Friday Baseball Post

Happy New Year, everyone. Sorry I've been a bad blogger, but I'll be back to regular schedule by Monday.  In the meantime, no politics today but a bit of baseball in the middle of all the football games...

Mark DeRosa just played his 34 year old season.  He was a league-average hitter (OPS+ was 99).  He had a career year in 2008 (OPS+ 117), and started off at the same pace before getting traded, injured, and then not hitting when he returned.

That's a whole lot better than Pedro Feliz, but it's not really very promising for a major league 3B.  Basically, if DeRosa hits the way he did in 2008 and the first part of 2009, he'll be a solid 3B.  If he falls back to his career averages, he'll be pretty weak.  Meanwhile, for the Giants, it means that Pablo Sandoval is going to be a 1B, completing a quick tour of the defensive spectrum (C to 3B to 1B).  I tend to think decisions about what position a guy can handle are not things that outsiders can really have well-informed decisions about....it's hard for us to tell from what we know how Sandoval would develop as a C, as a 3B, or as a 1B.  So I'm not going to criticize the decision to move him to first.  But I will note that DeRosa is basically replacing a 1B, not a 3B.

Look, the bottom line is I think this move stinks.  DeRosa is an old player who mostly hasn't hit like a 3B.  It could work...but usually, things like this don't work. 

But, Happy New Year to all the Giants fans out there.  It probably won't be as bad a year as, say, 1996.