This Conversation Is Over

So, I’ve seen a lot of people recently say some stupid things. Something like Jack Hannahan is a bad player…

 

I did alittle tweeting previously but decided that with the down time at work this morning I would take a bit of time and show you why he is better than most people think, and why he will give Tui some serious opposition come Spring Training for that starting job. Because let’s face it Adrian Beltre is not going to resign with us.

 

Jack is 29, (ironically has the same birthday as me, not the reason I’m defending him) and he will be hitting 30 during spring training. This is important to know and acknowledge when writing about someone who is going to be comparative in a third basemen spot against someone who is 7 years his younger. I’m not in any way saying he is the long term solution. But, Maybe he’ll help push Matt Tuiasosopo into being that Third basemen of the future.

 

Jack Hannahan is currently hitting wOBA of .286, BB% of 10.2 and has a WAR of 1.3, what is even more confusing is he is hitting a solid .285 BABIP and the lowest LD% of his 3 year career at 18.9%.  Why is he not a better hitter? Why is everyone so low on him? Simply because his K percentage is stuck in between 25-30%, which really is disturbing for someone who is not a home run hitter. Should he cut that down I think we would see a lot more production out of his bat. However, with the exception 3 game apperence with the Tigers in ’06 he has never posted anything lower than a 27.1% strike out rate (to include his time in AAA)…hopefully the M’s can fix that.

 

ZIPS has Hannahan finishing the year some where around .296 wOBA which puts him in the Kevin Kouzmanoff and Emilio Bonifacio company. However both of those guys walk about 4-6% less and yet striking out less too. While Kouzmanoff isn’t a bad person to be compared with Bonificio is, however don’t be too concerned because this is all offensive comparions.

 

Offensively when he’s on he’s a C+ at worse he’s a D-  … Bad player? I wouldn’t go that far.

 

Defense is a whole other story.  This guy is one of the best defensive players in the league, he has a UZR/150 of 26.8 and a career 16.5 at Thirdbase. He is currently posting a 11.9 Fielding RAR which compared to the rest of the league ranks second only to Ryan Zimmerman’s 12.7. While Beltre’s career line is (only) (I’m a jerk lol)  13.5 UZR/150 he has also fielded approx. 1300 more games at third than Hannahan.

 

While it’s really only a sample size compared to what Beltre has done, it’s enough to know what we are going to get. Hannahan is a good defensive players one of the best in the league. Yes his bat is below average but, I hardly would call him a bad player…

 

 

 

Reverse This Curse

So, after making breaking my record of most blogs in a month i seem to have all but disappeared from the blogsphere. No choice of my own as this is perhapes one of my favorite past times. However, with all the turn over at work it has left me extremely worn out and not alot of time to make entries.

Here are a few bullet points on whats going on around here.

• I was going to make a blog post yesterday about what to look at the rest of the season but there have been so many i'm kind not wanting to join the masses... just feels redundent

• Russell Branyan has actually been pretty average defensively which is a shocker... 0.2 RAR and 0.0 UZR...

• The Mariners won two games in a row and actually made a dent in the deficent towards first place...until they lost today... oh well.. -9 games back...only 6.5 back from the WC not that it matters.

• Erik Bedard should be let go. He is better off going to another team. Too many expectations and with the injuries there is no point paying him to be on the DL when we have other holes on this team that need to be addressed

• Awesome link about DH's and the HoF

Oh What A Night

So, the season is looking as if its over, and we need to have some reason to keep us somewhat invested in each game. I think that USS Mariners brought up a great point of watching for Ian Snell and that's where alot of people are turning their attention.


I am as well excited for Mr.Snell's first start and to see how he does. However, i will be turning my attention to another player Mr. Jose Lopez. Lopez while starting to show more and more offensive capabilities is an interesting situation. Most scouts see Lopez diminishing capabilities at second base. His lack of range will eventuall push him to a corner position and while there will still be some questions about his defense the bigger question still will be his bat.

This year he has managed to procure a UZR of 0.8 and Frar of -2.0 while not fabulous its about as average or just below average as your going to get.

Jack Zduriencik realizes the situation and has already been connected in several deals to aquire a better second basemen. Ben Zorbist this off season had been reportedly connected in several deals, Rickie Weeks from Jacks prior organization has also been in the mix and of course prior to being delt to San Fran everyone was wanting to get Freddy Sanchez. However with all these deals no one has conciously put together Jose Lopez is going to be replaced.


Of course everyone will point to the fact that Jose has been one of the best hitters for the very weak line up. He has been effective hitting a wOBA of .329 up to this point and a solid slugging percentage .463 which places him near the top of the league for second basemens.

However when comparing him with those other second basemen's in the Majors he ranks in the middle tier of wOBA ... mainly because he is last in BB% he like his former double play partner swings at everything... and while being a good contact hitter (7% higher than the rest of the league) only has a BABIP of .271

Fan graphs did a post in late june about the need for seattle to upgrade its middle infield defensively

This offseason is going to come and i would be really surprised if Aidrian Beltre resigns to play 3b but ill be equally surprised if Jose Lopez is here after next year. He may stay as an insurence to Matt Tuiasosopo to make sure he is ready for the daily job at third.

It would be nice to make a move here and bring in either a stop gap while we wait for Carlos Triunfel to take 2b or pick up someone from another system. This off season Jose Lopez has more value than he ever has.