Have you been reading this thread? Have you been drinking? Taveras, all thread long, has been drawing comparisons to Juan Pierre followed by stats and claims of how great Pierre, and by comparison Taveras are. In the Juan Pierre tangent, there were comaprisons drawn to Lofton and Clemens, among others. I'm surpirsed there was no comparison drawn to Tony Gwynn. So, it wasn't a silly response, it was a response to the nonsensical comparisons to some of the current great players in baseball. Thanks for your thoughts though. I would think that Pence or Anderson could leadoff. Both can hit for average, and both have good speed for a leadoff hitter. Pence showed that he has defensive skills in CF. So why would roles that can be filled by Pence by top priorities for 2008? This team needs: 1. Starting pitching 2. Relief pitching 3. A catcher who can hit for average with a little power. 4. A second baseman. None of these would be addressed by Willy T. While it is true that we got completely hosed on that trade, it does not follow that the notion of dealing Willy T. was a bad one in and of itself.
i find the first statement hard to believe (though i obviously know its true) if you don't think they need to drastically improve their OF defense. i would put a lead-off hitter who can get on base at a brisker clip than .300, or whatever biggio posted last year, as a MUCH bigger priority.
In a funny coincidence, I was just sent a link to a Dodger blog that was analyzing the team's 2007 performance - today's contestant? Juan Pierre
there was one person actively pimping juan pierre and i think it had as much to do with this ("Pierre is a lifelong Catholic who has appeared in the film series Champions of Faith which shows how faith has shaped the lives of Major Leaguers.") as anything he's done on the field. no one compared willy t. to anyone BUT juan pierre, who most of us realize is neither a bona fide all-star nor a future HoF'er. let's hold off assuming ANYTHING about josh anderson on the ML level. i don't paticularly want pence to lead-off; i'd rather have guys setting the table for him. no way an offensive-minded catcher or 2B ranks as a higher priority than improved team defense and a lead-off hitter.
As Ric pointed out, in his last 600 ABs, he's had a .360 OBP. How much of a greater sample size do you need?
Luke Scott's career OBP is 30 points higher than Willy T's (granted, in 1/2 as many AB). Why can't he bat lead-off?
Not the reason, but he helped his team get there, how did Jennings do for us this year? Could we have used Hirsch, Willy T and Bucholz? HELL YES !!! Hey, I do applaud you for the correct use of You're........well done sir ! DD
More than likely, the Rockies would have made it without Taveras considering they were 50 -50 (or thereabouts) when he played and 40 - 23 when he didn't.
Maybe, but there is no way to prove either way... Trading Willy T might have been the right thing, the problem most of us had was giving up so much for Jennings, I think ultimatly it got Purpura fired... And rightfully so... DD
I honestly don't see how you can believe this. In 2007, there were 16 catchers in the NL with 300+ PA, and Ausmus was the worst offensive player of them all. There were 18 2B with 300+ PA, and Biggio ranked 14th in OPS. I'm not saying that the club's defense was stellar, but those are gaping holes that should be #1 on the offseason priority list, and have much more of an impact than team defense and who is batting leadoff.
Actually, I misspoke. Improving the rotation should be the #1 priority, but addressing the offensive output at C/2B/SS should be far, far ahead of team defense and the leadoff spot.
I actually think Taveras can sustain a high batting average playing in Coors. Off the top of my head, i seem to remember that most of the years in which Pierre was actually a productive player occurred at Colorado. It's such a huge field that base hits to the outfield occur more often than other smaller fields. It's not just power hitters that benefit from playing there, a slap stick hitter like matsui, pierre or willy benefit too. Given his speed, I expect that if Taveras stays in Colorado he'll bat over 300 for the next 5 or so years and possibly could compete for a batting title. Furthermore, before he was rushed to the majors he at least showed a semblance of plate discipline in the minor leagues. He won't ever walk a 100 times in a year if for no other reason than pitchers aren't afraid to pitch to him, but it wouldn't surprise me if he improves his walk rates/k rates as he enters his prime. Also while he has shown no power, I get the sense that he not a weakling like pierre. He's a great athlete and somewhere trapped in that swing is some power. Maybe not enough to ever hit 15 hrs, but enough to get an iso slg% near 100. So yes he would have only been the 4th best outfielder on the team last year and heading into next year. Yes, it still was a horrible trade. Yes that Taveras would be a starter for a lot of teams in the league. And, no, josh anderson isn't an adequate option for the starting CF job next year.
Why can't these both be addressed? A Luis Castillo, for example, could work as a 1-2 year stopgap at 2nd.
