Yup, he was a pretty good reliever in Philly but absolutely awesome for us last season. He set career bests in ERA, ERA+, WHIP, OPP AVG, HR/9, H/9, OPP AVG, OPP OBP, OPP SLG, IS% etc... while facing more high pressure situations than any previous season in his career. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gearyge01-pitch.shtml He was statistically our best relief pitcher and among the best in the NL. It's waaaaay too early to give up on him.
I guess re-signing Hawkins looks pretty good, now? He didn't seem "mediocre at best" to me. With Brocail and Valverde unavailable last night, I was sure glad they had the Hawk available in the pen.
You have to be kidding -- are you seriously acting all defiant over one save? Dan Miceli had 39 saves in his career. Hawkins' average ERA is around 4 for his last four seasons, and now he's 36. For a reliever, the ERA is average and his age is at the point where he could fall off the cliff at any point. Could he have a fluke season and be a little better than average? Sure, as could any player. Is it as important an investment as a legit, starting 3B (when your alternative is Geoff Blum) or a starting pitcher (when your alternatives are Brian Moehler/Russ Ortiz)? Not close.
I hear everything you're saying and I'm not arguing with it. But what I've seen of Hawkins in an Astros uniform is just fine with me.
It's fine with me too, don't get me wrong. That's the strange part of this ongoing discussion -- I don't have anything against Hawkins, and I feel comfortable with him on the mound. Brocail, too, for the most part (when he's healthy). I just think it was an absolutely bizarre way for Ed Wade to prioritize the limited funds he had.
And so far, it appears that Wade has made the correct decisions (at least through 10% of the season).
It's 2 saves, in fact, so far, and a 2.25 ERA. Look, you can pick any timetable you want to prove your numbers. 3 years ago, and 4 years ago, he had poor numbers. For five consecutive years prior to that, his combined ERA was good. In his last 2 seasons, he's posted a 3.42 and 3.92 ERAs, which indicates that his stuff isn't fading. I saw him throwing 95 last night. He's still got an arm. In fact, your main criticism of Hawkins is that he's 36, and so he could "fall off a cliff". In fact, there are plenty of pitchers, especially relievers, who are effective into their late 30s. Hoffman, Rivera, Franco, etc. It'd be great if the Stros had young bullpen talent to throw into the setup role, but they don't. So they needed to keep the guys they had. You've made the mistake of thinking that Drayton would have turned around and gotten a great 3B with the 3.5 mil he spent on Hawkins, but it doesn't usually work that way. Meanwhile, the great Ty Wigginton is hitting .220 with no extra base hits for his new team in Baltimore. Up until his career year in 2008, nobody was especially excited about him at 3B.
You know as well as I do how ridiculous that sample size is. Wigginton started last season extremely slow as well, IIRC.
Compared to Geoff Blum, I was. Even excluding his 2008, Wigginton had an OPS of .795 in 2007, .786 in 2006, and .828 in 2005. The difference between that and Blum's typical .600-something OPS is night and day. By the way, on May 18 last year, Wigginton was hitting .215 with a .596 OPS. I'm not all that concerned about a sluggish start for him. (not that I would be anyway -- good grief, it's been 15 games. sample size, anyone?)
Blum's a lifetime .700 OPS guy, Wigginton is lifetime .785. That's a big gap, definitely. But add in that fact that Keppinger is a lifetime .742 OPS guy who has a higher OBP than Wigginton (a much more important # than SLG) and a much lower strikeout number, and you get a guy who's not so much worse offensively. And then you factor in that both are better fielders than Wiggs. I think the Blum / Kepp platoon can provide a pretty decent bat and a better glove than Wigginton. I don't think they represent an upgrade, but I don't think we're doomed because he's missing, either.
I agree. Heck, Shawn Chacon was a correct decision for a couple of months last year. Personally, I like to let decisions play out over time. There was a lot of knee jerk reactions to moves and non-moves before a game was even played. Wigginton got off to a decent start last year (when he got to play). Month by month, August was his saving grace, as he was rather pedestrian in every other month.
Close to the same sample size as through May 18th last year considering that was with 61 official at bats.
How so? Our offense is amongst the worst in baseball. The Cat is pointing out that the Hawkins money would have been much better served filling a hole in that offense.
You have to factor in how they're using the platoon though: Keppinger against lefties, Blum against righties. That's when you look at the numbers and realize that the platoon is an upgrade across the board.
The current holes in the offense is Berkman, Lee, and Pence. I would hardly call those holes, I would just call it guys having slumps. They appear to be getting out of it, too (hence the wins).
You looked at the numbers and concluded that? Over the past three years: Against righties: Wigginton: .780 OPS Blum: .707 OPS Against lefties: Wigginton: .957 OPS Keppinger: .904 OPS On what planet is Wigginton not clearly superior to both sides of the platoon, against both righties and lefties? Can you please cite what bizarre numbers you were looking at? (And by the way, Keppinger somewhat fell into Wade's lap. My problem is with Ed Wade's planning, and at the time, he had the other half of the platoon as Aaron Boone, who would certainly be far worse than Keppinger and make the discrepancy even more striking.)
