This Ozzie Navarro fella has been largely horrible in the minors. A .666 career OPS in 766 games. That would lead one to believe that the tear he is on over a mere 20 games wiith RR (.924 OPS) is probably a fluke. I'm not complaining though. Matsui was painful to watch even on a horrible team.
Apparently Navarro can play 2B, SS and 3B so he brings defensive versatility. I imagine that he'll mostly play SS and 2B. I'd prefer to see Keppinger being used less against RHP but that would mean that Oswaldo would have to be a better option from that side. His splits over a small sample size at RR show that he's actually hit RHP better than LHP but I would guess that he's better against LHP over time. If Manzella continues to struggle, Navarro will probably get more time at SS.
Ah, you almost had to ruin it, BB. But I can see where you're headed.... Navarro is hitting .312 in Round Rock. He has not hit higher than .269 in a full minor league season, and that was in Low-A ball. Never slugged over .400 at any level, and his highest combined OBP is .348. Oh well, at this point, anything would be a huge upgrade over Kaz Matsui.
I checked out Oswaldo Navarro's stats on baseball cube. His eight years in the minors have not shown much promise, but he can't be any worse of a hitter than Manzella. I really hope Keppinger gets 95% of the starts at 2nd base. He has surprisingly shown a really good glove there and I think he has the potential to be a very consistent .300 hitter in the major leagues with good bat control and a high obp.
lol... there ain't much left to ruin this season. I think there is more disappointment to be had if one is too inflate their expectations of a guy like Navarro based on a small sample size. At least that's how I see it. I like to try to set reasonable expectations so that if they outperform, it's a bonus rather than expect too much only to find out that there was a reason the guy went undrafted and spent over 700 games in the minors. Know what I'm sayin?
The problem is that Keppinger is borderline elite against LHP and borderline terrible against RHP over his career and most pitchers are RHP. That's why he hasn't been able to stick as a starter anywhere for very long. He has terrific plate discipline but very little pop and can't hit RHP over the long run. He's versatile defensively but not really an everyday caliber defensive player. The truth is that Keppinger is a fantastic situational hitter (vs LHP) who can play a couple of positions but he shouldn't be an everyday player. Having said that, somebody at his position has to be able to hit RHP better than him to justify taking him out of the lineup. Matsui was so bad that Keppinger had to play outside of his ideal role. Maybe Navarro is better but I wouldn't bank on it.
Happened sooner than I'd thought. But, thank goodness. Funny, I read this earlier tonight....now he's gone. ""Obviously, I'm disappointed with the way Kaz has performed this year," general manager Ed Wade said. "We had high expectations. I really felt the way he played in 2008 sort of typified what he had done in Colorado before we got him. Last year was a little bit of a slide, and this year he's really struggled. I feel for him because he's a very professional player and prepares very well, but this has been a tough go for him.""
Minor League comparison: Manzella: 521 games, .695 OPS http://thebaseballcube.com/players/M/Tommy-Manzella.shtml Navarro: 766 games, .666 OPS http://thebaseballcube.com/players/N/Oswaldo-Navarro.shtml They didn't play in all the same parks so I don't know the impact that could have had on their numbers but they both played big chunks of games in the Texas and Pacific Coast leagues, both of which are hitter-friendly leagues, particularly the PCL. Yea, Navarro has hit well over 20 games with RR this season but that is a really small sample size. He had a .594 OPS in 48 games in AAA last season. I'm just suggesting that expectations shouldn't be too high. That's all.
Maybe Matsui's anal fissures can be attributed to a twisted form of seppuku that he practices when getting cut from teams where he uses a bat instead of a sword and intead of shoving it in his abdomen... Okay, that's just wrong. Sorry. I hope DD's kids don't read this thread. :grin:
