in big company, too. ... It's not like he murdered somebody or stole Mona Lisa.''

 April   .457 .486 .714 1.201
 May     .261 .301 .432 .733   
 June    .299 .393 .377 .770 

That's not bad for a lead-off or a #2 guy.

But the fact is, Alex Sanchez IS Jason Ellison:

STD:
Alex Sanchez .346 .373 .466 .839
Jason Ellison .310 .370 .460 .830

So essentially the Giants have 3 Center Fielders (Grissom is due to come off the DL on Monday and Fresno call-up Adam Shabala will go down), 2 Right Fielders (Alou and Michael Tucker) and 2 utility LFers (Pedro Feliz who can play the corner infield as well and rookie Todd Linden).

That's a lot of OF. It actually reminds me of my fantasy team!

But it's a solid move on paper, the Giants will move Durham into the 5/6 spot, with Sanchez and Vizquel going 1-2 in the lineup. Will be interesting to see how Sanchez responds with a medium/large market/profile team.

"I'm sure as he's traveled around he's been good enough because of his pluses to be attractive to someone."

"When you have speed, you might have the tendency to be lackadaisical and think speed can make up for things."