FoxSports is reporting that the Phillies are the “favorite” to land 3B Mark DeRosa, and that they are looking to spend around “$4-$6 million” a year on Pedro Feliz’s replacement.
I’m torn on DeRosa, here are some positives and negatives of signing him, and you can tell me how I should feel..
- He is upgrade offensively over Feliz. Without getting too in-depth, his OPS over the last 3 seasons is a very solid .800, while Feliz’ is .702.
- DeRosa crushes lefites, with a .909 OPS against them the last 2 years. This would have been helpful in the World Series, where we clearly needed another RH bat. Feliz OPS against lefties the last 2 seasons is .753.
- DeRosa is a below average defensive 3B. This is a big problem for me, as I really value defense. Among the 27 players that played at least 700 innings at 3B last year, FanGraphs Ulimate Zone Rating system had DeRosa ranked 20th. Pedro Feliz was ranked 12th. Beltre was 2nd, Figgins was 5th.
- He strikes out a lot, 121 last year. There are many different opinions on whether K’s are really worse than a ground-out or something else, but I don’t care for them.
- DeRosa is an average baserunner, but that would be a significant upgrade over Feliz, who was our worst baserunner last year according to Baseball Prospectus, and the 841st ranked runner out of 846 players in baseball.
- Less of an injury risk than Beltre, less money than Beltre, Tejada or Figgins. Definitely a better option than Polanco.
The big question obviously is does his offensive upgrade overshadow his defensive downgrade. I think it does. If he maintains an .800 OPS, that would give us six players in our line-up in that area. Only 36 NL players had an OPS of .800 or higher last season, or 2.2 per team. But with the downgraded defense, how big of an improvement is it really?
What do you think?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
<<Less of an injury risk than Beltre, less money than Beltre, Tejada or Figgins. Definitely a better option than Polanco. >>
I think you hit the nail on the head here. $4 – $6 mil for a offensive right handed bat? Sounds like a solid investment to me.
I’m leaning (slightly) towards the Offense in this equation. . . but man; it was nice being confident when the ball was ripped down the 3rd base line, that Feliz was going to come up with it and make the throw.
No thanks Defense is too important. I’d rather bring Pedro back for $3 mil. Derosa always struck me as a fluky (maybe steroids) player. What is he 34 now and he’s only been good the last 3 years? Heck he couldn’t even crack the starting lineup until he was 31. I’m not sure he’s less of an injury risk than the other guys. Any 34 yr old is an injury risk. He had a wrist injury last year. I don’t know how severe it is but wrist injuries for hitters take a long time to come back full strength. Too much risk for me.
My order of choices:
Pay up for Figgins (if we can afford it)
Bring back Feliz (cheap)
Take a risk on Tejada for $6 mil
Take a risk on Beltre for $6 mil
Take a risk on Derosa for $5 mil
DeRosa crushes lefites, with a .909 OPS against them the last 2 years. This would have been helpful in the World Series, where we clearly needed another RH bat. Feliz OPS against lefties the last 2 seasons is .753.>>
From the time Ibanez was signed, the concern was too many lefties.This did not prevent blowing the division away (proper terminology if you ake the blown saves in half), and surviving the post season up to a quality lefty dominated Yankee club.
The question is what would have beaten the Yankees? Another righty bat, or better pitching performance? Especially considering that Ryan Howard performed poorly and gets the bennie of the doubt to do better next time, the focus is on pitching and defense, not offensive improvement.
The market is not limited to 5 mil a year and up free agents, and opening day is way off yet. Shop elsewhere.
Cole Hamels would have beaten the Yankees.
I know I mentioned the World Series, but you have to think regular season at this point. Anything can happen in the playoffs. The Cardinals had 2 of the top 3 best pitchers in the NL on their team and got swept by a team we dominated. Just got to improve your team where ever you can.
i don’t want derosa, i’d much rather have beltre. his offense is better when he’s healthy, and his defense is wayyyyyyyy better
i think the Phillies value defense way more than we think. i remember when Roberson gave up a flyball over his head for a walk off double in Atlanta last year.we never heard from him again. there is also a reason why Lou Marson is not being pushed behind Ruiz and why they didnt think twice about Chris Coste. why we stuck with Abraham Nunez for longer than any sane team would. why Jayson Werth even started to get playing time at first. I am sure they wont go with DeRosa. infield defense is key. especially with Howard not exactly a gold glover, 3 of 4 strong aint bad at all.
? Reds in the red? How’d you like to be the Cincinnati Reds, one of the many teams that’s talking about trimming payroll.
They were only at $73.5 million last season, and might have to go somewhere close to $65 mill, according to Cincinnati Enquirer beat writer John Fay, who points out that they already have have $59.25 million committed to six players for 2010: Aaron Harang ($12.5 million), Francisco Cordero ($12 million), Scott Rolen ($11 million), Bronson Arroyo ($11 million), Brandon Phillips ($6.75 million), Willy Taveras ($4 million) and Arthur Rhodes ($2 million). If the Reds kept all these players, they’d have tp pay everyone else the minimum, and would still be over 66 million.
I’ll take Phillips and Harang please.
Derosa is scary since we have a lot of lefthanders and how is it Beltre is an injury risk and Derosa is not? Some have talked about how Ortiz and others struggled big time their first year back after wrist surgery.