I'm trying to figure out what possible advantage the waiver wire pick-up of Alex Sanchez can afford the Giants. He bats lefty, but then, so does Michael Tucker, and Todd Linden can switch-hit.
There's a move I'm missing, I'm sure. Is Tucker hurt? Then it would make sense (after I typed this Tucker made a pinch-hit appearance in today's game, so nevermind). Otherwise I'm a bit mystified why the Giants would need a singles-hitting, non-walking, centerfielder who's fast, yet only steals bases at a 54% clip for his career.
To be fair, I'll post Sanchez' 2005 line: .346/.373/.466 in 133 at-bats
Sound good? Sure it does. But remember, even Neifi once had a 1.029 OPS at one point in the season, and still maintained an .833 OPS through 200 at-bats.
What's Neifi at now? .721 and falling. What's that tell ya?
Looks like, sounds like, smells like, feels like a duck...
Sanchez' best ISO SLG (Isolated Slugging) for his career is a Tom Goodwin-esque 76 points above his batting average, so that SLG he's sporting now won't hold. That batting average is pretty, and he did hit .322 over 300+ at-bats last season with the Tigers, so I won't take that away from him.
Perhaps the Giants are thinking platoon with Jason Ellison in centerfield, I'm not sure -- perhaps he's just an insurance policy, and they'll put him in Fresno.
I need some more information before I end up looking foolish for overreacting...which I probably already do.
2 comments:
I just have this nagging suspicion that they are giving up on Ellison being a full time player. I hope not. Hopefully it's just something like sending Shabala back to Fresno to get more ABs (although I'd prefer he stay up here, screw a retread like Sanchez over a good young bat), but what with the AP statement and all ("the Giants don't believe he is strong enough to play every day"), I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to platoon Elly.
I think they're tired of Elly's rookie gaffes...but, Sanchez had something like a .952 fielding percentage this year, I believe -- that's no upgrade.
And I can't see how Sanchez has more range than Elly.
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